The Good Neighbor Experiment Heads to Texas!

 Through our Thriving Congregations Grant with the Lilly Endowment, we have been fortunate enough to train 20 Good Neighbor Experiment (GNE) Facilitators over the last year. After these faith leaders train with us, they are ready to build their own in-person cohort of churches to participate in the 9-month GNE. Hear more about how our very first GNE Facilitator launched his cohort in the Rio Texas area!Our first cohort of GNE Facilitators began training with us in January of 2021. Looking back, it’s hard to believe this group of 8 faith-based leaders trusted us in this unknown, new adventure of the Good Neighbor Experiment. However, once we saw the unique giftedness of these GNE Facilitators, we knew that they would be the perfect pioneers for in-person regional cohorts.One year later, after training, recruiting, and building a GNE Cohort, our first in-person workshop was scheduled to take place in San Antonio led by GNE Facilitator, Ray Altman. And then, the Omicron variant hit. While the uncertainty of the pandemic and necessary adaptation was nothing new for us at The Neighboring Movement, it was disappointing nonetheless to have to host our first in-person workshop on Zoom.Don’t get me wrong - throughout the pandemic, our staff has gotten pretty good at Zoom. We’ve played with Canva slides, Jamboards, Spotify playlists, videos, and more to try and make our online workshops reflect a glimpse of the joy and fun that GNE is. Yet, there is nothing quite like being in-person to offer hope through messages of abundance, activities of relationship, and clarity through authentic joy. However, Ray and I did our best by planning a jam-packed three-hour workshop for five eager churches in the Rio Texas United Methodist Conference.Typically with our online workshops, we don’t know for sure if our time together “worked” until we close our computer screens and begin reflecting on how things went. But something was different with this “in-person turned Zoom” workshop. Instead of needing to go through the whole 3 hours, I was able to know it “worked” 20 minutes before the workshop started while Ray and I were sitting in the Zoom room waiting for folks to join.I knew it “worked” when Ray was sent a Mister Rogers meme by one of the Rio Texas church pastors.And before you think, “oh, I just need to send Maddie a Mister Rogers meme and not join a GNE cohort,” I will stop you by saying you should still sign up for our GNE Cohorts, because, as I’m sure you could guess, this meme revealed something much deeper.This meme revealed that this GNE cohort would “work” because of the relationships Ray has and will continue to deepen over these next 9 months. Instead of waiting awkwardly on the Zoom call hoping our GNE participants come, Ray was able to send a group message to all 5 leaders of the GNE Cohort. He was able to check-in with them, after many phone calls and emails and conversations, simply saying “see you in a few!” This Mister Rogers meme revealed to me that Ray had gotten his colleagues and friends in ministry connected with something he believed in, and they wanted to be a part of it too. This meme revealed that this GNE cohort would “work” because of relationship.In a time of continued uncertainty and adaptation, the confidence that our staff and our GNE Facilitators have in this neighboring ingredient of relationship is sustaining. We know, and so many of us know, that relationships work when all else fails. We are so grateful for the relationships and connections we have with Ray and all of our GNE Facilitators who are spreading the work of neighboring in their own communities.Here’s to 2022 - a year that we expect to be filled with deeper relationship for our GNE churches, facilitators, and alumni!