When I was growing up years ago in Frayser and a wee lad in Denver Elementary, we would start the day with prayer. Then we would stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance and recite the Lord’s Prayer. I also learned, “My County tis of Thee” in that public school. Billy Graham crusades were televised, and there were “revival meetings” as we contemplated methods of reaching the lost. (I am showing my age!) We don’t live in that place anymore. We are in an increasingly secular age and the assumptions of the Bible are increasingly pushed to the margins. Christian morality in my youth didn’t look much different that the civic morality around me. That is totally different now as well. It is beyond the scope of this telling to explore how all that happened, but what is within the scope of this telling, and what we will seek to do in this new series on I Peter, is to listen to what God’s Word says to believers living at the margins of society, where their beliefs are seen as peculiar or, worse, held in open contempt.

We are going to be looking at the book of I Peter this fall, and we are calling it, “The Art of Neighboring.” Peter writes his book to a group of believers in various churches in a region of the Roman Empire where they find themselves as outsiders to the larger culture. And, interestingly, he encourages them to abound and thrive! He can do this because here is the real truth: While the larger culture may hold the church and Jesus in contempt or indifference, the place we can always thrive is where we “know and are known,” where our flesh abides in our neighborhoods and spheres of influence. Places where we know the people who hurt, have lost hope, or are experiencing addictions, divorce, financial burdens, loss of identity and loneliness.

I Peter shows us how to thrive at the margins and to be hope to the hopeless, love the unlovely, and befriend the lonely. It used to be we reached people through crusades and tracts­, that day is over. But the gospel is not over. It is as gracious and hopeful as ever, and the people who find their identity in Jesus are the living witness to that hope. I can’t wait to dig into this. Hope to see you Sunday via live stream or here in person!

Blessings,

Jim