Neighboring
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We know Kansas City is changed in lasting ways when churches combine their resources. But how would that work, in practical terms, if we wanted to motivate people across the city to love their neighbor?
In 2017, just after I launched Love KC, Matt Adams asked me if we could work together through a What if the Church? project to see churches across the city adopt their neighborhoods and live on mission. At Love KC, that’s what we do. We equip people to live a pray, care, share, and disciple lifestyle by adopting their neighborhoods through blesseveryhome.com. Of course, I was excited about the prospect of reaching further to see what we could do together!
Some thirty plus churches took part in a three Sunday series where we highlighted the pray, care, and share strategy. Many of those churches deployed resources encouraging their members to adopt their neighborhood through blesseveryhome.com In all, we added over 350 neighborhoods through a three-week effort.
To put that in perspective. There were only a couple hundred Lights (adopted neighborhoods) before that series, so we doubled the number in three weeks. That’s the power of working together through What if the Church?
That means that 14,000 or so homes were adopted, and 44,800 persons were claimed for prayer. That is a massive kingdom impact!
And that is just the start. In part, because of this early adoption by the What if the Church? network. Love KC, using blesseveryhome.com, has continued to add an average of nearly 50 neighborhoods a month since that time. As of April 1, 2020, there are 2,439 Lights in a 35-mile radius from downtown Kansas City, Missouri. Over 60% of the census blocks in Kansas City have a disciple living on mission. And approximately one-quarter of the neighborhoods in the city are claimed.
Our prayer is that no one wakes up in Kansas City who doesn’t live within arm’s length of a disciple living on mission where they live, learn, work, and play—What if the Church? is a big part of the answer to that prayer.
Gary Kendall
Catalyst, Love KC
