| Posted on February 14, 2010 at 12:37 PM |
Ordained Minister's Free Online Guide to Mentorship, Pastoring, Personal & Leadership Development
Networking God's Way
“A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds. –Sir Francis Bacon
The truth is that all of us desire opportunities. Some want jobs, others want contacts, others want to minster in new places, etc. However, the human condition is to place our desires before those of others. Often we do this without ever realizing it. We meet new people and throw out a little “bait and hook” in the form of attempts to find similar interests. If we are not careful, we talk in terms of our interests, dreams, hopes, and desires. When the other person does not soon respond to meeting our interests we determine that we have nothing in common. In other words, we decide that there is no perceived future value to continuing the relationship.
This approach totally misses Paul’s instruction: “Do not let each man look upon his own things, but each man also on the things of others (Php 2:4 MKJV).
Consider the below things that most Christian ministers have in common:
1) We all love Jesus
2) We all wish to minister to others in some way or another
3) We all have a need or desire (work, opportunities, etc.)
4) We all have a way to help someone else meet their need or desire (we know someone with a job opening, ministry opportunity, or posses some technical knowledge, etc.)
Knowing this is essential. Zig Ziglar says:
"You can have anything in life that you want, if you will be willing to help someone else get what they want".
The problem is that many people want opportunities, but they are not positioning themselves to make opportunities for others. This is why networking does not work for them. May we be careful to remember Paul’s instruction in Php 2:4, and go into the world making more opportunities than we find. Doing this will change the world for others, as well as ourselves. Opportunities will become more abundant than we ever imagined!
All rights reserved. Blog authored by Michael Mooney for:
National Association of Christian Ministers (NACM) www.nacministers.com
Ordained Minister's Free Online Guide to Mentorship, Pastoring, Personal & Leadership Development
Categories: Ordained Minister's Personal Development, Building Your Ministry , Ordained Leadership
