Growing Young: Be a Great Neighbor


Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) explores the boundaries of love.  A lawyer quoted the Levitical command (Lev. 19:18) that we should love our neighbors.  When Jesus told him he should do that, the lawyer asked the important question, "And who is my neighbor?"  

It was a way of asking, "Whom am I supposed to love?"

Jesus responded by telling the story of the Good Samaritan.  Afterward, he asked the lawyer, "Who was a neighbor to the man who fell among robbers?"  Jesus flipped the question around, and moved neighborliness from static to active!

One of the core commitments of churches that grow young is that they strive to be great neighbors in their communities.  They know their communities and seek to be Christ's hands and feet in them.  They know their surrounding cultures, but don't fear them.  Instead, they seek to know them.  They acknowledge the good and bad in them.

If churches want to grow young, they need to see being a neighbor as an active responsibility.  They need to preach the good news of Christ, but they also need to serve their communities.

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