A brief recipe for agendaless neighboring.

  1. Make regular walks through your community – weekday evenings, weekends – say “hi” to everyone you encounter – be visible
  2. Pray for the people you see and ask God to cultivate a real love for them in your heart
  3. People you actually get to meet and talk to, write down their names when you get home and then add them to your daily quiet time… not simply praying that you get an opportunity to “share the Gospel” with them, but again praying that God will truly cultivate a love for them in your heart
  4. When you pray for them, pray for an opportunity to get to know them and that God would open the door to spend some time with them. There are no accidents and the people you encounter are all divine appointments whether they lead to a conversion dialog or a simple conversation about the weather.
  5. Pursue relationships with the people you encounter that you feel any sort of connection to (always being wise to seek the guidance of the Spirit in any encounter)
  6. Trust God. He will guide the conversation – you take each step in faith and He’ll meet you there. This isn’t sales school – you don’t have a quota to meet to prove you’re doing “what you should be doing.”

Now… I am still working on doing all of the above and I struggle every day – doesn’t change the fact that we should all be trying to do this.