Turn Your Focus Outward

If you are new in your town or city or you've lived there a while and still feel disconnected, don't wait for an invitation. Initiate! Reach out to those around you and try not to get discouraged if you feel like it's one-sided for a while.

Here's what Susan Miller has to say about reaching out and touching the lives of others.
(Excerpted from 'After the Boxes Are Unpacked,' p.149-150.)

Extend Hospitality
Be hospitable to one another.
- 1 Peter 4:9

Genuine hospitality involves opening your heart and your home, selflessly sharing what you have. Hospitality is reaching out to others in caring love and warmth. Whether it's inviting kids over after school, having the soccer team over for hot dogs, hosting a Bible study in your living room, or sharing with a neighbor over coffee - put that welcome mat out!

Help Those In Need
Serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind.
- 1 Chronicles 23:9

Look around you. What can you do to help someone in your new community or church? What do you enjoy doing for others? Whatever touches your heart, find a need and fill it.

Give Encouragement
Therefore encourage one another and build up one another.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:11

An act of kindness, a note of reassurance, a word of cheer, or a gesture of support are all forms of encouragement from one person to another.

Be Of Service To Others
But the greatest among you shall be your servant.
- Matthew 23:11

Be the first one to pitch in and do what's necessary in a time of need. Be someone who is dependable, organized, and who follows through on what needs to be done.