B Begin praying for your neighbors
L Listen to your neighbors
E Eat—invite and share meals with your neighbors
S Serve your neighbors by meeting their needs
S Share your story and the Gospel story
In 2020, the SBCV introduced an outreach and evangelism tool called Bless Every Home. It encouraged churches to intentionally reach their neighbors. Since then, more than 185 churches have enlisted lights (individuals) to adopt over 106,555 homes, resulting in 3,191,605 recorded prayers and some 4,500
Gospel conversations. Additionally, resources and tools have been provided to help congregations pray for their neighbors by name, care for them, share the Gospel with them, and disciple them.
Today, Bless Every Home, under the new directorship of Tim Popadic, is revised and simple to use. The resource is now called The B.L.E.S.S. App., based on Dave Ferguson and Jon Ferguson’s book, BLESS: 5 Everyday Ways to Love Your Neighbor and Change the World, and its acronym.
Popadic said, “Some benefits of the revision include more tangible ways to measure and track activity; the framework is simpler. You now have the ability to identify believers in your neighborhood, the data structure is reorganized, downloads are easier, and an online enablement kit is also available.”
Randy Larson, BLESS Systems Analyst, said, “Our goal is to provide churches with best practices for launching and using the tool, but also to help churches create a culture for BLESS so that it becomes part of their DNA. The enablement kit will do just that”.
The BLESS practices found in the book follow the example of Jesus.
The authors add, “The BLESS App is the tool for measuring your church’s impact outside the building.”
Larson said, “The BLESS App will empower your church members to live on mission, it will provide your church and church plants with an effective outreach strategy, and it is the number one method to help your congregation love your neighbor as yourself.” He adds, “The BLESS App will help turn your neighborhood into a personal mission field. Every day, receive the names of five neighbors and daily encouragement centered around the Bless practices.”
Steve Bradshaw, SBCV Director of Evangelism and Ministry Resources, said, “It is the most effective interactive tool I have ever used. In today’s busy world, everyone could use prompting and reminders to pray for and love their neighbors.” He added, “To sign up to be a light and adopt your neighbors for daily prompting is absolutely free. Your church can sign up for administrative benefits such as receiving information about new movers into your community, discovering community demographic connections, and more.” He went on to say, “The SBCV will revise its webpage with direct links to sign up, offer special discounts for church partners, and many resources to help you with BLESS practices.”
For more information, visit: sbcv.org/bless
