Steve welcomes Chris and Elizabeth McKinney to talk about transforming our neighborhoods by sharing and showing the love of Jesus! Listen as the McKinney's takes us on a walk through their book Neighborhoods Reimagined: How the Beatitudes Inspire our Call to be Good Neighbors.
Elizabeth is a wife and mom to four little girls. She is on staff with Cru City and serves as associate staff at her church, The Crossing, in Columbia, Missouri. She writes, speaks, and is passionate about helping people love their next-door neighbors. Elizabeth is also the co-author of Placed for a Purpose and the co-host for the Placed for a Purpose Podcast.
Chris (MDiv, Covenant Seminary) lives with his wife Elizabeth and four daughters in Columbia, Missouri. He works for Cru City and serves as associate staff at his church, The Crossing. He writes, speaks, and is passionate about equipping churches to love their next-door neighbors. He's also the co-host for The Placed for a Purpose Podcast.
What would it take for our neighborhoods to be reimagined? Well, you're listening to Dawn and Steve in the morning, and we have Chris and Elizabeth McKinney with us. Get in touch anytime. (800) 555-7898.
You know, a lot of our neighborhoods really kind of tend to look like, uh, these boxes, these houses around here. And we go from the house to the garage, back out the driveway, go to work, do the shopping, do whatever, come home, pull into the garage, into the house. And we don't know our neighbors neighborhood a little bit like that, I don't mind can be that way very often. That's changing currently. But that has been the case, uh, for, I think a lot of us and, uh, Chris and Elizabeth McKinney are challenging us this morning to reimagine what our neighborhoods might look like. They've written a book about this called Neighborhoods Reimagined. Guys, welcome. It's good to have you with us this morning.
Thank you. It's good to be here.
So good to be here.
Now, you, uh, share in your book the fact that things began to change in your neighborhood a number of years ago. And he said it actually came out of a season where you guys were, in a sense, doing really good things. Seemed like it was looking good on paper, so to speak. But you felt really isolated and you felt like you needed community of sorts. What was going on in your life, Chris, where you realized, hey, we need with intentionality to cultivate some community?
Yeah, we were in a season where we were so busy and so stressed. We had four young kids. Um, I was commuting to seminary, and we were leading a campus ministry at that time at the University of Missouri. And we quickly realized if we were going to have community, a piece of that was going to have to come from the people around us. So we got to know a couple of our neighbors. We did a little fish fry in our driveway, and we made fish tacos, and we realized this was really fun. And we did another little event, an Easter egg hunt. Eight kids came. Four of them were ours. And, uh, from there it just began to grew, grow. And I didn't think our neighbors wanted to interact in this way, because it's a very isolated and independent neighborhood. But the more events that we did, the more we realized that they wanted to be a part of community as well. And so it just began to grow, and we began to meet neighbors from all different walks of life and have a ton of different spiritual conversations.
Um, Elizabeth, were you kind of feeling the same thing at that time?
Oh, I was pulling my hair out. I was knee deep in diapers and and it was like, If I'm going to have to drive across town to have community or to borrow a cup of sugar, I'm going to lose my mind because packing up for kids was almost like going overseas. By the time you get there, they're ready for a nap. So I just I told Chris, I'm like, we need our neighbors. And we met the couple behind us, Bingo and Angie. Bingo was like eight feet tall. Played basketball at the University of Missouri. He's one of the only people who makes my husband feel small, and we just fell in love with the neighbors. We thought, we need these people.
Do that feel a little risky out of the gate? I mean, there's sometimes when you decide I'm going to put myself out there, and what if nobody shows up? What if it doesn't go well? What if we don't get along? What if we don't like these people? I mean, was there an element of did you feel an element of risk?
Yes, it taking the initiative is definitely vulnerable because you kind of start thinking to yourself, well, no one put us in charge. We're not the mayors of Windom Ridge. That's our neighborhood. And so are people going to think it's kind of weird that we're hosting these things. And yet when we looked around, we saw that everyone else was just waiting for someone to take the initiative.
Um, and so, Chris, as you begin to step into that role as mayor, um, was there an element of, uh, did did people acknowledge that right away? Like, did this catch on quickly, or was this something that you guys kind of had to push through a season of kind of uncomfortable awkwardness?
Oh, yeah, I mean, this we our neighboring journey started 12 years ago, and it has been just a low and slow process. We call it the the crock pot. When we did campus ministry with college students, we called it the microwave. It was quick and fast and life changed happen quickly. But in the neighborhood, because of the cultural story of what it means to be a good neighbor, it basically means to leave your neighbor alone. That's when you're being a good neighbor to push through that and get through that awkwardness. Um, it takes a while. You have to build trust. And, um, and so yes, we saw it develop over time. But man, as we continued to just serve, those relationships became so sweet. And there was a lot of trust there to have deeper conversations about really meaningful things. Um.
Yeah. Well, we're going to spend some time kind of unpacking what that looked like for you guys, and even how this ties into the Beatitudes coming up in just a few moments. But Chris and Elizabeth have written a book entitled Neighborhoods Reimagined, and we're going to dive in to what that reimagined neighborhood could look like for you and your neighborhood. If you've got a question or comment you want to join the conversation this morning, you can call or text (800) 555-7898. That's (800) 555-7898. Don and Steve in the morning here on Moody Radio. And we're glad you're with us this morning. As we talk about neighborhoods, reimagine. What would it look like for your neighborhood to be one where people know each other? They even know more than just maybe the first names, but they actually are in each other's lives a little bit. Um, Chris and Elizabeth McKinney joining us to talk about that, because that happened in their neighborhood a number of years ago. And you guys said, you know, stepping out of your comfort zone with intentionality, trying to connect with neighbors made a difference. But you actually were looking at the Beatitudes and realizing that, you know, those Beatitudes could come into play in these this conversation as well. Uh, Chris, how do you take the intentionality of cultivating a neighborhoods and cultivating relationship in that and tie that in to what we see in Matthew five?
Yeah. So 2 or 3 years ago, I was in Matthew and I came to the sermon on the Mount and I hit the Beatitudes, and I kind of moved through them to get to the sermon on the Mount. And I said, wait a second, I want to stop, and I want to see what Jesus is really saying here. And what I learned was, these aren't things that we're doing to try to earn some kind of blessing from God. We've already been blessed with everything in Christ. Instead, these are invitations into a way of living that Jesus modeled for us. And I began to think, wait, if we showed up in our neighborhoods as poor in spirit, merciful as peacemakers, we could see the Lord turn our neighborhoods upside down and really good ways. And so I got really excited, and I came to Elizabeth and I said, we should write a book on the Beatitudes and neighboring.
And I was like, you're absolutely out of your mind. I can't understand the Beatitudes. They're more like a foreign language to me, let alone apply them in a neighborhood. And honestly, do we want to put ourselves out there and say we're we're the Beatitudes people? I mean, the Beatitudes are hard to live out. Words like poor and persecuted are words I'm trying to avoid, not write a book about. And and the Lord convicted me because when I read the salt and light passage in in verses 13 through 16 about being a, a city set on a hill, and, and our neighbors seeing our good works and glorifying our father in heaven. I thought these this passage is coming right on the heels of the Beatitudes. It would do us well to back up and really try to dig in and understand this. And it turns out Chris was right. This is the way Jesus was right. This the Beatitudes really are the the pathway and the vision for how Jesus wants to change our neighborhoods.
And so, you know, the Beatitudes start with being poor in spirit, as you know, you already acknowledged it. Yeah, right. Those those two bookends, poor in spirit and persecution are the two bookends of the Beatitudes right there. But they start with being poor in spirit. And I think that's one that sometimes we kind of struggle to know what it means to be poor in spirit. And so, Chris, first of all, let's begin with the definition. What does it mean or look like to be poor in spirit? And then how does that tie into cultivating relationships in a neighborhood?
Yeah. That's good. So basically it means being dependent on God for everything. You know, when we first come to him through Jesus, we are, you know, empty handed. We have nothing to bring in. Jesus, you know, gives us the righteousness, uh, his righteousness by grace through faith. And then we think, okay, but the rest of the way, I gotta pull myself up by my bootstraps and get my life together. What Jesus is inviting us here is into a life of continual dependence and reliance on him. Even Jesus said in John eight, I can do nothing on my own. He he modeled this for us. And so in our neighborhoods, if we show up and we think, oh, I got this, like, I can play in the right party, I can, I have I'm extroverted, I can get people to like me. We might fall on too far on one side, or we might think, like, I'm introverted or I can't do this. The walls are too high. We may not even get started, but if we show up poor in spirit, depending on God, we say, Lord, help. As I walk across the street and introduce myself to that neighbor that I've been living next door to for two years, and I trust that God is going to use that because he's the one at work.
All right. So we I can get my mind there. Right. But then the very next beatitude talks about blessed are those who mourn. You think, all right, so I'm going to step out of that comfort zone. I'm going to recognize I need to depend on the Lord. But then wait a minute. Mourning it is next. I don't see how mourning and cultivating that relationship with that neighbor necessarily go together, especially on the heels of, you know, being poor in spirit. So help us understand this, Elizabeth.
So for every beatitude, there's kind of a counterfeit beatitude. There's our default setting, a cultural beatitude or a false beatitude. And for mourning, I think we show up and the world tells us, blessed are those who numb out, for they will be comfortable rather than blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. And so when we show up in our neighborhoods, we drive home, we come in, we want to turn on Netflix, put on our robes, check out, and we think that's going to be kind of the way that we're going to be refreshed, when really the the Lord is calling us. Jesus is calling us into a flourishing that looks at the wrongs in our neighborhood and says, this isn't right. It's not right that our neighbors are isolated. It's not right that loneliness is so pervasive. It's not right that my neighbor who's lost his job is going through that alone. And so when we when we mourn, we step into that posture of lament. And we and we really come to a posture of prayer and say, Lord. This. This isn't okay. I'm not all right with this. Would you comfort me with the comfort that you want to extend to my neighbors? And in a way, the comforted become the comforters. That's the. That's the the soothed become the soothers. And we can offer that comfort of Christ to our neighbors.
Well, as we continued talking with Chris and Elizabeth this hour, maybe you've got a question, a comment, something that you'd like to say and join the conversation. You can certainly text in this morning 805 55, 78, 98. Uh, they are parents of four kids living in Missouri, and they've written the book entitled Neighborhoods Reimagined. And if you want to connect with them, certainly encourage you to do that. We're going to continue talking about looking at these reimagined neighborhoods and how the Beatitudes tie into that. Coming up in a few minutes. Don and Steve in the morning on Moody Radio. And we're glad you're here this morning, as we're talking about what it would look like for your neighborhood to be one where instead of being isolated, people were in community, they had to learn to deal with wrongs that need to be righted. And mercy can bring down some of those fences. Um, I know in a lot of neighborhoods, by the way, talking with Chris and Elizabeth McKinney this morning, they have written a book entitled Neighborhoods Reimagined. And, uh, Elizabeth, as you think about some of the common struggles that we see in neighborhoods, sometimes we end up being neighbors with people that are just not very friendly. They are hard to get to know. We don't like them. They're obnoxious. At least we think they're obnoxious. And so if we're going to try and cultivate community in our neighborhoods, when we come up against people that we don't get along with real well and any help or insight about that.
Yeah, there's always a few in every neighborhood. And if you don't know who that neighbor is, it might be you. Um, sometimes we're the we're the non neighbor we like to call it. Um, because our kids like to leave their socks in our other neighbor's driveways and they leave their bikes all out in our yard. Um, so we have to ask for forgiveness a lot because we can kind of be those neighbors. But it's true. We we don't get along with everyone. You don't have to be best friends with every single neighbor. But yet Jesus does call us to love our neighbors, and that could be serving them. It could be bearing with an offense. Maybe your neighbor planted a tree too close to your tree line. Maybe they parked their car in your in your parking spot. Maybe they did something that you consider kind of unforgivable. And I think that's where the beatitude of mercy, blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. That really comes in. Because in our neighborhoods now, we like to say they're they're kind of karma driven in a sense. We we don't really want to show mercy. We like to show revenge in a sense, or we want our neighbors to kind of get get theirs. And so when we can show up with Jesus's invitation into flourishing, that comes through mercy. It is so countercultural. And really, um, it's one of the greatest apologetics, I think, for our faith.
Have you guys actually seen that play out in your neighborhood in some way?
Yeah. I mean, we have been on the receiving end of of that mercy for sure. I mean, there have been times where, you know, I think of one example where we kind of have these annual events that we plan, and we had a neighbor who suggested some other like an alternative plan to to it, and we kind of shot it down. It was on the Facebook group, uh, which is never where you want to do these types of things. But yeah, we did. And I think we really kind of hurt their feelings and we really damaged that relationship. And so we had to humble ourselves. And we just it took time, but we just continued to try to pursue the relationship when we would see them. And eventually we were able to, to move forward. And we were grateful for their forgiveness, even though we didn't talk about it in those terms. You know, they definitely extended that to us and we were really grateful for it.
Um, you know, Chris, you mentioned that a lot of this kind of got started because you guys recognized your need for community and cultivating and developing relationships in the neighborhood. Started with that fish fish fry. Um, how often do you guys, you know, say, we're going to put something on the calendar, invite all the neighborhood to it? What did it look like to get this ball rolling here?
Yeah. So, um, it really started with a block party. Street party. Um, when we did that, we usually do that, um, in May around Cinco de Mayo, kind of that first weekend in May. And that became just an established tradition. We we say a lot of our neighborhood relationships can be traced back to that block party. Then we tackled Halloween. Um, it was every nobody stayed in our neighborhood to trick or treat. And we were like, what an opportunity to get to know your neighbors. So we kind of got some momentum and encouraged everyone to stay in the neighborhood, come outside, and our neighborhood came alive that first Halloween, and it's an incredible night in our neighborhood. And then we do something around the holidays, like a Christmas open house and, um, and then an Easter egg hunt. So that's kind of our big rhythms of activities in the neighborhood. And then there's all other types of, you know, just hanging out by a fire pit or sharing a meal with someone. Uh, in between all those.
Um, you know, a lot of us run such busy lives. We're busy, you know, getting our kids to and from school and soccer practice and music lessons, and then we feel like we've got obligations at church. Got to show up for Sunday school and Wednesday night activities and just. And and I hear this, Elizabeth, I think it sounds fantastic. I don't know where it fits. I don't know how I can begin to put this field. Could feel to some like, this is just one more burden and one more way that I feel like I'm failing. Following Jesus again. What would you say to the person who's like, I like the concept. I don't know how to pull this thing off.
Yeah. Guilt is not a great motivator. Shame is not a good friend. Um, maybe in the short term, but in the long term, it, um, it just doesn't work. And that's not. That's not how Jesus invites us into the neighboring space. He comes with his arm around us. And it's it's with love and motivated by the gospel. And so I think a couple things. One is that we've been blessed to be a blessing. When I think about our neighbors, I, I want for them to experience a lot of the same things that we have. But I think also, you're right, the, the, the time obstacle is huge. And the beatitude that comes to my mind here is, is maybe one you wouldn't think. But blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the, for they will inherit the earth. And our neighbors were living in a culture that steeped in wanting to manifest our best lives. Now where Jesus says, you're going to have an inheritance, but it's going to be delayed and so meekness allows us to margin with our time, with our resources, with with the way that we show up and interact with our neighbors because we don't have to get ours now, we don't have to cram in our best life and health and wealth. Now we can actually carve out a little bit of time. Like like in Leviticus, God commands the Israelites to not glean their fields all the way to the edges, but to leave a little room. And I think that's that that concept really applies here.
All right. So before we move on from this, just real quick, you talked about meekness allows us to do that. And I think first of all let's explain what meekness is here briefly, because I think sometimes we associate that with weakness. And it is not that. So when we have a proper understanding of what meekness is, what do you mean? How does that allow us to do that? So, Elizabeth, let's start with that definition.
Yeah. Meekness was one of the ones I was the most afraid of. Um, when I thought about coming to the Beatitudes because I saw it more as a temperament thing, and it sounded like loser language to me, like an insult. If I were to tell you, Steve, you're you're a really meek guy, you might feel insulted. And that's not right, because Jesus says that meekness is is something that we really have to offer our neighbors. I think meekness is the gentle courage to consider your neighbor's needs over your own. And so what that can look like. Chris talked about being poor in spirit. That has to do with our vertical relationship with God in terms of ongoing neediness of him. But meekness is the horizontal expression of it. It's what our neighbors see. It's when we show up we can consider them rather than ourselves. It's going from meekness to meekness.
I like that, I like that. Well, we're going to continue this conversation with Elizabeth and Chris McKinney as we talk about Neighborhoods reimagined. You can join the conversation, if you'd like, by texting in this morning. (800) 555-7898. Imagine living in a neighborhood where you actually know your neighbors. You're involved in each other's lives. There's a sense of community, and you actually look forward to engaging and interacting with them. Well, Chris and Elizabeth McKinney have written about neighborhoods reimagined, and that actually happened in their neighborhood, where now there is people who are known and there is community there. And kind of looking at neighboring through the lens of the Beatitudes, we've talked about a few of the different Beatitudes, but hungering and thirsting for righteousness in the church world. I think we may have an idea of what that means and could potentially look like. But when you think about taking that beatitude to our neighborhoods where many don't know Jesus, how does that fit in and apply?
Yes, this was a really big aha moment for me when I realized that this invitation isn't a hunger and thirst after the righteousness of Christ, which we have in him through faith, but instead it's an overflow of that righteousness to see things put right. It's kind of that Old Testament righteousness idea where we want to see justice come. We want to see things, um, right. We want to see the effects of the fall. We want to push back on those. And so really, Jesus is calling us here to hunger and thirst like we would hunger for a meal or thirst for a cup of water after a long hike to do good deeds in our neighborhood. And there's just something really cool, um, in the world of food, when you put together different flavors like a steak and blue cheese, it's it's it's the savory. You put those together and you have what you call an umami bomb, and there's this explosion of flavor. And we've seen that same thing happen when you put good deeds and the good news of the gospel together in your neighborhood, there is just this explosion of God's kingdom that can come. And and it says that we'll be satisfied in that there is a level of satisfaction that comes from serving others, from doing right in our neighborhood in order to see God's kingdom come.
Yeah. Elizabeth, um, we can talk a lot about this, and it sounds really good. It's another thing to then do those good deeds, like Chris was just talking about, to begin to actually act. And so if we want to do this, we want to say, I need to get to know my neighbors. I want to cultivate that sense of community. How do you get started?
It's important to remember the parable of the mustard seed, and to know that it's the small, seed sized steps of faith that really can grow. And it might not look like it. It might look small, that little seed, what could ever come from it. And yet that's what grows into a mature tree someday, where birds can come and make their nests. And it provides shade for for the animals and for for those around it. And that's kind of what happens in our neighborhoods, is we we plant the smallest seeds of faith. And it could be an introduction or a wave, or learning a neighbor's name, or having someone over for dinner, or opening up your driveway and putting out a little portable fire pit and having a conversation, just talking to someone at the mailbox, the little things, and removing the word just from your neighboring vocabulary. It's not just a way. Yeah, it's not just a wave. It's not just learning a neighbor's name. It's not just a block party. It's a wave. It's a name. It's a block party. Because those are the means of grace that God uses to build relationships. And we know that relationships are. That's what God uses to to build his kingdom and to draw people into relationship with himself.
All right. So, Chris, when you guys moved in and recognized this need for relationships, life probably looked a lot different. The relationships with your neighbors, what does it look like today?
Man, it's so fun. There are so many people we know we can be out on a walk, and we don't even get a walk in because you're stopping and talking with people. We have neighbors that we can rely on that we call when we're in need, and we experience God's love and care through our neighbors. And we just have some incredible conversations. Like when we were working on this book, we were talking to some neighbors and they're like, what are you up to? And these this, this family was actually from India. And we were like, oh, we're working on a book on the Beatitudes. Jesus's statements in the sermon on the Mount. And have you heard of those? And they're like, no. And so we walk through them. And and she was like, those sound amazing. We're like, yeah, Jesus is pretty amazing. So it's just so fun to have those types of relationships where those conversations can happen. But it's it's taken a long time. It didn't happen overnight. There have been ups and downs, but God has worked over the years.
Yeah, playing the long game with that and being intentional and intentional about doing that. Well, Chris and Elizabeth have written about this again in the book Neighborhoods Reimagined. And, uh, guys, we appreciate you taking the time to challenge us, to maybe cause us to think a little bit more creatively about how we can, with intentionality, reach out to those in our neighborhoods. Chris and Elizabeth McKinney joining us this morning and grateful for your time on Moody Radio.