Yvette Maher knows what it’s like to be loved by a neighbor.
“My neighbor invited me to church, but before she ever invited me to church, we walked our local cul de sac…We cooked together, our kids played together, and we listened to music together,” Yvette shared. “Occasionally, she’d say, ‘Come to church with me sometime.’ And I’d say, thank you, but no. She didn’t push. She didn’t ‘over salt.’ She just lived her life in front of me, and she loved me without condition.”
Yvette had been invited to church many times before, but the invitations she received came with heaping helpings of salt. People would preach that she was making bad choices and doing things all wrong, and then quote Scripture, which only caused her to turn the other direction.
“Too much salt will ruin the meal. The right amount of salt draws out, it enhances,” Yvette said. “We win people over when we begin with love instead of chapter, verse, saltshaker.”
Eventually, Yvette went to church with her friend, who witnessed to Yvette with her lifestyle more than with her words. “I was seeing a different light in her that I didn’t know I wanted, and I didn’t know I needed,” she said.
Yvette gave her life to the Lord Jesus and is inspired to be the same kind of neighbor—one who sees people, speaks love to them and shows them what hope in Christ looks like. She makes this her life work and ministry through an organization called Every Home for Christ.
At the heart of its mission is the principle of loving your neighbor. It’s about living with compassion, humility, and genuine care for others. In a world where loneliness, division, and hardship often dominate daily life, loving your neighbor and showing kindness can open doors to healing, encouragement, and faith.
“The Lord says, ‘Love the lord with all your heart’ as the first commandment, and the second to love your neighbor as yourselves’,” Yvette said.
Through personal outreach, compassion, prayer, and practical acts of kindness, the organization encourages believers to bring hope directly into their communities, neighborhoods, and homes.
It begins with everyday moments like checking on an elderly neighbor who lives alone, listening to someone who feels forgotten, or simply offering a warm smile and sincere conversation. These acts may seem small, but they reflect the heart of Christ in powerful ways.
Every Home for Christ teaches that evangelism is most effective when it is carried out with authenticity and love. People are most impacted by compassion. When neighbors feel valued and respected, trust grows naturally. Through that trust, meaningful conversations about faith can emerge. This approach reflects the example Jesus demonstrated—meeting people where they were, caring for their needs, and offering hope.
According to Every Home for Christ, the ministry is equipping and inspiring more than 790,000 believers every month to share Jesus through this simple, practical, intentional way of sharing His love. In 2025, Every Home for Christ had more than 23 million people respond positively and ask to learn more about Jesus through this simple, practical, intentional way of sharing His love.
One caring neighbor can influence an entire community, and Yvette aims to be that neighbor. She moved into a new neighborhood with only three houses on her street. The rest were empty lots. So, she drew a map and labeled the lots with addresses. Then she began walking the neighborhood and praying over the families that would soon live there.
“We had no idea who was going to move in here, where they were coming from, or what their stories were,” Yvette said.
For the next year, as one house after another was built and families moved in, Yvette got busy loving her neighbors. She started with a welcome letter to introduce herself and to offer multiple ways to connect like walking the neighborhood, or talking over a cup of coffee.
People started responding, and now there are block parties, cookouts, card nights, and progressive dinners. There also is a text thread between neighbors for when there is a tangible need or need for prayer. “My neighbors say, ‘You need prayer? Take it over to Yvette.’ I tell them I don’t trust me, but I trust Him,” she said.
Every Home for Christ has been carried the same way into 215 nations over the last 80 years. More than 250 million people have come to know Jesus through this simple, practical, intentional way of sharing His love.
Practicing the teachings of Every Home for Christ also means developing a heart that sees people through the eyes of grace. Sometimes loving your neighbor requires patience, forgiveness, and understanding. It means choosing empathy, service, and recognition that every person carries struggles they may not show on the surface.
As individuals begin to practice intentional love in their neighborhoods, entire communities can change. Hearts soften. Friendships grow. Faith becomes visible through action. In a world longing for hope, the simple decision to love your neighbor may be one of the most powerful testimonies of all.
Visit EveryHome.org for resources to help you start loving your neighbors today. For questions, call (719) 260-8888 or email info@everyhomeorg.
“We win people over when we begin with love instead of chapter, verse, saltshaker.”
To “love your neighbor” has been so personal to me.
Loving our neighbors is not an optional add-on to our faith. It is central to it.
One year ago, we moved into our new neighborhood, which consisted of three houses on our street and several vacant lots and homes under construction. I am the meet-greet-know-see-borrow the cup of sugar neighbor. I not only wanted to know my neighbors, but I also needed to know them. Moving from our community in Colorado Springs, where we had lived for 40 plus years, leaving behind history, family, community, church, coworkers, friends, and neighbors has been harder than I expected. Every Home for Christ created a resource that I felt was just for me. An actual mapped-out plan to see, meet, know, serve, and share Christ with your neighbors. And I jumped in.
We live in a world that has never been more connected, and yet, paradoxically, never more alone. We can scroll endlessly, message instantly, and still go days without being truly seen. Many people live just feet from us, sharing walls, streets, and routines, yet carry deep loneliness in silence. And often, that loneliness grows when we isolate, when pride, fear, busyness, or hurt convince us that we’re better off on our own.
But God did not design us for isolation.
From the very beginning, Scripture reminds us, “It is not good for man to be alone.” We were created for relationship, with God and with one another. And Jesus made this unmistakably clear when He was asked what matters most. He said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart… and love your neighbor as yourself.” Not instead of loving God, but because we love God.
To love our neighbor, we must first know them. Not just their names, but their stories. Their joys, their worries, their losses. Knowing takes time. It requires slowing down, asking real questions, and listening without rushing to fix or judge. When we don’t know our neighbors, it becomes easy to overlook them. Or worse, to assume they don’t need us.
Next, we are called to see our neighbors. Truly see them. To notice the widow who hasn’t had visitors in weeks. The family overwhelmed and trying to hold it all together. The person who smiles on Sunday but goes home to a quiet house, with heavy thoughts. When people feel unseen, they often begin to believe they don’t matter. And isolation deepens.
Then comes love. Not as a feeling, but as a choice. Christian love is active. It is patient, kind, and sacrificial. It crosses comfort zones. It shows up when it’s inconvenient. Jesus didn’t love from a distance. He entered people’s lives—messy, broken, and complicated—and He calls us to do the same.
Finally, we are called to serve our neighbors. Service doesn’t always look grand. Sometimes it’s a meal, a ride, a note, a prayer, or simply sitting with someone in their pain. When we serve, we remind ourselves and others that no one is meant to walk alone.
Isolation tells people, “You are on your own.” The Gospel says, “You belong.”
As Christians, we are the hands and feet of Christ in a lonely world. When we know, see, love, and serve our neighbors, we reflect the heart of Jesus. And in doing so, we don’t just change their lives, we are changed as well.
One year on our new street. Many new neighbors and friends. Holidays, block parties, walks, airport runs, funerals, graduations, laughter, tears, and prayers have filled our families with exactly what we need. Each other.
Even as I close out this article, I hear the timer on the stove alerting me that the lasagna for our neighborhood progressive dinner needs checking.
