Bad news, good news

In a recent call committee meeting with our Bishop Mike Pryse, he commented on the high quality of the congregational mission profile which was submitted to begin the call process.  One of the sections he drew attention to was 'mission in the community' and applauded the fact that we had pulled a good profile of our neighbourhood from the 2006 census.  His pithy summary about mission was that it is our job to go out and find out what the bad news is and then be ready to share the good news in a way that is relevant to the bad news in our context.  I felt quite challenged by that comment.  It's relatively easy to pull census data,  it's alot harder to be willing to do what it takes to connect with our neigbhours.  And yet, I do feel that is exactly what we are being called to do.  It struck me that this signage ironically is the exact opposite of what our call is in the neighbourhood.  I do wonder how we will work on connecting with our neighbours.  It strikes me that going to visit the group home from where we have regular Sunday worship visitors might be an example of getting started.  What reactions and ideas do you?