Welcome to the Monday Morning Rewind on Tuesday morning!  Sherry and I could use some prayers.  I spent the rest of Sunday in bed even missing our small group Super Bowl party.  Sounds like I didn’t miss much!  Monday was pretty much the same.  Now I think Sherry has whatever I have after caring for me.

In Sunday’s teaching I shared some thoughts by author Jim Ramos on being a witness in your neighborhood, how that is the most likely place to start.  He said your witness is made or dismayed in your front yard.  On Friday and Saturday I had a few things pop up on my news feeds or social media about people observing our lives.  Here is one:

A man and his family – wife and three children – were having breakfast at a café.  The man had been playing a dot game with his kids while they waited for breakfast.  When he asked for the check, the waitress gave him the receipt for a meal already paid for – $85.  On the back was a handwritten note that said “Thank you for being the dad they need you to be regardless of who’s watching

People are watching even if you don’t notice it.  

Here is another:

A man was driving through his neighborhood when he noticed a cedar privacy fence down.  He decided to stop and ask about it.  The home was owned by a single mom with one son. The mom’s mom answered the door and shared the story. The young mom had lost her husband 3 years ago.  A couple of months ago she had been in a serious car wreck totaling her car and suffering some injuries. The older mom said her daughter had been trying to get it fixed but all the estimates came in at $6000 or more.  The man was back at the house the next day rebuilding her fence at his expense, a cost of about $2000. The man said “he has always been passionate about making a difference in his community.”

He also said little acts of kindness start a ripple effect.

You don’t have to spend $85 or $2000 but what little thing can you do in your neighborhood to start a ripple effect?  As you learn about your neighbors, think about one little thing that might mean a lot to them.  Can you bake? Bake them their favorite cookie, take it over and tell them you were thinking about them and is there anything you can pray about for them?  Can you mow?  Or it might be something as simple as picking up some fallen tree limbs in somebody’s yard or taking their grass clippings or leaves to the yard waste sight.  Can you write?  Send them a handwritten note letting them know that you noticed them doing something good for someone else.  They may not have done it expecting any recognition but they will still enjoy your kind words.  It will require you be intentional…don’t you hate it when I use that word!

How is your life living out in your front yard?

Rick Neubauer

But you man of God, flee from all of this and pursue righteousness, godliness,  faith, love, endurance and gentleness.  I Timothy 6:11

Good Monday morning!

It is going to be a beautiful day “in the neighborhood.”  Enjoy it because tomorrow it’s back to 39 degrees. That’s a lot like life isn’t it?  Good followed by some bad?

I am continuing to dig in and look at how we can become better known within this neighborhood.  I am meeting this afternoon with the young man who wondered in to our church yesterday and then asked for prayers during our prayer time.  He said he was in a dark place.  I am going to go out on a limb and say that a good portion of what is going on is that he lacks real connection to someone or something that is meaningful.  I will let you know.

If loneliness is the issue, he is not alone.  According to a Harvard Graduate School of Education report, there is what is being called an epidemic of loneliness in our country:

• People between 30-44 years of age were the loneliest group — 29% of people in this age range said they were “frequently” or “always” lonely
• Among 18–29 year-olds the rate was 24%
• For 45–64 year-olds, the rate was 20%
• Adults aged 65 and older reported the lowest rate: 10% felt lonely

Those are astounding numbers given the amount of “social technology” that is being used.  The problem is, there are a lot of acquaintances being made, a lot of influencers being followed but there are very few relationships being made.  I mean, real “ginosko” kinds of relationships.  Ginosko means “to know”.  It can also mean “to learn to know” or “come to know.”  This is an experiential knowledge gained through doing life together.  Kind of like learning about your neighbor.  It is knowing their hopes and dreams, what motivates them, what is hurting them and what life is like for them.

Carey Nieuwhof is a pastor, an author and speaker who focuses on helping churches make a greater impact in their communities.   Here are a few quotes I have picked up in my reading lately from Carey that should help us to see that “being a loving neighbor” is a good thing.

When the church becomes a club or already-convinced insiders, then the church has lost its mission.  (Club could also be construed as holy-huddle! P.R.)

This isn’t ‘church growth for the sake of church growth.’  If that’s all it is, it will fail. Churches that just want to grow to prop up the institution, pad their numbers or simply want “a story to tell” miss the point. (We shouldn’t be interested in building an MABC kingdom but helping to build “the Kingdom.” P.R.)

And finally…If God’s love truly compels us to reach out to the world, if we genuinely care about our neighbors who are not like us, and if we truly decide to love our enemies, the world might come running.  But right now, the church is spectacularly easy to ignore or dismiss. (Ouch! P.R)

Please be in prayer about how we might reach “our neighbors,” neighbors like the young man who was wandering the street yesterday and saw that worship began at 10:30 am.  It was 10:15 am and he thought…might as well go in.  Thank you to those who took the time to speak to him.

It made him feel valued. ( L.O.Valued E..)  

Pastor Rick

I have been rehashing yesterday’s message in my mind thinking about the disciples’ ministry in their “neighborhood.  Acts chapter 2 says they shared with those in need, worshipped together, shared their meals and enjoyed the good will of all the people.   And each day it says that the Lord added to their number.  In Acts 5 we find them all together again and the people held them in high regard.  They were reluctant to join the disciples as followers but…yet more and more people believed and joined the “crowd” so to speak.

What is it that the neighborhood around MABC needs?  What needs do we as a church need to meet in order that our neighbors know that we love them?  It would be interesting to see how many of you who attend MABC actually live in the neighborhood boundaries.  The Delano District’s boundaries are Meridian Ave on the west, the river to the north and the east and then Kellogg to the south.  How many of us in the Sunday morning crowd live within that 1.6 square miles?   I don’t ask that to be mean.  My point is that we have to work that much harder to be a “neighborhood” church when we aren’t in the neighborhood!   We really have to be intentional in what we want to see take place.

I have been looking at demographics this morning trying to get a picture of the neighborhood.  In terms of age, the greatest population group looks to be 20-30 year olds followed by a smaller group of 35-45 year olds.  The population appears to be 60% male to 40% female.  Therein lies a little bit of a struggle for us as MABC.  The neighborhood has an extremely small population of people from 65 on up whereas we are heavy in that age group.  Again, not a bad thing but not representative of the neighborhood makeup.  And, we are probably 60% female and 40% male.  Again, not saying that is a bad thing but we do not look like our neighborhood.

We need to do some soul searching and pray for wisdom and guidance as to where we focus our energies in the future.  I have always been a “let’s get the kids and mom and dad will follow” kind of guy.  However, when we look at our neighborhood, only a quarter of the residents are married couple families.  And out of those couples, only half of them have children.  The average household size in the District is 2.5 people.  That tells me there isn’t a lot of children in our neighborhood.  Does that mean we don’t do children and youth?  No, it means that we shouldn’t expect high numbers at this time.  We take care of the kids we have been given.  On Monday night, our Awana numbers will consist mainly of grandkids of members and those grandkids don’t live in our neighborhood.  Grandma is bringing them.  I love them to death and I try to bring my grands when they don’t have anything else to do.  There just aren’t many in our neighborhood.

Would you please be in serious prayer about what God is asking us to do? He has placed us here in the Delano District and there has to be a reason for us to still be doing ministry after nearly 100 years.  I recently read that there is 3 church closures in the US for every church plant.  We aren’t in that statistic and I don’t believe we will be if we are earnestly seeking God’s will for MABC here in this neighborhood. Not our will but his.

Have a great week!  Be blessed but by all means, be a blessing to a neighbor in some way.

P.R.

Brrrr…Good (?) Monday Morning,

If you are out and about this morning bundle up and be safe on the roads.  I will not be in the office this morning but will be in for an extended period tomorrow and then back in town for the Centennial Anniversary meeting Wednesday night.

Being a good neighbor is our focus right now just in case you seemed to have missed it.   Sherry and I were having a cup of coffee this morning discussing an offer on our house in Augusta as she opened her YouVersion Bible app. She said maybe you are on to something. Listen to the verse of the day…

Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.     Rom 12:10

In this verse, love is the philia or brotherly love the Bible speaks of and that fits well with the honoring part of the verse.  If you recall yesterday’s message, philia is based on mutual respect and admiration for one another.  The Greek for honoring here means the price of something or to value.  In other words, we are to value one another for what each of us brings to the table.  Everyone has something of worth to offer…EVERYONE!  As a loving neighbor, we should make it our mission to discover just what that is in those we are called to love.  This covers the L and the V in our L.O.V.E acrostic from yesterday – Learn and Value.  Is it going to be difficult to learn these things and value others? Yes!  That is why Jesus commanded it and not just merely suggested it.

In a Harvard study released last October, 1 in 5 Americans reported feeling lonely.  This is amazing to me considering all the technology we have designed for social connectedness.   Of those who reported being lonely 81% said the experienced anxiety or depression, felt like they had no purpose in life and that their place in the world was not important.  In addition, 67% felt like they were not part of a meaningful group and 61% said they lacked close friends or family.

Here were some of the key recommendations to overcoming the problem:

1.  Promote a culture of care and service.   I wonder why “one another” is mentioned approximately 100 times in the Bible. If we do the “one anothers” in the Bible we could move this along.

2.  Take time to reach out to friends and family.  I would include take time to reach out to your neighbors.

One more solution was to create more community activities for your neighbors.  We mentioned that yesterday as well.  The MABC Leadership team has been discussing the idea of trying to do a community activity at least once a quarter in this new year.

There are no easy solutions.  We will all – young, old and in-between – need to play a part in this. Start today.  Reach out to a neighbor and check on them.  The weather, as much as we hate it, gives you ample reason to check in…”How are you doing in this cold weather?”

Pastor Rick

Good Monday morning,

It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor.
Would you be mine? Could you be mine?

I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you.
I’ve always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.

Recognize those lyrics to a television show theme song?  Yep, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” from the Mr. Rogers Show. Statistics show that these words ring more true today than ever.

In a U.S. News & World Report from a year ago, it was reported that about one in three U.S. adults said they feel lonely at least once a week. Even worse, the report said was that one in 10 Americans say they feel lonely every day.  The article went on to say that younger people are more likely to experience loneliness, which is defined as a lack of meaningful or close relationships or sense of belonging, according to the American Psychiatric Association’s latest Healthy Minds Monthly Poll.  About 30% of those surveyed between the ages 18 to 34 said they feel lonely every day or several times a week.  A CDC report from May of 2024 on mental health found that about 1 in 3 U.S. adults reported feeling lonely and 1 in 4 reported not having social and emotional support.

I also found some information on how people battle loneliness and of course things like watching a TV show, turning to alcohol and/or drugs or using social media helped.  Feeling connected and belonging help the most and those surveyed said that their greatest sense of community comes from being among family, friends, and neighbors.  Loving your neighbor is one way to help ease the epidemic of loneliness in our country.  And in doing so, it is my hope that we introduce our neighbors to Jesus.  Our world needs Jesus, our city needs Jesus and our neighbors need Jesus.  Let me leave you with this thought for the week:  It is no accident you live where you live!

In his great wisdom, God ordained that you should live where you live and who you were going to be neighbors with.   He knew that loving your neighbors was important thousands of years ago and how much more important it would be now.  Over the course of the week I will share more information about being a good neighbor on our Facebook page.  Start today though by thinking about those who live near and around you.  What are their names?  What are their stories?  What might they be going through that having a good neighbor might be a comfort? Can you identify one neighbor who might need and extra “boost” of love this week?

Be intentional.  Have a great week!
P.R.