"The Unreached People Group Next Door" by Clyde Zimmerman

The one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him, and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. Well, good morning, everyone. Welcome to Strength to Strength. We're glad to have you on this morning. And we are looking forward to hearing what Clyde Zimmerman has for us. In the introduction, in the announcement for this talk, there's the question that he asks: has the Anabaptist community simply accepted the lost around us as normal and believe that we have to board an airplane to be a missionary? So I think that's a good question for us. And we're looking forward to hearing what Clyde has. I'm talking about practical evangelism. So Brother Clyde is part of the SALT program with Christian Aid Ministries, SALT Microfinance, and he's going to share with us how they use that tool to reach out to people, or we can use that tool to reach out to people around us.

So go ahead, Clyde. Okay, good morning. It's an honor and a privilege to be here with you all this morning and, yeah, look into a topic that I have been on a journey on for the last number of years. I think most of us have heard the term unreached people group, and I think we typically think of a people in some distant land. And this morning, I would like us to consider using this term in a different manner. Our neighbors right where we live, work, play, worship, go to school. And are you a missionary? And if not, why? I had another thought too, is why is God blessing the Anabaptist people?

And that's been a couple of generations now, maybe longer. So is it so I can consume more for myself, or does God have something different in mind? And I'd like to look at this scripture here, which we're very, very familiar with, Matthew 28:19 and 20. "Go therefore, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you." Is it possible that the Anabaptist community has viewed this mandate from Christ too narrowly and has perhaps missed the largest opportunity?

It says go, but what does that mean? Does that mean go out my front door? Does that mean go down the street? Definitely means to go on an airplane, but what about where we are most of the time?

I spend most of my time working with overseas missionaries, but for this morning, I want to draw our attention to the word go in this scripture and think about that word differently. I'd like to look into this topic in five areas.

But before I start in this, I just want to share that I'm on a journey on this and on this topic, and I certainly do not have all the answers. So perhaps we can wrestle with this topic together and see where God is calling us. First, I'd like to look into our country today, a little bit America, could say North America today. Think about the same seed, different delivery. Share a little bit about my personal story and the development of one tool called Salt and Light. And I'd like to look into how we organize ourselves or tend to organize ourselves in Anabaptist church models a little bit. And then who is my neighbor? Scriptures versus our passions.

And where can I start? I'd like to conclude with what can I do? What are some practical things? If I want to have a way of life like this, what are some practical things I could do? So before we get started, I'd like to ask a few questions to get our minds thinking.

Are our neighbors in North America a new unreached people group? And I know that term means that they've never had the gospel or don't have the Bible in their mother tongue. And that's not true for us. We have that. Does a typical young person in your neighborhood know who Jesus is? Think about the boy you see getting on the school bus in the morning or the people in your community at the hardware store, at the car wash, at the laundromat, wherever. Do they know who Jesus is?

And maybe a more sobering question. Has the Anabaptist community simply accepted the lost around us as normal and believed we need to board an airplane to be a missionary? And finally, what would the impact be for our churches if our churches became more intentional about being missionaries as part of our daily lives? Maybe they're hard questions. Are they fair questions?

You can think about that. I'd like to think briefly about adapting to changing conditions in America. The fact is, our country is no longer the same place as our parents and grandparents' day. We live in a post-modern, post-Christian, highly educated world. The Judeo-Christian worldview of the generations of the past is mostly gone.

And what the Bible forbids is now flaunted as right, and millions are medicated to take away the pain. But medication cannot bring peace. We could view the answers to these questions as a negative, but I would like to suggest in some ways we live in a time of tremendous opportunity.

You think about the needs of the people around us. The kingdom of God has answers for all of these challenges.

Now, I'd like to suggest this morning that we need to use the same seed, the gospel, but really think about the delivery method. Perhaps we've forgotten some things have changed. We neglect to consider the change in the seasons and the soil, and we keep delivering the same seed the same way.

Different cultures demand different methods of delivery. I'd like to submit this morning that we haven't done well in recognizing the changes in our culture. Our tracts that we hand out tend to look like we believe they're potential converts from the 1950s from our grandparents and our parents' day. If you think about a farmer, we're going to think about this seed a little bit. It would be a foolish farmer to not think about the seasons and go out and plant beans in the snow. We want to plant the seed of the kingdom, but we must consider the condition of the soil. Let's look at a parable that Jesus gave.

This is a parable of the four soils. We're familiar with it. It's in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. First, the seed is the wayside soil came there and hard-packed soil. The birds came and took it away. It didn't result in any fruit.

Then came the shallow soil, not much depth in the earth. Initial excitement scorched and withers away. And finally, the third, the thorny, cares of this world, deceitfulness of the riches, lust of other things choked the word. It was unfruitful. And then finally, the good soil, the good production.

In all of these, the seed is the same, the word of God or the kingdom of God. The initial conclusion from this parable that Christ gave is just go out and scatter the seed with everyone. Don't receive it. It's their fault. I've done my job.

And I also would want to recognize that the primary message of this parable is not how to evangelize. It's how we receive the word of God. But I think we can learn something from this scripture. And the early church is a beautiful example in the book of Acts. Same message, but they used very different delivery methods for very different audiences. Let's look at those. Acts 2. This is in Peter's day, day of Pentecost. They understood there was one God, monotheism. They were desperate for truth. They understood God's law. They had a foundational view, and they had an inner sense of guilt. They killed Jesus. And they said, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?"

And of course, we know what happened. 3,000 became believers. And it's similar to Philip and the Enoch. Soil was ready, just waiting for good seed. But there's another example in the book of Acts. It comes from Acts 17, entirely different. This was Paul working here. Polytheism, many gods. They had a surface curiosity. And I'd like to submit this morning that there are many seekers in our neighborhoods that are like this. They lack a foundational fear of God. They're ignorant of God's law. They just don't have any fear. Our culture is very similar, yet something is causing them to seek.

Now. And little, if any, guilt, and they're mocking. So that's what happened in Acts 17. Now, notice the difference in how Peter and Paul delivered the seed. Very, very different approaches. All Peter had to do was fill in the gaps. He had to connect their knowledge with reality. Jesus is the Messiah. He began with the scriptures.

Judgment is coming. Repent and be baptized. The soil was tilled and ready. Same with Philip and the Enoch. Instant germination. All happened in one day. We wonder, why isn't it like this today? Why? It's hard today. But for Paul in Acts 17, it was much more difficult.

Now, Paul had to remove obstructions. He had to till the soil. He had to prepare it. And you know what? Paul began with their gods. He had knowledge of their poets. He was praising Zeus. Can you imagine trying to reach out to a Mormon and say, "Joseph Smith even said." Do you even know what Joseph Smith said?

Or reaching out to a Muslim. "Well, Muhammad said to build an understanding." The other thing that Paul did, he used logic. A man-made God constructed with stone? How foolish. And he centered conclusions on Jesus Christ. Paul used creativity. He wasn't just throwing seed out there. He was thinking.

Now, notice Jesus and the resurrection was a hinge pin in both of their methods. One true God, repent. The English author and lay theologian, G.K. Chesterton, get his name right. He was from England in the 1800s, and he had a class of students, and he said, "Let's assume that all of us are stranded on an island."

And all of a sudden, a shipwreck, we can't get off the island. Nobody knows we're here. And he says, "I'm allowed to have one book. What do I want?" Of course, this is a religious class, and all the students, "I want the Bible. I want the Bible."

And he says, "Why? I want a book on how to build a boat."

I'd like to say that are we willing to learn from science and history? The science should not scare us. The true seed is the word of God, but we have to be real with different types of soil and different methods of delivery.

So giving some thought to the soil. When evangelizing, we need to consider the change in seasons and the soil. When reaching out with the gospel, keep delivering the same seed, but the methods of delivery change. So when working with someone, we need to pause and think, which method of seed delivery should be used? Is the soil good, like in Peter's day? Or does the soil have other loves, like in Paul's day in Acts 17? Is the soil shallow? Soil needs to be tilled before planting. This takes time and discernment and Holy Spirit guidance. I'd suggest our job in America is even more complicated in this. There's another kind of soil prevalent in our culture, and it's called contaminated soil.

And I'd like to submit to you this morning that the soil in America may be very contaminated. There's only one way to deal with contaminated soil, and that's dig deeper, deal with the real problem, the soil. Same with the seekers. We need to closely examine the soil when working with contaminated soil. What are some current soil contaminants that we might be faced with?

Recently, there was a survey completed of evangelical Christians in America. And when they were asked, what do they view, how do they view evangelical Christians in America? Number one was judgmental and critical. Number two, arrogant and conceited. Little interest in the lives of those who see things differently. In other words, are you a born-again Christian? If the answer is no, I have no time for you. I can't even talk to you.

Right-wing political activists, strong support for the military, big business have little concern about the plight of America's poor.

These are the people we're trying to reach. We're starting out at a serious disadvantage. People have preconceived ideas about Christianity. The seedbed has been contaminated. John Lennox, an Irish Christian apologist, once said, "As he was about to be arrested, one of the disciples sliced off of his soldier's ear only for Jesus to heal it moments later. Using violence to defend Christianity metaphorically cuts off people's ears so they will never hear or know the message of God's love."

And John Lennox said, "It's our job to put people's ears back on." We need thoughtful responses, not canned answers. A story of a Sunday school class. A teacher had a bunch of young small children in the class, and she says, "What is gray, has a bushy tail, and climbs trees?"

And finally, one little boy put his hand up, and he says, "I know the answer is Jesus, but it sure sounds like a squirrel." We have simplistic canned answers and don't connect with what they're searching for. In other words, we have a repertoire of about four things we say to seekers, and we don't even listen.

Sometimes we don't take time to listen, and people need to feel heard first. Many see Christians as hateful and without understanding and maybe coming with presuppositions. Difficult to immediately convince them that God is love. Signs like God hates you. These are Christians that are doing this.

It's very important to consider the message we carry. God hates sin. This is true, but we should not send a hate message, but a love message. That's who God is. What about my countenance? Are they seeing joy, love, and peace? Our statements may be true, but what overriding picture are they left with? As followers of Jesus, we can so easily mar the image of God.

Now, what are some soil contaminants that we might be facing? Religious hypocrisy, an abusive parent or pastor, past hatred from professing Christianity, a saved-from-hell gospel, indifferent to present pain. In other words, right now I have needs. You want to talk about eternity? I can't even think that far.

Churches pursuing money, distinction, and power, and observing the neglect of either grace or truth. This list isn't conclusive, but think about planting gospel seeds into this contaminated soil, digging deep and removing the contaminants first. Understand your task isn't easy. My task isn't easy. America can be a difficult seedbed. This idea of grace and truth, instinctively we want truth, but as soon as we have truth without grace, it's like it's not the complete gospel. It just isn't.

So let's consider a little bit the posture and the platform from which we might sow. Genuine concern and empathy for the seeker. Love that is larger than advice. Try to feel what they're feeling. And I know this is hard, but the contaminated soil calls for responses which shake their preconceptions. We must be authentic. One consume tell. We can't just put on an evangelism face and go do outreach. It has to be who we are. It's not something it has to be a way of life, not an event we do.

A story of an Anabaptist brother that does marriage counseling. And he says when he sits with a couple that are having marriage difficulties, he sets aside a week. And he says, "When they start talking," he said, "usually in the first morning," he kind of knows from experience where things are at. But he said he's purposed in his heart to not give any advice or say anything until two days of listening have gone by. He says, "Until they are completely heard, all angles, they're not willing to listen."

So do they sense you really care? Notice how the Apostle Paul did it. This is from Acts 20. "Therefore, watch and remember that by the space of three years, I cease not to warn everyone night and day." This is what Paul did for three years at Ephesus. But notice the platform from which he did it with tears. I'd like to suggest this morning that we need more people reaching out in America with tears. This means you and I will need to give some more thought. How do I approach people with a proper attitude? How do we experience humility? I think the most important thing is every morning on our knees, getting really close to God and asking him for opportunities.

And they're probably going to come wrapped in a that looks like an obstacle. Am I on high alert? This is an obstacle. Wait a minute, Lord, what are you trying to what are you showing me? So what are some things we can considering the platform from which we sow? Being vulnerable and authentic and with humility. We like to go in big crowds and sing on the streets and 20 of us and 2 of them. Flip that on its head. Go visit the Muslims and just go alone or with one other brother or with your wife and your children. Children add a tremendous opportunity and outreach capabilities. Let yourself be vulnerable. And when they ask questions that you don't know, you know what?

I don't know the answer to that. I never really thought about it before. But let me think about it. Can we get together in two weeks and talk about it some more? Another opportunity. Honesty with doubts. Know that we're believers. We accept all of God's grace. But what are your doubts? I have doubts. One of the hardest things I wrestle with is seeing children suffer in developing countries. Just basic unmet needs, health, shelter, food. That just hurts deep within.

But yeah, so unwavering confidence in God for the future. Contagious hope, joy, personal inner peace. Having Thanksgiving. It's a beautiful, powerful trait of reaching out. It's just having a joy within, not being all troubled and bored down with the burdens of the day. But it's a new day. We have opportunity in the Lord.

So what are Americans really searching for? Meaning and significance. People want to contribute. Security, love, a sense of belonging and acceptance. Answers to critical, deep-seated questions. Freedom from a nagging sense of guilt. Observable sacrificial love between believers. That's a big one. A desire for both grace and truth.

You look at that list of things. I can't think of something that better describes the kingdom of God than that list of things. That's what Americans are looking for. It's exciting. You might say we live in a time that has so many opportunities. It's a time of great opportunities. But our churches need to be very purposeful and intentional. Surely our churches are more than just for our families.

I'd like to look into the second part of the topic here this morning and my personal story. As I look at this is a picture of my town, Altoona, Western Pennsylvania. Do I see the suffering and hurting at home? The typical community of America, you might say. I spent more than 50 years here, and perhaps until a handful of years ago, I never really noticed the hurting or what the Bible calls the poor.

And before you think that not very many poor live in your community, think again. In this country, we use debt to make things look different than they really are. I'm going to show a series of pictures here. About six or seven years ago, I started working in the Salt Microfinance program overseas. And seeing this poverty changed my life. I'm briefly going to just flip through a series of pictures from about seven years ago that changed my life. The poverty is so severe. It just simply hurts deep within my heart and soul when you're in that midst.

Bamboo, mud. Many souls. Many souls living in dirt and mud. If I wanted to help, what would I do? Build a new house? Would that change it?

Seeing children. Children are innocent. But seeing legs rehealed without being set and a broken bone.

Mass humanity. Lord, how would they ever know about you?

I felt very, very hopeless. But the fact is, each one of these souls is made in God's own image. They have gifts, skills, and resources. I recall being asked for handouts, seed money, anything, but we said no. But we offer teaching. If you want to join a savings group, we can help you in a long-term, sustainable way.

One year goes by, two years go by, and it is amazing what the Lord is doing. They forget all about asking for handouts because they're so excited about what's happening in their own lives, in their own homes, in their own communities.

Today, the Salt program works in 20-some countries in Latin America, Africa, in the Middle East, and Asia. And I've seen that scene play out many times in various countries throughout Asia, some in Africa. Most of my experience comes from Asia.

And by the grace of God, there are many souls being blessed by Bible-based teaching every week, over 60,000 souls. And I still recall coming home and sharing with others about what God is doing in fire lands. It was exciting.

Since then, I have taken dozens, perhaps hundreds of flights to some of the most needy places on earth. But about the time the wheels hit the runway when coming home, I started getting this sick feeling. What about my neighbors? What about those suffering and hurting in my own community? Am I even qualified to go overseas again? What does the word of God say?

He who oppresses the poor reproaches his maker, but he who honors him has mercy on the needy. Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be heard. Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, "One thing you lack. Go your way. Sell whatever you have. Give to the poor. And you will have treasure in heaven. Come and take up the cross and follow me."

This started those of us working within Salt on a journey. Could we develop a teaching material that will work in our home communities? A few years of piloting and doing field trials and learning from many mistakes and writing course materials and developing slides and lots of discouragement, we eventually released what became as known as the Salt and Light program.

The purpose of the Salt and Light program is to provide a way for Anabaptists in North America to build relationships with their neighbors, learn through Bible-based financial teaching, extend hope and direction to those experiencing financial difficulties, pattern what it looks like to walk with Jesus and obey his teachings, and bring long-term change by helping people better manage their God-giving resources.

This is a journey. It is not easy. It is difficult, but it is possible by the grace of God. Here's a few pictures of us learning. This is a course from the Western Northwest USA. This is from an inner city, low-income, depressed area in one of our communities.

Various exercises and activities in the course to engage people. We know we're competing against YouTube. Here's a picture from a group. We did a course in our home community in Altoona recently. Today, some folks are asking for us to do the course again, spreading the word that this teaching course is available. So those are your best opportunities is when someone that has been blessed by it telling other people in their communities.

I'd like to just very briefly share just a little bit about the course. There's two components. There's the participant guide, which is a workbook where they develop goals and vision and what are their gifts and their skills and is their money going where their values are and develop personal budget.

Yeah. Learn how to save, recover from debt, and more. That's a workbook that they record things in throughout the course. And then brothers from the local Anabaptist church lead the course using facilitator slides, which will help them guide the course.

The participant guides are books printed in color. It's a workbook completed during the course. And then once the course is done, you can refer back to it when you continue walking with people because doing a 12-week course one evening a week isn't just going to automatically change things for sure, but yet it can be a very powerful tool.

The course has two overarching themes. The Bible brings hope for our financial problems and joyful kingdom living comes from obeying Jesus. Now, while this is a high-quality personal financial course, it's unashamedly based on the Bible. So we discussed that in the first chapter. So many bait and switch programs today. We want to be very, very transparent.

The vision with joyful kingdom of God living is sacrificially serving others brings joy to our lives that is not related to material possessions.

The course, again, is, like I said, a 12-week finance course one evening a week, and it's based on the Bible. It has five major categories here. Is there hope? Is my situation hopeless? If you don't have hope, why get out of bed?

Difficult situations, dealing with difficult things and people, and many people connect with that. Making hard choices, creating plans and making choices, and then dealing with crosswinds, staying on course, and then joyful kingdom living. And the first half of the course is more abstract. We discuss other people's problems. Easy to talk about other people's problems. Kind of hard to talk about our own. Middle of the course, we endeavor to have participants make it personal. And the last half, we focus more on biblical truth and this kind of servant living, if you will.

Each chapter has then slides that help the Anabaptist brother facilitate the course. This is a tool to keep the course on track. And yeah, we encourage the brother that's leading it to spend time studying and prepare, spend time in prayer.

And we begin each evening with a meal. Various interactive activities during the course to engage people. We start the evening with a list of objectives, what we want to cover. We look back at the last week and reinforce things. And yeah, we have a couple of aspects to it. One of the things we learned during field trials is a lot of our neighbors are unchurched people. They don't know the Bible. And we started with the scripture in the course material. And names like Shadrach, Reshech, and Abednego, they couldn't say them. So what we ended up doing is doing artwork to demonstrate and then have the brother teach the devotional at the beginning of the course.

And this is where we start. Example of the artwork here. Debt, easy to get in, hard to get out. And then there's the big picture story. Each chapter has two stories, and that's a true story based on fact, and it ends with open-ended questions, understanding the principle.

And then there's life with Bill and Sarah. And they are facing lots of challenges and problems. And yeah, but then there's open-ended questions applying the principle to our lives. And the course is available in Spanish. We know that many Hispanic communities where Anabaptist people live.

This was from a group in Tennessee using the course just recently. They're starting a few other groups as well. They were really blessed there. This is from a brother in Maryland using the course. And really, he messaged me here a couple of weeks ago or a month ago, and he said, "They're asking, 'Hey, after this course is done, can we continue meeting and studying the Bible?' What an opportunity." I'd like to be very, very clear.

Salt and Light is not the secret sauce. It just isn't. The secret sauce is the Holy Spirit leading men and women, saints reaching out. And we can soon hide behind a program, "Give me another program." And so I'm hesitant to even go here. But I want to be very clear. It's just simply one tool in the tool bag. It's not the secret sauce. The Lord has given us many tools, and I'm going to review some of those tools later here.

Very good. I'm going to try to change gears now and just tend to look at Anabaptist church models, how we tend to organize ourselves. We know God works through the local church. How are we doing? Are our churches just for our families? Are we going to be who Jesus calls us to be? Now, this isn't original with me, but I really like this. These are just some observations I've made, different church models. Here's a continuum of Anabaptist churches, fellowships. On the one end, you have a family church. There's a group of believers you worship with, but the biological family unit is preeminent. The goal of the church is to bless the family. That's one end of the continuum.

On the other end, we have church families. Now, this is a community of believers to which you are committed and are accountable to. The group is preeminent. The goal of the family is to bless the church. This is a continuum. Now, just pause and think about, let's face the fact that all churches are on this continuum somewhere. Think about your own congregation. Where are you on this line? Now, hold this thought. Let's overlay another continuum here regarding outreach.

At the top, you have groups who are intentionally reaching out locally. And I'm particularly talking about locally reaching out. And on the bottom, you have non-evangelical. They're not evangelical. And little focus on outreach. Now, ponder for a moment, where on that line would you place your congregation? In the middle somewhere, towards the top? Where would it be?

As we just think about this, how we tend to organize ourselves. And maybe this is a little unfair looking at churches. They're made up of individuals, and we're all in different places and our different journey and our walk with the Lord. But I think it's important. God gave us a sound mind and resources. We need to think about how we're doing. We do that in other parts of our lives. We do it in our homes. We do it in our businesses. Do it in our occupations.

Now, this is too simplistic, but let's consider each quadrant as a church model.

Model 4 then would be more of a social club, an enjoyable place to be, no accountability, little interest in reaching out, not committed to each other. Might call it an anemic church.

Model 3, with strong community, high accountability, has security. Somebody's barn burns down, quick to rebuild. Medical bills, they take care of it. But there's little interest in reaching out to the neighbors. Sadly, I think many Anabaptist churches are similar to a Model 3.

Let's think about a Model 2 for a moment. Strong on outreach, like to talk about outreach, have a mission board, maybe a street ministry, kids' club, soup kitchen. But there's not a lot of commitment to each other. Little accountability, lots of individualistic going it alone. Visitors from the community may come, but something's missing. In my experience in working and speaking with various Anabaptist groups, I believe I've seen some of these groups. Not much accountability. The world seems to be pressing in, and maybe some assimilation is going on into society.

I'd like to propose here this morning what Jesus originally had in mind was a Model 1 here. Strong commitment to a church community, accountability, sacrificial love and investment, but strong desire to reach out to others. Now, Model 1 is not easy. It means dying to self. It's costly to me. It's letting other brothers speak into our lives. And meanwhile, we live in an American culture that's very individualistic.

Now, let's just pause for a moment here. Where do you believe your congregation is on these lines? If you had to put a push pin on each line and are brutally honest with each other, where would you put the pin?

More importantly, if you're not where Jesus is calling us, what can you do to make us effective? What can you do to make some changes? I'm convinced that seekers are searching for a Model 1. Communities possessing obvious self-denying love, giving up for our brothers and sisters, communities who reach out in love to seekers.

Model 1 is an admission. Submitting to my brotherhood is connected to outreach. We all want this. Even those in Model 2 would like this, but there's a cost. It's very costly to my own self-desires and wishes.

Let's look at another scripture here. Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom. She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness. Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. This is the prophet Ezekiel writing.

He's talking about Sodom that happened generations before. Let's look at the highlighted portions here a little bit closer. Pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness. Sounds like a lot of Anabaptist churches.

We all have fullness of food. We maybe are very busy, but doing what? Serving self or pursuing our passions? Here's the most sobering part for me. When I think of Sodom in my scripture worldview, I think of sexual immorality.

But the prophet Ezekiel here does not mention immorality. So apparently, the sin of fullness of food and abundance of free time are at least equally as sinful as sexual immorality.

Who is my neighbor? Scripture versus our passions.

Do I know my neighbor? Do I really have an interest in the souls of men and women around me? But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" We're familiar with his story. We've heard it many times. The lawyer stood up and tended to him saying, "Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus says, "What is written in the law, I'll read it thou." And the lawyer said, "Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy soul, all thy strength, with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself." Jesus says, "Thou hast answered right. Do this and thou shalt live." So that is our question right now.

Who is my neighbor? Who is your neighbor? Do I know my neighbor? Does my neighbor know me? Do I care the way Jesus does? Would my neighbor reach out to me if he's struggling with something? Or perhaps another sobering thought, do I need my neighbor? Or do I have everything I need? I go to Lowe's and buy something before I would go borrow it from my neighbor.

Am I willing to take the time that is needed to listen and show compassion? Have you ever thought about borrowing stuff from your neighbor to build a relationship?

And then, of course, we know the story, Good Samaritan story. Which one of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves? This is back to this lawyer that was asking him.

I want you to think about Jesus asking you this question.

Here's what Jesus said, "Thou hast answered correctly. Go and do likewise. Go and do likewise." We can think of those that are close to us, but my neighbor is the one I'm willing to show mercy to. These are Jesus' own words, those that we interact with. We may be traveling afar. That's our neighbor. We may be at home. That's our neighbor.

Whoever the Lord places in our path, go and do likewise. Regardless of who the people are, they may be covered in tattoos, nose rings, smokes, do drugs, be filthy or dirty. Our Lord is calling us to have compassion on these people. How are we going to respond?

I get really disappointed in myself at times.

It's easier for me to reach out to somebody in a far land, in an Asian country, than it is to my own neighbor. Why? Somehow, it's easier to show compassion to those living with great stories of poverty and struggle or someone in a distant land than to those that are in the trailer court or the low-income housing project down the road. Do you believe that they even have needs that you or I can help with? I believe Jesus desires for us to show compassion to all men. In this way of life reaching out intentionally, we have many opportunities as a person, as a marriage, as our sons and daughters, our possessions, our occupations, our business, and our passions.

I could talk for another half hour on these things. In the interest of time, I'm just going to look at the last one, our passions. Do they see me entertaining myself, filling my life with things that the rest of my ungodly neighbors do? Or do they see a life of service, a desire to reach out, a willingness to invest my extra income into others' lives?

Our neighbor should wonder, why does he do what he does? Why does he prefer investing in needy situations over a hunting trip or an expensive fishing trip? The follower of Jesus should have passion for the hearts of people.

I'd like to conclude with some practical things here.

Now, some of what I'm going to share is from my wife and my own journey, my wife and I's own journey in the last few years. And I just want to say that we're on a journey. We don't have the answers. I get discouraged, and I just cry out to God, "Please." But I'd like to submit here this morning that we need to think about from the platform from which we reach out. First glance, these two pictures on the screen here look very similar. People are eating food. But take a second look.

The one on the left is a soup kitchen, and the one on the right is a potluck. Who am I? Who are we? In a soup kitchen, the people on the one side of the line have all the answers and all the solutions. And the people on the other side of the line are cringing within that they have to go to a soup kitchen because they can't provide for their own.

On the other side is a potluck. Everybody's contributing. People, that's so basic to humanity. We want to contribute. We want meaning and significance in life. Are we a soup kitchen or a potluck? When people are invested, they contribute.

When people contribute, they are invested. I'm sorry I said that wrong.

Slides are. I believe an open home is a tremendous opportunity. Are you okay inviting people into your home? Stay informal. Do cookouts.

Do things low-key. Some people don't even know how to pass food when sitting at a table. This is a couple my wife and I have been walking with for a few years. Needs are severe. Addictions. Divided vision on money. Fighting. Police are called. Wife was in a mental lockup for a while, paying 24% interest on a car loan for a car that doesn't even work. It's not worth fixing it up. And again, I'd like to say some of the examples I'm sharing here, I'm sharing from the heart, and I do only so from the perspective of learning together. By no means do I believe our family has arrived in this journey. Many times, I find myself discouraged or frustrated or uncomfortable crying out to God for answers.

I'd like to say that our worldview and our experience are foreign to most we're reaching out to. My son, my 7-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter have a horse they enjoy riding and taking care of. This couple love petting the horse and simple things in life like gathering the eggs. The reality of creation and God is expressed much differently in a horse or gathering eggs from chickens instead of getting them a box of eggs from the cooler in the grocery store. But caring about the whole person, their physical and spiritual lives, really investing in. The old saying, "People don't care unless they know you really care." Do you really care? Are you just going through the motions because you feel obligated to share the gospel because of the biblical mandates?

After years of invitations to our home, what finally broke the ice with this couple asking this man if he'd be willing to grill the burgers and do the cooking. He used to work in a restaurant. A few months later, he grilled salmon. The fact is he's a very good cook. And many times, us Anabaptists simply want to provide everything. We actually make those we're reaching out to feel very poorly. It's nothing left for them to do.

His wife tells my wife that I'm the only friend he has. But in terms of friendship, I feel like it's just beginning. But that tells us something. Us in the Anabaptist circles have dozens of friends from far and near. Most we're trying to reach out have very few or no friends.

Last summer, we had this couple here together on our patio for dinner. And then after dark, we watched the falling or shooting stars. Lots of opportunity to talk about God and creation. She's been coming to church for a few years, but her husband has not. I asked him to come, and he said, "Yeah, we can do that." He came one time so far. Understand what I'm talking about here is through two salt and light courses over three years, weekly Bible studies with a few sisters from our church, with the wife, and so much more. I can honestly say my wife and I care deeply about this couple.

Recently, the Lord brought this man into our lives. He's autistic, has many needs. He desires to be in the center of attention with everyone from the family gathered around him. And if that doesn't happen, he tends to pout. He's a temper, gets angry frequently. Then 10 minutes later, he's apologizing profusely. Lives in a rundown seedy motel with very needy people around him with drugs, police swearing, fighting all around him. Doesn't have a car, so every time we need to do something, we need to give him a ride.

I want to be real with the fact that an open home has downsides, but we need to have wisdom in boundaries. But somehow, the Lord has to give us wisdom in creating boundaries in our lives that blesses our families and shows compassion. For a while there, this man called me 10, 12, 15 times in the day, the middle of the day, just calls and calls and calls. And I'd wrestle, "Should I answer or not?" And if I didn't answer, I'd feel guilty. If I did answer, it could be 20, 30 minutes.

One thing I will say, I'd much rather teach my children about the world around us while they're in my home. This type of interaction gives many teachable moments. But at the same time, I would not let this man out of sight with my family and my home.

What other tools? Our occupations. We all have occupations. Some are more public than others. Our business, walking with seekers that costs us more than money. Think about where this person is on their journey before them inviting them to church. Historically, the Anabaptist community, the ultimate was to invite them to church and get them to church. But let's invest in people's lives and where are they? Is inviting them to church the right place? Sometimes it can be right away, but other times, not so much. That could be harmful. Regular ongoing teaching in our church and ways to be effective in being missionaries at home.

This thing of young people growing up and get married and say, "I want to be a missionary. I'm going to go overseas. I'm going to serve in some." Great. God bless you. And that's a tremendous thing. Fact is the vast majority of us stay at home. And then they say, "Well, I'm going to stay at home and get a job." Really?

Stay at home and be a missionary. We have very few resources overseas. Perhaps the most important thing is to pray. I believe too many times we underestimate the power of prayer. If we're going to be effective, we have to spend time every morning on our knees asking God to bring opportunities into my life. And I'll say that most times, these opportunities come wrapped as an obstacle. Am I on high alert? Something went wrong. Lord, what are you showing me? What is it? Where is it? Where do I need to be?

I'm going to just show you a few books if you want to study more. This is J.D. Vance. This is from the Rust Belt of Ohio. It is poverty of epic proportions. It has bad language as a warning, so don't let your children read it. But it's very powerful in understanding what those around us face. Do we understand poverty? This book Evicted, it's probably one of the best research books I've ever read. Again, it has bad language, but it's more on housing.

That's based out of Milwaukee. I'm convinced unless we do this with humility and humble ourselves and recognize we don't have all the answers, we will fail. If you don't like to read, skip the other books and read this one. It will be available in a few weeks. This is from a brother that has taught me so much, a practical how-to guide from an Anabaptist perspective, Reaching America.