Ministry Resources

In our first session on friendship, we looked carefully at the following important principles of building solid friendships:

1. Friendship must be God-centered.
2. Friendship includes the formation of a commitment/covenant accompanied by a tangible sign(s) of that commitment.
3. Friendship is dependent on faithfulness and love.
4. Friends show candor and give counsel.
5. Purity of heart and gracious speech will make friends.
6. True friendship is reciprocal and displays the following character qualities: nonjudgmental, accepting, genuine, self-disclosing, trusting, loving, caring, committed, strong, firm, empathic, willing to listen, loyal, and able to compromise.
7. Friendship is listening to the heart, helping a friend to understand his heart.
8. Friendship is getting in touch with your friend's unique spirituality, with what God is doing in his life.
9. Friendship is getting in touch with the spiritual questions your friend might be asking at each stage in his/her life.

That's what godly, committed and covenantal friendship is all about. But just as important is that we know what are the inappropriate expressions of friendship.

Qualities That Build Friendships

What are the effects of friendlessness on men and women?

Today people are building fewer friendships and the result is having a destructive effect on many. Before we discuss the specific effects, the following letter addressed to an insurance company illustrates how we need the help of others and why we should not try to function alone. The author is unknown. We will call the letter "Trying to do the job alone."