Connectorship?

I made up the word "connectorship" in August 2013. At the time I’d never heard a word expressed just like that. But to be fair, I don’t think I was actually the first person to do so.

I was on the plane on my way home from getting certified as a John Maxwell Team leadership coach, and I was contemplating what I’m good at that is also a transferrable skill. I was asking myself, ‘could I teach it?’ Could I help people become disciples who also then grew into disciple makers?

I so fell in love with the idea of "the art and skill of connecting people and ideas" that I even registered the domain name.

Years later, now a "connections" pastor is a common role in churches and similar roles in other non-profit settings.

What does not appear to be common is what they mean by that!

To me, there are a few essential ways to think about “connectorship:”

First, connectorship is both relational and propositional — about both people and ideas. In other words, sometimes it’s about people connecting with people, and sometimes it’s about people really ‘getting it’ with regard to an idea — learning, if you will, a concept, plan, estimate, purpose, or sense of something.

Interestingly (to me, anyway!) it perfectly fits the context of my doctoral work — relational spirituality — because God is the source and model for both. Only in Jesus do we find both personhood and truth perfectly unified.

Second, on the relational front, the ‘connections’ are first to God (Ro 12:1-2), other believers (Ro 12:3-8), and even strangers (if not also enemies and even secular institutions) (Ro 12:9-21, 13).

Importantly, connectorship is also connecting to yourself — your own story in light of God’s story. I’m not a Calvinist, but giving credit where credit is due, in the opening to Institutes John Calving pointed out just that — that the most foundational point of self-knowledge is a knowledge before our Creator that ‘compels us to look upward.’

The mission, then, is His mission (missio Dei). And the gifts of the Spirit are for His purposes. We first understand who we are in relation to God such that we realize we need a Savior, but then we must connect (together) to our own gifting in terms of reaching our own potential in God’s story.

Third, on the relational front, to me this means that small groups and other means of connecting the body to each other (He 10:24 et al) are as important as Sunday morning sermons. Yup…I just said it out loud. To state it in philosophical language, Sunday morning gatherings and sermons are a necessary, but insufficient, means for fueling the Christian life.

Fourth, connecting to “ideas” similarly is a necessary — but insufficient — means for fueling the Christian life. Of course we are to grow in knowledge, including of ourselves and our gifts, etc. And trust me, as a guy who is deep in psychometric instruments like Strengthsfinder, Meyers-Briggs, and even a certified coach in Core Values Index, I’ll argue all day long that the biblical conception of self-knowledge can only fully happen in community. But we learn things, about God, about the Bible, about ourselves, about theology, about a bunch of things so as to better relate relationally. We don’t want to just know about God or ourselves — we’re wired for relationship. Knowing God, not just knowing about God. Knowing others, not just knowing about them. Knowing ourselves, not just sharpening our own self-labeling.

Finally, there are host of different ways of conceptualizing the spiritual journey from non-believer to believer, and from believer to increasingly sanctified believer (I’m partial to the Gray Matrix), but the important thing is to remember that, however conceived, the point is to meet someone where they’re at and co-journey with them to the next step, whatever that is).

What do we “connect?” We help people connect to Jesus, which necessarily is a way, a truth, and a the path of life. It is first God’s story…and we are simply part of that. And there is no better antidote to a postmodern, post-Christian world where “my truth” and “your truth” are bantered about than to offer the Great Shepherd who’s words are both invitation and command: “follow me.”

P.S. If you reeeally want to get geeky about connectorship, let’s talk about the academic discipline of social capital. Short of that, suffice it to say that I really believe that relationship is the oldest new killer app.