"What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?" Matthew 18:12
Personal contact is so important. Let's face it, many people have jobs that relate to larger groups. Teachers have 15-30 students in their class, entertainers have 50-10,000 in the audience, athletes have 3-100,000 people in attendance, and even pastors have 10 or more people in attendance for worship. These gatherings can be fun, exciting, worthwhile, and engaging - and it is so easy for these people to value the group size and focus on the number in attendance. Often these people equate their value to the number of people in attendance.
But for a moment I want to remind us of an important principle - the importance of personal contact, personal connection, and valuing the individual. How incredible is it for a person to get the individual attention of a pro ball player by getting a smile and an autograph? I was watching a major league baseball player actually take the time during warm ups to play catch with one of the young fans at the game who was sitting in the stands. That individual attention is absolutely incredible and a lifetime memory. Imagine being approached by someone who you admire and they just take the time to care about you and spend a moment with you.
We often use group emails, websites, group text messages, and announcements to try and make people aware of information. Information and details are certainly important, but our technology time saving is about information and telling - and yet it is often missing the importance of relationship and actual personal interest. The key element here is that personal contact is about loving them, not us checking a person off the list and thinking about what a good thing we have done. Let's take the time to be caring about individuals.
