Front Yard Mission: How to take small steps to be more inviting
I’ve been leading a neighboring initiative at my church called “Front Yard Mission.” Loving our neighbors is always super important (according to Jesus), but it’s only become more important to love our neighbors well during COVID-19.
Few small steps seem bigger than inviting our neighbors into our lives. “Invite Often” is one of our axioms in Front Yard Mission. But whether it’s an invite to our backyard, or to church, or to receive Christ, fear can quickly creep in.
In talking with a lot of people about their Front Yard Missions, I’ve heard many of us express a variety of fears when it comes to speaking with neighbors about faith-related stuff. There’s the fear:
a) That they’ll be offended
b) That they’ll reject me
c) That I’ll do a bad job explaining it
d) That our relationship will be harmed
Those are the things that I hear most often.
How about you?
Do you feel those? Maybe something else?
Or maybe you’re just fearless! If so, then bottle that and share it with the rest of us!
But if any of that describes you, congratulations, you are human! It’s normal to feel any of those things. But don’t let that stop you! You can overcome your fears related to the Invitation part of Front Yard Mission.
The best ways are to 1) Pray First, and 2) Love All. The first two axioms of Front Yard Mission. But I want to suggest to you one additional way, that we can take action even today, and that’s taking one small step at a time.
Let me tell you a story. It’s a story of small, simple steps.
Not knowing how to reach out during COVID is definitely an issue. We’re literally social distancing; how do we get close to our neighbors? Here’s how Kristin Reece (director of Third Place) told me how she overcame that: “We had a new neighbor move in two doors down from us. Kevin wasn’t sure if I should make baked goods because of COVID, so I brought over a sparkling water and a dark chocolate Kashi bar. Turns out we have the same name spelled differently, and she has a dog. My daughter loves dogs, and we enjoy talking to our new neighbor, Kristen, when we see her outside just about every day!”
I love that! That’s a simple solution leading now to almost daily conversations! Way to go Kristin!
You’ve heard “Go big or go home!” But with Front Yard Mission, that really just isn’t true! God is at work in our “small beginnings.” He says in Zechariah 4:10: “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin…” Those small beginnings, those simple steps add up to something eternally significant.
There are 3 types of invitations in Front Yard Mission: 1) inviting neighbors into our lives, 2) inviting people to church (online too), and 3) inviting them to receive Christ.
So how do we do that? If you’re interested, we’ve shared a lot more on all this at Front Yard Mission HQ, which you can access by texting “FYM” to 814–228–5007.
But for now, what are some small steps to getting started? You want to invite your neighbors into your life?
- share food with them
- instead of running into the garage, stop and talk about your day, ask them about their day
- offer to help with an errand
- invite them to attend church online.
- send a link about the service
- heck, do a backyard watch party! Socially distanced of course.
- talk about your own faith story. Not the whole thing right off the bat — just talk about how Jesus has helped you over the last several months! People have hit the wall, they are stressed, they are exhausted. They will want to know what has helped you, and how that works.
You can do this! The best step you can take in inviting is the next one.
What one simple, small beginning can you do this week?
So here’s an invitation to you: Make one of those invitations to someone on your hashtag this coming week. Take a small, simple step of obedience, and trust God to use it for your neighbors’ good!
