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How to Make friends by Hosting a New Year’s Eve Party

By Sam Riviera
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How to Make friends by Hosting a New Year’s Eve Party

Every year we host a New Year’s Eve party to help us get to the neighbors. It is a fun and enjoyable way to get to know your neighbors so that you can show them the love of Jesus. Though I know it is a little early, if you begin planning now, you can get a head start on planning a New Year’s Eve party that will help you get to know your neighbors.

new years eve

Since the evening party needed to be held indoors due to the time of year, we were unable to invite all of our neighbors (our table seats only twenty four), so we focused on our nearest neighbors. When we invited people, most said that they “usually don’t attend New Year’s Eve parties” because they try to stay off the road on New Year’s Eve, then laughed when they realized they all live no more than a block from our house.

Lemon Meringue Pie and Wasabi Peanuts

Last year’s New Years Eve party was literally a last-minute effort thrown together that day and the day before. One of our neighbors was dying. She was very discouraged. We knew she wouldn’t be here for another New Year’s Eve. When she agreed to drop by for a few minutes, we quickly invited other neighbors to join us. But what to cook? We settled on take-and-bake pizzas from Costco, complemented by other prepared foods. Our guests loved it!

This year’s menu was somewhat expanded, but take-and-bake pizza was still the centerpiece. Almost everyone, on their own, brought along pie, cookies, wine, breads, cheeses and so on. The big hit: lemon meringue pie. The big dud: my personal stash of Wasabi peanuts. Although clearly labeled, some people ignored the label (they thought they were getting green Jordan almonds maybe?) and took some anyway. Consequently, all but one person (a true Wasabi fan) happily put their Wasabi peanuts on my plate when they figured out what Wasabi peanuts are.

Eating and Talking

We have no agenda for our neighborhood parties. We set them up and let them happen. Once neighbors get together, they love to eat and talk. Unless the food is bad or there is not enough food, they don’t remember a few weeks later what they ate. However, they do remember who they talked to and what they talked about. We hear people comparing previous places they have lived and worked, what wars they fought in, what’s happening in the neighborhood and various other topics. For the most part, they’re just getting to know each other better.

Moving to Hawaii?

Here are some of the comments people give us in between parties:

”When you have another one of those neighborhood parties, we’d like to be invited.”

“We missed the block party, but plan to come next year.”

“We got to know some of our neighbors better. Even though we’ve lived on the same street for over thirty years, we really didn’t know each other very well.”

“Great party, just a great party!” “Don’t move away! Who’d organize our parties? We love them!”

Most people love getting to know their neighbors. We do! Though we had planned to move to a warmer climate when we retired, we recently decided to stay right where we are. Why? We have lots of really great neighbors!

We care about our neighbors and they care about us and each other. We’re choosing that instead of Hawaii or Florida. If you’re wondering about the spiritual significance of all of this, I will close out this series with a post on that very topic.

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God is Redeeming Church, Redeeming Life Bible & Theology Topics: Discipleship, evangelism, following Jesus, looks like Jesus, love like Jesus, neighbors, New Year, Sam Riviera

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How to Host a Halloween Party

By Sam Riviera
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How to Host a Halloween Party

Every year on Halloween, rather than go down to a local church for a “Hallelujah Party” or hide out in our house with our lights turned off, we host a big Halloween party for our entire neighborhood. This is another practical way we have shared the love of Jesus with our neighbors. (To get more outreach ideas by email, enter your email address at the bottom of the post.)

The day before Halloween we hand out quarter sheets of orange paper in the neighborhood, inviting neighbors to join us at dusk.

Here are some of the things we do:

Build A Fire In The Driveway

On Halloween night, we take our iron chiminea and put it on the driveway. Then we build a fire, put a circle of chairs around it, and hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters on the driveway.

We have also started to invite the neighbors to join us.

Last year, we put out a big pot of chili. And of course, chili needs cornbread to go with it. And since the night can be chilly, we put out hot cider and hot chocolate. While we’re at it, we make a few batches of our Secret Recipe Cookies.

Pumpkins, Cats, and Candy

halloweenWe fill a large bowl with candy bars. Sometimes there is a neighbor who will not get home from work until later in the evening, and she gives us a package of candy to hand out for her. In addition to the circle of chairs, we set up tables to hold the food and carved pumpkins, fiber-optic pumpkin heads, and cats.

People start showing up just after dusk. We light the fire and people gravitate to the food tables and the chairs around the fire. Several neighbors bring their bowls of candy to hand out to trick-or-treaters on our driveway instead of at their houses. A few also bring food and drinks to share.

Some people stay all evening. Some only stay for a short while, eating a bowl of chili, and chatting with friends and neighbors. Others came by with their children, greet a neighbor or two, grab a cookie or cup of hot cider, and continue accompanying their children on their trick-or-treating rounds.

Tricking Our Neighbors?

Did we do this so we could invite people to a Bible study, church service, or give them Christian literature? – Never! People can smell this sort of fake evangelism a mile off. Don’t befriend people just to invite them to church.

We do this so we can get to know our neighbors better, and so they can get to know each other better. We’re learning to love our neighbors like Jesus, and before we can do that, we have to get to know them.

halloweenAnd we do! Simply by spending time with, eating with them, and sharing life with them, we get to know them. Inevitably, we have conversations about life – including the meaning of life and its problems and where God is in all of that, hopes, needs and a variety of other issues. These all take place before, during, and after these events.

What A Great Neighborhood!

Do people want community? In our experience most people definitely do.

After last year’s Halloween party, several people at the Halloween party commented that their friends and relatives have said they wish they lived in our neighborhood, a neighborhood where people know each other and have neighborhood parties. One of our friends who does not live in the neighborhood commented this week “What a great neighborhood!”

People often say, “You need to go to church to be in community.” I say, “We are the church, in our community!”

We are the church as we get to know our neighbors, live in community with them, and show them the love of Jesus.

We’re learning to love our neighbors and help them in places where they need help, in places where we are able to help. We’re helping build community, a community where people know each other and care about each other, a community where people talk about inconsequential things as well as about really important things, including Jesus.

Do you want to share Jesus with your neighbors?

There's more to it than inviting them to church...

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God is Redeeming Church, Redeeming Life Bible & Theology Topics: be the church, being the church, church growth, Discipleship, evangelism, guest post, Halloween, looks like Jesus, love like Jesus, loving neighbors, neighbors, Sam Riviera

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Get to Know your Neighbors Through Their Plumbing

By Sam Riviera
9 Comments

Get to Know your Neighbors Through Their Plumbing

If you want to love your neighbors like Jesus, it often doesn’t take great acts of kindness or huge sacrifices on your part, but simply being open to seeing what their needs are, and willing to help out when and where you can.

Loving People

I ran across a great statement in Kathy Escobar’s blog post “Dreamers, lovers, and status-quo rockers”:

I’d say that the most defining part of my faith–the center of what I believe–is the love of people & redemptive community. The way I connect with God is through relationship with people.

Even though Kathy’s statement does not describe our “agenda,” it describes our experience. We love people because we are followers of Jesus, but have discovered that in the loving we are connecting with God!

How does this happen? Perhaps some current real-life examples with some of our neighbors will help explain.

Plumber Needed

plumbers neededOn the 4th of July, the morning after the block party, our phone rang not long after we got up. Our neighbor, a single woman, told us that her kitchen drains had backed up and her plumber wasn’t available on the holiday. She asked if I could look at the problem.

Half an hour later, I had determined that there was a blockage inside the wall. I needed a plumber’s snake and a plumbing fitting to fix the problem. One neighbor loaned me a snake, and another neighbor found the necessary fitting in his box of plumbing supplies. Three neighbors cooperated to provide tools, supplies, and labor to help a fourth neighbor!

Later that afternoon the woman whose drains now worked phoned us once again to thank us and to tell us about her conversation with her mother, an elderly lady who lives alone, about forty minutes from us. Our neighbor had told her mother about the block party, her neighbors and the cooperation of her neighbors in getting her drains unstopped that morning. Her mother told her that she (the mother) would like to have neighbors like that who she could call if she got in trouble (She has concerns about living alone).

Remodeler Extraordinaire

The following day, another neighbor, with whom we had become better acquainted while talking with him about the block party, saw us walking and invited us to see what he had done with his house. I owned one contracting business and managed another and am not easily impressed with remodels, but I was very impressed with his. He has made an extraordinary number of improvements to his home, many one-of-a-kind modifications. Without a doubt he is a borderline genius.

As we walked through his house, he told us his story, his achievements and some of the difficulties he has faced. He told us his dreams, dreams for his future, including business dreams. When we hear someone’s story we see the hand of God, where God has been working in their life and glimpses of His plan for their future.

Real Life with Real People

These stories may not be the dramatic stuff of famous books or sermons, but are the simple, yet beautiful stories of real life with people we know: our neighbors. They are stories of where we see God, in people we know, in our neighbors, in our neighborhood.

We have discovered that we connect with God when we connect with the people who cross our paths in the course of everyday life.

Do you have stories of experiencing connecting with God when you connected and formed relationships with other people? Share any that you might have in the comment section below!

Do you want to share Jesus with your neighbors?

There's more to it than inviting them to church...

Fill out the form below to receive several emails about how to get to know your neighbors and love them like Jesus.

(Note: If you are a member of RedeemingGod.com, login and then revisit this page to update your membership.)

God is Redeeming Church, Redeeming Life Bible & Theology Topics: Discipleship, evangelism, following Jesus, looks like Jesus, love like Jesus, neighbors, Sam Riviera, Theology of the Church

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How to Host a Block Party for your Neighbors

By Sam Riviera
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How to Host a Block Party for your Neighbors

Do you want to get to know your neighbors better? Try throwing an end of Summer block party! Here are some suggestions from Sam Riviera about how to do this:

Get Help for Your Block Party

Our street had not had a block party for over twenty years. My wife and I appeared to be the only ones who had an interest in having a party for the entire street (which is one block long). In the past two or three years, however, at least half a dozen of the new families who have moved onto the block expressed an interest in getting to know their neighbors, and thought a block party was a good idea.

block partyMy wife and I decided we would organize a Fourth of July block party. When we mentioned our plans to several of our neighbors, two couples offered to help us. Within a few days, additional neighbors began asking questions about the date, time and other details.

We settled on July 3rd for the party. In early June, we handed out “Save the Date” fliers to everyone on the street and to a few people on adjoining streets. The last weekend of June we handed out a second flier that gave additional details, served as reminders and asked those who planned to attend to RSVP so we would know how many supplies, ice cream and so on to buy.

It is near the end of the summer, but you could easily do an end of summer party, or even a Labor Day party over the first weekend in September.

What Time Does The Block Party Start?

We placed several large grills on our front sidewalk, and set up tables, chairs and shade canopies on the yards and driveways of two houses across the street from our house. Lawn chairs were set up on a shaded lawn, and food serving tables were set up under another shade tree. Set-up was scheduled to start at 2:00 and the party at 4:00, with build-your-own ice cream sundaes and brownies at 6:00.

Over a dozen people arrived around 2:00 to help set up, and the party started. Some of the set-up people knew each other and some did not. When the set-up was finished, no one went home, but instead sat in the shade and talked, and more people came when they saw the tents and people. Some people left early and some came late, but the party finally ended at dusk, then continued for several of us in our family room.

Who Is That Person?

In total almost sixty people joined us. No one knew everyone (o.k., my wife and I did, but there was one couple we knew only slightly), but most people knew almost everyone else by the end of the party. (We used name tags on which everyone wrote their first name, then placed the tag on their shirt.) I kept busy making sure that everything was running smoothly, and then kept busy dipping ice cream. Almost every moment I wasn’t working with the food and supplies, people were asking me questions about each other (such as “Which house does that couple over there live in?”)

When Can We Do This Again?

Almost everyone asked if we could do it again. Several people asked if we could do it twice a year. (In later posts, I will give detailed plans for a neighborhood Halloween party that can be held on driveways.) Almost everyone said they were glad to meet neighbors who they had not known or had barely known prior to the party. Many commented that they felt the event was a “real community builder.”

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

block partyI told Jeremy I would report on the good, the bad and the ugly. To the best of our knowledge, there was no bad or ugly. Everyone got along. No one was left out. (My wife and I made sure that new people and shy people were introduced, included and seated with friendly people.) Yes, we do have a person on the street who has offended many neighbors. Several people took me to the side and asked “Was ______ invited?” I replied that (s)he was. They replied “Good!” and indicated that it was too bad the person chose not to attend.

Marshmallow Creme and Maraschino Cherries

After stacks of paper supplies, several gallons of ice cream, and tons of marshmallow creme, maraschino cherries, chocolate toppings and assorted other toppings later, the party is over, but the relationships are deepening for some, improving for others and just getting started for yet others.

Is there a reason we do all this work? Is there a reason to get to know our neighbors and help them to get to know each other? We feel there is, and the next post will give some real life examples from our neighborhood.

Have you ever hosted a block party? Tell us about it in the comments below! If you host a block party at the end of summer or for Labor day, tell us what you did and how it went!

Do you want to share Jesus with your neighbors?

There's more to it than inviting them to church...

Fill out the form below to receive several emails about how to get to know your neighbors and love them like Jesus.

(Note: If you are a member of RedeemingGod.com, login and then revisit this page to update your membership.)

God is Redeeming Church, Redeeming Life Bible & Theology Topics: Discipleship, evangelism, looks like Jesus, love like Jesus, neighbors, Sam Riviera, Theology of the Church

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Loving Neighbors without an Agenda

By Sam Riviera
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Loving Neighbors without an Agenda

As we have looked at getting to know our neighbors, building relationships with them and then getting to know them even better and helping them to get to know each other better through group events (Get all these posts in your email inbox by signing up below), perhaps you have wondered why we do this.

Loving Neighbors

Are we networking, finding people who have something we need or who may buy something we’re selling?

Maybe we are building relationships so we can convince people to accept Jesus or attend our church?

Another possibility is that since most people want to live in a friendly neighborhood, maybe we are building relationships with our neighbors to improve the value of our property?

Or are we just looking for friends?

None of these are really our reason.

We try to get to know our neighbors, whether they live on our block, three streets over, in the next neighborhood or across town because as followers of Jesus we try to unconditionally love everyone who crosses our path.

But shouldn’t we try to get our neighbors to attend our church or accept Jesus (or both)?

Hmmm… Consider a parable Jesus told. We usually call it the “Parable of the Good Samaritan,” though it might be better to call it the “Parable of the Beaten Man Lying By the Side of the Road.”

Is the parable about Samaritans, people in need, religious people who are too busy with their religion to help people in need, or what?

Is it possible that one lesson Jesus is teaching us is that our neighbor can be anyone who crosses our path (or whose path we cross)?

Might another lesson be that we should help and love people lavishly, with no expectation of getting anything in return? Could it be that Jesus is teaching us to love other people simply because they are our neighbors?

But how can we love whoever crosses our path, with absolutely no agenda? Is that possible?

It is possible. We think this is what Jesus is talking about in “love your neighbor as yourself” and in the story we call the “Parable of the Good Samaritan.”

But shouldn’t we tell people about Jesus?

We love them first and tell them about Jesus when they ask.

Many do ask, but not all. Most people we know have figured out that we follow Jesus. Sooner or later they ask us about it, when they’re ready to talk about it.

We do not love people so that we can tell them about Jesus. We love them so that they can ask us about Jesus.

And maybe they will not ever ask us about Jesus. That’s okay. We love them still, unconditionally, with no strings attached and no hidden agenda.

My job is to love people like Jesus; God’s job is to draw them to Jesus.

Many years ago a couple we slightly knew invited us to their house for “dessert,” which turned out to be a high pressure sales presentation for a multilevel marketing company. We felt tricked. Even though we have received many subsequent invitations from other people we know for similar presentations (always disguised as something else), we could smell those a long way off, like dead fish, and we have never been “tricked” again.

So it goes with most attempts to “win people to Jesus” (which usually means getting them to attend our church). Most people can smell “fake friendship” a long way off and avoid these people like they avoid dead fish.

Smelling like Jesus, however, smells like loving our neighbor, loving them lavishly for the pure and simple reason that we are the kind of person who does this, loving them with absolutely no agenda attached.

That is a sweet smell, a pleasant aroma, both to our neighbor and to Jesus.

Do you want to win people to Jesus? Simply love them like Jesus, with no agenda whatsoever.

What experiences have you had in loving other people like Jesus? Share an example in the comments below of how you showed lavish love on someone whose path you crossed, with no strings attached.

Do you want to share Jesus with your neighbors?

There's more to it than inviting them to church...

Fill out the form below to receive several emails about how to get to know your neighbors and love them like Jesus.

(Note: If you are a member of RedeemingGod.com, login and then revisit this page to update your membership.)

God is Redeeming Church, Redeeming Life Bible & Theology Topics: Discipleship, evangelism, following Jesus, looks like Jesus, love like Jesus, neighbors, Sam Riviera

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