Not so long ago, neighbors generally kept their doors open to one another. Smaller houses seemed less confining, because the more porous divisions between homes – separated not by doors of wood or steel but by “screen doors” – encouraged socializing with neighbors.
An essential ingredient in community formation is dying out: the strong relational ties that are built when we let our guard down with each other, when we claim common space as an appropriate forum for conversation, play, and eating.
I used to think hospitality was a lost art. Now I’m convinced it is a lost heart.

Len Sweet, From Tablet to Table

Here are some more helps in learning to build bridges with hospitality – from your home to your neighbors.

These bridges are the next step in the ongoing shift in thought from a facility-focused ministry (church as a place) to one based in people’s homes (church as the body of Christ BEING the church).

Think of it as shifting:

• From a buildings to your block
• From a campus to your cul-de-sac
• From in-person to in-the-neighborhood

Why not BE the church in your neighborhood TODAY, instead of BRINGING your neighbors to church?

Here is a link to the webinar recording I did entitled How to Help You Live SENT in the Place You Call Home. 

You will learn about the spaces, places, and graces that will help you become bridge builders to your neighbors. I unpacked those three words with ideas, examples, and tools to help you BE the church where you live.

Even though recorded at the height of the pandemic in the summer of 2020, the webinar concepts are valid and needed just as much today.

Here are some next steps from the content covered in the webinar:

> Download a blank Spaces/Places/Graces Listening Guide PDF

> Download a brief synopsis of the key slides used

> Recommended Books Referenced:

   Primary

• The Search to Belong, Joseph R. Myers
• Love Where You Live, Shauna Pilgreen
• The Neighboring Church, Rick Rusaw and Brian Mavis

   Other Good Resources

• The Hidden Dimension, by Edward T. Hall
• The Ministry of Ordinary Places, by Shannan Martin
• Loving My Actual Neighbor, Alexandra Kuykendall
• From Tablet to Table, Len Sweet
• Everybody Always, Bob Goff

As discussed on the webinar, the ideas and resources we talked about are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Building Bridges to Your Neighbors. You can find many more by searching on this site using the key words “First Place Hospitality.”

For an essential First Place Hospitality library, check out this page.

---