“If our church disappeared this week, would anyone in our neighborhood notice (or care)?” Ever since the first time I heard that question, it’s haunted me. Is Bellevue Christian Church the kind of church that is making such a difference in the neighborhood that there would be a gaping hole if our church ever closed its doors?
When Jesus was asked which commandment was the most important, he said, “The most important is Listen, Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31).
That’s why we want to be a church that’s “for the good of the neighborhood”—a church that’s living out the Great Commission for the sake of the Great Commandment. The litmus test of whether we are living everyday life like Jesus is how well we’re loving our neighbors—the actual people who live near to us. As a church in the city that made Mister Rogers famous, we want to do whatever it takes to be a church that’s for the good of the neighborhood.
In 2025, we want to lean into “for the good of the neighborhood” in everything that we do. We’re asking you to do four things:
PRAY for your neighbors. *To download a tool that helps you pray for your neighbors, click here. Then, join us at our Pursuit Night on Sunday, March 2 as we pray for our neighbors.
KNOW your neighbors. We want you to get to know your neighbors this year—starting with learning their names. Look for opportunities to do that this year. (And, we’ll share more ways to do that as the weather starts to warm up.)
SERVE your neighbors. We want you to to tangibly love your neighbors this years by serving them, and we’ll share more this summer about how we want to do that as a church.
INVITE your neighbors. Finally, as we move throughout the year, look for opportunities to invite your neighbors into your home for a meal, into our church for Sundays or Alpha, Summer Blast Off, or to an event we host as a church.
We’ll be sharing more throughout the year about what that looks like. To find out more about our 2025 Vision, listen to our message from Vision Sunday. If you want to read a book that help you be a person that’s for the good of the neighborhood, check out The Art of Neighboring by Jay Pathak + Dave Runyon.
Submit Your “For the Good” Story
We want to collect “for the good of the neighborhood” stories this year. Do you have a story about an experience of being “for the good of the neighborhood” this year? We would love for you to share it with us.