Relational Challenges of the 21st Century--Part 2--Having Many Relationships

Yesterday we returned home after a good 24 hours at our church's annual weekend away to start out the new ministry year. Around 230 people were present for at least part of the 2 day event.

There were lots of good things about this year's retreat. One was being able to hear more of the vision for the coming year. We've missed the last 3 retreats, so it was valuable to be back again.

Another great thing was to have time to talk with people, some of whom we have known for the 5 years that we've been at Belleville; others, we've seen their faces on Sunday or I've seen their name on the e-mail list, but didn't ever get to talk with them; and others whom I had never seen or heard of before.

This is both a pleasure and a challenge. I love meeting new people and get energized by it. I love networking, so this is an ideal event for me to have so many people together in one place.

The challenge is trying to maintain many different relationships. Having lived in France for 12+ years and been part of 5 different churches during that time, I've met lots of people in them. This summer, we wanted to get together with some of them. While we succeeded a little, we missed out on a lot of people who have been important parts of my life in the past.

There are people in our neighborhood and in our building whom we want to get together with, but generally don't.

Then there's the challenge of trying to maintain relationships across the Atlantic with a dozen churches who formally partner with us, in addition to other ones who are friendly to us. There's also the formal financial and prayer partners (individuals, couples, and families) to whom we couldn't do what we're doing without them. Then there are hundreds of other friends and acquaintances besides them too.

I have more questions than answers in how to manage all this. In some ways, this is more complicated than it was in Jesus' day, as he lived and ministered basically in a small geographic region.

Part of my call as a networker is to have lots of relationships, as many ministry opportunities have resulted from this. But it's still frustrating to not be able to go as deep in certain relationships as I would like.