We all intuitively know we need other believers to help us mature spiritually, hold us accountable and provide encouragement. The same concept applies to our professional efforts. We need the insights, wisdom and more from others who work in similar roles.

The irony is when you work where you also worship, it's easy to become isolated from a professional standpoint. If you're the church business administrator, you may be the only person focused on coordinating facility usage, monitoring cash flow, organizing events and more.

If that's the case, whom do you talk with when you run into an issue? That's where being connected is crucial.

Now, this isn't a plug for The Church Network (although I certainly recommend you stay connected with this association). Whether you have a local chapter or not, the point is to establish and cultivate relationships with other church leaders.

Here's how this will benefit everyone involved:

• When your senior pastor wants to launch a new campus (and you've never done that before), you can call on other church business administrators for advice.
• If you've tried everything you can think of to get the staff to fill out purchase requests (before actually making a purchase) and aren't seeing results, you can ask around to find out what's worked for others.
• When your church completes a successful event, you can share the lessons learned with other church business administrators so they can leverage your experience at their next event.

How do you connect with other church business administrators? Here are a few ideas:

• Here’s the one you knew I'd mention: Get involved with a local chapter of The Church Network.
• Visit the website of a few churches in your area and look for the staff page. Find that church's equivalent of a church business administrator and contact him/her. Set up a time to meet over lunch and share ideas. Repeat this with a few different administrators over the course of a few months. Stay in touch via phone or email and get back together on a regular basis.
• Instead of individual meetings, consider establishing a mastermind group. Find 3-5 local church business administrators and meet weekly or monthly. Each person could bring copies of a template they use, discuss a successful event or process they implemented, or bring a question to the group for help.
• If you're having a hard time connecting with administrators in your area, go online. Go to LinkedIn and run a search for the job title of church business administrator. At the time I'm writing this article, that results in 435 people. Reach out to 5-10 people and see if they'd be willing to chat. If they have a blog, a Twitter account or other online presence, check those out as well. You might also want to search for executive pastors and reach out to them.

If you tend to be somewhat introverted, the whole idea of contacting someone you've never met or showing up to a chapter meeting full of strangers doesn't sound like fun. I'm an introvert and know how you feel.

However, I've made myself go to various professional association events and reach out to strangers because I know it's worth the effort. You'll learn from the new people you meet, you'll get to share fresh ideas with them, and you'll be reassured you're not the only one dealing with some challenging situations.

Take 10 minutes this week and initiate one connection. Sign up to attend an association meeting, contact a fellow church business administrator and setup a lunch meeting, or look up a few people online.

You'll become even more effective at your job, will meet some great people and will have the opportunity to help others as well. It requires an investment of time and energy, but I've always found it's well worth it.