I get it that in today’s highly inter-connected world, distance is sometimes not a factor. We commute to our place of work or study. A Facebook post can influence people whose faces you’ve never seen.

The city is our mission field.

Nay, the world is our mission field.

But at the local church level, I cannot imagine why we should not see our neighbourhood as the place where God wants us to reflect His presence, to be salt and light.

From global to local

Of course, we must grasp the global missional vision of God, but surely our field of action will have to be local.

We meet for our worship services as the church gathered, and are taught that, as we are scattered through the week, we bring the presence of Christ with us.

Surely that happens the moment we step out of the church hall, and head to the bus-stop or to the coffee shop.

Surely the local church continues to be a visible witness in the neighbourhood throughout the week as well.

Many churches wish they had their own premises (and not have to worry about having to keep moving about). I hope they all realise that with the land comes the increased witnessing responsibility.

It’s a stewardship of space. You simply cannot avoid it. Everyone else in the neighbourhood will be watching.

The same goes for churches that meet in industrial complexes.

Why do I focus so much on local churches? Because that’s where the Kingdom of God should be witnessed to by the people who both love God and love their neighbours. Because that’s where communities of Jesus followers are readily organised for life together! For action!

Missions at our doorstep

And let’s not get caught into thinking that we need to be discipled thoroughly before we get sent out on mission.

Discipleship and being on Mission are two sides of the same coin. When discipled well, we ought to grasp God’s mission and go forth. We get discipled as we go forth and follow Jesus wherever He sends us.

I reckon that a Christian who spends half her time studying God’s Word, and the other half living it out in practical love, stands to grow more as a disciple than one who remains cloistered within the safe confines of doing “church-y” stuff.

So let’s drop this “church-y” language already. It should be taken as a given that to be and to do Church is to be both nurturing its inner community life and reaching outwards with the love of Christ.

In this light, let’s see our service to the neighbourhood as a boon for discipleship, an important platform for fostering spiritual maturity. The opportunities are literally at our doorstep!

Word-grounding and Spirit-nurturing

I do not say that we should launch people straightaway to go into the neighbourhood without proper Word-grounding and Spirit-nurturing (we might otherwise end up being more of a curse than a blessing).

But I do say let’s not have a diminished view of discipleship, and let’s not be blind to the glaring needs of the people who live around us.

Here are some practical steps that we could take to be a neighbourhood missional local church:

Teach the Word 

to the end that people are both well-skilled in it but also faithful in living it out. Teach in such a way that people can see how the Word speaks to real issues in the neighbourhood.

Do a study of your neighbourhood

Take out a map and draw a circle around your church premises (how wide it should be is up to you). Find out who else operates in your neighbourhood (schools, family service centres, charities, religious bodies, and so forth). I’ve heard of church leaders do prayer walks, if for no other reason than to seek God’s heart for that neighbourhood. That, too, is studying.

Get the conversations going

Talk to community leaders and get a sense of who lives within that neighbourhood circle – what’s their demographic profile? What are the felt needs on the ground? What are the real needs? Who has potential to be a community partner? And how can you help with what you have?

Find out who else is serving in the neighbourhood. You may find para-church groups already walking with the homeless, the lonely, the marginalised, the abused, and the poor, within walking distance of your church premises. How may churches work with these groups?

This doesn’t have to be a “solo” church affair. In Singapore, it is safe to say that practically every constituency will have a dozen churches or more. Now imagine if pastors from these churches came together to just talk about how they can collaborate to be a blessing to the neighbourhood.

The work is more than what any one church community can do alone. As much as they share the same fundamental faith convictions, there is every reason to start building bridges and fostering trust – which is a necessary prerequisite to any collaborative action. I think this is best done over coffee.

We have spoken much about seeking the shalom of the city. If every local church saw its neighbourhood as its mission field, and actively reached out in loving service, it would be a huge step towards the “shalomification” of the nation.

The nation may not get utterly transformed; the main thing is that the church bears faithful witness to her Lord, right where she is.

One last thought: What if there are neighbourhoods where there is no church?

Perhaps the thing to do is to move into the neighbourhood.

Just as Christ took on flesh and dwelt among us.