The vision
Here’s the vision: a team of four godly and faithful men showing up once a month for years on the front porch of a widow, widower or single parent in their church or community to do what ever needs to be done around their home for two hours at a time. The idea is not just to demonstrate faithful, covenant-keeping love to someone with long term needs, but also to be a testimony to their neighbors.
The neighbors are watching
It may take a few months, but eventually those neighbors realize what’s happening and they wonder why. Why would four men choose to commit themselves to serve a needy neighbor like this?
One of the teams I’m on has served our care receiver over the course of 14 years. During that time, we’ve gotten to know a number of her neighbors and they have gotten to know us. They know who we are, what we do and why we’re there. Sometimes they join us on our projects. One neighbor has followed our example and is mowing our care receiver’s lawn weekly. Another neighbor is a crime scene investigator for the city where our care receiver lives. He’s offered to help me re-roof my home. Another neighbor is a coach for a local high school. He’s helped us with a fencing project.
You are a testimony to those neighbors
In all of this, our team has been a quiet testimony to the gospel and to the love of Christ. One of the ways we do this is by closing in prayer, often on our care receiver’s front lawn. We don’t make a big deal of it. We just stop before we leave, form a circle, and pray for each other and for the neighbors on the block. We pray that the Lord will give us opportunities to serve them and witness to them.
In the New Testament, this process is called adorning the doctrine of God (Titus 2:10). Serving our care receivers makes the truth of the gospel attractive to their neighbors. It intrigues them. It makes them feel like they’re on the outside looking in. It quite literally opens doors to witness.
So if you’re on a team that serves a care receiver, at the end of your service time consider closing in prayer on his or her front lawn. Pray for the block. Pray for the neighbors. And see what happens as they watch.
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
_______________________________________________________________
Learn how to form teams of men for every widow, single mom
and fatherless child in your church at NewCommandment.org.
_______________________________________________________________
