Zoe Hatcher

What do you think of when you hear the word neighborhood? Maybe something nostalgic, like Sesame Street or Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood—an ideal community where everyone works together, differences are celebrated, and kindness is the norm. But for many, reality looks quite different. Broken homes, isolation, division. Most people today don’t even know their neighbors.

In today’s world, neighborhoods have become places of separation rather than connection. People live next to each other for years without ever really knowing one another. But Jesus calls us to more than just coexisting—He calls us to love our neighbors.

(This series is inspired by the book The 9 Arts of Spiritual Conversations by Schaller and Crilly.)

The Neighboring Challenge

Try this exercise: Fill out a simple map of your neighborhood and answer the following questions about those around you:

• Names – Can you name the people in the houses around you?
• Basic details – Do you know anything about their lives, such as their families or jobs?
• Deeper knowledge – Have you had conversations where you’ve learned about their passions, struggles, or faith?

The reality is:

• Only 10% of people can name all their neighbors.
• About 3% can share personal details about them.
• Less than 1% know their neighbors’ hopes, dreams, and struggles.

Why is this? In America, we are an individualistic society, prioritizing personal space over community. In contrast, many cultures around the world value collectivism—caring for and supporting one another as a way of life. But God designed us for community. In Genesis, He said, “It is not good for man to be alone.” The early church in Acts reflected this deep sense of togetherness, meeting each other’s needs and living in true spiritual family.

Until we receive new eyes, we cannot truly see our neighbors. Until we receive a heart transplant, we cannot truly love them.

Seeing Your Community Through God’s Eyes

Do we see our city, our neighborhood, and our neighbors as God does? Or do we, like Nathanael in John 1:46, say, “Can anything good come from there?”—writing off our community because of its struggles?

Bradford, PA—like many communities—faces real challenges:

• High rates of drug overdoses and opioid addiction.
• Increased mental health struggles, with 47% of adults diagnosed.
• 28.4% of residents living in poverty—significantly above the national average.
• Housing and unemployment issues that leave many struggling.

But God has a dream for our city. A dream of healing, transformation, and restored families. A vision of neighbors truly knowing and loving one another.

Jesus’ Command to Love Our Neighbors

When asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus answered:

Luke 10:27
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself.”

He followed this with the Parable of the Good Samaritan, teaching that being a neighbor is not about proximity—it’s about action. It’s about seeing people, caring for them, and meeting their needs.

How to Start a Neighboring Movement

1. See Your Neighbors – Look at your community with fresh eyes. Who lives near you? What are their stories? Make eye contact, smile, and start noticing them.
2. Accept That God Placed You Here for a Reason – Stop wishing you lived somewhere else or that your neighbors were different. You are here on purpose. God put you in this place for a mission.
3. Pray for Your Neighbors – Set a daily reminder to pray for those around you. Ask God to give you a heart for them, to love and understand them better.
4. Build Relationships Through Simple Acts – Love starts small.
   • Learn and use your neighbors’ names.
   • Offer help when you see a need.
   • Spend time outside, being available for conversation.
   • Invite them over for coffee or a meal.
5. Ask God for a Heart Transplant – Lay down the self-centeredness that says, “I don’t need anyone else.” Ask God to replace it with a heart that longs to love and serve others.

It’s Time to Move Into the Neighborhood

Jesus didn’t just love from a distance—He moved into the neighborhood. John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.”

It’s time for us to do the same. Who is God calling you to truly SEE this week?

— Pastor Zoe

(This series is inspired by the book The 9 Arts of Spiritual Conversations by Schaller and Crilly.)

Today we are looking at The Art of Serving Together. We know and have heard of the importance of serving, but serving together invites people into a relational environment where they can belong so that they may see and feel the Gospel being lived out. A special bond is formed when you pursue a common cause with someone.

“Today’s typical outsiders aren’t likely to be reached through persuasive argument but instead through first experiencing an authentic Christian: someone who is willing to roll up his or her sleeves and restore alongside them.” – Gabe Lyons

There’s a saying that goes, “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” When Jesus fed the 5,000 in John 6, He asked the disciples to feed the crowds. Then He proceeded to take what they gave Him and showed them how to feed them by faith. They served the people together.

Scripture describes the followers of Jesus as “living stones” with which the Kingdom of God will be built. (1 Peter 2:5) Going out to serve among and with the people of our communities gives us a great opportunity to be living stones. When we communicate God’s personal love and care for people, our message resonates with authenticity.

Things to Consider When Serving Together

• Choose the Right Opportunity – Don’t just identify needs to fill, but discover what people are passionate about. You want them to want to join you in the work, not just watch you serve.
• Make an Invitation – Build a bridge of relationship by practicing the former arts of spiritual conversations. Pray first, make it clear what you will be doing together, and make it fun! Allow them to respond—don’t say their ‘No’ for them.
• Prepare – Start with prayer. Ask God to open doors and grow the seeds you are planting. Be prepared for the task: get permission from those you are going to serve, and have all the needed supplies ready.
• Compelling Service – Be a good example of service. Work hard without complaining. Let them wonder why you are doing this. Let your actions do more talking than your words.
• Gentle Answers – When you do answer their questions that come while serving, remember what your relationship with God means to you and why your service is an outflow of that relationship. 1 Peter 3:15 tells us to “be prepared to give an answer” about the hope we have in Jesus. Be ready.

Service: Living Out Our Faith

One of our core values as a church is Action: Sacrificial Service to Others.

I heard recently that Francis Chan shared this when speaking at a large conference:

“How many would go on missions wherever God sends you for the Gospel?” (Many raised their hands.)
“I was afraid you’d say that… you won’t even walk across the street to your neighbors.”

Isn’t that the truth? Unfortunately, we tend to seek out the “big things” to do for God as our calling or our duty, rather than being the one who will offer to babysit for a neighbor or take a meal to a friend.

Listen to this message on Serving today and reflect on what God is saying to you:
Listen Here

We are well into our 40 Days of Sharing commitment now. Most definitely, this has required a great deal of sacrificial service from us all as a church. Can we count the cost of what this means for us? And then ask Him to fill us for His service.

Galatians 6:9 (NIV)
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

I’m praying that you find opportunities to serve together with someone you are trying to reach with the Gospel this week. Be Salt and Light to your neighbors!

— Pastor Zoe

As we continue our 40 Days of Sharing, we shift our focus to the heart of Jesus’ mission: Loving Our Neighbors. This week, we explore The Art of Loving and The Art of Welcoming—two essential practices that allow us to embody Christ’s love in our relationships and communities.

(This series is inspired by the book The 9 Arts of Spiritual Conversations by Schaller and Crilly.

The Art of Loving

Love is to be the basis of our efforts of sharing Jesus with anyone. If we do not love when we Notice (Art 1), Pray (Art 2), Listen (Art 3), and Ask Questions (Art 4), then our attempts will fail. We cannot learn any of the other Arts to build relationships in which we are attempting to lead someone into the Faith. From our message on Sunday, when God’s love has been poured into us, it overflows into the lives of everyone around us. When we have experienced His love, we are motivated to spread it in tangible ways to people in our world who are burdened with guilt and judgment, without God and without hope.

1 John 4:7-12
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

When we have learned the love of God, we begin to increasingly love what He loves—which is people. Both those who are near to Him and those who are far from Him. For that reason, Love initiates and pursues those who are hurting or different from us. We reach out, take the first step, don’t avoid, and don’t condemn.

How do we show the heart of God’s love in our interactions with those who are hurting?

• Listen—we can give the hurting the ministry of our presence.
• Gentle words—acknowledge their pain is real and give them permission to grieve and heal.
• Don’t offer pat answers—if you use scripture or Christian sayings, make sure it’s from the heart and appropriate to share in their context.
• Show up—be faithful in showing up in their life, be the one they can count on to be there.
• Look to Jesus—ask the Holy Spirit to help you know what to say, and when you don’t, point them to Jesus.

God loves people extravagantly—do we?

The Art of Welcoming

Our God is a welcoming God, constantly pursuing, seeking, and inviting people into His loving community. When we welcome someone, it is bringing them from being a vulnerable outsider to being connected with others. Welcoming is so much more than entertaining or asking people to come to us. We can have a welcoming presence wherever we go! It’s all in our intention and our attitude.

The ingredients to creating a welcoming environment include: honesty, authenticity, common interests, a flexible plan, food that is generously shared, good conversation, genuine listening, empathy, fun, and humor. We see all of these qualities in Jesus as He interacted with His followers.

Luke 15:1-2
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

He wants us to do the same. We can do this by looking at four aspects of Welcoming:

1. Your Face – Ever heard the saying, “Are you happy? Then tell it to your face.” Many times we can have things on our minds that have nothing to do with the people around us, but it affects our countenance. We can look angry or stern without even realizing we are doing so, projecting the idea that we are not happy to be with them. Being intentional about our facial expressions and how they are communicating a welcoming attitude toward others is important. A smile and warm eye contact go a long way toward helping someone feel welcomed.
2. Your Space – Some people struggle with relational awkwardness, regardless of whether you are an introvert or an extrovert. How open and comfortable are you around others? Do you try to make others feel at ease around you? Try to find common ground—this will help both you and others loosen up and feel comfortable in your interactions.
3. Your Place – Where you welcome others and the condition of the space matters. We’re not talking about the level of cleanliness or the appearance of the space, but is it warm and inviting? Sometimes a spotless or high-end home, car, or office can make people feel intimidated or uncomfortable. But likewise, so can a filthy and disorganized space. Think of a place where you feel relaxed and accepted. What can you do to create the kind of atmosphere where others feel comfortable and welcomed?
4. Your Grace – Are we able to extend grace to others? When we strive to be a person that is safe, that accepts them as they are, we create an environment of grace. That environment of grace leads to transparent sharing and vulnerability, which can lead to more opportunities to share our faith in the context of relationships. Welcoming grace is being willing to admit we don’t have all the answers and that life can be messy, but that we come to Jesus for the answers together.

No matter where we are or where we go, we can create a welcoming atmosphere of God’s love. How are you going to go out and welcome others today?

— Pastor Zoe

As we continue our 40 Days of Sharing, we move from Noticing and Praying into the next crucial step: Listening and Asking Questions. Engaging in spiritual conversations starts with truly hearing people and seeking to understand their hearts.

The Art of Listening

During these 40 Days of Sharing, we will be exploring the 9 Arts of Spiritual Conversations from the book by that name by Schaller and Crilly. Let’s prepare our hearts to serve with our next art, Listening.

Proverbs 18:13 – To answer before listening—that is folly and shame.

How many times have we done this—answered someone before actually listening to them? I have been guilty of this. Or maybe while we are “listening” to them, we are actually formulating our highly prepared biblical responses. All the while, not actually hearing anything they said. The questions behind their questions. What may be really going on in their heart.

We can only come to this place of really hearing someone when we have prepared our hearts to lay aside our agenda and really receive what someone is saying—listen to them. Everyone has a story to tell, and everyone is a part of God’s story.

Many of us can feel uncomfortable with silence or doubt. We can feel uneasy around unanswered spiritual questions, especially if we don’t feel like we’re prepared to give them a good enough answer. But a good listener can handle unresolved emotion or unanswered questions. Sometimes we can feel confident to leave them in God’s hands and trust that His truth will be revealed to them in His timing.

When we surrender our desire to be the expert and our need to resolve differences immediately, we’ll see barriers to listening dissolve. A part of our spiritual journey is discovery, and this requires patience to allow that discovery to unfold for others, and to not interrupt this process.

Also, it’s important for us to know that many times people don’t want our answers; what they really want is a friend.

Listening requires putting others first. We see this in Jesus when He interacted with people. He listened, and then usually He asked questions later. Listening is love. We are seeking to understand the other person, rather than insisting they understand us.

We can begin to learn to be Reflective Listeners. We reflect the person’s words back to them to ensure we are understanding what they are saying. And once they feel heard, we can then ask follow-up questions.

• “I think I hear you saying…”
• “Tell me more…”

We become curious about the person and let go of our need to control the outcome of the conversation.

The Art of Asking Questions

You may not think this is an art, but it requires us to get out of our own experience and to begin to be curious about another’s experience. This art invites you to directly engage with another person and create an environment for meaningful conversation. Curiosity moves us from our last art of Listening to Asking Questions and fully engaging. When we care about a person, we are motivated to know more, understand better, and explore deeper.

The key is also being sensitive to God’s timing for beginning to ask questions. If we rush in and interrogate someone insensitively, we run the risk of killing the conversation—and the relationship. Curiosity focuses our attention on someone else, not just ourselves or our agendas. Good questions are open-ended, concise, and help people to feel safe and understood.

Some simple questions to approach others with:

• History: “Where are you from?” “What is your faith background?”
• Transitions: “Where are you now?” “What’s been going on in your life lately?”
• Principles: “How did you get here?” “Why did you go into this line of work?” “Who do you count on for spiritual advice?”
• Goals: “Where are you going?” “What would you like your faith to look like?” “What do you think about life after death?”

Notice that there is a progression to these questions. If you go up to a stranger and ask them a question on their goals, “Where will you go when you die?”, chances are you will come off as rude and a religious nut. But as you build relational trust and move from questions of History, through Transitions and Principles, over time, you can get to the questions that lead them deeper into the goals they may have for their faith. Connection builds trust, and trust is the bridge that can bear the weight of truth.

And pay attention to their answers. Questions help to uncover people’s hearts and expose the things that stand between them and God. What their responses will reveal will be the material that we use to begin to explore the answers that they are seeking together. It is an opportunity to not have all the answers, but to point them to the One who does.

What are some simple questions that you have asked those you are sharing with this week?

Share their responses and let’s pray together for the fruit of those conversations to grow into faith!

— Pastor Zoe

During this season of Lent, we are focusing on 40 Days of Sharing—learning how to engage in spiritual conversations and share our faith with others. As we prepare our hearts for this journey, we begin with The Art of Noticing and The Art of Praying.

The Art of Noticing

During these 40 Days of Sharing, we will be exploring the 9 Arts of Spiritual Conversations from the book by that name by Schaller and Crilly. These 9 Arts are based on the way that Jesus interacted and ministered to others. Before we plunge out into our neighborhood to do the work of sharing our faith with others, we want to start this mission by getting ready and preparing our hearts to serve.

This first begins with the Art of Noticing. We don’t think of noticing others as a big deal, but in this distracted society where most people notice nothing but their cell phones, it takes a great deal of effort to begin noticing those around us.

First we must deal with the barriers that stop us from noticing others:

• Pace of Life: Are we too rushed and preoccupied to see others?
• Self-Focus: Are we too focused on ourselves and our problems to see those of others?
• Christian Bubble: Are we so involved with our church and our Christian friends that we are no longer around those who still need Jesus?
• Attitude: Are we being judgmental of others that we don’t know?

Matthew 9:36-38 “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’”

Jesus noticed the people and had compassion for them. And that moved Him to action.

“Noticing people can move us to compassion and action as it humanizes the nameless faces around us. People become real to us, with real lives and real problems in need of a real Savior.” – 9 Arts of Spiritual Conversations pg. 45

“If we are to love our neighbors, before doing anything else we must see our neighbors.” – Frederick Buechner

We don’t just stop at noticing others though. Noticing others opens the door to relationships and the Gospel message.

We can practice the Art of Noticing by beginning with these 3 practices:

• Pay attention: Choose to focus on someone long enough to wonder about them.
• Secret prayer: Send up a silent prayer for the person and what you have noticed about their life.
• Genuine listening: Look the person in the eye, ask them “How are you?”, and then listen to them.

People become surprisingly open when they sense that you care and that you are really listening to them. Genuine listening opens the possibility of entering into an authentic conversation in which we allow God to control the outcome.

The Art of Praying

We begin the Art of Praying by taking inventory of who is in our circles of influence. Start with your family. How many people in your family do not know Jesus? Write them down. Then your friends. From distant friends and acquaintances to close friends. How many of them don’t know Jesus? Write their names down. Then your work, how many people there do you know by name? Then your neighborhood. How many people live in your neighborhood? Do you know about their faith?

Many times we can begin to believe that we have no one around us who hasn’t heard the Good News of Jesus. But this simple inventory will show us that indeed, there are many people around us who fit into these categories: spiritually curious, spiritually poor, spiritually blind, spiritually bound, spiritually helpless or hopeless.

Once you have a list of names in all of these categories, now you have a daily prayer list. The Art of Praying does more to change our hearts than it does for them. It increases our trust in God and our love for those who do not have God’s help and hope in their life.

We see this in Jesus in John 17:20-21:

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”

“Before we can talk to people about God, we need to talk to God about people.” – Rick Richardson

What do we pray for? We can start with these three questions:

• God, where are you already at work?
• God, what does this person need right now?
• God, how can I invite this person to experience Jesus in a fresh way?

God is already present and working in the lives of the people around you. We just need to be brought into what He has been doing so that we can join Him in His work. And pray for others to join you in this work as well! (Luke 10:2)

We can remember the Art of Praying by making our prayers for others:

• Personal
• Purposeful
• A Priority

Take your prayer list that you’ve made and place it somewhere where you’ll remember to pray for them daily. Remember, when we pray for others, we must remember that these are real people, not a project. During these 40 days, these people we share with are not items to cross off of a list, but souls that God’s heart is longing for. Let your prayers for them change you and them today!

I am praying for you as you begin the Art of Noticing and the Art of Praying today! Share with someone how it goes!

— Pastor Zoe