Tic-Tac-Toe Neighboring Challenge

In Season 8, Episode 6 of the Take Off Podcast, Thomas Clark closes the season with Tic-Tac-Toe Neighboring Challenge, a practical episode designed to move listeners from missional imagination to embodied presence. After exploring incarnational living in first, second, and third places, this episode turns the conversation toward one simple but revealing question: Do I actually know the people around me?

Thomas challenges listeners to draw a tic-tac-toe board, place their residence in the center, and fill the surrounding squares with the names of their neighbors. This simple practice helps expose whether we are truly paying attention to the people God has placed near us. The goal is not guilt or performance, but faithful engagement—learning names, noticing gaps, praying intentionally, and taking one concrete step toward presence.

This episode reminds us that neighboring often begins not with grand gestures, but with ordinary repeated faithfulness. Mission becomes real when we stop letting the people closest to us remain anonymous and begin asking how God may already be at work around us. The episode closes with a practical “I Will” statement to help listeners identify one neighbor or household and take one intentional step toward faithful presence.

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