Save The Date!
Here’s a question for you….
What country-wide event is happening on Tuesday, August, 6th?
It may be Lucille Ball’s birthday, but that isn’t what I’m talking about. I’m talking about an event that first happened in 1984. I’m talking about National Night Out.
National Night Out (NNO) was first created as an event to help build neighborhood camaraderie and strengthen police-community relationships. The first ever event involved over 2.5 million people from 23 different states. It has now grown to being celebrated in all 50 states, and also in several U.S. territories and military bases. NNO is celebrated on the first Tuesday in August every year, unless your Texas, then you have it on the first Tuesday in October. While NNO has maintained it’s goal of bringing the police and other service-related teams together with the community, it has also grown to include block parties and neighborhood cookouts.
And for Christian’s seeking to know and love their neighbors, this is low hanging fruit. There might not ever be an easier way to meet your neighbors each year, or have a reason to go door-to door to invite them to something. So I want to strongly encourage us to take advantage of NNO coming up in a couple weeks.
There are several ways you can be involved. One way is to become your neighborhood or block captain. You can take the initiative to help coordinate a get-together in your neighborhood. It may be too late to do anything “official” this year, but you could still take the opportunity to create some sort of gathering for your neighbors. And if your neighborhood already has a point person you could offer to help with some of the logistics or setup. Either of these options are a great way to tangibly serve your neighborhood and promote relationship within it.
My goal is not to make sure every neighborhood has an official NNO event, but to encourage us all to be invested and connected in our neighborhoods, and this nationally recognized events supports that goal.
But what if I don’t live in a house? Here are 3 options to consider:
You can still use this evening as an opportunity to invite neighbors over, or spend time meeting a few of them.
Your apartment or residence is situated on a street somewhere, so you could walk to the nearest street participating and meet some people and see what happens.
You could join with someone from your Community Group and attend their event.
Whatever you do, don’t miss the opportunity to meet and spend time with your neighbors. Our nation is literally saying, “Take this one evening a year to meet the people next to you”.
Personally, on our little Minneapolis block, we have seen our participation in NNO move into bonfires, alley movie nights, and a winter get-together. August 6th is coming quickly, but there is still time to take advantage of the opportunity. Could we as a church make it a point to be present for our communities and grow into a habit of circling this date on the calendar every year? With God’s help, through prayer and personal initiative, we could see these connections grow into much more, for the good of our community, for the salvation of our neighbors, and for the glory of God!
