Gospel Neighboring

About Caesar Caesar is a church planter, missional strategist and one of founding leaders of Soma Communities. He currently serves as the Director of the GCM Collective. He is a spiritual entrepreneur and an avid storyteller. His background includes communications for Fortune 500 companies, media production, working with youth, and extensive travel in international missions. At any given moment Caesar is starting a new Missional Community and handing over another to a new leader. He is currently working establishing new churches throughout several cities in North America and Eastern Europe. Caesar has a Master’s Degree in Ministry in the area of Global Leadership. His is a certified coach via CoachNet. He has been married to Tina, his high school sweetheart, for 28 years; they have three children, Caesar, Christin and Justine. What is Gospel Neighboring? The purpose of the gospel is to renew the cosmos, and this happens by making disciples where we move from unbelief to belief in every area of life.  We treat neighbors as 'kids far from Dad' who need their Brother to die on their behalf and as if there is a place at the table for them. Caesar’s Gospel Neighboring Quote “We need to be praying for a restoration of every area of our neighbor's lives and not just their view of the atonement." Tough Lesson Learned in Gospel Neighboring Sometimes in patience you extend God's love to people, but they don't reciprocate the relationship.  Yet, only God can draw our neighbors to his love. (John 6:44) We often want to go after the toughest fruit that isn't ripe.  So, we should see who is already leaning and being drawn to Christ through community and take advantage of that 'low hanging fruit'. More Lessons on Gospel Neighboring Sometimes evangelism is a long process where our neighbors realize they are a part of the family of God "along the way" of their spiritual journey. Showing easy, simple acts of kindness often yield the biggest relationships. The story of the Bible is a non-intimidating way to engage your neighbors concerning spiritual and life issues. Action for the Next 24 Hours Have at least one meal a week with a non-believer. Caesar’s Final Bit of Gospel Neighboring Wisdom Don't do gospel neighboring alone.  Do neighboring together with other Christians.           Caesar’s Favorite Gospel Neighboring Resource The Tangible Kingdom and Primer by Hugh Halter Leading Missional Communities by Mike Breen The Gospel Primer by Caesar Kalinowski Transformed by Caesar Kalinowski Connect with Caesar Twitter Web Site Facebook GCM Collective

In This Episode Timothy Keller's newest offering from Dutton is Walking With God Through Pain and Suffering. We take Keller's long, hard look at the 'fiery furnace' of suffering and apply his insights to the art of Gospel Neighboring. About the Author Timothy Keller is the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, which he started in 1989 with his wife, Kathy, and three young sons.  For over twenty years he has led a diverse congregation of young professionals that has grown to a weekly attendance of over 5,000. He is also Chairman of Redeemer City to City, which starts new churches in New York and other global cities, and publishes books and resources for faith in an urban culture. In over ten years they have helped to launch over 250 churches in 48 cities. More recently, Dr. Keller’s books, including the New York Times bestselling The Reason for God and The Prodigal God, have sold over 1 million copies and been translated into 15 languages. Christianity Today has said, “Fifty years from now, if evangelical Christians are widely known for their love of cities, their commitment to mercy and justice, and their love of their neighbors, Tim Keller will be remembered as a pioneer of the new urban Christians.” Big Idea Suffering is inevitable in our lives and the lives of our neighbors. But instead of shunning suffering or crumbling under its weight, we have the opportunity to deepen our faith and see God and the gospel more clearly with more depth than ever before since it is a fiery furnace that refine us. (Suffering might use evil against itself!) Dealing with suffering is a process that will be intensely spiritual as it is one of the main themes of the Bible.  There are no cheap, easy answers, but we must walk through it with the God who has also walked through the valley of the shadow of death...and suffering will have us come to be more intimate with God or less intimate with God. Plunder In a secular perspective, suffering is not meaningful, but merely an interruption. But deep down, we know it is more than an interruption. Western people seem to have the hardest time suffering, not because of the particular act of suffering but due to the fact that we are suffering at all. Suffering is at the heart of the Christian story, and the resurrection is not merely consolation, but restoration. Jesus took on himself the one kind of suffering that could destroy us all so that suffering might actually work for our betterment. Avoidance, denial, and despair will actually waste our suffering. There is a better way. Prepare both the mind (theology) and the heart for suffering. Temperaments of Suffering: Isolation, Implosion, Condemnation, Anger, Temptation. Since sufferings and temperaments are unique there are unique paths to get through them. "Things that don't help" is usually theology applied poorly (e.g. Job's friends). The pennies need to drop one by one, and particular truths need to come in order ("God is in sovereign control" comes after "God cares for you" after a couples loses an infant) People need to be allowed to weep and mourn and not immediately be told what to do. Those who suffer should have rhythms of waling, weeping, trusting, praying, and hoping. Weeping:  Jesus was perfect, but he was a man of worrows, crying his eyes out.  Weeping drives us into joy. Trusting:  Imagine seeing all of Jesus' miracles, then seeing him at the cross, yo might think, "I've had it with this God.  Nothing good could come out of this."  If we think that, we are missing the more brilliant miracle God has ever worked for our good.  "In Jesus Christ we see that God actually experiences the pain of the fire as we do. He is truly God with us, in love and understanding, in our anguish. He plunged himself into our furnace so that, when we find ourselves in the fire, we can turn to him and know we will not be consumed but will be made into people great and beautiful."

  About Geoff Geoff is a native Californian who now calls Chicago home.  He is wonderfully married to Cyd and has two boys, Soren and Tennyson.  Geoff serves as a co-pastor at Life on the Vine,along with his wife, and Ty Grigg.  He recently co-authored, Prodigal Christianity, with David Fitch, and he is an affiliate professor of theology at Northern Seminary. What is Gospel Neighboring? Living and experiencing the gospel must be done among our neighbors, and a gospel not lived among our neighbors is not the full gospel. Geoff’s Gospel Neighboring Quote  “Jesus took on flesh and moved into the neighborhood." - John 1:14 (The Message) Tough Lesson Learned in Gospel Neighboring It's difficult to be 'missional' when you are a busy pastor, doing school, and have a family.  This tension is something we need to learn to deal with and to model to our Christian community. It is important to have a clear sense of God's call in all of our vocations. More Lessons on Gospel Neighboring It's okay to have small-scale missional projects and rhythms that come and go. We 'incarnate' the gospel not as individual Christians but as the body of Jesus on this earth. Live in the life of the Spirit and learn small steps of obedience and be open to how the Spirit is leading every day. Action for the Next 24 Hours Pray that God would show you what to do, and then do it. Geoff’s Final Bit of Gospel Neighboring Wisdom Follow the Spirit and be aware of your obedience to Him. Mike’s Favorite Gospel Neighboring Resource Darrel Guder, Missional Church Leslie Newbigin David Fitch Connect with Geoff Twitter Web Site

In This Episode: The Dangerous Act of Loving Your Neighbor: Seeing Others Through the Eyes of Jesus, by Mark Labberton. About the Author: Mark Labberton is president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He previously served as Lloyd John Ogilvie chair for preaching. Labberton came to Fuller after 16 years as senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, California. He served as chair of John Stott Ministries from 2001 to 2004 and co-chair of the John Stott Ministries Global Initiative Fund from 2004 to 2007. Today he continues to contribute to the mission of the global church as a senior fellow of the International Justice Mission.He is also the author of The Dangerous Act of Worship. Big Ideas Labberton's jumping off point is simple: "Human hearts form the seedbed from which injustice thrives. ... Our hearts have the capacity to seek justice, but they are not usually calibrated to do so." Even though there are systemic injustices embedded in the world, these are not to blame nearly so much as the human hearts that are shaped by them and which reinforce them. "Self and society are mutually constitutive." "Changing our world depends on changing our hearts: how we perceive, name, and act in the world." True worship of God always results in our seeing, naming, and acting more with the mind of Christ. It keeps us from regarding anyone "according to the flesh" (2 Cor 5:16). Plunder We should practice saying and meaning "you're welcome" instead of "no problem". The former communicates warmth and hospitality, generosity and delight. The latter communicates that the kindness shown to the person in need is limited by our tolerance of the nuisance they've become to us. Language shapes our reality. We need to ask the Lord for sanctified perception, the ability to grow in our capacity to see others the way Jesus sees them: as part of the human family made in the image of God, and not merely as category fillers like "homeless", "poor", "minority". We must be careful to name others not as "other", or "them over there". We can't write people off as the sum of the diseases they are afflicted with or the circumstances in which they carve out their existence, lest "someone becomes something." Instead, we should habituate ourselves to call people "my brother, the slave", "my sister, the homeless woman". The my brings things out of abstraction and into proper view, with a proper name, and presses us to act in ways proper to this new view and name. The first step in "dangerously" loving our neighbor may not be a checklist of bold, heroic actions to take, or a check to write so someone else can take those bold, heroic actions. The first step is to enter into the heart of God toward the suffering of our neighbor, and then begin to love them in a way that imitates God, limited and finite though we are. Concrete action will begin to hit its target only once we've moved from abstraction toward personalization through a prayerful entry into the heart of God. Worship is the life of waken up to God and the full love and justice God has for the world every day. Corporate worship is the refinement and collection of our daily worship that "welcomes us, forgives us, heals us, calls us, and sends us to live our worship again". Liberating Good News The Bible itself doesn't shrink from an honest, face-to-face view of the brokenness and despair of the world. Eleven chapters in, we're already asking ourselves, "is there any hope for a world like this?" We would be prone to say "no". God did not. We can therefore take heart in knowing that God himself has beheld the mess and has reckoned it very much worthy of redemption. And from his perception, naming, and acting, he is working redemption. "The greatest hope for the human heart is the heart of God." The Big Challenge "The places and people from whom we might turn away are those to whom, in Christ, we are meant to turn.

About Mike With 3 decades of missional ministry experience in England and the United States, Mike now heads up 3DM, headquartered in Pawleys Island, SC. 3DM exists to fuel and resource the missional movement through books, learning communities, and other tools. Mike is married to Sally, and they have grown children. Mike was discovering and developing the concept of missional communities in post-Christian England long before the term and concept came into common parlance. He's the author of an array of books on discipleship and mission. And he taught Andy about Shandy -- a summery blend of beer and Sprite -- which pretty much changed Andy's life. What is Gospel Neighboring? Loving God and neighbor through sharing the covenant community God has given you, and the relationship you have with the Father. Mike's Gospel Neighboring Quote "Jesus said it best: love your neighbor as yourself. This means asking ourselves what we would want a follower of Jesus to do in the given situation if we were in our neighbor's shoes." Tough Lesson Learned in Gospel Neighboring Instead of blindly pushing forward relationally with neighbors, gain the emotional intelligence that allows you to perceive the spiritual temperature of the people around you --- whether certain people are cold, warm, or hot toward you and the gospel --- and pursue and pray for those who are hot toward you. More Lessons on Gospel Neighboring "Sometimes bringing a bottle of wine to a new neighbor when they move in is a great way to let them know they're welcome, and to disarm them that you're normal and not 'religious'." One of the best things we might do is to get out a piece of paper, write down our neighbors' names, and write down "hot", "warm", or "cold". We need to love our neighbor well enough to be alert to their spiritual and relational temperature. Then stick with the "hot" types in prayer and relationship. Action for the Next 24 Hours Pray specifically for the people in your immediate community, and allow the Lord to direct your prayers toward a specific person. Ask them how you can pray for them. Asking someone how you might better be able to pray for their needs is a gesture of care that will be appreciated even by agnostics and atheists. Mike's Final Bit of Gospel Neighboring Wisdom Jesus said that the wise man is the one who builds his house on the rock, meaning that he hears God's word and puts it into practice. The best thing we can learn to do in Gospel Neighboring is to intentionally seek answers to the questions "What is God saying to me?" and "What am I going to do about it?" Mike's Favorite Gospel Neighboring Resource David Watson, Discipleship. Connect with Mike Mike's email: mike@weare3dm.com Twitter 3DM

In This Episode: A Meal With Jesus: Discovering Grace, Community, and Mission Around the Table by Tim Chester. About the Author: Tim is a writer, Bible teacher and church planter, married to Helen and with two daughters. Tim is a pastor of The Crowded House in Sheffield, UK. They emphasise sharing lives together rather than programmes and structures. ‘Ordinary life with gospel intentionality’ is one of the catchphrases. He is founder and associate director of the Porterbrook Seminary which provides an affordable, Bible college-level program of study that enables students to integrate theological training with involvement in ministry through residential weeks, seminar days and distance learning. He is the author of over 20 books on a wide variety of subjects but with a common concern to make the link between theology and practice. Big Ideas Jesus was such an eater-and-drinker that people accused him of doing it to excess. That's hardly the thing we get accused of---partying too much---in Evangelicalism. In Luke's gospel, Jesus is always going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal. Even when he goes to the cross, he's coming from a meal. Jesus' meals are not just symbols, but concrete application and a means of grace. Food is stuff, not ideas or theories. A tangible kingdom, right in front of you, in miniature form. Both Roman and Jewish meals reinforced the existing social order, but gospel meals subverted them, bringing rich and poor, Jew and Gentile, friend and enemy together around the table. Plunder Eating a meal can be an image of the power of the doctrine of justification. If we are justified while we are still God's enemies, our welcome of the stranger and the 'enemy of God' is a picture of justification. Could it be that a real ecclesiology isn't just word, sacrament, and discipline, but also shared meals? Might these be a crucial, indispensable mark of the church? The Lord's Supper is radically subversive. We should take stock of what Jesus is actively doing when we gather around the table: having us eat the same spiritual food and drink the same spiritual drink. Whereas your run-in at the mailbox, or your trip to borrow a tool from your neighbor, are undefined and possibly unnatural and awkward times to move toward the mysterious in the course of conversation, the prior agreement to sit down to a meal, which has a beginning, middle, and end, creates a more natural context for both parties to naturally enter into conversation about mystery. Liberating Good News The Bible's narrative, which starts in a garden with some plucked fruit as an appetizer, ends in a garden-city with a wedding feast. This narrative sticks in the back of our mind and enriches our table grace. It widens our spiritual imagination to the point where we are willing to sit and eat at a table with, perhaps, even our enemies, just as Jesus did with and for us. We get an "easy" way to imitate Christ for people who may never come into a church building. The Big Challenge In a 7-day week, you have 21 meals. You are going to eat with your family, and with Christians. But is it really that hard to carve out a handful of those 21 meals to share with those who don't follow Jesus with you? Start with 2.

About Samantha Orginally from Baltimore, MD, Samantha Sammis attended College of Charleston and studied Sociology and Religious Studies. After being jaded and resentful toward the church, Samantha truly started following Jesus her senior year of college after two girls persistently loved and pursued her and answered her abrasive questions about evil and suffering in the world, the justice of God, etc. Samantha started a ministry in the Eastside neighborhood of downtown Charleston after truly experiencing the love of Christ and wanting to pass it on to others. She left after graduation to teach middle school in Boston, but then felt called to come back and live in Charleston in the neighborhood she was doing ministry in during college. When she moved back God blessed her with a house of believers and strong community of roommates on mission to intentionally love their neighbors, and they have been doing so ever since through Loving America Street. What is Gospel Neighboring A calling we are to fulfill where we are a good neighbor to those around us.  We engage our neighbors in intentional ways. Samantha's Favorite Gospel Neighboring Quote "Be interruptible." - The Art of Neighboring  Tough Lessons Learned in Gospel Neighboring Forcing structure vs loving people. Be open to the fact that loving your neighbor looks different in different contexts. Be willing for 'your plan' to not work but for God to do something else as you relate to your neighbors. More Lessons on Gospel Neighboring Forming relationships and bring people into your home is messy. Take a chance and let a few people liberally your home, and see others come flocking into your home. Form community of learning that is centered around Jesus. Give everyone a role when it comes to food. Neighboring is scary but beautiful. It's much more difficult to be a gospel neighbor if you go at it solo.  Community with other Christians is key. Action for the Next 24 Hours Be visible and present in your neighborhood. Samantha's Final Bit of Gospel Neighboring Wisdom Be interruptible, flexible, and transparent.  Don't have ulterior motives in gospel neighboring. Samantha's Favorite Gospel Neighboring Resources The Art of Neighboring Toxic Charity A Heart for the Community Front Porch Ministry Connect with Samantha Loving America Street Facebook

In This Episode: Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor's Journey into Christian Faith by Rosaria Butterfield. About the Author: Rosaria, by the standards of many, was living a very good life. She had a tenured position at a large university in a field for which she cared deeply. She owned two homes with her partner, in which they provided hospitality to students and activists that were looking to make a difference in the world. There, her partner rehabilitated abandoned and abused dogs. In the community, Rosaria was involved in volunteer work. At the university, she was a respected advisor of students and her department's curriculum. And then, in her late 30s, Rosaria encountered something that turned her world upside down-the idea that Christianity, a religion that she had regarded as problematic and sometimes downright damaging, might be right about who God was, an idea that flew in the face of the people and causes that she most loved. What follows is a story of what she describes as a "train wreck" at the hand of the supernatural. Rosaria is an author, educator, mother and a pastor-church planter's wife, living in Chapel Hill, NC. Big Ideas Rosaria's assumptions about Christians --- that they are hateful, ignorant, anti-intellectual, inhospitable, and unneighborly, especially toward those who don't believe as they believe --- were upended by the thoughtful, challenging, inviting letter of a pastor. The growing friendship between Rosaria and this pastor would have been short-circuited and possibly derailed if the pastor had pressured her to "come to church". The posture of her Gospel Neighbors ultimately helped make her aware that her own hospitality, advocacy, and kindness were, apart from Christ, manipulative. The collision of a buttoned-down Presbyterian community and a LGBT community was messy and tearful for all involved. But there is no avoiding this. Gospel Neighboring is messy. Plunder If we want to practice Gospel Neighboring toward marginalized communities, we had better befriend someone like Rosaria who knows what it is like to be in the shoes of those we are seeking to neighbor. We are forgetful of what it's like not to believe. It will ultimately take a community of Gospel Neighbors, and not just a pastor (!), to give expression to what the image of God looks like when it begins to be restored in a variety of different people with different temperaments, backgrounds, and perspectives. Be prepared for a "train wreck" if you follow through on Gospel Neighboring for long enough. Don't enter into Gospel Neighboring unless you're committed to helping clean up the wreckage. After all, you're complicit in the derailing of the train! Even though it's true that new behaviors are the fruit of the gospel taking root in renewed hearts, it is nevertheless true that the Christian life is also one that calls us to obey even before we feel like it --- before the action feels right. This means that our Gospel Neighboring shouldn't shy away from helping pre-Christians and new Christians count the cost of following Jesus. Liberating Good News It is immensely encouraging to realize that a very conservative church community with many idiosyncrasies, but a rich tradition of gospel reflection, could practice effective Gospel Neighboring to a lesbian Women's Studies Professor, and ultimately see her come to repentance and faith in Christ. This story demonstrates that there are strengths of each church community that can be marshaled toward the Gospel Neighboring of people other churches are ill-equipped to reach. The Big Challenge Will we be bold enough to engage people that think in a radically different way than us? Will we be patient enough to practice Gospel Neighboring toward them in a way that cannot be found to be manipulative or underhanded? Will we allow someone to belong before they believe and behave? And when it all happens,

About George In almost 40 years of ministry, George Grant has started a lot of things. Somehow or other he has also managed to finish a few of them.  Currently, he is the pastor of Parish Presbyterian Church in Franklin, Tennessee, where he also serves as the director of the King's Meadow Study Center and teaches at the Franklin Classical School and New College Franklin. He has planted five churches, established a fistful of schools and coops along with two colleges, accumulated a bottom drawer full of academic degrees, and is the author of enough out-of-print books to keep half the garage sales in the South fully stocked. But, by his own testimony his greatest accomplishment is his ongoing role as husband of one, father of three, and grandfather of four (and counting). What is Gospel Neighboring We conjure up images of the Good Samaritan or the Micah Mandate as we pursue missional living as we are a blessing to our community. Gospel neighboring relates to the historical parish model of ministry where the local church is the fountainhead of blessing for the whole neighborhood, not just churchgoers. George's Favorite Gospel Neighboring Quote "If a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing badly." - G.K. Chesterton Tough Lessons Learned in Gospel Neighboring We need to make sure that how we want to serve people is what people are yearning to be served with. Give everything a short season of life. We're in the process of learning how to do this, and there is nothing wrong with learning. We've got to learn how to laugh and stop taking ourselves so seriously. More Lessons on Gospel Neighboring God uses us in the midst neighborhood crises, and we have the opportunity to speak powerfully into the life of a community that you can never do during a Sunday worship service. When we 'stick with it' we see people slowly 'getting on board' and we see fruit. Action for the Next 24 Hours Go for a walk, and look for a divine appointment. George's Final Bit of Gospel Neighboring Wisdom "There is not a city population that will not rapidly degenerate under the regiment of well-served pulpits and ill-served parishes." - Thomas Chalmers George's Favorite Gospel Neighboring Resources The Hidden Art of Homemarking by Edith Schaeffer Annals of a Quiet Neighborhood by George Macdonald The Seaboard Parish by George Macdonald The Vicar by Winthrop Mackworth Praed Everyday Theology by Kevin Vanhoozer Heirs of the Covenant by Susan Hunt Connect with George Blog Twitter Facebook

 Prodigal Christianity: 10 Signposts into the Missional Frontier by David E. Fitch and Geoff Holsclow About the Authors David Fitch is the B. R. Lindner Chair of Evangelical Theology at Northern Seminary Chicago, IL. He is also the founding pastor of Life on the Vine Christian Community -- a missional church in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago. He coaches a network of church plants in the Christian & Missionary Alliance linked to Life on the Vine. He writes, speaks and lectures on issues the local church must face in Mission including cultural engagement, leadership and theology. Dr. Fitch is the author of books and numerous articles. More information can be found about him at http://reclaimingthemission.com Geoff Holsclaw was born (1978) and raised in San Jose, California and studied philosophy at University of California, Santa Cruz. He married and moved to Chicago, Illinois (2000) and has been a co-pastor at Life on the Vine (www.lifeonthevine.org) since 2003. In 2012 he began teaching theology at Northern Seminary (Ph.D, Marquette University, ABD) along with being the Midwest regional coordinator for Ecclesia Network (www.ecclesianet.org). He is passionate about missional church theology and practice, and joins others with the same vision through Missio Alliance (www.missioalliance.org). Visit Geoff at www.geoffreyholsclaw.net. Big Ideas Instead of being an 'all truth'  or 'all-relevant' church on mission, we need a missional posture that is balanced and takes notice of our post-Christian missional frontier. If God is prodigal (goes into the far country with a reckless love), we must be prodigal, going into the far country and being a bit reckless with the gospel.  Have we gone as far as God goes into this missional frontier? The gospel is the announcement of the incoming kingdom of God that has tangible effects in our neighborhood. Plunder  The Eucharist, the Lord's Supper, is the destroyer of ungodly power, discrimination, racism, etc. Discussions about sexuality should be 'mutually transforming.' In other words, what if we sat down with LGBT folk and asked, "How does the gospel challenge both of us to be transformed into God's kingdom intention"? When you seek to do justice or mercy as a church, and your ministry budget begins to get over $100,000, you will almost always not be face-to-face relational anymore but will rather just fund the existing structures. "The Spirit's presence ensures that witness is not something we have to do, defend, or somehow make happen. It is something we live together in Christ for God's mission in the world." "We are not looking for a place to go on Sundays but a people to be with all week long (in mission)." Liberating Good News Go as far as God goes into the far country.  If it seems scary, unfamiliar...it's ok.  God is right there with you, and he has been on the move and working redemption on this frontier long before we came up with this cool terminology (missional, incarnational, etc.). The Big Challenge We need to create safe spaces to see people restored in their relationships with others, God, and the church.  The emphasis should be on hospitality and neighborhood to reengage the hostile skeptic.  Our relational approach means we should be seeking to persuade, not just to make a point.

About Dwayne Dwayne is the planter and pastor of Wellspring Church in Charlotte, NC.  Wellspring is associated with the Acts 29 Network and is a multi-ethnic church trying to reach an affluent area of Charlotte.  Dwayne is a Ph.D candidate at Liberty University.  Most importantly, Dwayne is a husband and a father to three children. What is Gospel Neighboring To model and empower others to reach our neighbors with the gospel in both word and deed. Dwayne's Favorite Gospel Neighboring Quote "We need to reach our neighbor before we reach the nations." Tough Lessons Learned in Gospel Neighboring Being intentional in your neighborhood takes time. Even if people don't respond immediately doesn't mean they aren't still worth pursuing. It's all about throwing a lifeline out and seeing what fish may be caught by the gospel. More Lessons on Gospel Neighboring Sink into the gospel that you are trying to give away to your neighbors. A consistent, persistent approach to our neighbors is needed. Fruitfulness gets more press than faithfulness, but we need both. Action for the Next 24 Hours Believe that "It is finished" and that we need to live like it. Dwayne's Final Bit of Gospel Neighboring Wisdom Your neighbor is anyone who is near you (coworker, next door, etc.).  So love those who are near you. Dwayne's Favorite Gospel Neighboring Resources Steve Timmis (Everyday Church: Gospel Communities on Mission) Tim Challies Tim Keller Connect with Dwayne Wellspring Church Twitter Facebook

Mashed-Up in this Episode: Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition by Christine D. Pohl About the Author Christine Pohl is Professor of Church in Society at Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky, where she has taught since 1989. She studied at Gordon-Conwell Seminary and attained her PhD in Ethics and Society at Emory University. Dr. Pohl worked in various ministries for 11 years before attending seminary. She owned a Christian bookstore for six years and later worked in advocacy and refugee resettlement. She currently serves as an occasional advisor for homeless shelters and refugee programs. She has also helped plant four churches. Dr. Pohl is the author of several other books. She has recently completed a book entitled Living into Community: Cultivating Practices that Sustain Us (Eerdmans, 2011). Big Ideas 'Hospitality' as a practice has gone from being the social expectation of personal generosity and welcome in the ancient world to an impersonalized, commoditized industry in the modern world. From the 1st-Century Didache to 20th-Century Catholic practitioner Dorothy Day, Christian leaders have prophetically called the church to welcome the stranger as one would welcome an angel or Christ himself. Hospitality comes into its own when the roles of giver and recipient, host and guest, are transcended, despite the perennial ambiguities, tensions, and blurring of necessary boundaries. Hospitality is a posture before it is a task. It begins with an enlarged heart, moves through words of welcome and thresholds of home and church into pot lucks, temporary shared living, and ultimately full absorption into the rhythms of a reshaped common community. Plunder We ought to keep the stories of past hospitality ever before us --- whether Bible stories or the writings of Edith Shaeffer --- to provide us with a 'cloud of witnesses' encouraging us that we are not alone in committing ourselves to hospitality. If possible, each household might consider copying Christians from Chrysostom to Calvin by creating a 'Christ room' in their homes --- a guest room ready to accommodate a stranger. "There is nothing like church food." "The front door of the home is the side door of the church." At the end of any extension of hospitality, the barometer of success is "Did I see Christ in the guest? Did they see Christ in me?" Liberating Good News The best thing about recovering the hospitality tradition is that, like all Gospel Neighboring, though we give with no expectation of anything in return, we always receive --- often from those we serve, but more importantly, always from Jesus. Christ uses our hospitality not just to bless our neighbor, but to enlarge our hearts and amaze us by his own saving, gracious hospitality. The Big Challenge In our age, we often have to go out of our way to even encounter a stranger in need of welcome. When we do, we are quick to make a referral to professionalized hospitality experts --- whether those be hospitals, homeless shelters, or individuals or churches who "are good at this sort of thing". We assume that it is the government's responsibility to be the safety net. But in taking this posture, we farm out our hospitality and avoid offering what our neighbors need most: a person with a face who will hear their stories, welcome them to the table, and empower them to press their own value into others' needs. As chuches, missional communities, and households, we will have to commit ourselves to fundamentally restructuring our relationships and even our physical buildings to facilitate the recovery of extended family communal rhythms before we are even in a position to offer the most biblically robust form of hospitality. Are we identifying, and taking, the first step toward this recovery in each of these contexts?

About Kay Kay Burklin is the Director of Mercy Ministries for Mission To the World (MTW), the foreign missions agency of the Presbyterian Church in America.  Kay received degrees from Wheaton College and Gordon Theological Seminary.  Prior to her husband, Heiko, being the pastor at Neely's Creek ARP Church, their family spent several years doing missions work with youth in East Berlin where gospel fruit is still growing because of their time there.  Kay is our first guest to have grown up on a mink farm. What is Gospel Neighboring Our neighbor is someone who lives near us and the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ.  So gospel neighboring is sharing the good news of Jesus with those around us. Kay's Favorite Gospel Neighboring Quote "Be the reason somebody smiles today and feels valued." Tough Lessons Learned in Gospel Neighboring Even when when we have unkind, unlovable neighbors, God commands us to be kind to them and love them. Our call is not to change our neighbor but to love our neighbor. God may call us to be neighbors to people who we like and to people we don't like. More Lessons on Gospel Neighboring It may take your departure from a neighborhood for you to see how much you have impacted a neighborhood. The way to start a 'church' is by getting to know people.  Love them and serve them in creative, personal ways. Be curious about the lives of your neighbors. You never know.  People may come to Christ through basketball or chocolate chip cookies. Action for the Next 24 Hours Find out who around you needs a helping hand and make them smile. Kay's Final Bit of Gospel Neighboring Wisdom Don't be afraid or concerned that you don't have the right answer.  Let your life speak to others, but make sure it is the words of Jesus that others are hearing. Kay's Favorite Gospel Neighboring Resources The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns Connect with Kay Mission to the World Neely's Creek Church

What is a Gospel Neighboring Book Mash-Up? It’s obviously the Gospelicious Monster Truck Rally of book reviews. We take sacred and secular books and plunder them for Gospel Neighboring wisdom and fling said wisdom out into the interwebs for our fellow Gospel Neighbors to apply to their efforts at bringing the truth, goodness, and beauty of Jesus to their city, one neighborhood at a time. Mashed-Up in this Episode: The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity Can Reach the West Again About the Author Born in 1938 in Louisville, Kentucky, Hunter was afflicted with the full name of George Gill Hunter III.  His friends call him “Chuck”, a lifetime nickname. Hunter’s research and writing often focus on “apostolic” ministry and communication with the West’s growing numberof “secular” people who have no Christian memory.  His teaching ministry has engaged a full range of denominations in the USA and churches in many other countries— including Canada, Mexico, Bolivia, South Africa, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, England, Australia, New Zealand, Romania, Russia, Moldova, and Brazil.  Along with The Celtic Way of Evangelism he has written over a dozen books. Hunter continues as part-time Distinguished Professor of Evangelization in Asbury’s School of World Mission and Evangelism, which educates missionaries, pastors, scholars, evangelists, trainers, church planters, lay leaders, change agents, and national church leaders for the Christian mission. The school, named for E. Stanley Jones, was the first “to declare North America and Europe as among the world’s mission fields” and to feature this perspective within its curriculum. Big Ideas We learn from the life of St. Patrick and his mission to the Celtic peoples that  'Roman Christianity' adopted the narrative, "Before one can become Chrisitian, one must be civilized."  In other words, one must adopt a cultural Christianity before one becomes an actual Christian.  But Patrick thought that Celtic barbarians needed to hear the gospel and receive it even before they become Roman. Roman vs Celtic models of evangelism. The Roman way is to present the Christian message, invite them to believe in Christ and become Christian, and then have them welcomed into fellowship of the church.  The Celtic Way is to first establish the community and include them in life of church, then engage them in conversation, prayer, worship, etc.  Then, in time, they discover they have come to believe as you do. Plunder We need to focus on the 'middle issues' of life (vocation, relationships) as opposed to only the transcendent/spiritual issues as we relate to our neighbor. The genius of Aristotelian Rhetoric:  logos, pathos, ethos.  Ethos is the most important, as the question asked by the listening audience to the speaker is, "Can this person be trusted and believed?"   We need the 'authentic sign' in order to be believed and show that we are with and for our neighbor. According to Peter Berger's The Sacred Canopy, a persons' worldview is maintained and shaped by the community one is socialized in, but the possibility of conversion is opened up through conversation, and then one adopts a new worldview through resocialization in a new community. Liberating Good News While it might seem scary to neighbor a "barbarian"...that neighbor might be more open to the gospel and to your neighboring than "civilized" people. The Big Challenge Is it okay for your house to get smelly or messy?  Inviting "barbarians" means that your typical rules might not be obeyed or followed.  Your car will get dirty.  Maybe your kid picks up a bad habit or two.  Is the inconvenience worthy it in your journey of gospel neighboring?

About Neal Neal is a leadership and ministry coach and a trainer. He is passionate about helping leaders make a difference in their churches, communities, and cities. He currently serves as a Leadership Coaching Specialist for The Senesi Group. He is co-founder of The Cypress Project which encourages the development of missional networks aimed at reaching people and transforming communities. Neal coaches and leads missional networks in the US and internationally. Over 150 Cypress Project leaders have experienced the nine month missional development process in the Carolinas and internationally over the past five years. Neal and his wife, Joy, have their home base at Journey Church in the Charleston area. What is Gospel Neighboring? Gospel Neighboring is making connections with people, being front-yard people, and doing life with people (both struggles and celebrations). Neal's Favorite Gospel Neighboring Quote "Your biggest next step is your neighbor seeing Jesus living in your house." Tough Lessons Learned in Gospel Neighboring Sometimes our home can become a closed off place of refuge even though it is one of the best environments for ministry that bears fruit for the gospel. Some people who know of your spiritual commitment might make you the neighborhood babysitter and won't invite you to parties. More Lessons on Gospel Neighboring Don't look at your neighborhood as a place to 'start something', and don't go it alone. You can do almost anything to build relationships. (Like launch fireworks!) Instead of trying to 'start something' with neighbors, just do life with your neighbors, and God might actually use them as missionaries to your neighborhood. Authenticity and vulnerability are important/attractive things to share, showing that we really care. Is your neighborhood a better place to live because of your presence? Action for the Next 24 Hours Draw a circle around your street and begin asking God to see the harvest as only he can. Neal's Final Bit of Gospel Neighboring Wisdom Begin to see how your house and neighborhood are your biggest platform for influence. Neal's Favorite Gospel Neighboring Resources Verge Network How to Connect with Neal The Cypress Project Twitter