257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105
(262) 763-3021
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We have purchased land on Highways A & W and are planning to build soon! Drive by and take a look at our future home!
“How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these.” George Washington Carver
September 27 th, 2009
A recent study by LifeWay Research, a Southern Baptist Think Tank, found that most parents would let their children attend church with trusted neighbors. This study explored, how many parents were open to their children attending if they didn't have to be the ones to take them to church?
The study found that 76% of parents would allow their children to attend church with a neighbor that they trusted. The study also discovered that mothers are more likely than fathers to let their children attend church with neighbors and that race is among the factors that makes the greatest difference in parents' willingness to send their children to church with neighbors. African Americans were more willing than whites or Hispanics to agree to the offer.
Interestingly, LifeWay Research found that parents in the Midwest are more open to their children attending church with neighbors than in any other region. Single parents are more willing than those who are married, although age and education seem to have little effect on parents' willingness to send children to church with a trusted neighbor, the study indicated.
A continual command in Scripture is that we are to “Love our neighbors as ourselves” (Matt. 22:39). In a culture that struggles to learn the names of their neighbors, the benefit of loving one's neighbor clearly applies to families. With intentional involvement in our neighborhood, we can glorify God in word and deed in regular interactions with our neighbors. Then, as relationships develop, our neighborhood friends will be increasingly comfortable having their children attend church activities with us.
Now that fall is here and school is back in session, all of us need to intentionally make plans to get out in our neighborhoods and meet some new friends. If you don’t have children at home, then share with your neighbors that our church has some fantastic children’s programs. Offer to give the parents a break by taking them to one of our midweek programs. Tell them that you’ll hang out for the night, just to make sure that the kids are okay. This is particularly effective if the parents and children look on you as a grandparent type. And if you have children the same age, nothing could be easier. If it’s good for your kids, most parents reason that it will be good for their kids...particularly if you already have a relationship with them.
This is another reason, too, to seek to live out as much as possible, Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” Every neighborhood has little tiffs or gossip. There typically is that one neighbor who “everyone” talks about, often because their children are out of control or they have a substance abuse problem. Resist the temptation to get involved in petty neighborhood squabbles. Be the one who others can trust to not gossip or take sides. And if your own children are involved in some neighborhood skirmish, ask God for wisdom and seek to be objective...and be the mature godly one.
In today’s culture our own neighborhoods are our “Jerusalems” where we can be God’s missionaries, seeking to share the great news of the Gospel!
