Good News in Your Neighborhood

Where you live is no accident to Jesus.

And where you live is the starting point for you to bring—and be—good news.

[caption id=“attachment_13497” align=“alignright” width=“300” caption=“A prayer altar in my neighborhood set up by teenagers grieving a friend's death.”][/caption]

This came even more alive for me recently when a local shooting stirred up a lot of questions about race, safety, and God’s presence in the midst of the death of a young man. Teenagers in the community gathered to pray and left this altar as a memorial of their friend, but also a testimony to their deep need to know and be touched by good news.

Recently our friends Adam McLane and Jon Huckins (a current Fuller student) released a 6-week downloadable student curriculum called Good News in the Neighborhood (video). From the introduction:

As humans every one of us is made in the image of God. We are hard-wired to love Good News. Good News is addictive to our soul. We can’t get enough Good News. All humans are searching for Good News in an instinctual way we can’t explain. And when Good News happens in our presence or when we partner with a neighbor to bring Good News to someone else, something in our soul deeply resonates with that…

In a post-Christian society, the best way to grow our ministry is to connect with the innate part of a persons soul that defies logic’s last stand. Good News supersedes all. It’s the Gospel’s secret weapon. And it spreads like wild fire.

What I love about the emphasis of this curriculum is that it emphasizes the expansiveness of the kingdom of God while also opening kids’ eyes to the ways that kingdom is expanding in the very streets and hearts around them. Overlapping with some of the goals of our Deep Justice work, Good News in the Neighborhood inspires students to seek the shalom—the wholeness, the flourishing—of all people, not just those who show up at their church.

What are some of the ways you are stirring up kids to be good news in their neighborhoods?

Posted April 30 2012 by

Brad M. Griffin

Brad M. Griffin is the Associate Director of the Fuller Youth Institute, where he gets to develop research-based training for youth workers. In addition to coauthoring Sticky Faith and Deep Justice Journeys, Brad has authored or coauthored a number of youth ministry book chapters and journal articles. A native Kentuckian, Brad now lives in Pasadena with his wife Missy and their three children. After more than 15 years in youth ministry, he now volunteers at Mountainside Communion.

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