Don't Just Pray - Network!

We all know that the mortgage industry is having major problems these days and people are facing forclosures. Richmond County (aka Staten Island), New York faces some of the highest forclosure rates in all of New York City,

But those who are facing pre-forclosure may have a prayer -- literally. Last week the International Christian Center of Staten Island, hosted a "Pre-Forclosure Prayer Service". Now I'm not a member of their church so I didn't attend, but it did make me think about how churchs are a network whose members are many people we know but may not know us outisde of the weekly services.

We are all a part of various different networks: social, business, sport, political, religious, etc. Many people that we currently do business with have no idea of the other networks that we belong to because, we typically do not share this information. Thus, they and we miss out on a boatload of opportunites to help others.

Think about it: every major religion relied on "word of mouth" in order to expand. Yes, there were things that were written down and printed or transcribed by hand but for the masses of people living at those times, many did not have access to these books, scrolls, tablets, etc. So religion, just as most of society's knowledge, was spread orally by what can be considered "word of mouth".

When it comes to religious organizations, many people who attend services on a regular basis may be known as a parishoner or member but are not visible enough to be seen by the leaders of the church as somone who can help by offering a wealth of resources. Some people do not believe that a religious organization is a proper place to network for business. I disagree as I believe in Dr. Misner's philisophy shared in his book, Truth or Delusion that you can network anywhere, any time -- so long as you "honor the event".

Thinking about this reminded me of a story that occurred a few years ago. There was a member of a BNI chapter in my region that sold men's clothing and furnishings. As part of a casual conversation with five others, (myself included), this member explained that he was the pastor of a church. I asked how many people he preached to on a given Sunday. He answered "250-350". I asked if any of them knew what he did outside of the church. He said "a few". Then I turned to the others in the converstion and asked if they knew that their colleague was a pastor: not a single one did.

Intrigued, I went on to ask if a member of his church had a problem in their life, would they turn to him or another person in the church for consoluation and counsel. He said that happens very often. I asked, wouldn't it be a blessing to those people if he were to refer them to someone that he knew, trusted who can help them with their problems? I also asked could some of the people in his congregation could be potential customers, clients, patients, sources of referrals, vendors/suppliers or even potential members of his chapter. His answer was a resounding yes and he admitted that he never thought of it that way.

I told him I'm not expecting him to go to the pulpit to say "God wants you to buy your insurance from XYZ Insurance" but instead, to make himself and the rest of the congregation aware that there are secular resources that can help. Then, provide them with an referral and introduction to the various resources. This is in full accordance with the Giver's Gain philosophy that BNI teaches as well as The Good Book.

A few months after this conversation I ran into him. He told me that not only did he end up referring people to his fellow networking partners who needed help in a variety of different areas, but also was now being touted as an "Angel in Men's Clothing" by his fellow BNI members. In turn, he started getting more referrals for his clothing business as well.

So while I do believe that praying does indeed work to help resolve problems in our lives and to help us to achive various goals, networking also helps out in the process.