by Pam Neighbor

1. Invite the neighbors over for dessert. Use this time to develop your relationship with them through informal conversation.
2. Organize or join a carpool for commuting to work or for any suitable occasion, such as going shopping or going to a high school sporting event. Those minutes/miles spent together can be used to develop friendships and produce eternal results.
3. Like to jog or golf? Invite a friend who enjoys the same activity to join you.
4. Play football in the front yard with your kids instead of in the backyard. The neighbors’ kids might join you and more intimate contact with the neighbors might follow.
5. Invite a friend and his family over to watch a football game with you. While the husbands munch popcorn and follow the game, the wives can enjoy the game with them or do something more to their liking.
6. Invite a family to join you for a picnic. While the kids run around the park, the adults can enjoy each others’ company.
7. Going shopping? Invite another housewife to join you. If she can’t, ask if you can pick up something for her.
8. Offer to take care of the neighbors’ pets while they’re gone. It demonstrates that you enjoy helping.
9. Do you leave the office for lunch? If so, ask a co-worker to be your guest. Non-Christian husbands and wives often have one thing in common: they talk more freely about spiritual things when they are away from their spouses and families.
10. Invite the neighbors’ children to play in your yard. As they play, you can enjoy some tea with one or more of the mothers and get to know them better.
11. Don’t choose hairdressers or mechanics just because they are Christians. Being unsaved does not necessarily say the person is unreliable or dishonest. Use those opportunities to build relationships.
12. Join the YMCA or YWCA and invite a friend to play racquetball, tennis, etc.
13. Work on craft or home repair projects together.
14. Begin a neighborhood Bible study, limiting it to a specific number of weeks, defining the topic, and encouraging discussion afterwards.
15. Invite a friend to come with you to a Sunday service. Even if it’s not evangelistic in nature, that would open the door for a discussion about spiritual things.
16. Offer your car to a neighbor when hers is in the repair shop. Even if that forces you to get a ride, the sacrifice speaks loudly of your concern for her.
17. If you’re a student, join a special interest club at your college or university.
18. Keep track of birthday or anniversary dates and send cards. A card can go a long way in telling people how much you care about them.
19. Be a servant. Offer your help to someone in painting, remodeling, or landscaping.
20. Invite a family for dinner. Being in your own home, you’ll feel more freedom to direct the conversation to spiritual things.
21. Coach a team in your community. In so doing, you’ll have contact with both young people and their parents.
22. Ask unsaved people for advice. Not knowing the Bible doesn’t mean they don’t know how to do a home repair job, don’t research on the web, or can’t direct you to a good place to shop.
23. Extend a warm welcome to a new neighbor. Supply a meal or offer the use of your telephone.
24. Help the sick and the suffering. Extending a caring word, assisting with the children, running errands, or providing a meal can have eternal results.
25. Lend and borrow lawn and garden tools. When you lend, you demonstrate a caring spirit; when you borrow, you indicate your willingness to be dependent on somebody else for something you don’t have.
26. Rent a movie for home-viewing and invite a family, friend, or neighbor to watch it with you.
27. Suggest to the parents of one of your child’s classmates that you attend a PTA meeting together. The time spent discussing the children’s progress could easily lend itself to spiritual things.
28. Make the most of holidays. Indoors or outdoors, staying at home or going somewhere—enjoy them with another family. It may be a good opportunity for them to discover that your happiness is not tied to special days.
29. Lend a book or magazine about spiritual issues to a person who likes to read. Tell him you’d appreciate his thoughts about it as soon as he has read it.