Adam Gonnerman

When I was young, meeting someone new was uncomplicated. You saw another kid, asked if they wanted to play, and a friendship began. Growing up in a pre-internet world, the people you knew were largely the people you saw regularly. You had each other's phone numbers, and that was enough. Connection happened through proximity. There was a time, further back in history, when formal letters of introduction served as the mechanism for entering new social and professional circles, but that practice faded long ago. Today, the introduction happens online, often before any in-person meeting ever takes place. About twenty-one years ago I made a trip to New Hampshire. I was a full-time minister at the time and was exploring the possibility of becoming a bivocational minister in that state, with the goal of finding steady work while using my remaining time to plant a Brazilian congregation. When I arrived, I already had a contact: a Brazilian man I had connected with online. He and his Americ...

It began during layoffs. A pall of dread had fallen over the office, and day by day everyone was just awaiting word on whether they would still have a job. People would gather in the office of one of the managers, commiserating about the situation over beverages. People brought in different types of alcohol, and the manager mixed drinks. Eventually, the period of layoffs passed, but the tradition of gathering continued. Once a week, every Thursday at 5pm, something wonderful happened. Now, to be sure, this gathering met the company requirements. It was set in a time period in which office drinking was permitted, and it had the approval of an SVP. He was one of the regulars at the gathering anyway. Everything was above board as far as policy was concerned. And good things came from it.  This weekly happy hour brought together people who didn't often talk in person, and at times connected people who only knew one another from email threads. Often I saw team leads or department heads ...