God is waiting for us to spend time with people who don’t know Him, Clare Jewell writes in his Fall 2022 Baptist Bulletin article “Do the Truth.” Clare is director of Generate, the church funding and equipping arm of the GARBC.

“As Christ followers, we need to move our Biblical convictions from . . . our churches to our neighborhoods,” Clare says. “Maybe it’s time to stop inviting people only to your church and invite them into your home.”

“Maybe it’s time to stop inviting people only to your church and invite them into your home.” —Clare Jewell

Not sure where to start when it comes to inviting people into your home? It simply starts with “hello,” says Shannan Martin in her book Start with Hello (and Other Simple Ways to Live as Neighbors)*, released Oct. 11 by Revell.

Shannan calls herself an introvert who is “emotionally allergic to small talk.” Read how she met people in her neighborhood and learned how to be a good neighbor. “There is no step too small,” she says.

To dive deeper into the topic of inviting people into your home and connecting with others, read

Engage: Influencing Your World Like Jesus by Jeannie Vogel,

Faces of Friendship: Growing Relationships God’s Way by Debi Pryde,

Loving Your Community* by Steve Viars, and

The Simplest Way to Change the World: Biblical Hospitality as a Way of Life by Dustin Willis and Brandon Clements.

“Since people will sooner enter a living room than a church, hospitality is a natural and effective way to build relationships for Christ,” say Dustin Willis and Brandon Clements in The Simplest Way to Change the World.

Jeannie Vogel says in Engage, “As society has become increasingly impersonal, we have learned to simply ignore those around us if they are not already in our circle of friends or family.”

She adds, “There is no impact without contact! If we want to make a difference in the world, we must force ourselves to engage in new relationships. . . .

“I wonder how Jesus would have reacted to the people in my world. Would He wave impersonally to the mail carrier or get to know that person’s name and needs? Would He glibly ask people, ‘How are you doing today?’ Or would He stop to find out?”

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