Why and How to Reach Your Neighborhood: Chris & Elizabeth McKinney

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Why and How to Reach Your Neighborhood: Chris & Elizabeth McKinney

Guests:Chris and Elizabeth McKinney

From the series:Neighborhoods Reimagined (Day 1 of 2)

Air date:May 6, 2024

Elizabeth: Sometimes people come to neighboring with this guilt-based mentality. They’re [thinking], “Man, I should stop making excuses and get to know my neighbors.” It’s okay to make excuses. Actually, that’s exactly what we need. We need an excuse, and holidays, a lot of times, are that excuse.

Shelby: Welcome to FamilyLife Today, where we want to help you pursue the relationships that matter most. I’m Shelby Abbott, and your hosts are Dave and Ann Wilson. You can find us at FamilyLifeToday.com.

Ann: This is FamilyLife Today!

Dave: I was going to sing a song right now, [Laughter] but I have no voice, because I have a cold. But the song is very familiar—

Ann: —okay.

Dave: —and you finish it.

Ann: Oh, I don’t know. Do I know it?

Dave: [singing] “Like a good neighbor…”

Ann: [singing] “State Farm is there.”

Dave: See, you can sing. [Laughter] I’ll play it—

Ann: —no! [Laughing]

Dave: —you sing it.

Well, when I thought of this book, Neighborhoods Reimagined, [I thought of] good neighbors. We’ve got Chris and Elizabeth McKinney with us.

Ann: And you’re back with us because you’ve been with us before.

Chris: Yes, a few years ago we were with you guys talking about our first neighboring book, Placed for a Purpose. That was kind of everything we wished we would have known when we started neighboring. This is a book on helping you continue to neighbor and continue to put yourself out there in your neighborhoods.

Ann: “Neighboring.”

Chris: Neighboring.

Ann: You’re “neighboring.” What does that mean?

Elizabeth: Our hope is to show and share the love of Jesus to our next-door neighbors: people with whom we share proximity. We can think about loving our neighbor in a general sense and keep it in the abstract. Neighboring—the practice of loving the people who live right around you—takes loving your neighbor out of the abstract and puts it right into practice with the people who live right around us.

Ann: That’s so convicting. [Laughter] I’m just going to say that I am bad at this. It feels like in Michigan, too—if you’re in a cold climate—the garage door goes up; the garage door goes down, and we don’t see our neighbors until the spring.

Chris: For months and months.

Ann: Yes!

Chris: And all the kids have grown. [Laughter]

Ann: But when the kids were little, that was—

Chris: —yes.

Ann: —easier. So, it’s good to talk about this because, biblically-speaking, this is important.

Chris: Yes.

Ann: Jesus talked about it.

Chris: Yes, I think when Jesus says, “love your neighbor as yourself,” it can obviously mean more than your next-door neighbor; but I don’t think it can ever mean less. If we’re going to say, “I want to love my neighbor,” our next-door neighbors have to be included in that sentence.

Ann: Isn’t this convicting? [Laughter]

Chris: Yes, it is.

Elizabeth: If you want to make it even more convicting, [Laughter] now we’re going to start talking about the Beatitudes. Chris brought up, initially, that he wanted to write a book on the Beatitudes, and I told him he was crazy. I was [thinking], “We can’t write a book on the Beatitudes. This reads like a foreign language. I don’t want to be poor, or [Laughter] persecuted”—

Chris: —“or meek.”

Elizabeth: —“or meek.” These are words I’d rather avoid than write a book about [them].

Ann: Most people in the world would like to avoid those words.

Chris: Yes.

Ann: So, why the Beautitudes?

Chris: Yes, I had an uphill battle convincing her [Laughter] that we should write a book on the Beatitudes and neighboring. But a few years ago, I was spending time in the Book of Matthew and was just really, again, drawn to the Sermon on the Mount. I found myself just skimming over those first eight statements of Jesus: “Blessed if you’re poor in spirit.” “Okay, God’s going to bless me if I’m mourning?” I was [thinking], “I need to figure out what’s going on here.”

Through a couple of resources, one being Dr. Jonathan Pennington’s book, The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing, I began to realize that “blessed” statement—we’re not being poor in spirit; we’re not depending on God to be blessed. We have all the spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ. This is more of an invitation of Jesus into a life of flourishing.

We are invited to live this way, and Jesus promises that it will bring flourishing to our lives and also to the lives of others around us. But what’s hard is that these are so upside down,—Ann: —yes.

Chris: —so different than what the world would say will bring flourishing. Being dependent, mourning, being meek—

Ann: —maybe we should read it, just to hit those—

Chris: —yes.

Elizabeth: Absolutely!

Ann: Let’s do that!

Chris: Yes.

Dave: Yes, and even before we get there, I’d love to ask you: are you guys—have you always been good neighbors? [Laughter] Is this part of your “M.O.?” Because we just said, “We’re not very good.” We have a cul-de-sac, not a whole street.

Chris: Yes.

Dave: I’m telling you: Ann underestimates. She’s a great neighbor.

Chris: Sure.

Dave: She’s great!

Ann: [Laughter] I’m not.

Dave: Oh, every time I look out, she’s talking to Pam. Every time I get the snow blower out, she [says], “Go do theirs, and go do theirs.” [Laughter] Every time, because that’s what her mom and dad did. So, I think she’s better than I am, but I would say, I’m not naturally, really a good neighbor.

Chris: Yes.

Dave: Are you guys?

Elizabeth: Well, I would say we came to neighboring in a place of need. We were in one of the most stressful seasons of our lives. We had four young kids (we had four kids in five years). So, I was pulling my hair out.

Ann: Oh!

Elizabeth: I was just trying to string a sentence together. [Laughter] I mean, I was! So, it was the needing the proverbial “cup of sugar,” but it was more than that. It was: if I’m going to have any sense of community; if I have to drive across town to get that, it’s not going to happen, because I might as well be going overseas. The kids are—

Ann: —yes!

Elizabeth: —going to have to get— It’s nap time by the time I get there. I needed people right around me, and we kind of had this sense that our neighbors: “Well, why not the neighbors? Why not these people?” We had a real heart for connecting with people from different worldviews and the unchurched. At that point in our lives, we were connecting with a lot of college students, so, our neighbors—to have relationships with people that were more peers in the same life-stage was really enriching.

Dave: So, did you guys walk across the yard? How did this start?

Chris: Yes, we—

Elizabeth: —it started with a fish fry.

Chris: —yes, we got to know a couple of the neighbors right next to us. Bingo was seven feet tall; he played basketball at the University of Missouri there where we live, in Columbia, MO.

Dave: His name is Bingo?Chris: Bingo Bingenheimer, [Laughter] and he lved to fry things. So, he brought his fryer down to our driveway, and we’re wannabe foodies, so we did a fish fry; we made all these sauces, and that was kind of fun. And then we did an Easter egg hunt—

Dave:—and some more people came?

Elizabeth: Yes.

Chris: Yes.

Elizabeth: Small beginnings—

Chris: —small beginnings—

Elizabeth: —”Do not despise the day of small beginnings.” [Laughter]

Chris: That’s right. Yes. And the Easter egg hunt: eight kids were there; four of them were ours, [Laughter] But it was at that Easter egg hunt, we met Nathan and Kathy. They went to a different church, and they were [asking], “Well, what’s next?” And we’re [saying], “We haven’t thought past the Easter egg hunt. We’re not trying to”—

Elizabeth: —”We’re just trying to make friends.”

Chris: —Yes. “We’re not trying to start something here.” And they said, “Let’s do a bigger street party or block party.” On the outside, we’re [saying], “Sure, let’s do it.” But on the inside, I was [thinking], “Do you see the neighborhood we live in? Everyone is independent. It’s super isolated.” No one even trick or treated in our neighborhood.

Dave: What?

Chris: The first time we came out for Halloween, —

Elizabeth: —for years!

Chris: —it was a ghost town; no one was there.

Elizabeth: Pun intended.

Chris: Pun intended. [Laughter] But we did it, and we got the word out, and there were 75 adults and kids that came to that first little block party. That’s when we began to realize: “Oh, okay. On the outside, everyone is acting like they’re fine: ‘I just want to pull into my garage.’ But on the inside, they want to be connected. They want to be connected to a larger community.”

We need these excuses, because it’s awkward to get to know our neighbors. So, we just started going after that, and the relationships and spiritual conversations that we [have gotten] to have over the last 12 or 13 years have just been incredible.

Dave: What does that say about the human heart, that you just identified? We act like we want to be isolated.

Chris: Yes.

Dave: COVID isolated us—

Chris: —oh, yes.

Dave: —in some ways. Do you think that’s a part of it? Because you’re finding out,—Ann: —people are—

Dave: —“We don’t really want to be isolated.” Church people, non church people; it doesn’t matter. They are looking for community. Is that what you’re finding?

Elizabeth: We don’t like to be needy, and the very first beatitude is: “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”

Dave: You call them “Spiritual Zeros.”

Elizabeth: [Laughter] Yes, that’s right! Spirit—

Dave: —I’m not—

Elizabeth: —we don’t want to be zeros.

Dave: —You don’t call hem “Spiritual Zeros,” —

Ann: —it’s a chapter title.

Dave: —but that’s your chapter title, which got me interested. I’m [wondering], “What’s a ‘Spiritual Zero?’ l don’t want to be that.”

Chris: Right?

Elizabeth: Yes.

Dave: But we are.

Elizabeth: We want to act like we’re fine. We don’t want to be dependent or interdependent. Yet, that’s how we’ve been designed. We’ve been designed to be dependent on the Father and each other.

Matthew 5:1 says, “Seeing the crowds, He went up on the mountain. And when He sat down, His disciples came to Him. And He opened His mouth and taught them saying, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called Sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.’”

Then, I was going to circle back to this earlier, but just after these verses (we left off in verse 11), in verse 13 is the familiar and beloved “salt and light” passage—

Dave: —right.

Elizabeth: —that says: “You’re the salt of the earth. But if salt has lost its taste, how shall saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

So, Chris was saying he had an uphill battle convincing me to write a book [Laughter] on the Beatitudes, because I thought, “We’re going to be out over our skis trying to write a book about something we can’t understand, let alone apply.” But it was reading this section on being salt and light. I thought, “I want to be salt and light. I want my neighbors to see our good deeds and glorify our Father in heaven. Maybe I need to back up and see what some of these postures and invitations are and try to understand them.”

Dave: I don’t know what it was, but it was years ago—decades ago: Matthew 5:14, “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”

Chris: Yes.

Dave: I studied it in the Greek because I’m a Greek scholar, that’s what I am.—

Chris: Absolutely.

Dave: No.

Ann: You are, Hon.

Dave: No, I was preaching on it, I think. So, I’m studying the passage and the words “set on a hill” literally mean “strategically placed on a hill.” Even when I’ve preached this many times over the years, because when we do our vertical marriage weekends, we talk about this, people look at me like, “So, what’s the big deal? ‘Set on a hill; strategically placed’.” That actual meaning changes everything—

Chris: —yes.

Elizabeth: —that’s right.

Dave: —because it means that where you live, in a sense, God has strategically placed you; us in a cul-de-sac. You where—

Chris: —absolutely.

Dave: —in the Uber [driver] I’m with. It’s a different perspective. It lifts your eyes to go—

Chris: —yes—

Dave: —and again, I’m not saying we don’t make decisions every day. It isn’t like God is literally got a little thing and pointing us around. But in a sense, it sort of is. It’s like [God is saying], “I didn’t just put you in this job or in this neighborhood or on this campus. I’m literally strategically placing you for what? To shine.”

Chris and Elizabeth: Yes.

Dave: So, that’s what you’re saying, right? As you look at that, it’s like, “Oh, my goodness. Where we live is not just random.”

Chris: Yes.

Dave: God wants to us to be salt and light.

Chris: Yes, we say: “Your address is not an accident, and neither are your neighbors.” I think, if you believe that, and you walk out your front door, knowing that God was working behind the scenes to place your neighbors there and place you where you are, then that changes everything. That means something’s going on, and He’s at work. He wants to use you in your neighbors’ lives, and He wants to use your neighbors in your life too.

Ann: Yes, I like that. It’s both ways.

Chris: It’s both ways.

Elizabeth: That’s right.

Ann: We’re not just doing it because they’re our project.

Chris: Exactly.

Elizabeth: That’s exactly right.

Ann: We want to become friends with our neighbor, because we all need that.

Chris: Yes.

Elizabeth: That’s right.

Ann: I like that.

Well, take us back to being Spiritual Zeroes.

Dave: Yes, you write: “The false Beatitude is: ‘Blessed are the self-assured. They will retire early with spiritual independence’.” [Laughter]

Elizabeth: Right.

Dave: We’re talking about retirement, and we’re in Orlando. [Laughter]

Elizabeth: Right.

Chris: [Laughter] It’s a good place to do it.

Dave: For a lot of people, that’s their goal in life. So, what did you discover?

Chris: None of us want to be poor. We want to be self-confident; we want to be independent, self-assured. What Jesus is calling us to, right off the bat, is complete and utter dependence on Him for everything.

You see Jesus model this in John through what we call “the nothing verses.” Jesus says, [paraphrase of John 8:28-29] “I don’t do anything on My own. I don’t speak My own words. I came to accomplish the Father’s will.” We don’t want to be spiritually independent. We think maybe that’s the goal, like the more mature we get, the more we can handle things on our own. But Jesus is saying, [paraphrase] “No, no, no. I want people who are growing in their dependence on Me.”

If you think about trying to get to know your neighbors; trying to breakthrough that awkwardness in the cultural story that says, “To be a good neighbor means to leave your next-door neighbor alone;” if you’re not dependent on God, [saying], “Lord, help! I’ve been living next door to this neighbor for three years. I’ve never introduced myself. This is scary.” We can not do that out of our own strength.

Elizabeth: Tell this story about, “Lord, help!”

Chris: Yes. We had a friend who was a nanny, and they told her that when their daughter is struggling with something—like taking the square peg and trying to put it in the round hole—

Elizabeth: —those little shape sorters.

Chris: —those little shape sorters; to not jump in and help immediately, but wait until she asks for help, because we want her to know that it’s okay to ask for help and receive it.

As we think about this first Beatitude, a little prayer that we say just to try to embrace this attitude of dependence is, “Lord help!” So, as I’m walking over to a neighbor who maybe is hard to get along with: “Lord, help!” Immediately, I’m saying, “Lord, I need You. I need You to work. I can’t do anything without You. Without You showing up, nothing is going to happen.”

Instead of saying, “Oh, I’ve got it all together, as long as I’m eloquent enough, and I’m slick enough, and I have the right invitation to church, they’re going to come with me.” That’s not what Jesus is calling us to there.

Dave: Yes, it’s interesting to think—I remember in seminary, we were studying the “Woman at the Well” passage.

Chris: Yes.

Dave: And one of the applications our professor made was, if you want to get to know your neighbors, ask them for something.

Chris: Oh yes.

Ann: Ask to borrow something.

Dave: Yes.

Chris: Ask for help.

Dave: And I was [thinking] the opposite: “No, no, no. You don’t want to. You want them to ask you for something.” He’s [saying], “Jesus started that conversation by saying he wanted a drink.”

Chris: Yes.

Elizabeth: That’s exactly right.

Dave: So, I remember—this is decades ago—I was [thinking], “Okay, so if I’m doing a project at my house, and I know somebody in the neighborhood who has a tool I need, it’s going to start a relationship just to go over and say, ‘Hey, could I borrow your saw?’”

Chris: Oh, yes.

Ann: You have—

Dave: —the next thing I know—

Ann: —always done that.

Dave: —I’ve done that everywhere we’ve gone.

Chris: Yes.

Dave: I do it now in Orlando. The guy behind us named Tom—dude, this guy saved our life! [Laughter] You can tell when you ask him for something, he’s excited to be needed.

Elizabeth: That’s right.

Chris: Of course!

Elizabeth: Did he really save your life?

Dave: Well, we needed the pool heated,— [Laughter]

Chris: —yes.

Dave: —and the heater broke, and the grandkids were coming (tomorrow).

Elizabeth: So, in a sense, yes!

Chris: So, yes!

Elizabeth: He saved your life. [Laughter]

Chris: Big time.

Dave: And he’s like, “It’s a capacitor. I guarantee it. I’m not an AC guy, but here, I have an extra one in my garage at all times. Boom!” And every time I call him, he’s got the tool.

Chris: And not even just tools, but just advice—

Dave: —right.

Chris: —and for help, right?

Ann: Yes.

Elizabeth: Expertise.

Chris: Expertise. We have friends who are therapists,—Elizabeth: —our neighbors—

Chris: —and we don’t share the same overall worldview, but some of their thoughts on things that we’re going through have been really helpful. It’s just such a fun connect point to be like, “Could you give us some advice here? Free counseling”—

Dave: —right?

Chris: —”out by the mailbox?”

Ann: That’s awesome.

Dave: Then, what happens when they’re standing there? Because when Tom comes over, or Bingo—

Chris: —Bingo!

Elizabeth: —you’re right.

Dave: —something sort of starts happening, right? Because you don’t just stand there and do your job. You end up saying, as Tom said to me: “So, what do you guys do?”

Chris: Yes.

Elizabeth: That’s right.

Dave: [Neighbor:] “You’re from Michigan. Now you’re in Orlando.” [Dave:] “This is what we do.” [Neighbor:] “What?”

Elizabeth: That’s when the relationship goes from being an acquaintance to a friend; a neighbor, and then, hopefully eventually, they’d become your brother or sister in Christ someday. But, you can’t just jump into those kinds of weighty conversations. They come through relationships of mutual benefit, where we’re receiving, and that shifts the power dynamics from us coming in as the Christian who’s always the giver and never the receiver.

Ann: Yes.

Elizabeth: And people sniff that out, like you said.

Ann: Totally.

Elizabeth: You were saying earlier, Ann, that we don’t want people to be projects, and we don’t want to be projects.

Ann: No.

Chris: It’s in those natural conversations where you can self-identify as a Christian. You don’t have to fly under the radar. You can start sharing, “Yes, this is my job,” or, “Our kids just did Vacation Bible School, and it was a lot of fun.” And see, “Hey, do they want to know more?” If they do, you can continue on; or if they don’t, then you know, “Okay. That’s where they’re at. That’s okay, right? I’ll bring up something another time.” But it’s in those natural conversations when you can do those things.

Dave: Do you utilize holidays, like you said: Halloween, Easter, Christmas? Do you do things with those? Because there are some people who think, “Oh, I’m not going to do anything with Halloween. It’s evil. It’s a bad, bad holiday.” And there are others [thinking], “What an opportunity! You’ve got your whole neighborhood coming to your front door.”

Chris: Yes.

Dave: Talk about that a little bit.

Elizabeth: Sometimes people come to neighboring with this guilt-based mentality. They’re like, “Man. I should stop making excuses and get to know my neighbors.”

Ann: This is Dave and I—[Laughter]

Dave: —yes.

Ann: —because we have a new neighbor on our cul-de-sac, and we haven’t been home very much,—Elizabeth: —yes.

Ann: —but we feel that guilt: “Oh, I’m failing!” [Laughter]

Elizabeth: “Ugh!” And we say, “It’s okay to make excuses.” Actually, that’s exactly what we need. We need an excuse, and holidays, a lot of times, are that excuse. We like to do the Easter egg hunts, and I will say—

Dave: —you do them right at your house?

Elizabeth: Well, we used to. It outgrew—

Ann: —too many now.

Elizabeth: —outgrew us.

Dave: That’s great!

Elizabeth: We had to shift to the school. But yes, it used to be in our backyard, and those were really fun days. But you [Chris] do hot sauce nights.

Chris: Yes. [Laughter] Hot wings.

Dave: No way, like super hot sauce?

Chris: Yes. So, if you’ve ever seen—

Dave: —you’re trying to be a good neighbor? [Laughter]

Chris: Yes, yes. There’s a YouTube show called—

Dave: —yes.

Chris: —Hot Ones, where the hosts—

Ann: —yes!

Chris: So, I purchased the sauces, and I have a big turkey fryer. (Bingo discipled me well.) [Laughter] I’ll fry 150 wings, because it’s ten per guy; and we’ll meet—15 guys. We’ll put ten wings into the thing. You sauce them, and then you hand them out to each guy, and then we’ll all try them together. I’ll do tasting notes, and then we’ll all go from one, all the way up to ten. [Laughter]

It’s been awesome! One of the best neighboring events for just the guys that—

Dave: —if I’m there,—

Chris: —I’ve ever done.

Dave: —can I say I’m not going past five?

Chris: Absolutely.

Dave: Okay. [Laughter]

Dave: It’s not high pressure, but every—

Ann: —it’s a torture kind of thing.

Chris: —but everybody ends up going all the way, and I’m not pressuring. I’m like, “You can stop whenever you want.” But it’s a source of camaraderie, and we’re in it together; we’re marching up the hill together.

So, yes, we make use of all those opportunities. Halloween, like we said when we first came out of our front door, no one was trick or treating. Eventually, we were [thinking], “This is not right.” Once we had some momentum with some of the neighboring stuff, we were [thinking], “We need to change this, because what an incredible opportunity to get to know your neighbors to have neighbors work together.”

To pull it off, we do little hot dog stations or hot chocolate stations,—Ann: —that’s so cool.

Chris: —and we encourage everybody to sit outside by a fire pit to hand out candy, and it’s one of our favorite nights of the whole year in our neighborhood. Literally, the neighborhood comes alive.

Ann: How has this impacted your kids? Because you have four daughters, and they’re from middle school down to elementary, so you’ve been probably doing it since they were little.

Chris: Yes.

Ann: What’s that been like for them?

Elizabeth: We were in the campus ministry, and we loved having college kids in our home, and the girls loved being around the college kids. But when we switched to neighboring, it opened up a way for them to see mission in a whole new way, because it wasn’t something far off. We love mission trips, but at the same time, if we only think [of] missions as something far off that we have to travel overseas to do, we kind of disconnect from the people who are right around us, and the opportunities that are there.

So, with our kids, they’ve been involved from Day One, because they’ve been praying for neighbors to come to know the Lord. They have to learn when to take a risk, or when to pull back, and [they] have seen friends start to come to church.

We recently read a book called The Great De-Churching, and one of the things we learned in that book, is that there are those who dechurch casually, and then there are those who are dechurching casualties. The number one reason why people are dechurching is because they’ve moved. They’re just casually dechurching thinking, “We’ll come back,” but then they don’t. The take-away for us from that book was, “Just invite, especially if it’s a new neighbor.”

Chris: Yes.

Elizabeth: So, our kids have been asking their neighbors to come to church and have started to see some neighbors come with them. That’s formative—

Ann: —yes.

Chris: —yes.

Elizabeth: —for them: to get to see God use them in these little 4th graders’ lives.

Ann: That’s sweet.

Elizabeth: And then the parents come.

Dave: Yes, and as I hear you say that, I know this because we have older kids: they’re going to do this.

Chris: Yes.

Dave: When they’re adults, they’ve grown up in a home that does this. You know this, but you’re giving them a vision for how everybody’s supposed to live.

Chris and Elizabeth: Yes.

Dave: Ann and I always say, “Make a dent where you’re sent, and where you’re sent is where you are.”

Chris: Yes.

Dvae: You guys are living out what God called us to do.

We want to help you shine right where you live, because God wants you to make a dent where you’re sent. So, guess what we’re going to do? We’re going to give the Mckinneys’ book to you for free, but not really, because we’d like you to give a monthly donation. Become a monthly partner, and your donation will be doubled for the year, which is awesome! But we’re going to send you this book as our gift back to you for giving a gift to us. This will help you do what we’re talking about: make a dent where you’re sent.

Shelby: I’m Shelby Abbott. You’ve been listening to Dave and Ann Wilson with Chris and Elizabeth McKinney on FamilyLife Today.

Well, as Dave and Ann were saying, this is going to be our gift to you when you give monthly. So, how do you do that? You just simply go online to FamilyLifeToday.com, and then you can click on the “Donate Now” button at the top of the page. Or you can give us a call at 800-358-6329; again, that number is 800-“F” as in family, “L” as in life, and then the word, “TODAY.”

If you wanted to hear more from the McKinneys, they actually have a podcast called Placed for Purpose: Helping You Love Your Neighbors Well and Engage in Your Neighborhood. You can find that podcast anywhere you get your podcasts. Again, it’s called Placed for Purpose. Or, you could check out the link in the show notes today at FamilyLifeToday.com.

Again, you can become a monthly partner and have your gift matched dollar-for-dollar up to $500,000 by giving today at FamilyLifeToday.com.

We talked a lot about neighboring today, and a lot of people like me, for example, love the practicalities of figuring out how to do that. What are some practical ways to impact your community, redefine neighboring, and embrace what Jesus communicated in the Beatitudes right there in your neighborhood? Well tomorrow, Chris and Elizabeth McKinney are back with the Wilsons to talk about just that. We hope you’ll join us.

On behalf of Dave and Ann Wilson, I’m Shelby Abbott. We will see you back next time for another edition of FamilyLife Today.

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