Renew San Diego to host Know Your Neighbor:

The picture shows members of Renew San Diego with other guests in their Know Your Neighborhood event. (Photo taken by the church’s website)

Every first Saturday of every month, the congregations of Renew San Diego gather with neighbors with homes and people in the streets to have a good time with live music and complimentary food.

The church events section announced that on July 02, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. They also encouraged members to invite their friends.

Know Your Neighbor

The church holds this event monthly to prepare a table and conversation between those who woke up in a warm bed and neighbors who woke up on a doorstep or under an overpass, as posted on the ministry’s website.

They added that this event would be an opportunity to build new friendships as local musicians present their songs. There would be hot dogs and burgers from the grill.

They added that the church also prepared games, such as a game of cornhole.

With this ministry, they noted that individuals who walk past each other and talk past each other would gather with joy and connection. They added that the church’s vision is becoming a reality as they expand their neighborhood.

They mentioned that the bond of their community is woven even stronger with great friendship.

The church stated that no one would get hungry or alone on this day. The main impact of knowing their neighbor is joy, the website added.

In addition, another highlight of the said gathering is the children invited by Florence, the church’s children’s minister.

Together with other parents and caregivers to enrich their community by picking up litter on the sidewalks. They would use neat trash-pickup0extender-thingies and gloves.

Lastly, the church noted that this would be a great chance to get to know Renew Church congregations and the broader community.

Why Know Your Neighbors

The Jesus Film Project website revealed that knowing the neighbors is becoming popular in the wrong direction.

In 2019, the Pew Research Center stated that 57% of Americans said they know some of their neighbors, and 26% noted they know most of theirs.

The website mentioned that these numbers might seem better than people could imagine. But when people analyzed this data better, there was a clear sense of trajectory.

When they asked individuals over 65 about their neighbors, 56% said they knew some, while 34% said they knew most of them.

The survey also noted that only four percent admitted that they did not know any of their neighbors. Meanwhile, most of those 18 to 29 years old said they knew most of the people in their community. Only 23% of them said they did not know any people around.

With this, the website emphasized what Jesus commanded: that believers should love their neighbors.

They said the Pharisees forced Jesus to tell who their neighbor was, and He answered with the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus' point was that people’s neighborhood was as huge as God's love, and anyone in need was their neighbor.

The website said the classical meaning of “neighbor” still matters. And if people cannot learn to care about the individuals closest to them daily, they will never really love the random people they encounter daily.