How to Use Your Church's Fall Events to Build Relationships with People in Your Neighborhood

Many churches this fall will be hosting community events in their neighborhood. Back to School backpack giveaways, church picnics complete with blow-up bouncy houses, and Trunk-or-Treat evenings that fill church parking lots with candy and costumes. The hope is that these events will both bless the community and introduce the community to a church family where they are welcomed and cared for. Ultimately, these outcomes depend on the relationship-developing that happens between those in the church and their neighbors.

Our 2024 CRCNA Denominational Survey shows that we have a lot of room to improve in this area. The statement, “I know the people in the neighborhood that my church is located in” received some of the lowest responses out of all the missional statements. Only 11% of respondents strongly agree with this statement; 13% say it is mostly true; 24% somewhat true; 25% hardly true; and 27% say it is definitely untrue.

The community events we host this fall are opportunities to build relationships with the people in our churches' neighborhoods. However, this requires some intentionality on our part!

In the recent book How To Know A Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen, David Brooks writes that “being open-hearted is a prerequisite for being a full, kind, and wise human being. People need social skills… The real act of, say, building a friendship or creating a community involves performing a series of small, concrete social actions well…”

How can you equip your congregation to engage in small, concrete social actions that lead to more and deeper neighborhood relationships? Here are a few ideas:

• Provide 2-3 meaningful questions that people can ask of each other throughout the event, such as:
  • What do you like about living in this neighborhood?
  • What brought you into this neighborhood?
  • What is your favorite memory that happened in this neighborhood?”
• Have an incentive for people who introduce themselves to someone new. When someone meets someone for the first time, the two of them can put their names in a drawing or pick from a door-prize basket.
• Take pictures of key places around the neighborhood. Cut those pictures into two and hand out the pieces. Encourage people to find the person who holds the other half of their picture and introduce themselves to them. 
• Include a quiet corner in the event where people can sit, have a cup of coffee, and share in conversation. Ensure you have people there from your church who are ready to lean into those opportunities.
• Expand these relationship-opportunities beyond the event. Send your small groups to meet at a neighborhood restaurant with the goal of getting to know the staff. Encourage your young parents to walk their strollers through the neighborhood and have conversations with those who are outside. Attend neighborhood association meetings.
• Stop by the public service buildings (libraries, police stations, and fire stations) to meet them and thank them for their work.

When we approach these events with a readiness to really see and know those from the neighborhood who attend, we are acting like Jesus who was more concerned with the people he met than the journey he was on. There are people in your church’s neighborhood who long to experience the love of Jesus. What small, concrete social actions in your fall events will create the opportunities for these relationships?

Amy Schenkel is Resonate Global Mission’s Congregational Gospel Witness Leader