The need for intimate relationships is not new, nor are the challenges for gaining them. To form, sustain, and grow close friendships, it has always required lots of tenacity over lots of time. Now add to that technology-driven culture shifts (example) that have made community building difficult, along with the loss of role models and helpful cultural norms, and making close friends is even harder today.
Combining the results of both studies, [professor Jeffery Hall] estimated it takes between 40 and 60 hours to form a casual friendship, 80-100 hours to transition to being a friend and more than 200 hours together to become good friends.
If you use your time wisely, that’s about 1,280 church coffee breaks, on the low end.
But despite the challenges, having close friends is still important. People with healthy, close friendships live longer, are wealthier, get sick less, and have better mental health. As Augustine taught, friendship is essential for life and many others would testify to this: David and Jonathan, Basil and Gregory, Chrysostom and Olympias, John Cassian and Germanus, John Calvin and William Farel, Olympia Fulvia Morata and Lavinia della Rovere, C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkein. Here’s what Ambrose has to say...
Read the full article, includes helpful tips.
💜 FORUMS OF FIVE: UPDATE
We announced Forums of Five in a previous newsletter. Since then, two groups have formed and more are on the way. The article above provides some context. And for those who are extra curious, we thought we'd share with you the ministry plan for Forums of Five. Enjoy!
👋 PASTOR ROBERT ULRICH
👨🏽💻 DID JESUS REALLY RISE FROM THE DEAD?
Paul says that if Jesus was not resurrected from the dead that our faith–all of it—is a worthless, waste of time (1 Corinthians 15:12-19). Of course, Jesus did rise from the dead and we who believe are the happiest in the world for it.
In two videos, (Part 1 and Part 2), apologist Doug Powell does an amazing job clearly walking through the history and shows why alternative theories are so easily dismissed. Watch them with your middle and high schoolers.
💬 RESURRECTION: A PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT
"By raising Christ from death, God as the supreme Judge set his seal to the absolute perfection and completeness of his atoning work. The resurrection is a public announcement to the world that the penalty of death has been borne by Christ to its bitter end and that in consequence the dominion of guilt has been broken, the curse annihilated forevermore." —Geerhardus Vos (1862-1949)