Networking
Networking is a particular area of business skills that has enormous potential for enhancing a marketer's performance.
No one can operate any kind of business or professional practice successfully without establishing a network of
.
That fact applies as much to church ministry as it does to
any other field of work and perhaps even more powerfully, since networking is
part of the nature of the kingdom of God. To operate successfully in God’s
kingdom, you must have good networking skills.
What is Networking/Network Marketing?
The art of promoting, supporting and building relationships. You can make
money doing it, but it takes real people offering value to others and working
together. “Alone we can do so little, together we can do more” Helen Keller
The Kingdom Net-worker
The greatest networker in history was Jesus Christ.
Beginning with a team of three close friends and a dozen followers. He
created an organization that today has over 2 billion members.
Jesus networked for a single purpose: to introduce people to the kingdom of
God. No product, service, or personal friendship can meet the needs of people
more complete than ushering them into God's rule.
Jesus used networking to deliver to humanity the highest level of service
that anyone has ever offered. The Original “Kingdom Networker” was Lord Jesus
Regardless of your line of work, adopting the Jesus style of networking can
take your life
and career to a new level. By networking His way, you can achieve greater success in
your career or professional life. You can enhance your personal life through
building more and better friendships. You can find more significance in your
life by ratcheting up the level and breadth of service you provide to others.
Learning to network like Jesus will help you make the most of your life for God
and for others.
Jesus' Networking
Jesus expanded the Kingdom Net everywhere He went, calling people like the
tax collectors Levi and Zacchaeus to repentance and forgiveness and a changed
life that put their skills to work in new ways. He interacted with sinful
people and religious people, powerful people and the oppressed, the sick and
the healthy. He received crucial support from a young boy with a few loaves and
fishes, which He multiplied to feed a large crowd. He had a meal with just
about everyone. In all these encounters, He conducted a master class in human
relations. Given the spectacular spread of Christianity since Jesus first began
to declare the Kingdom net, the wise networker will make the study of Jesus’
way of dealing with people his or her best textbook on networking.
Parable Of The Net
Bible Reference: (Matthew 13:47)
Jesus said, The Kingdom of God is like a net .That figurative saying from
the Parable of
the Net has special meaning in today’s world of Internet,
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest,
Instagram, and other social networking tools. Unlike many languages, English has a specific word
for net-like relational connections: network.
Since networks describe metaphorical nets rather than literal ones, we
could accurately understand Jesus to say, “The kingdom of God is a network” aka (Kingdom Net).
According to Jesus, the Kingdom is God’s net cast into the world. The net
catches both good fish and bad. Sincere and insincere people, true believers
and faithless fellow travelers, all find themselves caught up in it. The
kingdom of God brings in a lot of people; and, as we will see, some of them
become part of the network itself. In the end, God will sort out who belongs
and who does not.
Like New Testament-era fishermen working their nets, God constantly works
the Kingdom Net - weaving it larger, mending its torn places, catching more
fish. In another parable-like saying, Jesus told His disciples, “Come, follow
me, and I will send you out to fish for people” (Mark 1:17). The disciples of
Jesus Christ serve as His fishers — in effect, the network He deploys to catch
more people.
Carrying On With Jesus' Work
Jesus meant for His disciples to do more miracles and evangelize and win
more people than He had done during His life on earth. In fact, the disciples of Jesus have carried on His
works for 20 centuries since His death. The
numerical tally of their miracles and their “fishing results” vastly exceeds
the total number of people Jesus touched during His life on earth. Of course,
Jesus deserves all the credit for our accomplishments since He performed them
all through us. And He will also reap all the profits. After all, we are His
fishing company. The big one that got away, the little ones we almost let slip
through the net, the fish we caught and delivered to His shore — all the “net
profits” belong to Him.
If the kingdom of God is a net, then it is primarily a fishnet. The Kingdom
does not seek to take the place of earthly governments, businesses, the family,
schools, labor unions, hospitals, any other institution of society. The Kingdom
net exists to fish. Although the Kingdom embraces and holds sway over every
dimension of our lives, it can never truly and fully reflect the reign of God
over us without engaging us in the King’s quest to seek and save the lost. The
Kingdom net always involves reconciling lost people to the God who loves them.
Kingdom networking ultimately focuses on bringing people to Jesus.
When we see the people of God brought together under the lordship of Christ
and sense our connection to them through the Holy Spirit who makes King Jesus
present in us all, we see the Kingdom. So the kingdom of God is both visible
and invisible. The presence of Jesus, at work through His people, makes it
visible. The parable of the net[work] portrays the Kingdom as a network of
people.
Why Fisherman?
Have you ever wondered why Jesus called so many fishermen to become His
disciples?
It's because they were “net-workers.”
No, I am not attempting some lame humor. I am serious. Fishermen were the
kind of people Jesus needed. Certainly, Jesus’ disciples did not understand
many things when He chose them. None of them were great theologians, skilled
writers, trained public speakers, or psychological counselors. They had not
received training in any of the subjects so popular in today’s Bible colleges
and seminaries. But they all had one indisputable qualification: They were
networkers.
At the most literal level, Peter and his friends knew how fishing nets
worked. They knew how to make nets, how to cast them over the side of the boat,
how to work them in the water, how to draw them back into the boat, and how to
mend and maintain them after the day’s work. But they also knew something even
more vital.
Running a successful fishing business in first-century Israel required more
than just working nets. It also required networking. Fishermen not only knew
how to work nets, but also how to work as a team. They knew how to take the
fish to market and sell them. They knew how to find people who would transport
the fish into the interior of the country and market them in the surrounding
communities. They understood distribution, marketing, sales, profit margins,
and other business aspects of their work. We would recognize them today as
expert networkers.
If you intend to fish for people, then you have to know how to operate
people “nets.” Networking is the essential Kingdom task; but, despite this
fact, seminaries do not commonly teach courses in networking. Any follower of
Jesus, regardless of his or her work, can express the kingdom of God through
networking.
Christ is Chosen and Precious
For it is contained in Scripture: “Behold, I lay in Zion a
cornerstone,chosen and precious;
and he who believes on Him shall by no means be put to shame." (1Peter
2:6) To you
therefore who believes is the preciousness; but to the unbelieving, " The stone
which the builders rejected, this has become the head of the corner." (1Peter 2:7)
First, as we have seen, Christ was chosen by God in eternity past. That was
God's initial
choosing of Him. Then God chose Christ the second time in resurrection. Resurrection
is a
strong proof that God has chosen Christ. This second choosing was a confirmation of God's
first choosing.Therefore, in resurrection God confirmed the choice He had made concerning
Christ in
eternity past.
When Christ was on the cross, apparently He was rejected by God. To the
Pharisees and
tp all the others who opposed Him, the crucifixion of Christ was a sign that God had
rejected Him.
According to Matthew 27, the chief priests, with the scribes and the elders,
said,"He is king
of Israel, let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe on him. He trusted upon
God; let Him rescue him now if He wants him: for he said, I am God's Son."
(Matthew
27:42-43)
"And the rulers were even sneering and saying, He saved others let him
save himself if this
is the Christ of God, the Chosen One!" (Luke 23:35)
The religious leaders thought that God had rejected Christ. However, on the
third day Christ
was resurrected, and that resurrection was a sign of God's choosing, a proof
that God had chosen Christ to be the stone for His building.
The statement, "Behold, I lay in Zion a chosen stone," refers not
only Christ's resurrection,
but also to His ascension. After God resurrected Christ, He lifted Him up to the
heavens.
Therefore, Christ's ascension was a further sign and confirmation that God had chosen Him.
God's choosing of Christ in eternity past was not seen by anyone, not even
by the angels.
When God chose Christ, nothing had been created, for that choice was made before
the
foundation of the world. Only God knew that Christ was His chosen One. But this choice
has been manifested in Christ's resurrection and ascension. Soon after Christ's ascension, Peter
realized clearly that Christ is the Messiah chosen by God. This was the reason Peter
said to the
religious leaders in Acts 4,
"Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel,
that by the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him
doth this man
stand here before you whole.This is the stone which was at nought of you
builders, which is
become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there
is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (v. 10-12).
There is
salvation in no other name because God has chosen Christ, and this choice has
been manifested in
and confirmed by Christ's resurrection and ascension.
Along with the other apostles, Peter could testify that he had seen the
resurrected Christ.
Furthermore, they had all witnessed His ascension. These two acts,
resurrection and
ascension, prove and confirm that Jesus of Nazareth is the One whom God has chosen to
be the head of the corner for God's building.
As such a chosen One, Christ is now held in honor. Christ is not only in
glory; He is also on
the throne at the right hand of God. This means that He is in a position of
honor. Because
Christ is now in such an honorable position, He is precious, highly valued.
Biblical Principles in Network Marketing
As a Pastor, Bill Nissen was against Network Marketing for years. In 2003, a friend helped
him see a new perspective. He still dislikes the ethics of many who do it, but he sees a
biblical perspective that allows him to not only support network marketing, but embrace it as
a way to serve people. Watch This Video. It is longer than most (20 minutes) but carries essential information.
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