A Disciple and Their Neighbors

February 4, 2026

A DISCIPLE IS COMMITTED TO REACHING BEYOND ANY CULTURAL, ECONOMIC, RACIAL, GENDER, OR DENOMINATIONAL BARRIER TO DEMONSTRATE THE POWER OF BIBLICAL UNITY.

In the movie “Gone Baby Gone,” the opening dialogue articulates a widely held definition of culture.

“I have always believed it was the things you don’t choose that make you who you are, your city, your neighborhood, your family. People take pride in these things as if it were something they had accomplished, the bodies around their souls, the cities wrapped around those. It helps to know where people started.”

A neighborhood is like the quote described above. It is background, traditions, and customs that can only be articulated in one’s own language, and in one’s own understanding. 

I lived in a world with two realities in my neighborhood. Most African American Neighborhoods are divided pretty much like most neighborhoods. Up north was the section called “The Rocks.” It was low income and the people that stayed there I knew from school. Based on their clothing and food items that they brought for lunch they were needier then I was and where I lived. Our house was small, but it was new built by my father who received money from his G.I. bill to do that. We were however friends going to the same school, but I recognized that most of them had lack.

The life that my parents raised us in was what we called middle class Black America. I grew up in that neighborhood, and we had friends that we considered were our equal. I eventually came out of that life attending college on a football scholarship that promoted me to even one level above my parents. I had achieved success and received a master’s degree later and a doctoral degree as well. Being a middle-class citizen was very highly representative of the 60s and 70s in America. It wasn’t about color as much as achieving status and was about having recognition.

There was another representation that reminded us of how challenging it was to be a minority in America. Life would be about what we needed for success in our lives going forward, but my mother believed that education, especially for Afro-Americans, would be the key to all our successes. This was not so important in the neighborhood I grew up in.  She would say to my sisters and to myself,

“Get an education because you can then go anywhere and be or do anything you want.”

This principle still guides my life today. It does not suggest abandoning one’s culture or their past; rather, it is a “Jump Culture” phenomenon which involves embracing new perspectives. Since culture is deeply rooted in our history and identity, such a shift requires a fundamental change in how we view life. I jumped culture all the way to finishing my Doctor of Ministry, (D.Min.) degree.

All of our lives are relegated by time, especially by and in God’s timing. As we move through time, I am reminded that God implements and directs our lives in two concepts of time. Gods time are found in two words, Kairos and Chronos. The importance of Kairos is that it is God’s appointed time that he chooses for events to take place specifically for His purposes that are to be achieved within and throughout our lives, e.g., my salvation, my education, my fullness in the Holy Spirit’s baptism, becoming a pastor and then traveling the world. Every one of these moments were Kairos that were prophesied and realized and fulfilled in His time and by His timing.

Chronos is chronometer time, or the space of time that God created, specifically for men to occupy until Jesus comes again. I have been a Star Trek fan (“Trekkie”) for most of my life. I see God as a jumper of culture through what is called in Star Trek, “The Space-Time Continuum,” similar to God’s connections of culture that can only be described by His theophanies (appearances), to the inhabitants of His creation. We can call it “God’s Space-Time Continuum,” reiterating that from Genesis culminating in the book of Revelation the biblical text brings the ultimate cultural jump of a people to live and enjoy eternity with Him as we see in the book of Revelation, Chapter 7:9-10. 

“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Rev. 7:9–10)

Since the time I graduated with my D.Min. from ORU in 1997, Addie and I began to discuss where we had been and where we were going. I have spent most of My Time in life exploring other nations and other people groups, both in the context of a student, and a professor with students from all over the world, I have basically done this while teaching, which has become my main tool to familiarize with the world that was in the classroom. I have concluded that the world is my neighborhood. The people that live everywhere are my neighbors.

I have so graciously accepted the journey that God's Kairos and Chronos will take me/us into different cultures. I will always find myself operating to make disciples, as it has become the tool by which the Holy Spirit works through me as Jesus prophesied in Matthew:

“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:18-20).

We moved into a new neighborhood in the Fall of 2020. As a result, we encountered our new neighbors. It is amazing that when you don't know the people that live around you, you have two opportunities. Get to know them or isolate yourself to not know them.

According to the Bible, particularly in Jesus' Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) we find this to be very true. How much do we want to know our neighbors?

…But he, (the lawyer in this discussion), desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”” (Luke 10:25–37)

I encourage you to read this story again in order to see that your neighbors are every where. They passed you in the grocery store. You meet them in church, and the doctors office, when you go pay a bill. A neighbor is anyone that you meet, or is in need, regardless of race, religion, or social status. It extends beyond proximity to include even enemies, requiring proactive love, mercy, and compassion for anyone God places in your path.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

Agree/disagree, and explain your answer:

1. As long as I don’t know who my neighbor is, I have no responsibility to them.

2. What did the first two men who encountered this man have in common? Why did they not stop and help him? What motivated the Samaritan to stop and help? What builds compassion in a life?

3. If this scene was on the freeways of your city and it was like what happened in Jericho, what might keep us from stopping? Under what conditions would cause you to have stopped to help?

4. What does it mean to be a neighbor, according to Jesus?