This is the Place for a Purpose podcast. We want to help you live out what Jesus said was the most important thing you could do with your life. Love God and love your neighbor, including your next door neighbors. So we're going to keep neighboring on your mind by encouraging you with.
Practical ways. To connect with those next. Door so you. Can live knowing you've been placed for a purpose because your address is not an accident and neither is your neighbors.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that there is a certain percentage of our listener base that also watched the Travis Kelsey Taylor Swift podcast episode on New Heights. Do is there a percentage? Do they? Is it a small percentage?
I know we watched it. We watched it, it was like 2 hours long. And maybe nobody else. Because we live near Kansas City, our girls listen to we're Chiefs fans, the clean version of Taylor Swift, and we're big Chiefs fans, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So one of the things we learned that on their podcast that they do is a segment called New News. That's right. And they kind of say it.
They're like new news. Oh wait, I thought it was new news. New news. I thought it was something like that.
OK, we obviously don't know it that well, but this episode is new news, right? That's right. Now it's really embarrassing if that actually is not the way they say it, but it apparently since no one listens to listen to that podcast episode, no one will know the difference. That's right.
So what's our new news? So after 2 1/2 years of showing up and talking about neighboring, we are wrapping up the Place for a Purpose podcast. Oh, it's sad. I know it's kind of surreal.
And we don't want to repeat ourselves. We just did an episode, the 100th episode we did a couple months back, where we reviewed all our favorite interviews, all our favorite topics. So if you want, you can go back and listen to that. And then we just did a wrap up on our Parable series, which was really fun to be able to dig back into the scriptures and make those connections.
Very similar to our Beatitude series in that we were unpacking the parables and then having that neighboring application was really fun. Learned a ton. So what do we want to say in this episode? We don't want to repeat ourselves.
Actually, that's part of the point, right? Is we're kind of feeling like we're at that point where after 2 1/2 years, 100 some episodes. So what do we want to say today? We don't want to repeat ourselves.
And that's part of the point even is that I think after 2 1/2 years we've we've kind of said a lot and so. Yeah. I mean, I think when we started the podcast 2 1/2 years ago, we wanted to explore the topic of neighboring in a lot of different ways. There were definitely some books we wanted to read and some authors we wanted to interview.
We wanted to talk about things that related to neighboring and getting to know your neighbors in advance. So whether that's talking to people like Michael Graham about the Great D churching or it's having a conversation about conversations with. Heather Holloman with. Heather Holloman or how to make small talk, or how to use awkwardness as your neighboring superpower.
There were just a lot of cool topics and. How to embrace your limits with Kelly Kapek Yeah, so many great, so many great things. Yeah. And so I think we're feeling like we set out, we wanted to talk about neighboring and also create a library of resources that people could listen to and give to their friends or a small group if they were interested in trying to dive into neighboring, they could use as a resource.
And so it kind of feels like. We did it, we've done that, we did that. So all that's true. And what's another major factor in why we're making this transition with the podcast?
So yeah, another new news segment in our new news episode is that I'm taking a job with our church to be a Co pastor of men's ministry. Do we have sound effects on our podcast? I feel like. Yay we.
Didn't sign up for the bonus package. Applause, applause. Yeah, congratulations. Thank you.
It's really exciting. And while I still love the topic of neighboring, obviously love our neighbors. We'll continue to neighbor in our neighborhood and we're going to still get to speak a little bit on the topic of neighboring. And why are you taking this job?
What are you excited about it? And yeah, when we started neighboring as a full time ministry focus, we felt like there was some really neat things happening in this space. And as we talked about what God was doing in our neighborhood with different people in Columbia and outside, there was this kind of excitement to say, like, man, we haven't even thought about that. I don't even know my neighbors.
I wonder what God could do? And we were seeing God do some really special things in our neighborhood. Yeah, yeah. And so it kind of feels like some similar things are happening within the men in Columbia and even within our church, that God is really starting to do something really special.
I'm kind of being invited into that and I'm excited to to join that and bring everything I've learned about neighboring into that space as well. And we want to the vision mission statement of crossing men is to make disciples who make disciples. And so part of making disciples is loving the people around us, and that includes your next door neighbor. So I think there's some elements that I'm going to be able to take that I'm still really passionate about into the men's ministry.
One of the things that I've observed as you've gotten more involved in men's ministry is this huge heart for hospitality that I think has grown through the neighboring ministry. And I think back to when we wrote Place for a Purpose in the Hospitality chapter, one of the people that we quote is Henry Nowen, and he says hospitality isn't trying to change people, but creating a space where people can change. I've seen that in the neighboring space that we've tried to create spaces where people can change. And I see you doing that in men's ministry as well.
And I think it is special what God's doing among the men and it and what's happening at our church where we have all these guys coming every Friday morning trying to get in groups. And then the events are just exploding. You've taken some of the events that you've done in neighboring like the wing night, the wing night, and you made that this massive event at our church and called it wing man, which is super cool. Everyone, every dad, needs a wing man.
The topic was fatherhood for that wing man. So it was like, don't dad alone. Every dad needs a wing man. So we might change the topics.
It was fun, yeah, to take that. I even had some neighbors come too. Yeah, yeah. And so creating these spaces where people can encounter God, encounter other believers, try on Christianity for size, as Tim Keller used to say, it is special.
And then I think that is what I was going to say is I think that is a picture of what we're seeing brought more broadly in our culture. We are seeing more men, especially young men, wanting to get involved in church and that there's a spiritual interest. I don't know if I would use the word revival. I don't know.
It seemed almost stirring. It seemed almost right on the heels of the great deterging research as it all came out. All of a sudden there's this like revival kind of happening and just really exciting. And yeah, hopefully that changes the tide and I don't.
Know so yeah, I'm excited. I'm so excited to be a part of that. So yeah, so yeah, I'm really excited to be a part of that. What does the future hold for you?
So mine isn't really new news. Old news? No, it's still supposed to sound exciting. You made it sound like old news news.
Old news is that I'm continuing doing this full time. I don't know exactly what it's going to look like. It will change. Not doing it together, which that part is kind of a want, want.
That's the sad part of it. But I do feel like through the last eight years of serving with Crew City, serving in this role with our church as well, writing, speaking, podcasting, all of it neighboring, that the Lord has given us so much and trusted us with so much. It may shift a little bit, but whatever it is, it'll have that same heartbeat of helping people live missionally where God has placed them, helping people feel sent, helping people be a part of God's Kingdom work. And one of the things I'm really excited about just right off the bat this spring is partnering with family life, which we've done a lot of in the past.
They branded our book Neighborhoods Reimagined, and we've worked with them for years. But I'm going to help write a neighboring devotional for families. I'm really excited about that. I've also tossed around the idea of doing a neighboring cohort of some sort for women, like Gospel Centered neighboring or something like that.
Maybe a five week class of virtual kind of. I don't know, Do people like the term cohort? I still haven't decided. I feel like I have mixed feelings about the word cohort, but I was a part of a writer's cohort several years ago through Gospel Center Discipleship that I loved.
And they brought in experts like Jim Wilkin and Jared Wilson and others who spoke on the topic of of writing. And so I've thought, wouldn't it be cool to have some experts on different areas that are either adjacent to neighboring or related in some kind of way and have just a little group, Maybe we cap it. And so I don't know. So if that's something that if you're listening and you're interested in that, reach out to me over e-mail elizabeth.mckinney@crewcru.org and let me know.
I love to write. So any kind of short term writing projects that aren't massive. I don't want to get into another book project right in this moment, but creating maybe some more digital resources is exciting. I get excited about that.
Overall, it has been such a joy of my life. And I can speak for you too, to see people get excited about getting to know their next door neighbors, to see them building relationships, to see people take steps of faith, to get to know people who are in some cases are really different from them and in some cases have maybe come to church for the first time or have started following Jesus even. I mean, that's. Yeah, I mean, I just even got an e-mail this morning from a guy who took our purpose Driven life study that we did 8 years ago and decided to do it in his neighborhood.
And he had 10 guys show up on Thursday mornings and he said they had a lot of great conversations. Couple of the neighbors didn't know each other. Two guys had stopped reading their Bibles and now they're hopping back in and reading it. And so it was just such a cool e-mail to get because it was such a cool e-mail to get and so exciting.
And I'm just excited that you're going to continue in this space so I can live vicariously through you and hopefully continue to influence and give ideas because neighboring is really cool. It's a, it's such a special way that we can be a part of what God's doing here in our world. And yeah, our address isn't an accident and neither is our neighbors. And God wants to work, and I'm fully convinced of that.
And neighboring is such a cool pathway to be a part of that. So thank you to everyone who listened and gave feedback and tried stuff and let us know that they were trying things. It's been really fun to sit here and have these conversations and just imagine all of you out there listening and thinking about your neighbors and getting excited about neighboring. Yeah, I feel the same way.
It's been a lot of work, but it's been so fun. It's been such an honor, such a privilege. I've learned so much. I've grown through all the interviews and developing the kind intent, so please please please reach out to me.
Don't hesitate to send me an e-mail or to contact us through our website about anything neighboring related moving forward. And this isn't goodbye, it's just to see you real soon. Thanks you guys. Thanks for tuning in.
Leave us a comment with your thoughts on today's episode, or let us know other topics related to neighboring you want to talk about. Or follow the link in the show story with us. Tell us what you're trusting God for in your neighborhood and how you're seeing God at work. You can also follow Place for a Purpose on Instagram, and you can help others find us by leaving a review, subscribing, and sharing this episode with a friend.
