3 Easy Ways to Reach Out to Your Neighbors
I would guess if you are reading this post that you either live in an apartment or neighborhood. That means there are dozens of individuals, couples, & families who live incredibly close to you. How are you striving to get to know your neighbors better for the purpose of sharing the Gospel with them? Getting to know your neighbors can be intimidating, which is why in this post I want to go through 3 easy ways to reach out to your neighbors.
You will rarely get a good opportunity to share God’s truth with your neighbors if you don’t know them, hardly talk to them, or don’t sacrifice some of your time & open up your home for them to get to know you. The things I recommend in this post are easy in the sense that they are straightforward. You could do any or all of them today or tomorrow without needing some sort of fancy plan. But they are hard because they require valuing outreach to those around you more than you value personal time and personal space.
With that said, here are some of the most practical ways to reach out to your neighbors that I have found.
1. Invite them over for dinner
Of all the ways to reach out to your neighbors, this one is essential. There is no way around it: if you really want to get to know someone you leave close to, you are going to have to invite them over for dinner. Don’t expect to have too many deep conversations with your neighbors until you have made the first step of opening up your home. A dinner invitation is not only a necessary first step: it is also a perfect foundation for a continuing relationship with your neighbors moving forward. Your neighbors will remember the tangible, visible love you showed them by initiating and scheduling a time to get to know them.
The first dinner is the hardest, but after you actually get it on the schedule and commit to it, you’ll leave that dinner knowing your neighbors so much more than you did before. Dinner will break the ice and make both parties are more comfortable in future interactions in conversations. Not only that, but you will get a chance to clearly communicate to your neighbors that you are a Christian through blessing the food and dinner conversation. But the key here is you must initiate. Don’t wait around for your neighbors to invite you to dinner. Take the first step, as awkward as you may feel. After the first dinner, you will find it easier to extend dinner invitations in the future.
2. Leave them a baked good (and perhaps a note)
A Christian can turn baking into an indispensable tool for outreach. The simple act of sharing a delicious bread, cake, or cookie with another person is a thoughtful gesture which causes people drop their guards. I have known people who have started entire relationships by knocking on people’s doors and leaving giving them a set of cookies they have made. If going door to door is not your style, maybe leave a note with the baked goods introducing yourself.
This way to reach out to your neighbors also works after you have already had a dinner with them. Baking something has a lower time commitment then hosting a meal and it still shows that you are thinking about your neighbors. Leave a Gospel tract with a note explaining why Jesus is so important to you with your baked goods. Or write a personal note telling them how much you enjoyed your last dinner together. The possibilities (and opportunities) are endless.
Next time you are baking anything for your family, why not double the recipe and make an outreach opportunity for yourself? There are very few things people appreciate more than home-baked goods; leverage them for your neighbors’ spiritual good.
3. Invite them to join you during normal things
You perform dozens of tasks each which alone which you could easily do with a neighbor. To put another way, turn ordinary things you do throughout the week from a solitary tasks to an evangelistic opportunities. Here are just a few ideas of things you can invite another person to participate in:
- Working out
- Grocery shopping
- Evening walks
- Yard work
- Cooking dinner (as an added bonus, you can then invite your neighbor to dinner)
What is keeping you from inviting your neighbors to participate in these activities? Most of the time it is either a personal preference (“I’d rather do these things alone”) or a cultural bias (“No one I know invites other people to do these things with them”). But if you honestly want to reach out to your neighbors, you are going to have to shift your mindset from “my home or my time after work is for me and my family only” to “my home and time are tools God has given me to use for the advancing of His kingdom.”
There are prime opportunities for outreach each week that you don’t even realize. Next time you are planning your weekly activities, go through your list and ask of each task “could I invite someone else to do this with me?” As I have written about before, you should have a list of potential people to invite to cycle through. That way if someone turns you down, you can invite someone else.
Conclusion
Reaching out to your neighbors can be scary at first. But you don’t need some grand gesture to initiate a relationship with those around you. These three ways to reach out to your neighbors are not complicated or difficult but they are some of the best ways to develop a relationship with the people who live closest to you.
It is only through opening up the home God gave you and investing the time God has allotted to you into the lives of others that you can start getting to know your neighbors. And by getting to know your neighbors you are creating opportunities so share the Gospel with them and to show them Christ’s steadfast love.
If you are interested in becoming better at hospitality, read other posts on my page “Practicing Hospitality.” Share this post on social media below if you found it helpful and subscribe so you don’t miss future posts. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram to get more content.