Why All My Friends Going To Church Is A Bad Thing

I am currently reading Malcolm Gladwell’s great book The Tipping Point.  In Chapter Two, he discusses a group of people called Connectors. 

Here is what we learn from and about these incredibly gifted people:

• “Proximity overpowered similarity.”
• “We’re friends with the people we do things with, as much as we are with the people we resemble.”
• “Connectors (are) people with a special gift for bringing the world together.”
• “Connectors know lots of people.”
• “Sprinkled among every walk of life…are a handful of people with a truly extraordinary knack of making friends and acquaintances.”
• “(Connectors) see value and pleasure in a casual meeting.”
• “Their importance is also a function of the kinds of people they know.”
• “Rod Steiger is the best connected actor in history because he has managed to move up and down and back and forth among all the different worlds and subcultures and niches and levels that the acting profession has to offer.”
•  “Their ability to span many different worlds is a function of something intrinsic to their personality, some combination of curiosity, self-confidence, sociability, and energy.”
• “The point about Connectors is that by having a foot in so many different worlds, they have the effect of bringing them all together.”
• Connectors don’t have “snobbery”.
• “The point is that Lois (a Connector) found him interesting, because, in some way, she finds everyone interesting.”
• “They don’t see the same world that the rest of us see.  They see possibility, and while most of us are busily choosing whom we would like to know, and rejecting the people who don’t look right.”

After reading the section on Connectors, I realized my world is very homogeneous and does not span many environments.  I am a Christian.  I work for a Christian company that helps churches.  I volunteer my time for Christian causes.  And I may be missing out on more blessings than I can imagine.

I am not “connected” with enough people who are different than I am.  I need more flavor in my life.  I need to walk a mile in another man’s shoes.

The ability to move up and down and be connected in a variety of worlds is something I currently do not possess.  But fortunately this book has brought that to light in my life.

Can you relate?

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