Cultivating Community Through Neighboring
Description
The Good Neighbor Experience (GNE) is a cohort-based learning process for congregations who wish to engage their community as neighbors. GNE is rooted in the practices of Asset-Based Community Development and the Christian Faith. The material has been used in congregations since 2017 and the Neighboring Movement team has refined the material with each cohort we’ve led. The process includes in-person workshops, 4 action-based “Labs” of small group materials each 6 weeks long, and congregational coaching for churches; all occurring over a 9 month period.
Introduction Video
Here is a quick video from Neighboring Movement cofounder Adam Barlow-Thompson introducing the Good Neighbor Experiment.
Who is it for?
GNE was created for local congregations of Christian churches. It is done best when 4-12 people from a church are willing to commit to the full scope of the training, including attending all the workshops and personally participating in all 24 weeks of the small group curriculum.
NOT a church growth program
While some congregations do experience numerical growth, GNE is not intended to increase attendance on Sunday mornings or financial contributions. Instead, GNE is meant to create renewed vitality and to help the congregation become more deeply embedded within its community. GNE is for churches that are tired of creating programs that nobody wants to come to. Many of us have been taught that you can only engage your neighbor through evangelism or by providing a service to them; GNE offers another option. Throughout the experiment, churches are invited to move from scarcity to abundance and to see their role shift from service provider to community connector.
How do you participate?
We offer two ways to participate in a cohort.
Regional Facilitator: There may be a regional facilitator in your area who is trained to host an in-person cohort, or maybe you could become a facilitator! If you would like to learn more about what being a GNE facilitator entails, please click here!
Online Cohorts: The Neighboring Movement staff leads online cohorts that will usually start in January and August of each year.
Scope and Sequence
Workshop 1: Neighbor Where You Live
The first workshop introduces the materials and focuses on the theme of neighboring where you live.
Lab 1: The Ingredients of Neighboring
The first lab introduces the ingredients of neighboring: relationship, abundance, and joy. In this Lab, you will learn our theological understanding of neighboring and begin experimenting with practices of neighboring.
Lab 2: The 8 Front Doors
The second six weeks of curriculum ask participants to be great neighbors where they live. This means considering the 8 front doors closest to your own and intentionally being a great neighbor to the people who live in those homes.
Workshop 2: Neighbor As a Church
In the second workshop, you will shift your scope to consider what it means to neighbor as a church.
Lab 3: The Gifts Garden
In the six weeks of Lab 3, the small group shifts to an outward-focused task group. Participants will do Learning Conversations with their group, their church, and people in their neighborhood in order to discover their Gifts Garden. From these connections, they will begin to dream of collective action they could take.
Lab 4: The Re-Cycle
The final six weeks of the small group curriculum focuses on community discernment through contemplation and action. Instead of forming a stagnant strategic plan, the Re-Cycle helps communities be agile in an ever-changing world while maintaining rooted in their core values.
Workshop 3: Celebration!
In the final workshop, the churches are invited to share their journey and celebrate their victories. This workshop is also used to uncover next steps for action and connection. The churches in GNE will be introduced to the Healthy Congregations resources provided by the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund during this workshop.
Cost and Commitments
Responsibility for Churches
Financial Costs: Churches will be asked to cover some cost of the cohort. This cost varies based on the number of churches participating, if the cohort is in-person or virtual, and the regional area where it is being hosted.
People Power: Churches are asked to form a team with a minimum of 4 lay people and 1 church staff person who are committed to attending every workshop and doing all 24 weeks of the small group curriculum.
Responsibilities of Individuals
Action Ready: GNE only works if the church is committed to actually engaging their neighbors. All participants should have the expectation of meeting their actual neighbors, both where they live and in the neighborhood of the church.
Tuition Grants
Thanks to the generosity of the Lilly Endowment and the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund, the GNE is made available to churches at a far lower price than the actual cost. If financial constraints are keeping you from signing up your congregation, please contact us, and we can have a conversation about how to apply for a tuition grant.
Special Grant Opportunity for Great Plains United Methodist Churches
If you are a church in the Great Plains Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, you qualify to have your entire tuition paid for thanks to the generosity of the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund. Churches who wish to apply for this grant would be entered into the Healthy Congregations Program, which provides ongoing support and funding for projects in your local community. You can review this process online.
Contact Adam at adam@neighboringmovement.org for more information
Sign up for our next Online Cohort!
The Neighboring Movement hosts virtual cohorts that start each January and August. Check the registration page for the upcoming dates.
What people are saying about the Good Neighbor Experiment
Rev. Lora Andrews: We signed up for GNE with a goal of being better neighbors individually and for the church to help our community in a new way. Those things definitely happened. But what I didn’t expect was how so many of us had a shift in our understanding of God’s calling in our lives. We became bridge-builders for Jesus instead of do-gooders for Jesus and started to trust in God’s abundance beyond us. GNE built relationships in our neighborhoods but it also refined our mission as a church. It gave our 130 year old church the tools we needed to have a fresh look at where God resides in our community and called us into something new. GNE helped me be a better neighbor personally. I found freedom in learning that I could be missional right where I was. Neighboring is the personal spiritual discipline I needed to have integrity in how I see and know God in others. I needed that regular practice and accountability to grow in my relationship with God and my neighbors.
Joy Lenz (Lay participant): Neighboring has had a profound effect on me. Learning to know and love my literal neighbors and my church’s neighbors has changed how I see my community and how I see God at work in my own life. The training I’ve received through the Good Neighbor Experiment has helped me recognize my own gifts and has given me a practical way to live out my faith.
Rev. Scott McGinnis: As a Pastor I feel the ingredients of the Neighboring Soup are key for Christian discipleship and growing a healthy church congregation. Choosing to grow an interactive relationship with God is fundamental as a follower of Jesus. Seeing the abundance of blessings God has given us, including the beauty of creation, is an abundant part of a Christian worldview. Cultivating joy by intentional practices is fun and should be on every Christian and every humans to do list. In my life, putting these together through the Good Neighbor Experiment curriculum, has helped me see where my life of discipleship is growing and needs to grow. Seeing my congregation reflect on these, I’ve seen them grow their sense of what a Christian church does. As a church we grow these ingredients in people.
Rev. Cheryl Scramuzza: The Good Neighbor Experiment was a wonderful experience for our small group that participated. We shared a meal each time we met and grew closer to one another in relationships that were grown and in sharing our stories in class. The material challenged us to think about how we can be better neighbors and individuals and as a church community. We gained new ideas and added perspectives from the Asset Based Community Development model, which I expect will continue to drive our missional efforts into the future, so we are approaching this work by seeking the abundance of gifts in our midst and all that the community has to offer one another.