When Church Moved to the Neighborhood: Lessons in Love and Mission

When God called me and my wife, Tammie, to start Green Branch Church in 2020, we knew He was leading us to do things differently than we had done before. He didn’t ask us to be edgy or creative. He didn’t ask us to research the latest church planting trends or analyze innovative social media algorithms. God simply asked us to be obedient and follow Him every step of the way. In Matthew 16:18, Jesus told His disciples, “…I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it” (NLT). We chose to believe Him and follow His lead.   

In the early season of planting Green Branch, we would meet weekly at a leader’s house, eat amazing food, and live in community with people we loved. We would have awesome biblical discussions and invest in each other’s lives. (Oh, and did I mention the food? We were loving God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and stomachs.) But there was a problem. We were spending so much time with other Christians we had no room in our lives to reach our neighbors.  

We were putting so much time and energy into keeping the first greatest commandment that we were overlooking the second. In fact, we were not loving our neighbors at all. We were liking them; we were not loving them. We waved at our neighbors, were polite, spoke kindly to them, and invited them to church, but none of that was love. We would literally drive past the forty-six houses in our neighborhood to be part of a community of Christ followers in a different part of the city. The Holy Spirit was telling us to stop doing so much church stuff and step back into our neighborhood. 

Tammie and I have been going to church all our lives. We’ve taken classes on evangelism, read books, listened to podcasts, and sat through hundreds of sermons on how to reach the lost. But this knowledge did nothing to foster God’s love for our neighbors in us. We were feeling the tension that exists between designing programs to help Christians reach people and actually reaching them. Sometimes it’s easy to see people as projects.  

The first thing God did to help us reach our neighbors was show us the hard truth about ourselves. We had taken the “love your neighbor as yourself” commandment passively and not actively. We were waiting for them to come to us: to show up at our door with a spiritual question, initiate some deep spiritual conversation at the grocery store, or show up at a church gathering. That just wasn’t going to happen. The Holy Spirit reminded us we were God’s plan “A” on how He would reach our neighbors.

When I was growing up, my youth pastor used to say, “The best way to spell love is T-I-M-E.” We remembered that advice and started looking for excuses to spend time with our neighbors. We asked ourselves how we could love our neighbors “as we love ourselves.” The idea of “same way, same time, same place” kept coming to mind. What were things we could do with our neighbors at the same time, in the same place, and in the same way we would do them for ourselves? The answer was FOOD! We all must eat, so why not eat the food we love, together, at the same time. We started inviting our neighbors to our house for dinner on Thursday nights. God gave us two goals for these neighbor nights: love your neighbors and eat delicious food. 

The next thing God did to help us reach our neighbors was give us His love for them. Each dinner brought more connection and commonality as our combined history was being made. The spiritual conversations did not start happening right away. What happened was WE began to change. That elusive love for our neighbors began to bloom with every bite. The more time we spent, the more God’s love grew in us. At the same time, our neighbors’ love for us was growing. Simply obeying God had turned our neighbors into friends, and now we love our friends! 

Before each dinner, we would pray and ask God to turn up the spiritual temperature. We would walk around our neighborhood praying for our friends as we passed their houses. It was a slow process. We kept reminding ourselves that we were responsible to be faithful while God was responsible for the fruit. Over time, we have begun to see evidence of that fruit. 

We were asked to perform a memorial service for the father of one of our neighbor friends. They held the service at their house one Saturday afternoon. It was an amazing time of love, grief, and healing for the family. We listened to stories about their Pop and joined them in their sorrow. They gave us the opportunity to show the love of Jesus and explain the gospel to twenty people in their living room. 

Other friends have asked us to teach their kids about Jesus. People that formerly would not set foot in our “Bible House” now ask if we will pray at the neighborhood block parties. On Thursday nights we’ve begun praying over specific neighbors who come. I cannot wait to see what God is going to do throughout this next year! 

God changed our lives through the second greatest commandment. Our mission field did not change; God changed us within our mission field. His call to us is simple: love your neighbor the same way you love yourself, at the same time, in the same place.  

About the Author

Davy Saunders

Davy and Tammie Saunders planted Green Branch Church, a micro church community, in 2022. They concentrate on making disciples, building community, and joining Jesus on mission. They live and minister in Williamsburg, Virginia, where Tammie is a kidney resource nurse case manager and Davy is a co-vocational roofing pastor. They have been married for thirty-five years and have two adult children and two amazing grandchildren.