We'll help you do your block!
Welcome to the 2007 "Love Your Neighbourhood" Campaign sponsored by Mitchelton Presbyterian Church. Jesus said his followers should "love their neighbours" - but sometimes we forget to put that into practice. Through 2007 we're going to encourage the members of our church family to make a splash around the streets of Brisbane by serving, partying, and building community in practical ways.
Just think - with 300 families represented in our church, that's a lot of neighbourhoods to love!
The events will culminate with "Love Your Neighbourhood Services" at MPC-Central and Eatons Hill later in the year. Here are some of the key events we'll be organising:
a) Serve Your Neighbours - FEBRUARY CHALLENGE
What would your nearest neighbours think if you offered to mow their lawns - just because you want to serve them? We'll pre-print a bunch of "Love Your Neighbourhood" cards explaining that we're running a campaign right around the northside, just because we want to "love our neighbours."
b) Meet Your Street - APRIL CHALLENGE
Organise a street party in your own backyard. We'll provide pre-printed invitations and ideas - you provide the venue, and the meat for a BBQ. Make sure you invite the neighbours that you never got around to meeting...
c) Take the Cake - JUNE CHALLENGE
Why not bake a batch of cakes or biscuits and deliver them to your neighbourhood... all tagged with an MPC "Love Your Neighbourhood" card. It's just a small act of kindness - just like neighbours used to do in the old days. We want to rebuild community in the suburbs of Brisbane.
d) Love Your Neighbourhood Service - SEPTEMBER CHALLENGE
We're going to celebrate the "Love Your Neighbourhood" campaign with services at MPC Central and Eatons Hill. Letter box drop your block with personalised invitations to a friendly, sparkling service that will reflect the good things about living in community. Phil and Garnet will focus on the words of Jesus in the parable of the Good Samaritan - and investigate where that authentic real neighbourly love comes from. Don't be surprised if your whole street comes along!
4 comments:
Initial thoughts......a bit cheesy?? Here I've brought you these biscuits because my church says we should be good neighbors......???
Had a discussion with Linda Hoadley just last week about this sort of thing - and she made the comment that when she was a non-Christian she would have thought this kind of thing was a cheap stunt....
Still thinking though......at least I know you'll love some sort of comment. Apparently I've contributed quite significantly to the design blog now.....
Stu
I am aware of the cheese factor... but think it can be overcome in a couple of ways.
a) people don't think the idea of "community" is corny. They like it.
b) That's why it's love your neighbourHOOD and not 'love your NEIGHBOUR.' I think it's an important distinction... and 'safer'.
A lot will be in the wording of the print materials we do, and the way we train people to say it. "Our church has challenged everyone to do something for their neighbourhood this year. Come and have a beer at our street party." That could work... don't you think?
Sounding better.....
Stu
The team at Newlife Pressie have been working away at this sort of idea over the past 14 months. Our aim is to simply let genuine acts of kindness to our community be a way to begin building bridges with people that we would never ordinarily interact with. I agree with Andrew, far better to do heaps of regular little servant evangelism touches than one or even a couple of big things. In fact the bigger type ones like our Easter servant outreach only got off the ground and were successful because of the regular little ones like mowing lawns. That's just how it's worked for us. And it also shows the community this is not some sort of one hit wonder, it isn't a cheap stunt, but something the Church does and 'is' because of the gospel. It does want to love and serve. It is part of the gospel 'brand' that you are communicating...
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