Another country Heard From

I received an e mail today from Australia. It is not unusual to receive e mails from friends in foreign countries but this one thrilled me because of the connections of the sender and myself. I imagine you have heard about the concept of, Six Degrees of Separation.

Milgram in the late 60s performed his famous six-degrees-of-separation experiment. The popular understanding of Milgram's experiment is that anyone can be linked to anyone else on Earth through only six links. In fact, Milgram discovered:

Three Links of Separation: Some people have such good links that they can get to someone far away with only three links.

100 Links of Separation: Others require up to a hundred links to reach someone else. This also means all of the people within those hundred links were also poorly linked.

No Links: Milgram also found that many people have such poor links that they can't establish a connection to distant others. Many people are isolated into small islands. They are cut off from the rest of society.

In the late 60s, Granovetter, a sociologist now at Stanford, studied how people found jobs. Until then, it was generally assumed that society was homogeneous. Granovetter discovered that society is made up of groups of people, which is now known as clustering. Granovetter showed that weak contacts were twice as effective (28%) as strong contacts (17%) for finding a job. Casual connections were more likely to lead to a job. If you try to contact only those people who are your close friends they only know about job openings that you have already heard about. You need new contacts.

http://www.andreas.com/faq-barabasi.html

This also applies to missionary activities and touching the world for Christ. The e mail I received this morning indicates that I am connected to thousands of people around the globe. I have a lot of "weak" or short term connections to many, many people. The letter came from a minister and owner of a Christian bookstore owner in Australia who asked about the Apples of Gold materials I wrote many years ago.

The author's name is Martin Levine from the Kentigern Resource Centre in Australia. He took the Apples of Gold classes in South Africa. I have never been in South Africa nor Australia yet Mr. Levine knows me from classes he took from another man. He also wants to carry the materials in his bookstore. How could that occur? I have three direct contacts in South Africa.

Two ladies from SA came to one of our very first LIFE Seminars in 1979 or 80 and went back home to train their own people. One of their pastoral contacts was Kinglsley Dale, a Methodist who came to the USA and studied with us at College Hill Presbyterian. He returned to train numerous lay and pastoral leaders.

Larry and Ellen Chrouch along with Karen and myself taught our classes in Hawaii for YWAM. Larry and Ellen were invited to teach in the YWAM South Africa Counseling Schools several times and YWAM still uses our material in their schools.

I think Mr. Levine and I are connected by only three links. Even though he is in Australia he came to know us through Rev Dale in South Africa. Gary to Kingsley to Martin.

NOTE: An e mail last week to congratulate me on another birthday contained a similar connection. Peder Paulsen from Denmark wrote to offer his blessings for our friendship on my 67th natal day. He mentioned that he had just returned from the Faroe Islands near Scotland where he taught Rational Christian Thinking. Thus, our ministry has expanded into a new region with just two degrees of separation.

The 16 years I spent at CHPC set me up to have influence all around the world. God chose CHPC to be an instrument of His international missionary enterprise. He alone established the contacts. I have warm, caring contacts on every continent. They are not strong contacts that require a lot of maintaining but all are mutually supportive and helpful.

If you want to grow a church or a ministry you will need to develop hundreds of "weak" connections. Become interested in everyone and anyone regardless of how they can help you and your ministry. As the master teacher said, Give and it shall be given unto you...