Inhabit Conference, Seattle 2011

So you went to Seattle, huh. Why did you go? Did you get anything out of it?

Question 1: Why did I go? Well, I first learned about the conference from our folks at the Church Extension back in Feburary. Those are the folks with whom we have our loan on the building. When they worked with us to refinance, they wanted to know what was our mission. They encouraged us to have a mission. This conference was about what it means to be a missional church. Since I'm trying to figure out how to help us become a missional church, I thought we might benefit from it.

Question 2: Did you get anything out of it? I would say that the main thing I got from it was encouragement. What I experienced is that a lot of churches are trying to figure out what God is doing in their neighborhoods and trying to join God in what God is already doing. So all of us are struggling. Doesn't that make you feel better? Me, either. The encouragement came in that we are all seemingly asking the same questions and looking in the same direction. This says to me that the Spirit is moving among us breaking boundaries the same way the Spirit broke boundaries in the 1st century church. The result of the Spirit working in and among the people of God was then and is now . . . confusion.

As I listened to speakers and participants I discovered that folks where trying to listen to God to what God was saying to see how they could serve the folks in their neighborhood. They first did this by listening to the folks in their neighoborhoods or perhaps they would observe things in their neighborhood that made them sad or upset and talked to and listened to other neighbors to see who else felt the same way and wanted to do something about it.

One woman, who lives in South Bronx moved back into her old neighborhood and notice an abandoned industrial site that was just plain ugly and dirty. She went to work talking to and listening to folks talk about what they wanted for their neighborhood. Working with her neighbors they were able to get a grant and transformed that once ugly site into a beautiful park for the neighborhood.

No, this wasn't Wonder Woman spearheading this work. It was just a ordinary women that became concerned and instead of sitting at home being comfortable, she decided to take a risk and do something about it.

The implication for us who heard this story is, what is God pressing upon your heart and what are you going to do about it?

I heard a number of folks, at least one speaker and several participants, talking about the value of doing a community garden. The garden provided them a place where they could get to know their neighbors. They could hear their stories of struggle and victory and see what God was up to in their neighbors lives.

Last summer I started grilling in my driveway. I did this to get to know my neighbors and to see what God was up to. While I was gone, my new next door neighbor had a baby, their first. I learned last week from the Dad that they had been trying to have a baby for 13 years! And surprise last fall (before they moved in next door to us) she found out she was pregnant. This is truly a miracle baby! When the baby was born it had a couple of issues. One was a slash in the top of her head. They believe this came about because her head was attached to the uterine wall. Also, the baby has a flap of skin on its head about an inch wide and 4 or 5 inches long. In six months they will do plastic surgery to correct this. Also, the Dad who had been unemployed for several months got a job about the time the baby was born. God is surely at work in their lives.

In the last 8 months our neighborhood has 3 new families to join it. My neighbor and I are talking about throwing a welcome to the neighborhood party this summer. So please pray that the rainy season will move along. We want to grill in my driveway!

So what's God up to in your neighborhood? Do you know your neighbors? Is there a way you could get to know them better?

Shalom!
Pastor John