One way to make friends in your neighborhood

Emily and I have lived in our subdivision in Knoxville for almost 2 months. And we've been struggling pretty much that whole time with figuring out some good ways to meet the neighbors immediately around us. It seems that no matter where you live, people are just very busy these days, and also very private about their home lives. It's not as easy as it used to be to meet your neighbors.

We want to make some friends, and also just establish ourselves as kind and positive additions to our community. We want to do this just as "regular" people, not as a pastor and his wife or church planters. We don't want to have any agenda when meeting our neighbors right now, although in the future we hope to have the opportunity to talk with them about God.

Well, Emily had an idea that turned out to be great! She baked about 100 chocolate chip cookies (of course, I got some!) and then wrapped them up in six different packages. Then, she made a greeting card with our name, address and phone number on it for each package. From there, we just went door-to-door and gave the cookie packages and cards to our neighbors! It's kind of like a reverse housewarming gift... And it worked!

Last night, we finished giving the cookie packages to the neighbors who weren't at home on Saturday. When we went outside again several hours later to take a walk around the neighborhood, our neighbor across the street stopped us and told him how much the gift meant to him. He is a widower and lonely. He probably bent our ear for 15 or 20 minutes, telling us about his situation. It's sad that he's lonely, but the good thing is that he knows we care. It was an awesome interaction, because at the end he perked up and told us if we ever needed anything we should just ask. A great connection was made!

We also met a neighbor who just had a baby in March, and a guy with a teenage daughter. There are all kinds of ages in our neighborhood, and now we actually have exchanged names with them.

Finally, we gave some cookies to a neighbor who lost his father last week. This guy's father happens to be an old family friend of Emily's parents, and by happenstance he lives in our subdivision. When we walked up to him, he was actually going through some of his father's stuff. He was visibly upset, but the cookies put a smile on his face, at least for a little bit. We had the opportunity to talk to him about his father and show we care.

So, if you're wondering about how to meet those neighbors and start representing Christ to them (after all, every church planter should be a good neighbor first!) may I suggest chocolate chip cookies? You may be surprised at how well they break down barriers!

Some Interesting Ideas from a Preview Service

Emily and I went to Evansville, Indiana this weekend to help our friends Trey and Kitten McClain with the first preview service for their church, Discovery Church. I wasn't sure what to expect, since I'd never been to one before (and I hope to have my own in a few months, so it was good for us to be there!)

We had a great time visiting with Trey and Kitten and their two girls, Alyssa and Morgan. They are sweet kids. Morgan is 7 months old (the pic is from February, so don't worry) but I know for a fact that she has a massive crush on me! :)

We got some great ideas from Trey and Kitten's preview service. First, you need a bunch of tables. I just sort of realized that while we were there... You always think of sound and video and stuff like that, but tables are important, too, and it would be a real pain to try to borrow them from another church, although I guess you could do that.

Also, you can make cool banner-type signs without spending a ton of money. Just make PVC frames for the banners (you can paint the PVC to color-coordinate with your logo or chosen colors) and zip-tie the banner to the PVC frame through grommets on the edges of the banner. It works great for indoor banners and signs. For outdoors, just make a thicker frame (since the banners are going to be bigger anyway) and then use sandbags or maybe sand in the frames' feet to hold the banner in place if the wind kicks up.

We even learned that Starbucks sometimes gives a great deal on coffee! They comped the first preview service's coffee, pending a weekly deal for coffee. That's cool, and it allows Discovery to have quality beverages to offer the people who check out their worship gathering.