By Monica Bowman

I often describe the local partnership coordinator role as helping the saints at Oak Hill Fellowship love our neighbors well. It is such a joy to see the many ways you do that by serving at Solid Rock, contributing in some way to Solanco Neighborhood Ministries, enthusiastically participating in Bible Adventure, rolling up your sleeves to help lower income homeowners make necessary repairs so they safely can stay in their homes, turning out  to help at the parade outreach, spending time praying with and helping people at Coats for All, getting messy (and competitive) at the Holiday Decorating Event, and much more. You all point everyone you encounter in these ways to Jesus.

According to Jesus, loving our neighbors as we would ourselves is our highest priority as an overflow of loving God with everything we are and have. When Jesus says something, we want to be joyfully obedient. You will be hearing about two new ways we can love our neighbors in the coming weeks.

First, you will hear about tools you can use to welcome newcomers into our community with our Love Your Neighbor initiative. When you notice or hear about someone moving into our area, you can confidently meet them, share some helpful facts about our area along with a small gift, and invite them to church. Our goal is, of course, to love our newest neighbors. Our prayer is that these tools will equip you to cultivate deeper conversations with your new neighbors over time. Keep an eye out for homes going up for sale and people moving in, and use our Love Your Neighbor webpage to help us track and support you in engaging them with love.

Second, later this spring, you will hear about an opportunity to love our neighbors by meeting and praying with Good Neighbors’ families. When a Good Neighbors team completes a much-needed repair for a qualifying homeowner, the organization schedules a follow-up with the homeowner. The goal of the brief follow-up visit is to point them to Christ and help them connect to a local church. We are the first church to be invited into this follow-up process. These families are already delighted that a Good Neighbors team has helped them, and they are often eager to connect on a deeper level. What an opportunity to share the Good News with our neighbors! And it only involves a few hours one day a month.

Please begin praying for both of these new ways to get to know and serve our neighbors. Prayerfully consider how you could join one or both endeavors.

Finally, consider offering a few hours a month to serve on Greg Baldwin’s Good Neighbors’ team to make repairs—use your hands to love your neighbors. You do not need to be an expert, just generally handy and willing.