As we gear up for our upcoming campaign centered on the theme of Gospel Presence, we want to urge you to do just a few things to prepare yourselves for what we want to do. One of the things we don’t want to do is think of these campaigns as events where we do something, and then declare to ourselves that we are glad that’s over with. We want to learn things about God, the world, and ourselves, such that our lives have been significantly altered on the other side of the campaign.
Most of you live in a setting where you have five neighbors—one on either side of you, one straight across the street, and two that are cattycorner across the street. Five neighbors. What we want to urge you to do is begin praying for all five of them by name. If you don’t know their names, find out—but be sure that you don’t do that in any creepy ways. We want you to be a gospel neighbor, not a stalker.
Begin praying for them by name, and begin praying that God would give you some sort of opening with them. Do not assume what that opening might look like. Just ask for one. And ask that you be surprised by what it is, but not so surprised that you don’t recognize it when it comes.
The point is to get to the gospel, not necessarily to start with the gospel. One of the great questions of Scripture was “who is my neighbor?” As we learn the expansive answer to that question, let us not forget the obvious answer.