a glimpse towards Sunday 6.27.14

We recently moved into a neighborhood that we absolutely adore. People take care of each other. They grab your mail while you are out of town, they call when you forget to put down the garage door, they have impromptu dinners, camp fires, romps on the trampoline, car washes, and slumber parties for the kids. They do things that happen in a Norman Rockwell painting.

It’s how I remember my neighbors when I was growing up. We found it. We found a neighborhood that feels like 1970 something… (minus the yard darts.)

However conventional my geographic neighborhood seems to be, I’d like to think that I am neighbors with lots of other people as well. I want to be neighbors with the kids and teachers at Argyle Elementary School, where I spend at least every Tuesday during the school year making friends and teaching reading. I want to be neighbors with the friends I made in Kenya, because of Jesus. Because we are connected to the same vine, I consider us neighbors. I want to be neighbors with the people who work with my husband because we believe we have great influence into the lives of our coworkers. I want to be neighbors with people I might not know yet, who need me to be brave, loving, and open to be their neighbor. But being someone’s neighbor is so much more than a cup of sugar or a campfire. Jesus said, “love your neighbor as yourself.”

That is where the rubber hits the road, my good friends. That is where the wheat is separated from the chaff, where the weak retreat and strong advance, where Jesus draws the defining line. Treat your neighbors (the kids at Argyle, the folks in Kenya, the difficult coworker, the hard to love) as you treat yourself. And let’s be honest, we treat ourselves right.

This Sunday we will begin a 3 week teaching series on Dignity Serves with Dan Crane. We will delve deep into neighbors, Jesus, loving people, and loving God. What does that look like for the church? Why does it need to look like that? What is our calling? What is our mission?

Bring a friend on Sunday and allow the scriptures from Luke 10 to transform the way you think about who you call your neighbor!

Greetings!

Jen Overly

Weekly Giving | 06/22/2014

$48,032.58

Weekly Need $29,000.00