Why Do Christians Believe That Networking Is Somehow Wrong?

Here's the back story.

I'm sitting on my sofa, chatting with a neighbour, and I mention several things I've been doing to sort of 'help' our cause.  Networking things.  Nothing schmoozey.  Our friend gets the 'Concerned Christian' look on his face and warns me against going too far with this whole 'helping David along' plan.  Which leaves me confused, because let me tell you what I had been doing...

1) I had been introducing myself to people in the church and being friendly.  Getting to know them and letting them know us a bit so that they were at least aware of who we are and what our ministry goals are.

2) I had been asked to teach a Sunday School class, and although I'm very busy I accepted so that when David interviews at churches it is evident that he and his wife work as a 'team' and that I have skills to offer as well.

3) David and I had agreed to move from the pew we usually sat in, at the back of the church, up much closer to the front where the pastors sit.  We did this to set an example, to be more visible, and also for our own psychological boost.  David is a licensed minister but without a church of his own and that gets you down sometimes, so sitting with other pastors helps you feel more like one of them.

4)  I accepted a friend request on Facebook from a few big names in the church who had added me.

You'll notice that two of those things weren't even instigated by me.  I didn't troll Facebook looking for church big shots to add as friends!  I didn't beg the Children's Ministry Pastor to let me pretty-please teach a Sunday School class.  These people approached me, and I accepted the opportunities they offered.  The other two 'networking' opportunities that we took, moving to a more conspicuous pew and being friendly and curious with people, are hardly hard-core tactics!  If anything, they're really things that everyone should be doing!  Nothing makes me more frustrated than walking into a church and the first ten pews are empty.  Everyone huddling at the back only makes me feel like they never wanted to be there in the first place and can't wait to run out the door once service is over.  And aren't we called to be friendly, and open, and caring about our brothers and sisters in Christ?

I continue to take opportunities as they arise.  Last night I was invited to one of those 'Home Parties' where the host throws a party and you can buy from a line of goods.  There was free food, it was a night out of the house, but generally I wouldn't have gone because I'd been solo parenting Samuel all day and then had gone in to the church to work on paperwork till 7pm.  I was tired, my hair was dirty, I needed a coffee something fierce if I was going to produce any intelligible conversation, but I went anyway.  I went because the lady who was throwing the party was the wife of the former youth pastor at our church and from the invitation I had received on Facebook I knew that a lot of church women would be there.  Was I somehow slimy in going?  I certainly don't think so!  I ate some free tapenade, browsed the catalogue, had a couple of funny conversations and met a few new people.  I never campaigned for anything, I never 'talked shop' at all, my goal was to go out and meet other Wesleyan women and make some connections.  I got to follow up with an acquaintance who is adopting from Haiti and give her a bunch of info I'd uncovered online.  I chatted with another woman whose husband is thinking of opening a new business.  I was kind, I listened, I made mental notes of people to pray for.

Why are Christians so suspicious of this kind of networking?  Is it that they believe that meeting people and forming connections is somehow dishonest or that your intentions in networking are impure?  Because this is how the world actually functions!  People meet other people who meet other people and so forth, and information is passed back and forth, stories are shared, prayers are spoken, relationships are formed.  I have every hope that these women will help me in the future, just as I am more than hapy to help them.  With reference to the woman adopting, I gave her names of several people in the area who had just adopted from Haiti so that she could meet and chat with other parents going through the same thing.  The woman whose husband was thinking about opening his own business commented on and thanked me for sending her husband a job link that suited him perfectly.  And in the process of the conversation, yes, she asked me about my husband's plans, and of course I told her.  I had helped her family and I knew that by sharing the information, in even a roundabout manner, of how she could help my family, that would be in the back of her mind.  She may chat with her husband about it, who make hear through the grapevine of a job opening before it's published, and he may tell David and....well, you get the idea!  And she may not.  And that's fine, too.  I wasn't friendly with her for what she could give to me.  I was friendly because Christ wants me to go to a party and be supportive and open of other women even with dirty hair and tired feet.

He was, too.