Closer Than A Brother

Spiritual friendship — deep personal friendship based on the work of Jesus in our hearts — is an overlooked blessing in today’s shallow, “Facebook-Friend” world.

Scripture values deep, spiritual friendship far more highly than we Westerners think or even imagine.

In the days the book of Proverbs was written, family was the culture’s highest value, higher than wealth or status. And yet God spoke counter-cultural words into that society when he said, “A man of many companion may come to ruin but there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother” (Pr. 18:24).

Closer than a brother! That is how Scripture–God Himself–values friendship.

Eugene Peterson wrote this about friendship:

“Friendship is a much underestimated aspect of spirituality. It is every bit as significant as prayer and fasting, as in the sacramental use of water in baptism and the use of bread and wine in communion. Friendship takes the common and turns it into something holy.”

This online course was originally given at a men’s retreat high in the mountains of Colorado. But it is designed equally for women, and it only came about after Gary and I spoke with women about the need for deep Spiritual friendship in their lives.

If you have a few friends, or a small community group, we encourage you to go through this course together. It is our pray that your group of friends grows deeper in the mutual exploration. But it is also designed to be taken individually, as a kind of prayerful meditation on the Biblical plan of friendship.

In this course, we hope you too shall come to value and experience deep, spiritual friendship, and that you will grow in discovering, nurturing, and offering it.

Gary and Sam

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The course has six lessons were that were originally six different talks, each 30 to 40 minutes. Those talks are now broken into smaller clips, four to six for each lesson. As you finish one clip, you can move onto the next (by clicking “Mark Complete”).

Each of our talks conclude with a meditation, a personal time with God. We designed a series of questions after each lesson, a time to to engage with God in prayer , a chance to seek God, journal, and grow in deep friendship understanding.

These times with God are every bit as important as the teaching lessons. We strongly believe that it is precisely in that engagement with God that we grow in offering (and receiving) friendship. We intentionally designed the course with the idea that friendship depends on Him the Ultimate Friend, not on us the speakers.

Click on the the first lesson (below), then click on the first “topic” within that lesson, and you have begun.

(After you have finished each video, click the green button “Mark Complete” and you will be taken to the next clip in the lesson.)