This article was written by Larry Coulter,

pastor at The Lakeway Church

With all the political noise that this year has generated, it has been hard to hear the whispers of hope that form an underground river in the real lives of people. But the holiday season causes that stream to rise to the top.  It is during the holidays, if we are attentive, that we move our gaze from the frenetic news to the calm core of our faith. The clear deep waters of Jesus’ words cause us to be caught up in the simplicity of the two loves that he places at the forefront of his teaching. Many share the Old Testament teaching from which he drew. Christians call it the Great Commandment. We are to love God with all our being and we are to love our neighbor as ourselves.

This year, knowing that the bruising politics of any presidential election causes wide rifts in our culture, many people in Central Texas turned their attention to Jesus’s call to love our neighbor. It started with a simple challenge to a group of pastors and grew to include over 300 congregations in the Austin area.

First the start: at a monthly gathering, a small group of pastors (myself included) were asked to draw a picture of each of their homes and the houses around them. We were then asked to write something we knew about the people in those houses, our closest neighbors. The leader then asked us to raise our hands if we knew the names of our neighbors. He asked about the neighbors in 8 houses around us, no hands. He then went to five, no hands. Four? One hand goes up, he, a known overachiever. Three? Two? All the hands went up, except for mine. I was at 0. Now in my defense, I live in a more rural neighborhood. Houses aren’t as close together. I’m busy. I give at the office.

Each of the pastors present that day is a senior pastor of a church. The churches represented in that room give away 100s of thousands of dollars to the issues of our broader community.   Health, homelessness, hunger, and education are passionate concerns for our churches and their pastors. But the realization began to sink in that day. We have forgotten how to love our neighbors, the ones right next door.

Sociologists tell us that the health of cities is found in the strong social fabric of our neighborhoods. Jesus was way ahead of them.

What grew from our eye-opening exercise that day was a citywide movement called Love Where You Live. You may have seen the billboards. We simply asked people to begin paying attention to their neighbors and look for ways to love them. Who knew it would be so countercultural in the middle of the campaign vitriol.

We used a simple acronym; BLESS

B-Begin praying for your neighbors (this assumes you have learned their names)

L- Listen to them

E-Eat with them

S-Serve them

S-Share your own story

Thousands have taken up the challenge to Love Where You Live. The stories I continue to hear from those who actually take action have been breathtaking. Even I, the remedial one, have begun to listen to Jesus on this. In my iPhone, under “neighbors,” you will find a list of the people who live around me. I’ve gotten through “Pray”, down to “Listen”, with some “Eat” thrown in, but already it has changed the way I drive down my street.

If you are looking for a radical way to transform a culture, you might join us this holiday season and love where you live. Trust me, no matter your faith background; you will be blessed for your effort.