Serving our communities during the COVID-19 crisis can be, well, complicated. And, that’s why we reached out to Dave Runyon, the author of The Art of Neighboring and co-founder and director of CityUnite, to discuss how to do this well. Since its initial publication in 2012, the Art of Neighboring has become a go-to resource for more than 3200 churches around the country as they work to impact their cities. In this conversation, Dave explained how to serve and strengthen our communities by starting with our next-door neighbors.

Big takeaways:

• Dave asks a great question about the commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:34-40): “What if Jesus meant our actual neighbors?”
• Why the Art of Neighboring is designed to motivate and mobilize church congregations rather than as a new program.
• His extremely convicting block map and the question: “Do you know the names of the eight neighbors closest to you?”
• Here’s the COVID-19 Neighboring Toolkit discussed in the interview as well as other resources.