Staci and I have been talking over the past few weeks about engaging our community.  You see, we are trying to sell our house in order to move closer to the church for two reasons: 1. To engage and be a part of the community surrounding the church  2. To be closer in order to have youth events at our house.  But in all the preparation and fun thoughts about doing that, we realized we haven’t engaged our current community.  SAD!!!!  We have been there for 3 years and don’t know anybodies names and the ones we did know have moved.  So here are a couple of ideas we have in order to get to know our neighbors this holiday season.  These are very preliminary and I am open to your suggestions…please provide more suggestions…

-Reverse panhandling, there is only one way out of our subdivision and it gets really backed up during the morning commute.  What if we give out money to those waiting at the stop light instead of asking for money. 
-Cookies and a Christmas Card, knocking on doors in our neighborhood with a plate of cookies and a Christmas card.  We would introduce ourselves, tell them where we live, and why we are doing this.
-Block Party, hosting a block party for our neighbors with food and games.  Just a time to hang out and meet everyone.

What ideas do you have…what have you done before?