We want to engage our whole community in peacebuilding, so we’re giving you 10 small, easy things you can do to start connecting in your community by understanding yourself, your context, the people in your community, and the conflicts in your setting. Step 6 is CONNECTING WITH YOUR NEIGHBORS. Healthy communities are built when neighbors know, trust, and care for each other, so this one is important.


Food insecurity causes a host of detrimental effects, so much so that in 2017, the city of Louisville identified limited food access as a root cause of long-term health problems, and the city’s refugee community and other vulnerable populations are no exception. Here’s what we’re doing about it.

In the aftermath of recent shootings, many Christians are expressing the desire to show solidarity with Muslim communities around them. Solidarity is defined as “unity or agreement of feeling or action,” but what does that really mean, and how is it actually done?

At one point during the 3-hour protest, I was able to have some reasonable conversation with one angry man who was about 40 years old. His shirt said, “Jesus says you must be born again” and he wore a black beret to shield his face from the sun. As I looked into his calm blue eyes I thought, ”He looks so normal.”

American churches and organizations are loving their Muslim neighbors in practical, beautiful ways. Many more groups than I ever imagined are reaching out in love to their Muslim neighbors.  

The world seems to be going mad. If you go by what the news reports, the situation is pretty bleak. Particularly when it comes to relations between Christians and Muslims. But what we hear on the news is not the whole story.

After the cleanup effort organized in response to recent vandalism at a Louisville mosque, this video was put together by Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer's office. We are proud to be part of efforts like this to promote peace and cooperation for the common good in Louisville and cities around the country.

On September 16th, members of a Louisville Islamic Center arrived at the mosque to find it vandalized with disturbing messages spray-painted across the building.The malicious act, presumably intended to cause division in the community, actually had the exact opposite effect. Just two days after the vandalism nearly 1,000 Louisville residents from all faiths, including over 100 from the local Jewish community, gathered to stand in solidarity with the mosque and help paint over the graffiti.

For the past five years I have been working with Muslim refugees in the Phoenix area and trying to get the Church to faithfully love the neighbors that God has brought to our city. On this journey God has been faithful to teach me, through many failures, how to effectively move people toward loving the neighbors they would never otherwise spend time with. Here are some lessons I've learned.