Seeing God Move Next Door

My name is Michael Haefner, and my family and I have been at CityBridge for about eight years. I live in the Houston Elementary neighborhood in central Plano with my wife, Ally, and our four daughters: Makayla, Braelynn, Ellie, and Carissa.

For a long time, I wasn’t very intentional with my neighbors. I grew up in a Christian home and trusted Christ when I was seven. Through my adult years, I stayed active in church, serving in ministries and joining a community group. My faith was real, but I realized I was living in what I call a “holy huddle.” Almost all of my time, work, family, and church were spent around other believers. I wasn’t building meaningful relationships with people who didn’t know Jesus.

A Wake-Up Call

That changed about four years ago with a sermon at CityBridge called Engaging Our City. I was confronted with Jesus’ words in Matthew 22:37–39. All the law and the prophets boil down to this: Love God and love your neighbor.

I realized my “neighbors” weren’t just the people I naturally overlapped with. They were literally the people living around me, and there was no good excuse for not loving them. That truth forced me to reorient my priorities.

Not long after, a woman across the street who ran our neighborhood watch sent an email saying she needed someone to take it over. It felt like the Lord had opened the door. Allie and I said yes, knowing that meant saying no to other good things so we could be present right where God had placed us.

Starting Small

At first, we focused on the eight homes closest to us, the three across the street, two on either side, and three behind us. I remember telling Allie, “I wish we had just moved in so we could bring people cookies.” She said, “Why don’t we just do that now?”

So we baked boxes of Christmas cookies, tucked in our family card, and started knocking on doors. That simple step helped us begin new relationships.

When we moved to our current neighborhood, we carried the same mindset with us. Over time, small steps of connection added up to something bigger.

A Growing Community

Last year, I told some new neighbors about resources I’d learned about in my previous neighborhood. They told me, “You should start a group.” So we launched Neighbors of Houston, covering nearly 1,900 homes around our elementary school.

Since then, we’ve hosted Halloween pizza parties, cocoa-and-caroling nights, and summer donut socials. We even won Plano’s “Fittest Neighborhood” competition. Those events were fun, but the real joy has been bearing one another’s burdens, like Galatians 6:2 says. We’ve rallied to meet needs, run toward the storm when a neighbor’s house caught fire, and shown up for one another in ways that matter most.

Loving Where We Live

Through this journey, I’ve experienced how God designed us for community. He Himself exists as Father, Son, and Spirit, three in one. When we live that out with our neighbors, we reflect His image in powerful ways.

The greatest blessing hasn’t been the events or recognition. It’s been learning to see my neighbors as my ministry and discovering that God can use something as simple as cookies, caroling, or showing up in hard moments to display His love.