Ideas for relationship building in your neighborhood this summer

The summer is an incredible time for pouring ourselves out relationally in our neighborhoods. Kids are out of school. Evenings are long. The weather at the lake is spectacular. Let's not lose the summer's potential for kingdom building in a narcissistic pursuit of our own individualized pleasure. It is simply not about us. Look outward and upward. Who is God calling us to "inconvenience" ourselves for this summer?

(Why we see pursuing relationships with others as an "inconvenience" in the first place is pretty revelatory in regards to how little we understand about God's heart and our role in His grand plan for restoration and redemption. It could be a whole seminar in itself, mainly including multiple confessions on my part of just how poorly I do this kind of stuff.)

Fire up the grill

Who doesn’t love the smell of meat on the grill? Susie and I once roasted a whole pig in our back yard in Bluff Park and around 60 people showed up. Now you certainly don’t have to go that big, several chicken breasts will do the job nicely. The point is not really even the food, but rather the relationships. Some of our closest friends in our neighborhood were met because we threw a back yard get together last October. And don’t fall into the trap of thinking you have to “save somebody” in one evening. Again, the assumption is that we will be honoring our neighbors and new friends by valuing them as image bearers of the King as they are. Unless we love others well, they will never hear anything else we say, nor should they.

Plan a “MO” schedule

What is a “MO” schedule? Basically it is a scheduled mom’s outing. A schedule is set, once a week or so. This Tuesday we go to the zoo. Two weeks from now we go to the McWayne Center. Two weeks after that we have a park play-date. And so forth and so on. The schedule can vary depending the other moms in your neighborhood and their interests. What mom with a house full of “fresh out of school for the summer” kids wouldn’t like to get out of the house with a few other moms for some contained chaos? Again, the goal is to build relationships. Use your children’s class list for school, dance class, soccer team, etc. Invite other parents you don’t know well.

Block Party

Kind of along the lines of a grill out, but get multiple neighbors involved with the planning stage. 5 or 6 families on a street getting together can draw a lot of attention. Pay attention to people. The guy you meet that lives three doors down may be your golf partner next weekend. You might find out you have more in common than you think. All in the context of getting outside of the evangelical “bubble” and getting to know people so that next weekend on the golf course or next year when a child is rebelling or three years from now when a prostate exam comes back iffy, there is a relational context of love and grace in which the gospel can take root and grow.

Campout

Dad’s in the woods with kids. Nothing says “intimacy” to a guy better than semi-charred iron skillet bacon and eggs and ash coated toast.

Use vacations wisely

Invite a non-christian couple to vacation together. Okay, I admit this may be sticky. But what area of life isn’t? Allow wisdom and the Spirit to lead, but do not blindly assume that the Holy Spirit wants us to spend time only in “safe” enclaves with other Christians. What better venue to teach our children how to live in relationship with non-christians than an extended stay vacation. (And what better way for a non-christian family to observe differences in parenting, marital communication and general philosophy of life than in this same environment.)