Just finished Alan Briggs’ book Staying is the New Going. Challenging book & easy to read. Briggs is a church planter in Colorado who challenges readers to stay well in their community through being a good neighbor, loving your city, embracing tension, drop wanderlust, etc. This book really makes you think & examine yourself by asking great questions. I found myself going back to these questions, during & now after reading, so I thought I’d share. I’m calling these Diagnostic Questions for Neighboring Well:

1. Would anyone care if you put a for sale sign in your yard?
2. Are you a character in the story of your neighborhood? Would others truly consider you a character in the story of your place?
3. Is your home a fortress from life or a hub for life? A hub for ministry or a refuge from ministry?
4. How many people enter your house in the course of a month? How many of those people don’t know Jesus?
5. lingering is a sign others are comfortable enough to stay when everyone else has gone. How many people have lingered in your home this month?
6. You know people are getting comfortable with you when they start to inconvenience you. How many last-minute favors have friends and neighbors asked of you this month?
7. How many meals have you shared with people far from the church this month?
8. How many unexpected opportunities have you seized for the sake of embodying and proclaiming the gospel?

• How many invitations have you had to serve on a community board or leadership team?
• Would the businesses, residents, and organization around your church building care if your church relocated?

A few other quotes from the book that have stuck with me:

• Our mission trip began the day we were born; it ends when God calls us home.
• Christ followers should be a gift to their neighborhood, and a church should be a gift to its city.
• It’s always easier to lust after other places than to face the hard realities of our own place.
• How sad would it be if our neighbors only know us as the ones who drive to church on weekends, but never bring the gospel home with us.

Well worth reading! Look forward to taking up the challenge to stay well.