The women in your neighborhood are likely to spend five hours and 24 minutes each month following their Facebook friends. Facebook has replaced face-to-face, heart-to-heart conversations. We tweet instead of talk. Our electronic disconnect means we're “friends” without being friendly. Our status updates are witty and cute, with pictures of our darling children and amazing vacations. It's entirely possible to have an impossibly long list of virtual friends, yet there's no one to look into your eyes and see your pain, your sorrow or your joy. Women are starved for personal attention, meaningful relationships and purposeful lives.

Your neighborhood – on the road between church and home – is a convenient, comfortable and non-threatening place to invite women into relationship with you, take them by the hand, and walk with them to the throne of grace where they can meet their Savior. Walking on the road between the temple in Jerusalem and their hometown of Emmaus, the disciples said “some of our women amazed us” with their testimony about Christ (Luke 24:22). You can be one of the “amazing women” who tells your neighbors that Jesus is alive. He is real. He is present. He loves her, and He cares for her! You become the living Bible and open the Scriptures to her.

Do you know your neighbors?

• How many of your neighbors could you greet by name?

• When was the last time you shared a meal with a neighbor?

• How do you serve your neighbors?

• If you needed help, could you call a neighbor?

• Do your neighbors call you when they need a stick of butter?

• What is your next door neighbor's most pressing need?

No detailed demographic studies are needed for your own neighborhood: inside every home are women who are hurting and hungering for the Lord. Their common need is to know Christ, and their common denominator is they live near you, a woman with a passion for loving them like Jesus.

When Jesus walked up to the disciples on the road to Emmaus and started talking with them, they invited him to stay. Luke 24:29b-30s says, “He went in to stay with them… He was at the table with them.” Their children may have hurried to put away their toys and wash their faces as their wives reached for an extra bowl. Each of them spooned out a little less soup so they'd have enough for their unexpected guest.

This was not a miraculous meal, like the feeding of the thousands. It was not a sacramental meal, like the Last Supper. This was a common meal, at the table, in the house. Jesus took their loaf of bread and said the blessing. Maybe He prayed along the lines of this common Jewish prayer, “Blessed are You, My Father, King of the Universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.” As the Bread of Life, brought forth from the grave, blessed their common meal, their eyes were opened and they recognized Him as their risen Lord.

Do you recognize Jesus in the common things of your life?

He is there as you make dinner and do laundry. He is there as you weed the flower bed and get the mail. He is there as you cry, and He is there as you laugh so hard that you make that embarrassing snort your kids tease you about. He is there as you form your own ecclesia of praying, seeking, learning, worshipping women to cover your community in prayer.

Be common in your community. Do something ordinary together. It may lead to the extraordinary privilege of introducing your neighbor to Jesus at your table, in your house.

Amy Lively uses her degree in Practical Ministry to lead a neighborhood Bible study, The Rosewood Café, in her home on Rosewood Drive. As she teaches other women about this experience, she is praying for the woman who lives next door and the woman who may be inspired to open her own home for coffee, conversation and Christ. A writer and business owner, you can visit Amy at www.TheNeighborhoodCafe.net.

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