(Secular Resource Review)When I was thinking about what type of article I wanted to look for to read for this assignment, the reoccurring subject that continually came to mind was that the business world. There is a lot of correlation between starting or relocating a business and church planting: cause or necessity, research, planning, etc…. After sifting through several periodical articles, I came across this particular one: Building a healthy business network is a necessary and thoroughly trainable skill for the new millennium[1] written by William C. Byham. At the mention of the “new millennium,” my initial instinct was to pass it over because it was likely 10-20 years old (a later glace at the date proved I was wrong in that assumption) but upon reading the article I found it to be very appropriate to this assignment and to life in general.
One sentence in the first paragraph of this article sums up the basis for why the author wrote this article: “the need to have a group of people who can help in different circumstances is larger than ever.”[2] In a world where information is vast and multiplying daily, the need for networking grows exponentially since we do not all have equal access to that information. We can, however, connect with people who do have that access. He goes on to outline the four key skills needed for networking:
1) “Figure out who should be in your network
2) Dare to introduce yourself
3) Ask for help
4) Networking must be reciprocal … it needs to be a two way street,”[3] make an effort to keep in touch with your contacts.
Networking has been part of business practices for centuries. Now however, “networking is no longer a nice to have [skill]; it’s a must [skill].”[4] That is why Byham puts forth the necessity of training people how to network and encouraging it within the workplace.
So, what does this have to do with Christian missiologically? Networking by its definition is “a group or system of interconnected people or things.”[5] That sounds like the church to me and a major part of missions. The first church way back in Acts survived, thrived and spread in part through networking. Each member of the church willingly shared their faith through evangelisation of their families and friends. The church survived in part through the early church members pooling their resources in order meet everyone’s needs (Acts 2:42-47). This is true even of today. Without networks to connect the Christian church, each congregation is left to fend for itself and there is risk of conflict when church groups overlap within the same community. Congregations could very likely end up fight each other territory and parishioners rather than working together.
This concept ties directly into church planting. One key aspect of a church plant is its network. Before going into a community, the church planting team must establish what already exists in that community, whether or not there is a need for a church plant, whether it is feasible to plant the church with the existing resources, etc… The way that they find this out, without reinventing the wheel of church planting, is through their existing networks. This way they can connect with existing churches, businesses and community members about the potential of planting a church in that location. Once a plan is established to plant a church, the core group must then not only maintain their existing networks but develop and maintain a new network for their church plant. To do this, they should use Byham’s four skills: choose who would beneficial to the church network, get yourself out there, do not be afraid to ask for help, and then maintain those relationships.
Just as networking is vital to business growth, so it is to church planting. Networking allows a church plant to access a wealth of knowledge gained from ‘planters-past’ on the positive and negative aspects of their experiences. Church planters can then learn from them and use that knowledge to better ground their church plant and avoid some of the mistakes of the past.
[1] William C. Byham, “Building a healthy business network is a necessary and thoroughly trainable skill for the new millennium,” T+D Magazine, pages 64-68, May, 2010 (accessed at http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&hid=106&sid=e0f3fb91-17ae-40aa-ab0a-499205d1dc56%40sessionmgr111)
[2] Byham, 65
[3] Byham, 67
[4] Byham, 68
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