Gospel Neighboring

About Kirk Kirk Irwin is currently the Executive Director of the Friday Arts Project, and he works with CRU to minister to artists in Rock Hill.  He has previously served the arts community in New York City where he was a member of Redeemer Presbyterian Church.  Kirk is a reader, dabbler in poetry, and adorer of […]

About the Author Thom S. Rainer is the president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, one of the largest Christian resource companies in the world. Also a respected pastor and researcher, he has written more than twenty books and coauthored the No. 1 best seller Simple Church. Rainer and his wife, Nellie Jo, have three grown […]

About Gino Gino Curcuruto is a Calfiornia-born Sicilian chiropractor in South Jersey leading a gospel community on mission to their neighbors. What is Gospel Neighboring? “A gospel neighbor is one who demonstrates and declares the good news to our neighbors. The gospel is news and implies action and not just information. News implicates you to […]

About Justin Justin Rhorer has been in ministry for a number of years, and most recently has been called to cultivate a missional church expression of Crossroads Church of Lexington, KY in that city’s downtown area. What is Gospel Neighboring? “The practice of connecting the gospel to actual names and faces in your community.” Favorite […]

About the Author N. T. Wright is the former Bishop of Durham in the Church of England and one of the world’s leading Bible scholars. He is now serving as the chair of New Testament and Early Christianity at the School of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews. For twenty years, Wright taught New […]

About Ray Dr Ray Cannata is pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Uptown New Orleans. He impersonates Elivis, walks everywhere, and has eaten at every restaurant in New Orleans—over 750 of them. This quest is the subject of the Michael Dunnaway film, The Man Who Ate New Orleans. What is Gospel Neighboring? “Gospel Neighboring is the […]

In This Episode We mash up David Brooks’ Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There  and realize the importance of knowing our neighbors and how to love them in their quirkiness. About the Author David Brooks is an Op-ed columnist for The New York Times since 2003. He has been a senior editor […]

About Greg Greg Conover is a father and recently a grandfather residing in Simpsonville, SC, near Greenville, where he pastors The Bridge Church. He is a former missionary to Mexico and also developed church planter training curriculum for indigenous church planters across Latin America. What is Gospel Neighboring? Gospel Neighboring is what we’re to be […]

In This Episode Everyday Church. We traipse through the missional frontier with English pastors and church planters Steve Timmis and Tim Chester of The Crowded House, Acts 29-Europe, and the Porterbrook Network & Seminary. About the Author Steve Timmis and Tim Chester pastor at The Crowded House in Sheffield, England, and work with the Porterbrook Network and Seminary. Big Ideas Everyday Church is "a call for us to be an everyday church with an everyday mission". The opposite of secularism is not robust faith. The opposite of secularism is really nominalism. That means in a post-Chrsitendom context, the "mushy middle" is disappearing, and those who need to be born again are no longer filling our pews where we can reach them by preaching from a pulpit. 1 Peter is a key text to help us understand that our most basic identity as followers of Jesus is that of a stranger. A sojourner, alien, at odds with the prevailing culture, no matter what that culture looks like. Christendom was an aberration, not the norm. Plunder Change of Position: As a Christian community, we need to think of every day that we're not imprisoned or persecuted as a strange, unforeseen blessing. We are the guests in someone else's prevailing culture. They are the hosts, and we should be surprised if we're given a welcome. The less people know about the basics of Christianity, the less our preaching or gospel lingo is intelligible. We should strongly consider embodying the Christian story as a gospel community, and then tell the story in story form --- just like missionaries to unreached, biblically-illiterate peoples have accepted as standard best practices. Our gospel communities need to ask important, anthropologically aware questions of the communities we enter into as missionaries --- not just at the outset, but constantly throughout our sojourn in that particular host community. Change of Practice Peter tells us that we'll be distinct, but not obnioxious. We need to show gentleness and respect to our hosts. Our distinctiveness, our set-apart holiness, is still our call. We're called to stick out like a sore thumb, but an attractive sore thumb. We can't do that when we're in a ghetto, unseen. Our Christian commitment makes us more happy enduring the suffering of our peculiarity than sinning. Ironically, a program and Sunday-only approach to church gets us into trouble as lame imposters of the prevailing culture. We entertain way worse. Holiness is not a dumbed-down, sanitized version of secular entertainment. Instead, what will draw people to the church is what is different about us. "Programs are what we create when Christians are not doing what they are supposed to do in everyday life." From Wells and Guinness: we feast with the world. But we also fast. And that's going to look funny. We accept one another, but we also rebuke and exhort one another! "If you are rarely rebuked, then a rebuke is a big deal. It creates or exaserbates a sense of crisis. Rebuke becomes confrontation." But we also have great patience with one another, knowing that usually people change slowly, and they always change because of the gospel, not because we've told them to straighten up and fly right. Vanderstelt: Brainstorm the blessings, assets, skills: then ask God as a community: "Why have we been blessed with this?" Create a missional community covenant to be a blessing according to your blessed-ness. Change of Proclamation "Get out: It doesn't matter where you go, as long as you go with gospel intentionality." Your lives, and especially your lives lived in community, are the gospel events. "Mission must invovle not only contact between unbelievers and individual Christians but between unbelievers an dthe Christian Community." "We need to recapture the sense that gospel ministry is not something done by pastors with the support of ordinary Christians, but something done by ordinary Christians with the support of pastors.

About Shane Shane Blackshear is a public speaker and blogger with a passion and vision for communicating to people of all ages about living out the story that God has written for them in their personal and vocational lives. He is the host of the excellent podcast Seminary Dropout, featuring interviews with people like Philip Yancey, Richard Foster, and Sarah Bessey. Shane grew up in Big Spring, TX then at 18 moved to Brownwood, TX to attend college at Howard Payne University. After graduation he left Brownwood for a time to do college ministry in Buffalo, NY and then briefly moved to New Orleans before evacuating following Hurricane Katrina. This brought him back to Brownwood and eventually led him, along with his friends, to plant Nexus Community Church, a community existing to bring Jesus Christ to the marginalized and overlooked. While serving as pastor of Nexus, Shane had other positions including being a case worker for the state of Texas, and a Regional Executive Director for Big Brothers Big Sisters. Shane now lives with wife Kate and their new baby, Margot, in Austin, TX. When he is not speaking or working in real estate he enjoys reading comic books and growing beards. What is Gospel Neighboring? Gospel Neighboring is the response to the announcement that Jesus is Lord, and is renewing the creation. Important Lessons Learned in Gospel Neighboring You have to be careful when leading other people not to be a 'false prophet' when it comes to the specifics of a missional endeavor. Have the flexibility and agility to adapt and adjust, growing in your Gospel Neighboring as you learn together. If you can engage in a genuine, long-term friendship with someone who doesn't yet embrace Jesus, full of hope and prayer, you're doing pretty well as a gospel neighbor. If you're working with the homeless or needy, and you're doing it to be thanked, you're going to be disappointed. But you may have moments of genuine kingdom insight, when the people you're serving demonstrate to you that the labor you're engaged in is not in vain. Action for the Next 24 Hours Get out of your house and meet people. Don't forget the Matthew 28 "as you go..." nuance of the Great Commission. You go to work every morning. You can't just go to the street corner and start preaching. Embrace the natural relationships "as you go". Shane's Final Bit of Gospel Neighboring Wisdom Have the courage to see the places and people around you as changeable. Dig in, and, by God's grace, you will see change. Shane's Favorite Gospel Neighboring Resources Shane's podcast interviewees have been incredible sources of inspiration. His greatest hits: Philip Yancey Shane Claiborne  Sarah Bessey Richard Foster Tony Campolo David Fitch and Geoff Holsclaw of Prodigal Christianity Connect with Shane Twitter Instagram Facebook Web and Podcast

About the Author Jim Collins is a student and teacher of enduring great companies—how they grow, how they attain superior performance, and how good companies can become great companies. Having invested nearly a quarter of a century of research into the topic, Jim has authored or coauthored six books that have sold in total more than ten million copies worldwide. They include the classic Built to Last, a fixture on the Businessweek bestseller list for more than six years; the international bestseller Good to Great, translated into 35 languages; and How the Mighty Fall, a New York Times bestseller that examines how great companies can self-destruct. Jim has worked with senior executives and CEOs at over a hundred corporations. He has also worked with social sector organizations across the spectrum, from education and the arts to religious organizations, local and federal government, healthcare, and cause-driven nonprofits. Big Ideas The biggest hindrance to being great is being good.  Good schools, churches, governments prevent us from having great schools, churches, and governments. The business and corporate world reveal timeless principles that good companies can incorporate in order to go from mediocre to great...even if those principles weren't a part of their DNA at their inception. "That good is the enemy of great is not just a business problem.  It is a human problem." Plunder Level 5 Leadership:  An individual who blends extreme personal humility with intense professional will.  Ambition first and foremost for the company rather than one's own personal success. First Who, Then What:  Begin with "who" than the "what" so that you can adapt to a changing world.  Work with a team of disciplined people than to be a genius with a thousand helpers. Confront the Brutal Facts:  Be honest about your situation while maintaining confidence that you will prevail in the end.  Engage with questions, not answers.  Dialogue, not debate. Hedgehog Concept: What is the one, simple concept that defines your company?  Three questions to crystallize this, "What can you be the best in the world at?" "What are you deeply passionate about?" "What drives your economic engine?" A Culture of Discipline:  Have a team of discipline people who stick to the system yet express freedom within that system.  Not merely about action, but it's about disciplined people engaging in disciplined thought which produces disciplined action. Technology Accelerations: Avoid technology fads and bandwagons while becoming pioneering in in the application of carefully selected technologies. Flywheel and Doom Loop:  There is no single defining moment, program, transformation, miracle moment, killer innovation in going from good to great.  Rather, there is a predictable pattern of buildup and breakthrough. Liberating Good News Success is more about the relationships I have and the culture we develop than my personal genius.  'Great' Gospel Neighboring will not depend on my one great event, my one great conversation, or any gospel neighboring fad.  Rather, the Lord will take our discipline of gospel neighboring, our rhythm of gospel neighboring, to produce abiding fruit from gospel neighboring. The Big Challenge Am I brutally honest with myself?  It seems that I can be very passive and lazy in gospel neighboring where if relationships don't happen then I guess these people aren't warm enough to me.  It could be that I just need to go outside, bring over a bottle of wine to the new neighbor, and ask how their family is doing in order to see their warmness.  I can also be very active and bank everything on one meal, one conversation, one fixed plan without alteration...and I do it all by myself.  Maybe instead of being the premier Gospel Neighbor of my city I need to pray that God gives me a band of people (Christian and non-Christian) who want to bless my neighborhood with me.

About Stephen Stephen Crotts is a native South Carolinian. He studied illustration at Winthrop University, where he co-founded Friday Arts Project with several other students in order to explore truth, goodness, and beauty in art and faith. His an illustrator, the Integrated Marketing Coordinator at the Culture and Heritage Museums of York County, and the Program Coordinator with Friday Arts Project. He is also likely the future mayor of Rock Hill, where he and his wife Erica helped Daniel and Andy plant Hill City Church. What is Gospel Neighboring? To bring your friends and neighbors along, and together learning to see people and places near you with a gospel imagination, leaving behind cynicism, seeing broken neighbors as the image of God, and seeing broken places as undergoing gospel renovation. Stephen's Gospel Neighboring Quote “We cannot love God unless we love each other. And we cannot love each other unless we know each other. We know Him in the breaking of bread, and we know each other in the breaking of bread. Heaven is a banquet, and life is a banquet too --- even in the crust, where there is companionship." - Dorothy Day, Catholic Worker "We'll grow kindness in our hearts for all the strangers among us, until there are no strangers anymore." - Patty Griffin Tough Lesson Learned in Gospel Neighboring If you're endeavoring to do something important for your less fortunate neighbors, you'll have to have a champion in one of those neighbors, or the thing simply won't fly. "Who is my neighbor?" The simple reality is: the people right around us, within a block or two of your home, are the people with whom you have the most opportunity to bless through a steady, faithful presence. There is need much closer to you if you'll look more closely. More Lessons on Gospel Neighboring It may not be the first people you show hospitality toward who are the most deeply effected; it may be that the people you are hospitable toward bring new people into your life whose lives you will profoundly bless. Taking small steps of faith and small risks to be generous, and the generosity of the community as a whole becomes wider and wider. Loving your neighborhood with abandon as a church is going to be costly, but it will be contagious, especially as you dig in over the long haul with "a long obedience in the same direction". We should show the kind of hospitality toward our neighbors, so that they leave your home thinking "all things are possible". Action for the Next 24 Hours Pray for your neighbors, obviously. Make your neighbors a pie, take it to them, and invite them to dinner. Plan a neighborhood shindig. Stephen's Final Bit of Gospel Neighboring Wisdom Have the courage to see the places and people around you as changeable. Dig in, and, by God's grace, you will see change. Stephen's Favorite Gospel Neighboring Resource The Man Who Ate New Orleans, a film about Stephen's friend who ate at every restaurant in New Orleans. Wendell Berry's novels and poetry, which have a deep rootedness in 'place'. Babbette's Feast, a novella and a film with an incredible story of the possibility that opens up through the artistry of neighboring. Connect with Stephen Twitter Instagram Friday Arts Project Facebook S. Crotts Illustration

In This Episode We've mashed-up Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert's book When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor ... and Yourself.  Corbett and Fikkert wade through the difficult issue of of we help neighbors and not hurt t...

About Chris Chris was born and raised in Chattanooga, TN and is a graduate of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and the Dallas Theological Seminary. He comes to Winthrop University via Kennesaw State University  where he served as the RUF campus minister from 2006 - 2013. Currently, he is pursuing a doctoral degree from Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte. He enjoys running, racquetball, fine literature, Mexican food, and Costco. He is an ordained minister in the PCA. What is Gospel Neighboring? Gospel Neighboring is being fully, faithfully present in the place you live, instead of merely commuting to work and church. Chris's Gospel Neighboring Quote “The glory of God is humanity fully alive, and the life of humanity is the vision of God." - Irenaeus of Lyons (AD 130-202) Tough Lesson Learned in Gospel Neighboring You miss 100% of the shots you don't take (Wayne Gretzky?). Even in your "failures", God is bringing about obedience and especially closeness to him as you pursue the calling to Gospel Neighboring You have to be aware of the cultural rhythms of your context when you begin planning things to engage your neighbors. Perhaps the Saturday of a big college football game isn't the best time for a neighborhood movie night in the back yard. More Lessons on Gospel Neighboring Find other Christians in your neighborhood, regardless of whether they are going to the same church as you, and collaborate with them, and pray with them, and strategize with them to live out the gospel in the neighborhood for the sake of those who don't know Jesus. Creature comforts and busyness keep people from diving into authentic relationships. Be a faithful presence in your neighborhood and try to cultivate a counter-cultural web of relationships with your neighbors. Action for the Next 24 Hours Find someone in your neighborhood that you don't know. Make a pot of soup or a batch of cookies for them. Then follow up with a simple invitation (even if your house isn't perfectly ready) to supper to have good conversation. Ask them about themselves, and listen to their story. Chris's Final Bit of Gospel Neighboring Wisdom Think of the things that you love doing, and invite people to participate with you. Chris's Favorite Gospel Neighboring Resource Lars and the Real Girl, a film with Ryan Gosling that brilliantly exemplifies a community embodying the gospel in the life of a hurting member of the community. A Meal With Jesus: Discovering Grace, Community, and Mission Around the Table By Tim Chester. Connect with Chris Twitter RUF at Winthrop University cbowen@ruf.org

In This Episode Worship and mission guru, the late Robert Webber, articulates a biblical, ancient, and postmodern model of evangelism and discipleship in Ancient-Future Evangelism. About the Author Robert Eugene Webber (November 27, 1933 – April 27, 2007) was an American theologian known for his work on worship and the early church. He played a key role in the Convergence Movement, a move among evangelical and charismatic churches in the United States to blend charismatic worship with liturgies from the Book of Common Prayer and other liturgical sources. Webber was also a professor at Northern Seminary and the President of the Institute for Worship Studies.  He wrote a number of influential books on worship and discipleship in our postmodern context such as The Younger Evangelicals, Ancient-Future Faith, and Ancient-Future Worship. Big Idea Scripture, the early church, and our contemporary context all converge to teach us what it looks like to have 'faith-forming' communities. Even in different contexts, the church has 'formed faith' through four stages - conversion, discipleship, spiritual formation, and Christian vocation.  And these stage weave together three biblical teachings - Christ's victory over evil, the church's witness of salvation, and the church's worship as a witness of God's mission in Jesus Christ. Plunder Evangelism is a process over a period of time, nurturing people into Christian faith. The early church bore fruit and grew in number through 'social networking,  through a structure of direct and intimate interpersonal relationships. Since eating is a primary point of contact, evangelism will need to take place of believer's homes. The solution to the plight of isolationism might be building neighborhood churches, where community develops in a natural and spontaneous way. More than 3/4 of people who become Christians do so because of personal relationships. Conversion may be a conscious decision or may be more gradual until it dawns on a person, "I'm a Christian!" "You cannot have God as your Father if you don't have the church as your mother." - Cyprian. "There is no other way of entrance into life unless we are conceived by her, born of her, nourished at her breast and continually preserved under her care and government." - Calvin Emphasize Jesus' incarnation as the point of evangelistic contact.  What does it mean that God moved into the neighborhood with us?  What does it mean for us and for this world? Relate aspects of "the story we tell" to your neighbor's own narrative or cultural story, finding places of overlap and sympathy. Worship is less about me and my experience and more about the witness of his mission.  So, if your neighbor's interests overlap with an aspect of God's mission that the worship of your church is pursuing, that might be an avenue for them to be 'evangelized' or 'discipled' through worship. Liberating Good News While we are 'scared' to live in a post-Christian climate where the church is on decline, Christianity seems less viable, etc.  Yet, the 'basics' of evangelism, discipleship, and neighboring haven't drastically changed in 2000 years.  In fact, our climate gives us the chance to return to both the faith and practice of our spiritual fathers and mothers.  I have the opportunity to study and learn from ancient, learned Christians and apply it to my own context. Big Challenge Conceptualize what a 'faith-forming' neighborhood looks like in your context.  If God were to slowly bring your neighbors along in baby steps to seeing Jesus as the one who was dead and then raised from the dead for the redemption of the world, what does nurture into that acknowledgement look like?