FaithVenture

How has God changed you lately? 

I am beginning to create a formal plan for scheduling my priorities. (see Prioritize Your Schedule or Schedule Your Priorities at www.tfnc.org/blog )  Draft number one is done and I am beginning to live it out, but there is much refinement to happen.

So how many people do you know?  Really now, how many?  And I’m not talking about deep personal relationships.  I’d even include what we call acquaintances.  How many people do you know?

If I were to pull out a list of let’s say, over 200 last names out of the phone book, and asked you to put a tally mark by each name for the number of people you know with that last name, how many tally marks or people would you know.  Malcolm Gladwell does this in chapter two “The Law of the Few” in of his book, The Tipping Point, to help demonstrate a point that to make an epidemic occur, you need what he calls “connectors.” 

Connectors are people who know people.  Lots of people.  All kinds of people.  And they know how to connect with them.  Gladwell said that when he gave this little test of 280 last names (found on page 39-40 of his book) to a group of college students, the average score was 21.  When he gave it to a group of health educators and professors, many of whom had Ph.D’s, they scored an average of 39.  In all, Gladwell has given the name test to over 400 people, with about two dozen people scoring less than 20, and only twelve scoring over 90.  (I scored a 47, but I’m sure I’d score better with first names.)

Gladwell’s point is that no matter who we are, what groups we are associated with, where we work, and live, and play, we all are connected to people, and some of us are connected to connectors.  Connectors know people from all different arenas in life: education, medicine, recreation, business, the arts.  When you begin to talk about some area of your life, say an issue you are dealing with in your life, and they just the person to talk to.  Yet, I now so and so with the City, with the school district; with the police.  Or I know a mechanic, a painter, a hair stylist.

And while it may drive us crazy to hear people talk like this – almost like they are trying to be name droppers who know more important people than you –  Connectors are critical to creating epidemics.  Why?  Because they know people.  Lots of people.  All kinds of people.  So when they come across something they like – be it a restaurant, a line of clothing, a politician or a pastor - they aren’t afraid to let everyone they meet know about this great thing they have come across, and because they know so many people, these people will gravitate to what the connector recommends when they are looking for a place to eat, something to wear, someone to support, or a place to worship.

Now, while you may not have scored in the 90’s or 100’s on Gladwell’s little last name test, you are a connector to those you do know; to those you have relational influence on.  Your word, your opinion, your influence will affect the way they think about the issues and choices of their lives.  One day, when they are reflecting over the decisions and direction they need to make in life, God may use your thoughts, your name, your words to help them.

Spiritually speaking, when they begin to search for meaning and direction, wisdom and guidance, God to worship and a place to worship God, you are the connector God has put in their life to point them to hope.  You are a connector in God’s efforts to create a spiritual epidemic in your church, your neighborhood, your community.  It begins with us choosing to act as a connector. 

So think of all those people you know, you have influence over.  Reflect over where they are in life, and prayerfully think of how God could use you to be God’s spiritual connector in their lives.  For you never know when the one person you connect with might be one of those people who scored 90 or more on Gladwell’s little test, and God uses that connection to touch 10, 20, 30 or more people with His grace and mercy.

Look for the connections, and then seek God to guide you in how to maximize them for God’s spiritual epidemic.

Longing to be part of God’s Spiritual Epidemic

Pastor Tony J.