Ordinary life in most of the United States today involves an automobile, whether to drive to work or get basic needs like groceries. In an economy so based around the automobile, though, what happens if you can’t afford to repair your car? I’m joined today by two people who saw neighbors struggling when their cars broke down and felt compelled to do something, based on Jesus’s commandment to love our neighbors.

Oran Warder and Ben Nielsen talk about the ministry Go In Peace based out of the St. Paul’s Lazarus Ministry and offered through Nielsen Auto Care.

Why did Jesus tell us that loving neighbors is so central to Christian life and witness? We often think Jesus wants us to help neighbors mostly to alleviate suffering. But what if Jesus wanted us to encounter neighbors—to know them in their beauty and complexity, and to be known by them just as Jesus knows us? Sam Wells shares his theology of Being With in connection to Jesus’s commandment to love neighbors and discusses his new book Constructing an Incarnational Theology.

Check out the books discussed – A Nazareth Manifesto and Constructing an Incarnational Theology.

What keeps congregations looking inward rather than also focusing on loving neighbors? There are all sorts of reasons—keeping the congregation going as an organization, keeping community fellowship strong, maintaining the building, the list goes on. Sometimes, though, fear keeps us from engaging our wider community. Not necessarily in the sense that we fear neighbors, but the fear that emerges from changing old habits, facing uncertainty, or entering transitions. How can we overcome fear and begin genuine discernment in how we love neighbors?

Bishop Susan Goff shares inspiring stories and perspectives about how congregations can face the future with creativity rather than fear. This episode is full of grounded, practical advice for congregations in transition.

Check out the episode about Church of the Resurrection’s affordable housing project, which Bishop Goff mentions!