Taking Back Networking

Earlier this summer, in a phone conversation with a good friend who lives in Miami, we discussed our various pursuits of connecting different organizations and people with common interests. In her year-long stint with Americorps, she got a lot of opportunities to line up city projects and to find volunteers to help out. She also became more involved with her church, and combined the two groups to do things like tree plantings and all sorts of community service.
I shared her excitement as I talked about my recent foray into the neighborhood around my church in Greensboro, praying to join whatever work is going on there and to be good neighbors and to have some kind of impact in the area. On the first walk, I wrote down the phone number on the side of a ministry van parked at a home, but it took a while for me to be ready to call.

Just after my conversation with J in Miami, I talked with another friend who is also interested in working with Americorps, and looking into an assignment that would push her to develop skills to talk with strangers and ask them to create jobs, or at least leave some jobs open, for her clients in Nashville housing projects. We realized that what she would be doing is Networking, and that it's a task that we actually enjoy, although we detest the term. To me it implies grasping, greedy, grimy, self-serving, suited, smiling yuppie-young professionals who are out to squirm and squeeze their way into the market and then strategically build relationships that help them climb that corporate ladder and avoid the nasty spills of sliding down the chutes and winding up at the bottom again. But I have hope that we can take it back! Networking doesn't have to be about me; I want to be a "kingdom networker", connecting people and groups with complementary talents, resources, and passions to do God's work of restoration on earth.


I finally got up the nerve to call the number, and had an encouraging talk with a woman of God who lives just around the block from the office building where my church meets. Later, some friends and I went to meet her. We sat on the porch and listened to her stories for about an hour. I feel that she is an answer to prayers for connection with the community, and opportunities to get to know people and join in what the Holy Spirit is already doing there. She and her husband are pastors, and they have consistently provided help to needy people in the community who came asking for help over the past seventeen years. Their church occasionally provides meals for local homeless people; they have taken families in their home who needed a place to stay; they have cared for and even adopted children whose parents could not care for them. In short, Mr. and Mrs. S have climbed up on the altar as living sacrifices to be used in the Lord's work.
Currently, their church is interested in renting a large house to provide a place for girls to get off the streets, and bring their babies and small children with them. As she shared her heart to see these young women know true life, I felt myself inspired and grateful for indigenous workers who our church-goers can work alongside. We hope to do so. At least, the four of us who are involved in this so far.
Now we've got to figure out how to network within our own group to find people who are interested in getting involved and willing to submit to new leaders and leadership styles.