Before the internet era came on the scene, you used to have to meet people face-to-face and trade business cards or write your contact information on a napkin. Now it’s only a click away and an acceptance and you’re networking. Although how we go about networking has changed in the past decade, the idea of networking has been around for ages.
As I look at the Bible, I think one of the best networkers was the Apostle Paul. I have read the he mentions over 75 different people in his letters that were sent to the various churches. He frequently sent greeting to those he had met on past trips or people he had met somewhere along his journeys that were now relocated. In the letter to the Romans, he mentions the names of 27 different people alone in the last chapter. This was a church Paul had never visited and they only knew him by name, so he uses the end of his letter to make connections with those he did not know through those he did.
Although we will not find the word “networking” anywhere in the Bible, it doesn’t mean that it didn’t occur. Paul used the people he knew to bridge relationships to the people he didn’t know so that he could prepare them for the message he was about to deliver. When we network with people, is it for our benefit or the benefit of sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.” - 1 Corinthians 3:6-9.
Have a great day and God bless.
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