how to love your neighbor -- a book review

There's no doubt:  To most Christians, evangelism is difficult.  That's true for Amy Lively.  In her new book, How to Love Your Neighbor without Being Weird, Lively writes, "I wanted to love my neighbor, but I didn't know how".  The message of Jesus is Good News.  As News, it needs sharing.  So it falls to those who follow Jesus to share that Good News.  Particularly to those who are near to us.  So Lively writes in order to explore how to share that Good News in a way that isn't weird or suspicious.  Because, to be honest, most of us don't even know our neighbors.

And Lively knows how frightening sharing that Good News might be.  Making spiritual connections in our world is a dangerous thing -- and certainly fraught with all sorts of things of which we should be aware.  In the process of reaching out, though, Lively found her life enriched by her encounters.

Make no doubt about it, How to Love Your Neighbor without Being Weird is directed at Christian women who would like to establish neighborhood Bible study groups, those of other faiths, and even the nonreligious.  But it's full of wisdom that anyone in the Church can use.  It's full of practical and loving suggestions to open our doors and hearts to our neighbors.  Following her tips, you're likely to find, as she did, that while people may walk into each other's homes as strangers, they walk out as friends.

And it's that friendship -- those connections -- that are at the heart of the Good News of Jesus Christ.  We are united together with God in Christ.

___________________
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review here.