Moving into the neighborhood!

I want to follow up to a comment I posted on Mars Hill.

OK, how do you move into a neighborhood. Do you move quietly in, stay to yourself, hope people approach you so that you can tell them your name, what you do for a living and that you are a good person, hoping also that they then open their lives up to you so that you can pour into them all of your great knowledge about life and liberty and pursuit of God? Or do you go to your neighbors doors and introduce yourself, maybe taking THEM some cookies, just letting them know you moved into the neighborhood and that you believe in watching out for each other, helping each other, loving each other?

I don't know, maybe you do a little of both, but I know I am trying to figure out ways to engage my neighbors in new ways. Not in gimmicky ways, or in weird ways, but in ways that may make an impact in their lives. We cannot expect the people in our lives to just come to us and say, I'm screwed up, lead me to Jesus, please. Why does the church do this, then? The church, at least in the western world, has traditionally been a place where you went when you were ready to find God, like he was all hunched over, stuffed inside this building, waiting for you to come. The churches have made it that way, fashioned it that way to some degree, some by accident, and some on purpose probably.

What if instead the church was you and I living among the people who are hurting, the down-and-outers, the depressed, the confused, and instead of saying "come to me, I have what you need" we would say, you know what, I see you are hurting, how can I help...... then.... help! What if we went out (like Christ) and found the people who were the "worst of these", and just loved on them. Built a relationship with these people. Took an interest in them outside of their ability to help us further our vision, or our "organization". If, as Christ-followers, we practiced what Jesus practiced, the body of Christ would be a lot more like Christ intended. Instead we decided somewhere along the way, that Jesus was going to setup shop, pulling off the latest, greatest tricks in order to pull people in by the millions.

Jesus had the latest greatest tricks (miracles) of anyone in His day, but did he do that then? Then why do we think he wants us to do it for him. Do we really think that Jesus would setup shop in an abandoned arena and turn it into a 72 million dollar church?

OK, I know, I'm going a little off path again, which I do quite often. I'm getting tired and I'm getting a little perturbed as I write, so I'm going to end now and maybe pick it back up again in a few days. In the meantime, let me know your thoughts. I'd love to hear from you.