Who Is My Neighbor? , livre ebook

P RAISE FOR
Who Is My Neighbor?
This is a great book that we will encourage all Bakke Graduate University staff, faculty and regents to get and read. It fact, it will encourage anyone who wants to follow Jesus.
Raymond J. Bakke
Chancellor and Professor of Urban/Global Leadership, Bakke Graduate University
In Who Is My Neighbor? Dr. Wayne Gordon has drawn from more than 30 years of experience as pastor and teacher. The opening chapter is a pageturner and a provocative lead to a series of practical responses to Jesus’ probing and ever-relevant question to everyone, especially the Church. Without a doubt, this is a timely text that seeks to discern the authentic presence of the divine in human interaction and interpersonal relationships.
Dr. Luis A. Carlo
Dean and Professor of Urban Studies and Religious Education Alliance Theological Seminary
This is a timely message for our culture, and I can’t think of a better person to deliver it. Wayne’s life has truly been a sermon; he has lived out being a neighbor for more than 30 years in the great Lawndale Community in Chicago and in his friendship with me. This book will challenge you to think outside your comfort zone and see who your neighbors really are, and then to reach out in love. You’ll be doing yourself —and those around you—a great favor by reading it.
Carey Casey
CEO of the National Center for Fathering, and Author of Championship Fathering
Who knew the story of the man beaten up by the side of the road in Jesus’ teaching more than 2,000 years ago could be so relevant for us today? Wayne Gordon’s insights in Who Is My Neighbor? is a must-read for those of us who love God and are committed to loving the poor as an expression of our Christian faith.
Noel Castellanos
CEO of Christian Community Development Association (CCDA)
Wayne Gordon writes as a father, as a football coach, as a pastor, as a neighbor, as an activist, as an economic developer . . . and as one who really believes Jesus meant the stuff He said. I have been sitting at the feet of Coach for nearly 20 years, gleaning his wisdom. This book is a gift to all of us.
Shane Claiborne
Author, Activist and Recovering Sinner ( www.thesimpleway.org )
A generation ago, Howard Snyder wrote his classic book Liberating the Church: The Ecology of Church and Kingdom, a book which Donald G. Bloesch proclaimed was a “bold challenge to the church to abandon its preoccupation with its own preservation and to place itself in jeopardy for the sake of the lost and poor of the world.” Wayne Gordon’s Who Is My Neighbor? liberates believers for Kingdom purposes in this generation. We cannot love our neighbors until we recognize our neighbor. Gordon gently teaches us, through stories of redemption, how to be Christian and truly live again in a world that has pressed us to forget others in favor of preserving our own safety. May God give us courage to become the kind of people who see, stop, love, care for and redeem our neighbor.
Dr. Karen Walker Freeburg
Dean of Academic Programs, Northern Seminary
There is no one whose life qualifies him more to speak on principles of biblical neighborliness than Wayne “Coach” Gordon. He has been a godly neighbor to so many for so long that the revelatory lessons from his experience shine forth through Who Is My Neighbor?
Joseph Holland
Attorney, Entrepreneur and Founder of Holistic Hardware: Tools that Build Lives
Those who know Wayne Gordon know that his life can be summed up by saying, “He is a good neighbor.” This jewel of a book is a guide to the Christian life forged in the crucible of real life on the real streets of the west side of Chicago. Gordie is “Coach,” and everyone should read his playbook.
Glen Kehrein
Executive Director of Circle Urban Ministries
Who Is My Neighbor? challenges all serious followers of Christ to truly examine their hearts and hands as it pertains to their faith. Coach has put a challenging theological story into layman’s terms, so there is no excuse for us not to know who our neighbor is. This is a roadmap for all of us who call ourselves followers of Christ!
Phil Jackson
Author, Senior Pastor of The House Hip Hop Church, and Associate Pastor of Lawndale Community Church
I’ve been waiting for the much needed, reality-grounded text on “neighboring 101.” It’s finally here. Thirty-plus years of front-line urban living have provided Dr. Gordon with practical, insightful, contemporary applications for the greatest command—to love God and love your neighbor.
Dr. Robert Lupton
Author, Founder and President of FCS Urban Ministries
Wayne Gordon has taken the Parable of the Good Samaritan and written a remarkable and wonderful book. Thanks to Gordie, I now know who my neighbor is. My neighbor is everyone, even those who are not yet Bears fans.
Pat McCaskey
Chicago Bears
I have long admired Wayne Gordon’s commitment to “the least of these.” His years with the mission and ministry of Lawndale Community Church are a living testimony of the Body of Christ at its best. They call him “Coach,” and this book coaches people who really want to do the things that Jesus said. Who Is My Neighbor? tells powerful stories and reflections on Jesus’ very challenging question. This is a very thoughtful and prayerful read that will help each one of us more fully live out Jesus’ commandment to love our neighbors.
Jim Wallis
President of Sojourners, and Author of God’s Politics and Rediscovering Values
DEDICATION
I dedicate this book to my wonderful wife, Anne. We have partnered together for over 33 years. Anne and I share life together; we do ministry, friends and family as one. She is exceedingly and abundantly beyond what I ever hoped or dreamed of in a wife. I shudder to think where I would be without her. Anne is the love of my life, my best friend and the collaborator of my soul.

2010 Wayne Gordon
Published by Baker Books a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.bakerbooks.com
Baker Books edition published 2014
ISBN 978-1-4412-2388-3
Previously published by Regal Books
Ebook edition originally created 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-for example, electronic, photocopy, recording-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version ®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
Other versions used are:
AMP —Scripture taken from THE AMPLIFIED BIBLE , Old Testament copyright © 1965, 1987 by the Zondervan Corporation. The Amplified New Testament copyright © 1958, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
THE MESSAGE — Scripture taken from THE MESSAGE . Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson, 1993, 1994, 1995. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
NASB —Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
NLT —Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation , copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
TNIV — Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, Today’s New International Version ® TNIV ® . Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society ® . Used by permission of International Bible Society ® . All rights requested worldwide.
CONTENTS
Foreword
Note to the Reader
1. My Neighbor Is Hurting
2. My Neighbor Needs Help
3. My Neighbors Are Those Who Cannot Help Themselves
4. My Neighbor Is Someone Who Appears on My Path
5. My Neighbor Is Someone Who Has Been Robbed
6. My Neighbor Is Someone Who Is Half Dead
7. My Neighbor Is Someone Who Is Naked
8. My Neighbor Is Someone Who Is Unable to Ask for Help
9. My Neighbor Is of a Different Race
10. My Neighbor Is a Stranger
11. My Neighbor Is Someone Who Has Been Stripped
12. My Neighbor Is a Foreign Traveler
13. My Neighbor Has Been Beaten Up
14. My Neighbor Might Require Me to Take a Risk
15. My Neighbor Can’t Walk
16. My Neighbor Looks Horrible
17. My Neighbor Is of a Different Religion
18. My Neighbor Is Destitute
19. My Neighbor Is a Victim of Injustice
20. My Neighbor Has Been Passed By
21. My Neighbor Can’t Say, “Thank You”
22. My Neighbor Is Someone Who Has Been Wounded
23. My Neighbor Is Someone Nobody Wants to Help
24. My Neighbor Is Lonely
25. My Neighbor Will Cost Me Some Time
26. My Neighbor Is Visible
27. My Neighbor Is a Victim
28. My Neighbor Is Someone Who’s Been Violated
29. My Neighbor Is Vulnerable
30. My Neighbor Is a Human Being
31. My Neighbor Feels Humiliated
32. My Neighbor Feels Helpless
33. My Neighbor Is Poor
34. My Neighbor Is Someone I’m Afraid to Help
35. My Neighbor Is Someone Who Is Dangerous to Help
36. My Neighbor Is Someone Who Is Discouraged
37. My Neighbor Is Someone Who Might Cost Me Money
38. My Neighbor Is in Need of Tender Loving Care
39. My Neighbor Is Someone Who Feels Defeated
40. My Neighbor Is Someone I Am Able to Help
The Eight Components of Christian Community Development
Appreciation
FOREWORD
One of the things that I am most thankful for in life is that, during 50 years of ministry, I have lived at the mercy and goodness of my friends. I am filled with gratitude for the quality and depth of the friendships that God has given me.
Sometimes I get in trouble, though, when I start talking about my “best friend.”
I’ve heard that Susanna Wesley—mother of John, Charles and several other children—was somet