Fresno Updates

September 2010
About 20 pilot churches are involved in Loving Our Communities to Christ in Fresno, recruiting about 1,000 of their members to Loving Our Neighbors. About 600 are actively committed to a daily pray-care-share lifestyle. Many on the leadership team are finding creative ways to love their neighbors, such as one who put benches in his front yarn in order to meet his neighbors. Another connected a poor family on his street with a Southern Baptist youth-service project that will provide the family a new roof at no charge. Others in need are referred to Love INC, such as one neighbor with a toothache who was referred to a dentist in a Love INC church and received immediate care without charge. The Police Department in Fresno leads "Bringing Broken Neighborhoods Back to Life," organizing church-based evangelistic block parties in the poorest parts of the community. National Day of Prayer events for both Fresno and Clovis were twice the size they have ever been and had a Loving Our Neighbors theme. Sixty parachurch ministries in the community come together monthly for the Citybuilders Roundtable.

June 2010
Loving Our Neighbors Movement Grows in Fresno/Clovis. More than 100 pastors (of 500 lead pastors in the area) and two strategic young leaders in Fresno/Clovis CA have joined the Loving Our Neighbors movement, an effort to mobilize pastors and churches to show the love of Christ and present the gospel in their everyday lives. Also in Fresno/Clovis, a Loving Our Communities to Christ partner region, plans are underway for a 12-hour prayer meeting. World Vision's AIDS in Africa Awareness will come in the fall to promote the sponsorship of children in AIDS-ravaged areas, as well as other service opportunities. In another effort, called Bringing Broken Neighborhoods Back to Life, local police are organizing multiple church-based block parties to reach some of the poorest neighborhoods in the area.

July 2010
Several churches in Fresno have held four-hour evangelism trainings from lifestyle evangelism to event-related evangelism. Leaders are discussing how to draw more churches into involvement in their Loving Our Neighbor initiative, and including people in the marketplace and youth as well. LC2C city leader Alan Doswald met with the Fresno mayor regarding homeless issues and the Fresno police chief regarding gangs, discussing collaboration with churches on both fronts. Doswald also spoke at one megachurch and 120 people committed to start a Loving Our Neighbor movement in their congregation.

May 2010
Some 130 churches are participating in the LC2C movement in Fresno with more becoming involved each week. Five churches are fully embracing the Loving Our Neighbor model, with approximately 1,000 members committed to living a pray-care-share lifestyle in their neighborhoods. The team produced a Loving Our Neighbor video available on the partner website www.esali.org. More than 350 people have responded to commit to a pray-care-share lifestyle to reach those in their city. Organizers are praying for 50,000 Christians to follow Jesus in Fresno. City leader Alan Doswald reports, "After visiting several pastors recently, I discovered that the Lord has gone before us, because every pastor shows me or tells me about their plans to help their church love their neighbors."
 

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