The following are the articles and stories from the March 2026 MIT Monthly newsletter. If you would like to sign up to receive this newsletter from the Missional Initiatives Team, you can fill out this form.
From Buildings to Neighbourhoods
By Karen Wilk, Missional Initiatives Team
Is God really at work in our neighbourhoods?
Short answer, Yes. As this often-quoted verse declares, “The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood” (John 1:14 MSG).
But the Hebrew Scriptures had previously asserted and affirmed God’s presence right where we live centuries earlier. For example, already in Exodus, God is described as dwelling among us, abiding with us, taking up long-term residency in our neighbourhoods.
And as it turns out, this dwelling with God is also, at least in part, God’s goal for all creation. In Revelation 21:3, we read with joy and anticipation that when the new Jerusalem comes down God’s home will be with us. Simon Carey Holt thus declares that we need to begin by naming the neighbourhood “as a place of God’s presence. [. . .] According to both Old and New Testaments, neighbourhoods and neighbourly relationships play host to the presence of God.”[1]
In the Incarnation, we ‘see’ this most fully and tangibly. Jesus embodies God in the neighbourhood in the flesh, as one of us, living right next door. Known as Jesus of Nazareth (his hometown) throughout the New Testament, he lived in virtual obscurity in his Nazarene neighbourhood for thirty years as an ordinary, everyday neighbour. He was a part of the community, engaged in the normal routines of human life and relationship with and among his ‘village.’
The reality of God present and at work in our neighbourhoods, accordingly, should have profound implications for God’s people. First, it indicates that we may need to learn again (or for the first time) how to pay attention to signs of God’s presence not just in the church but in our neighbours and neighbourhoods. C. S. Lewis states that our neighbours are holy.[2] What would happen if we began to see and seek out the holy in those who live next door?
Secondly, if God is at work in our neighbourhoods, perhaps we should be too. Perhaps all those who bear Jesus’s name should learn again (or for the first time) what it means to be a good neighbour, to live among, to practice ‘flesh and blood’ neighbourliness and in this way bear witness to the loving God who makes his home among us. I wonder what might happen if we got to know and were known by our neighbours, as actual neighbours.
Resources
- My Vertical Neighborhood: How Strangers Became a Community by Lynda MacGibbon
- Start with Hello (And Other Simple Ways to Live with Neighbors) by Shannan Martin
[1] Simon Carey Holt, God Next Door, (2007), 17.
[2] Walter Hooper, ed., The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, (2009), 46.
Unravelling
By Cam Roxburgh, VP of Missional Initiatives
I am old enough to remember the song “It’s the End of the World as we Know it” by R.E.M. I have been reminded of this song a number of times over the past few years when in conversation with people like my uncle and The Commons Cooperative. Alan Roxburgh has written a lot on Gospel and culture and, of late, has used the term “unravelling.” I have felt like this song and the conversation were slightly exaggerated. . . until the last few weeks.
If you pay attention to the news at all, you will have no doubt heard, seen and read reports of the many global events that make it feel like our society is unravelling. From the Venezuela incident awhile back to the war in Iran – and I have heard the tension in the Middle East is worse than what we are hearing. These are only a few things our world is facing. As a Canadian, I was disheartened by a “map” of the United States in the Oval Office that seemed to include Canada as part of the U.S.
Above all, what caught my attention was the World Economic Forum. It was the Canadian Prime Minister who made a comment that caused me to think that so much of what I have heard on “The Commons” was correct. Prime Minister Carney stated that he believed that the way the world has functioned has “ruptured.” That sounds even more dramatic than unravelling.
It is not the diagnosis that encourages me, however. It is the prescription. For so much of my life in ministry I have been taught to lead in a way that fosters a dependence on my own agency and even a misuse of power. I have lived within a story that is shaped not by the Gospel, but more by our culture. It is these disruptions, of late, that have opened the door to exploring another possibility.
The Missional Alumni will come together to celebrate what God has been doing in our lives and churches and to encourage one another in these difficult days.
Our gathering (formerly known as Bonfire) will look a little different this year. Bonfire has expanded to include other NAB groups that will come together each evening. That will be exciting in and of itself. We, as the Missional Initiatives Cooperative, are excited to be together during the daytimes. Alan Roxburgh has agreed to come and be with us during that time. His many years of experience as a pastor, teacher, writer, and consultant will allow us the opportunity not to find quick fix solutions but, rather, to develop a set of practices that remind us that what we are experiencing is not a surprise to God. He is still on his throne and in charge.
Come join us in Ohio May 5–8. (Register here.)
A Lenten Prayer of Repentance
By Karen Wilk, Missional Initiatives Team
AFTER THIS – Luke 10:1
After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. (Luke 10:1)
After this. . .
Failure to love
I avoided my neighbour today.
I saw her out of the corner of my eye and turned the other way.
After this?
We knocked on the door only to learn that her husband had passed six months ago.
We didn’t know.
No one on our street knew.
After this?
I was trimming a tree out front and felt a tap on my shoulder.
I looked around and there was a little old lady standing there.
She said, “I’m moving tomorrow and after 37 years in this neighbourhood. I just thought someone should know.”
After this?
Seventeen dead in a high school hallway.
Sexual harassment, loss of honesty,
Refugees, disasters and criminality,
Bombs, boasts, bribes and brutality,
Our racism, violence, prejudice and hypocrisy.
After this?
The havoc wrecked on Your beautiful creation
worldwide
The poverty—physical, emotional, relational, spiritual
We ignore or avoid
or allow
Our greed, materialism, selfishness, pride.
After this?
You appoint and send us.
You appoint and send us?! (Luke 10:1)
After we argue over who’s the greatest (Luke 9:46–48)
After we claim Your Name for ourselves
To the exclusion of others (Luke 9:49–50)
After we want to torch the whole village (Luke 9:51–56)
The WHOLE VILLAGE!
After we make so many excuses (Luke 9:57–62)
We’re still making excuses.
After this?
Forgive us, Lord.
For we know not what we do. (Luke 23:34)
Or do we? Sometimes we do. . .
And we still do—or don’t, when we should.
Though our sins be as scarlet, make us white as snow. (Isaiah 1:18)
Help us to forgive ourselves
and one another
and sometimes our neighbours
Though truth be told
It’s likely we need their forgiveness more than they need ours.
Remove the log in our eyes
that we might humbly come along side those with specks in their own. (Matthew 7:3–4)
After this?
After this, may we know. . .
The Word has become flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. And we have seen the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish. (John 1:14)
After this
May we know
WE KNOW
Why You came
Why You lived among
How You showed us the Way
How much we needed You
Need You
To live,
To love
God WITH us.
After this
We know
May we know
You died for us
What burdens You bear
What grace You give
What love You share
After this
May we know
You rose from the grave
And continue to choose to hang out with us
To use us
To love us
To make us part of Your Story
—after this!
And you fill us with Your love
Mercy
Kingdom
After this
Renew us again and again
Restore us – Send us
That we might remain (Luke 10:7)
Among and with our neighbours . . . the Kingdom come near!
After this then . . .
“Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They’re his people, he’s their God.” (Revelation 21:3)