Love Your Neighbor Week

A Great Ministry Idea

In Mark 12:31, Jesus told His audience, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” In fact, the command to love one’s neighbor appears ten different times in the Scriptures. At Lancaster Baptist Church, we have set aside a special week to devote special attention to following these instructions.

Our strategy is that every member of Lancaster Baptist Church would perform “intentional acts of kindness” to demonstrate God’s love to coworkers, neighbors, friends, and complete strangers.

The idea behind Love Your Neighbor Week is that we would point our community to the Lord Jesus Christ through our actions. With each act of kindness, we follow up with a simple reminder of God’s love—a card that says “God loves you” and has our church’s name and contact information on it.

As a church, we are looking this week for creative ways, as families and individuals, to demonstrate Christ’s love. And we are praying for those who will receive these acts of kindness, that seeds of the Gospel will be planted in their hearts.

Love Your Neighbor Week inspires creative ways to touch people’s lives for eternity—and to have a great time doing it!

(Visit strivingtogether.com for a free download of the Love Your Neighbor card and a handout to give your church family of ideas to love their neighbors.)

Ideas for Children:

Bake goods for a police or fire station

Take stuffed animals to the hospital’s children’s wing

Take coloring books to a doctor’s office

Make bookmarks and hand them out at a library, hospital, or school

Give out free lemonade on the front lawn

Take dog or cat treats to a veterinary hospital

Take dog food or cat food to an animal shelter

Make crafts for local city officials to use as office décor

Ideas for Teens:

Wash windows in a parking lot

Take a pie to an elderly neighbor

Mow someone’s lawn

Rake someone’s leaves

Take up a neighbor’s trash cans

Trim a neighbor’s bushes

Sweep a neighbor’s patio

Host a free car wash

Clean bathrooms at a local business

Volunteer at a nursing home

Volunteer to be a tutor in a public school

Plant flowers in a neighbor’s flower box

Offer to babysit for free

Paint nails or do makeup for ladies at a nursing home

For musicians: give a brief recital at a retirement community or in a public place, such as a park

Ideas for Adults:

Bake goods for someone down your street

Wash windows in a parking lot

Take a pie to an elderly neighbor

Mow someone’s lawn

Take up a neighbor’s trash cans

Pay for the person behind you at a drive-through

Trim a neighbor’s bushes

Sweep a neighbor’s patio

Take baked goods to the office

Fill a coworker’s candy dish

Fill a coworker’s fridge with water

Buy a coworker coffee, a snack, or lunch unexpectedly

Place a tissue box on a coworker’s desk

Take hot chocolate mix and marshmallows to the break room

Take free newspapers to the office

Buy your neighbor a newspaper

Take flowers to work and share them

Treat a coworker to fresh fruit

Paint nails or do makeup for ladies at a nursing home

Clean bathrooms at a local business

Meet the mailman with a bottle of water

Volunteer to be a tutor in a school

Leave an extra big tip for the waiter/waitress

Rake someone’s leaves

Serve refreshments to customers at a retail center

Plant flowers in a neighbor’s flower box

Let your staff leave work an hour early

Offer to return a shopping cart for someone loading a car

Let the person behind you in the grocery line go first

Slip some money to someone who you know is having financial difficulty

Leave money in the vending machine for the next person to get a treat

For musicians: give a brief recital at a retirement community or in a public place, such as a park

For business owners: donate a percentage of revenue for the week to a special cause or serve refreshments to customers

Ideas for Families:

Take baked goods to a fire or police station

Take baked goods to a neighbor

Take stuffed animals to the hospital’s children’s wing

Take coloring books or magazines to a doctor’s office

Take a pie to an elderly neighbor

Rake someone’s leaves

Visit the elderly in a retirement community

Take your dog to a retirement community

Host a free car wash

Host a free garage sale

Take a bag of groceries to a needy family

Make bookmarks and hand them out at a library, hospital, or school 

Plant flowers in a neighbor’s flower box 

 

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