Is your life a quest or a quilt?

“Living a connected life leads one to take a different view. Life is less a quest than a quilt. We find meaning, love, and prosperity through the process of stitching together our bold attempts to help others find their own way in their lives. The relationships we weave become an exquisite and endless pattern.” 

― Keith Ferrazzi, Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time

This quote is from one of my favorite books on networking and building a web of relationships; if you are a church planter or are involved in any kind of start up and haven’t read this book, I highly recommend it.

Church planters need to see that their success is much more like a quilt than a quest.  We are constantly tempted to see success in church planting as a linear quest for achievement and recognition.  But church planting is more about the complex web of relationships that we are called to help the Master Quilter create into a new community of faith, hope, love and worship.  We may not always see how each piece (person) fits into the whole; we may not always see the whole picture as it is pieced together; but as we build relationships with people and help them build relationships with others and with the Lord, then the quilt comes together and blesses and blankets the city, township, town, county, shire, or people group in which we are planting.