Review of How to Love Your Neighbor Without Being Weird

Sometimes as I sit thinking about people and life in general, the number of unsaved people in the world really overwhelms me. I attend church regularly and serve where I'm needed - at church. However besides praying, I have vague ideas of what I can do to reach people but no concrete ideas of where to start. Amy Lively's new book How to Love Your Neoghbor Without Being Weird is an excellent resource on where and how to start right in my and your own neighborhood. 

Ms. Lively starts out with her own testimony and then follows in each chapter with examples from her own life about how she got to know and reached out to her own neighbors. She discusses the generally narrow definition of neighbor and how the definition we cling to doesn't begin to encompass the broad scope of true neighborhood.  She provides passages from Scripture that reinforce the points that she is emphasizing. 

Ultimately, she states that a person has to get to know their neighbor. To know your neighbors means to know more than their names, you have to be willing learn about their own cultures and beliefs while showing them that you want to learn these things about them. It is in getting to know your neighbors that you will learn how to introduce them to Christ. 

Ms. Lively ends each chapter with practical and deep questions to help you apply what you've read to your life.  She talks about the hinderances and fears that keep us from using our spiritual gifts to serve our neighbors. I found this book to be very helpful in gaining insight into how to reach my neighbors.  The examples and scriptures given in the book where what I needed to help formulate a plan for reaching my own neighbors without being to weird. I'd recommend this book to any Christian who wants to learn the best ways to reach out and share the gospel in their own part of the world. 

*I received a free copy of this book from Bethany House in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. My opinions are my own.*