A house in the hood

Earlier this month Pastor Claudine and I had the privilege of visiting our special needs neighbours at the Robinglade group home.  Several residents of this home have been joining us for worship over the past years.   We learned that Hughie grew up a Lutheran and loves church music.  On a good day, he'll play the organ that dominates the living room.   In this home where residents are encouraged to be self-directed, Hughie sought out the church down the street and asked his house-mates to join.  Now we sometimes have two workers and four residents joining us for worship.  There is much to be learned from Hughie.  We also found out about their wish to better the appearance of their home with some plants and gardening.  Not long after sharing this information at St. Philip's,  Sabine and husband John came across several flats of annuals and went over for a planting party with the residents.  We found out about upcoming birthdays and other group homes in the neighbourhood.  The director and the care workers thought they might like to come to our pet blessing in September.  It was one small effort to connect but a big experience of engaging with our neighbours. 

Bad news, good news

In a recent call committee meeting with our Bishop Mike Pryse, he commented on the high quality of the congregational mission profile which was submitted to begin the call process.  One of the sections he drew attention to was 'mission in the community' and applauded the fact that we had pulled a good profile of our neighbourhood from the 2006 census.  His pithy summary about mission was that it is our job to go out and find out what the bad news is and then be ready to share the good news in a way that is relevant to the bad news in our context.  I felt quite challenged by that comment.  It's relatively easy to pull census data,  it's alot harder to be willing to do what it takes to connect with our neigbhours.  And yet, I do feel that is exactly what we are being called to do.  It struck me that this signage ironically is the exact opposite of what our call is in the neighbourhood.  I do wonder how we will work on connecting with our neighbours.  It strikes me that going to visit the group home from where we have regular Sunday worship visitors might be an example of getting started.  What reactions and ideas do you?