Won't You Be My Neighbor? | Neighborly | Luke 10:25-37 | Week 1

A few months ago, our elders started to ask this question: What would it look like to create a culture of hospitality? Where, as a church family, we didn't just attend, but we gathered together and linked arms and hearts. Not just show up on a Sunday morning, but open our homes and our lives to the people who we worship with. It was our conviction, not that we weren't that place, but there were some ways that Jesus was drawing us deeper and inviting us to more, that this would feel more like a family. One of our values here is that we're family together, not just on Sunday morning, but throughout the week as well. About that same time, my wife and I went out on a date night and we went and saw a movie. This will give you a little insight on just how nerdy we actually are. We don't watch superhero movies---nothing against them, just not our jam. We went and saw a movie called "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" It was a documentary about Mr. Rogers. I walked out of that movie with this angst in my soul. My wife Kelly watched the entire movie with a Kleenex in hand, crying a little bit throughout the whole thing, and popcorn in the other hand. I walked out with this conviction, this thought in my head, "What if church looked more like Mr. Rogers' neighborhood?" Where there wasn't any other standard than presence to be invited in. Where you didn't have to reach some sort of affluence level. You didn't have to have a certain color of skin. You didn't have to talk a certain way or be from a certain place. If you were there, you were invited. I walked out of that movie deeply touched and it stuck with me, and it's helped to shape and form the next four weeks of our teaching series. In case you haven't seen the movie, I just wanted you to get a little glimpse, here's the trailer. {Video plays}
"The greatest thing we can do is help someone know that they're loved and capable of loving." How many of you watched Mr. Rogers at some point in your life? I did. After I watched the film, I remember trying to remember an episode of it. I can't remember any single episode of Mr. Rogers, but I can remember the way that I felt when I watched it. It was drawing me in. There was this sort of healing balm, this love, that just sort of beckoned and said, "Come a little bit closer. It's safe here..."