From
the Pastor’s Heart...
Reaching
Our Neighbors
“Hi! My name is . . .”
These words are a great start for what we need to meet people in
our neighborhood. “Hello” is a far cry better than being a window watcher
from your car or living room. I’ve been passionate lately about us at PMC
taking intentional steps to reach out to others. I don’t know why it took so
long for me to see the importance of the calling that we have to go to the lost
in our neighborhood.
I read something a while back that said in the suburbs people
don’t even know their neighbors anymore. He stated that one of the reasons was
because of garage door openers. You come home from work and you drive by
everybody’s house until you get to yours. You pull into your driveway, open
the garage door, drive in and shut the world out behind you. You walk into your
house without seeing or talking to anybody except maybe your family.
Probably another characteristic that seems to plague us is
independence. A while back I borrowed something
from my neighbor. I hated
doing it. I knew though that it would “free” my neighbor to come borrow
something of mine. We continue to use each other’s stuff and we’ve developed
a friendship and trust for each other.
I’ve begun a sermon series called, “Reaching Out to Your
Neighbor.” In this series we will discover who the world is, what God is
asking us to do, and many other subjects as well. As we think and pray about
what God is asking us to do, we need to be willing to stretch a little and get
out of our comfort zone. The Holy Spirit will lead us and empower us to do
things that we don’t normally do.
Let’s go into the world to allow God to open the eyes of the
blind and to give hope to the hopeless. Let’s also remember that if our
neighbor chooses not to follow Christ, we will still be their friend and the
best neighbor that they ever had!
May God grant us a passion and love for people just as He has.
"For
God so loved the world..."
Your pastor, Tim.