But How Do I Love My Neighbors?

The mission of the Church and of individual Christians can be summed up in three simple phrases:

• Reach Up (Love God, in response for His grace given in Christ)
• Reach Out (Love our neighbors through service and sharing the Good News of new life in Christ)
• Reach In (Love those in our church family and submit to God to grow in our faith in Christ)*

This article by Ed Stetzer gives ten solid, practical ways that individual Christians can reach out to their neighbors in love.

*Members of Living Water Lutheran Church will recognize the similarities of this distilled list to what we're describing as the building blocks of the mission and ministry of the Church and of individual disciples of Jesus:

• Love God
• Love neighbors
• Love fellow disciples
• Share the Gospel
• Grow in Discipleship

These five building blocks are based on three passages of Scripture in which Jesus gives the Church its marching orders: Matthew 22:34-40 (the Great Commandment); Matthew 28:19-20 (the Great Commission); and John 13:34-35 (the New Commandment).