Meet the Neighbors: Hartford First Church of the Nazarene

Since moving into my new place, I’ve come to really enjoy living next to this church, even though I am not Christian (was not raised Christian either) and have no inkling to enter the building. At the place I moved from a few months ago, I lived next to an Ukrainian church. Except for Sunday mornings, I never saw anyone around there. That’s quite different from the Church of the Nazarene.

Almost every day, they have something going on in the church parking lot, which is basically right outside my window. I have seen picnics, waterslide/jumping houses, lots of basketball games, a soul concert, and most recently, an all-night event that involved a campfire, drumming, singing, and someone trying to organize a three-legged race (not sure the race ever happened).

About a dozen youth come together several days of the week, have fun, and behave themselves. The absolute worst thing I have heard (and I can hear everything clearly in my place) out of these kids’ mouths were a few fart jokes. I don’t hear swearing or putdowns.

One morning, I heard the Pastor reproaching a neighbor for not picking up litter. It was done in the nicest way possible, and I could totally tell that if it were anyone but a religious figure, this neighbor would have been telling him what he could do with the litter. I have no doubt that the presence of this church has a positive influence on the block. Their website says that they are having a street fest on Friday August 15th. I might stop down to thank them for giving youth a safe place to go. That’s what I’ve been thinking about since hearing of the violence that occurred over the weekend–the kids that drop by this church are spending a significant amount of time in a good environment, one that might give them the ability to resist being participants in the culture of violence that defines the United States.