We Are Neighbors

  As our culture has become more mobile and our cars have become faster, there has been a move away from "neighborhood churches" and a trend toward driving several miles to a church, according to Rick Rusaw and Brian Mavis, co-authors of "The Neighboring Church." But while these "regional churches" attract members from a large area, they often lose touch with their immediate neighbors, the same way their members often do. "I was working with a church in Ohio, and I asked if they knew how many of their current members lived within a six-block radius of the church," said Mavis. "The pastor immediately said that only one family attending that church lived within six blocks while everyone else was driving in from other neighborhoods." Eventually, that led to forming a "good neighbor" team at that church. The team's sole purpose was to get acquainted with every person or family within sight of their church building. ...

  I was ready for the debate. Ready to argue in favor of loving our neighbors and in support of Missouri Good Neighbor Week. I even had my script written and had the timing down to less than one-minute. The following script was typed out on my phone is 16pt font. I rise to speak in favor of resolution #3 On Loving Your Neighbor. The opposite of loving your neighbor is not hate. The opposite of loving your neighbor is apathy. Research is showing us that Americans and Missourians have believed, for too long, that being a good neighbor means being quiet and leaving their neighbor alone. Only that is not love. It is apathy. Missouri Baptists have the opportunity here to show the nation what it means to get messy and love our neighbors. I would urge Missouri Baptist churches to equip members to become engaged neighbors and use the new Missouri good neighbor week as an opportunity to launch new neighborhood focused outreach and ministry efforts starting on the doorstep of every Missouri ...

The first statewide awards for Missouri Good Neighbor Week were announced on Oct. 20, 2022, by the joint sponsors of the campaign: University of Missouri Extension Greene County and The Hopeful Neighborhood Project headquartered in St. Louis. Missourians from all walks of life celebrated the first Missouri Good Neighbor Week (Sept. 28 to Oct. 4) by doing and reporting neighboring acts and nominating others as the most engaged neighbors in their respective counties. Statewide, MU Extension county councils will do county-level recognition in counties where residents submitted actions or made nominations. This recognition will vary among counties. In Greene County, the local extension office will send each local award winner a check and certificate. The goal for the week had been to document 10,000 acts of neighboring. But instead, Missourians reported 12,594 acts of neighboring during Missouri Good Neighbor Week. Greene County had the most submissions, accounting for nearly 4,000 o...

The University of Missouri Extension Greene County Extension Council is pleased to announce ten Greene County residents chosen for special recognition as neighbors.   Missourians from all walks of life celebrated the first Missouri Good Neighbor Week (Sept 28 – Oct. 4) by doing and reporting neighboring acts and nominating others as the most engaged neighbors in their respective counties. County extension councils statewide are doing county-level recognition. In Greene County, the local extension office will send each local award winner a check and award certificate. The goal for the week had been to document 10,000 acts of neighboring. But instead, Missourians reported 12,594 acts of neighboring during Missouri Good Neighbor Week. Greene County had the most submissions, accounting for nearly 4,000 of the acts of neighboring. "I love discussing these acts of neighboring. These are the stories that do not normally make the news but are the behaviors that are impactful to ou...

  Rick Rusaw and Brian Mavis, co-authors of “The Neighboring Church,” say loving your neighbor begins with learning their name. The next steps are to offer a helping hand and a listening ear.  “We love our neighbors because we are Christians, not because we are trying to make them Christians,” said Mavis. According to Mavis, it is essential not to turn neighbors into projects but to develop neighboring as a form of ministry itself. Instead of donning matching t-shirts, serving for one day, and making local headlines, “neighboring” is a daily, personal experience with one’s neighbors.  “For years, our church was in our community to serve. Then a city employee asked if we would take care of a woman’s yard for her,” said Mavis. “As I was driving up, I spotted the house from blocks away. The grass was almost as tall as me.” Mavis knocked on the door, and a woman answered. He learned this woman had recently survived stage-four cancer, and she was taking care of a nine-year-old...

“Trust is to capitalism what alcohol is to wedding receptions,” suggests Jerry Useem in an article in The Atlantic last November, “a social lubricant ... If trust is sufficiently low, economic growth is unachievable.” Public trust, specifically of the federal government, began to erode in the 1960s. The series of unfortunate events in the following decades — wars, Watergate, economic struggles, impeachments, ever-deepening political divisions, fake news and real news — only contributed to a steady decline of public confidence in the federal government.  During the last two years, like so many other social conditions that pre-existed the COVID pandemic, the level of trust hit an all-time low.   Our national distrust is not only aimed at Washington, D.C. According to a 2019 Pew Study, almost two-thirds of Americans believe trust in each other is falling.  On the other hand, when social trust improves, so does interpersonal trust. This can lead to economic growth. Howev...

Nationwide, cities are increasingly helping neighbors and neighborhoods with engagement, social revitalization, and resident-led improvements. Sometimes this looks like party trailers provided so neighbors can host block parties. Other times it may be neighborhood councils that organize and help to host events on a neighborhood basis across the city. Some cities host local engagement or training academies for neighborhood leaders. Some communities have even embraced the idea of neighbors helping neighbors during clean-up or repair weeks. The options are almost endless. But most of the time, the point is to make our neighborhoods cleaner, safer and friendlier. And in all cases, it works best when it is resident-led. Here in Greene County, the goal of my engaged neighborhood project has been to encourage the development of engaged neighbor relationships, foster healthy neighborhoods, develop grassroots leaders, and fund neighborhood connectors in underserved communities. This...

  The Gross Pointe Rotary Club started the first known tool-lending library in Gross Pointe, Michigan, in 1943. The Grosse Pointe Public Library now operates this tool library. Columbus, Ohio, is the site of the second tool library in the United States (1976), and ModCon Living still operates it. This nonprofit organization works to preserve and revitalize homes and communities in Central Ohio. That library has over 4,800 tools available. Other early examples were the Phinney Tool Library (178) and The Berkeley Tool Library (1979), founded with community block grants. In Springfield, the Urban Neighborhood Alliance (UNA) initially started the tool library. Community Partnership (CPO)  absorbed several of UNA's programs, including the Tool Library, when UNA dissolved.  The tool library in Springfield was reorganized in 2013 by CPO employee Amanda Stadler. Stadler wrote a few small grants for tool purchases and did a lot of research on how other tool library programs functi...

  Missouri Good Neighbor Week 2022 generated hundreds of exciting stories about how individuals connected as neighbors in some amazing and sustainable ways. One of my favorites in Southwest Missouri comes from Echo Alexander, a resident of rural Highlandville. I first mentioned Echo in an article I wrote about neighbors and emergency response . Her first neighbor gathering resulted in a neighbor directory that got used a week later in response to a neighbor's home fire. (True story). But here is Echo's own story following the excitement of her 2022 "neighborhood reunion" as part of Missouri Good Neighbor Week. Sharing a quick story and photo from our great success in Missouri Good Neighbor Week. We hosted our second "Neighbors Reunion" down in Craig Hollow, a rural valley that covers small corners of Ozark, Nixa, and Highlandville within a few connected roads! The momentum that we created at our first event in April when I went door to door and invited p...