We have heard it said "it's not what you know, it's who you know". Usually this refers to someone getting an opportunity ahead of some else because of having an "in" with the decision-making people--you know the vice president, so that gets you an interview before someone who doesn't have "connections". We tend not to like this, unless it is us who "knows somebody" and therefore gets the opportunity--in which case we don't see it as an unfair advantage. But if someone else "knows somebody" and gets that opportunity instead of us--then we see it as an unfair advantage.
However, let's think of this in another way--in terms of the benefits of "stepping outside of our comfort zone" to get to know somebody.
Back in the mid-1980s, the Church Growth movement was all the rage in my field--and back then the basic approach was to strategize to reach a specific population of people who were very much all alike. If people are very much alike, with the same values, experiences, interests, and motivations, then of course someone would be attracted to that church with people just like them. And it worked for awhile--while ignoring, it seems to me, one of the core truths of the Gospels, that Jesus didn't just connect with a whole lot of people just like him. Jesus connected with all of the wrong people, according to the religious leaders of his time. Jesus hung out with tax collectors and sinners, lepers and women, Samaritans and Roman centurions. If Jesus is who you are starting with in your church, then the Church Growth movement would have all of those "other" people NOT be the target population. But that is who Jesus engaged with.
And that is who we should engage with--everybody who is NOT like us. Everybody who Jesus engaged with is just as precious a child of God as the "respectable" people. Everybody is made in the image and likeness of God, whether they have the same skin color as we do, or the same ethnic heritage, or the same socioeconomic standing in our society, or the same education level, or the same interests and value systems. And we should engage with them in love--which means getting to know them (a side benefit of which is that we'll know ourselves better through this, and perhaps even we'll be changed by it).
This approach to people was consistent throughout Jesus' life, and didn't change one bit on the cross, as he forgave those crucifying him, even as they gambled for his clothes, and showed compassion to the criminal next to him,
Easter changes things. It changes our understanding of people, and it changes the way we live because of it.
GOSPEL Luke 23:32-47
32 Two others also, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. 33 When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. [[ 34 Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’]] And they cast lots to divide his clothing. 35 And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, ‘He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!’ 36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, 37 and saying, ‘If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!’ 38 There was also an inscription over him, ‘This is the King of the Jews.’
39 One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.’ 42 Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ 43 He replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’
44 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, 45 while the sun’s light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.’ Having said this, he breathed his last. 47 When the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God and said, ‘Certainly this man was innocent.’