{"id":96457,"date":"2017-08-17T12:02:01","date_gmt":"2017-08-17T18:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/?post_type=resource&#038;p=96457"},"modified":"2025-01-14T12:46:12","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T19:46:12","slug":"spiritual-friendship","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/resource\/spiritual-friendship\/","title":{"rendered":"Spiritual Friendship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><p>Spiritual friendship is different from mentoring. There isn\u2019t any kind of hierarchy in a spiritual friendship\u2014it\u2019s not one person as the \u201cexpert\u201d and the other as the \u201clearner.\u201d Spiritual friendship is learning to see the worth God has placed in each person and appreciating the gifts individuals have to offer. It\u2019s being willing to share when you need to share and learn when you need to learn. It\u2019s caring for the well-being of the other person and letting them care for you as well. Giving and receiving. Walking side by side through different seasons of life.<span style=\"font-size: revert; color: initial; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, &quot;Segoe UI&quot;, Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, sans-serif;\"> <\/span><\/p><h2>Five elements of spiritual friendship:<\/h2><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Spiritual friendships are not a one-way path of growth. As we allow people to build into us, we are enabled and strengthened to build into others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Caring:<\/strong> In healthy friendships, we care deeply for our friends, seeking to hold them up in their weak places.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Accepting: <\/strong>We learn to lovingly accept each person\u2019s heart and gifts.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Serving:<\/strong> We develop the desire to serve those around us.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Offering Hospitality<\/strong>: We reach out in hospitality, providing a safe and warm space for our friends to be with us.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Encouraging:<\/strong> And above all, we learn to live in the rhythm of encouragement, speaking life and hope often.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>These five elements of spiritual friendship\u2014caring, accepting, serving, offering hospitality, and encouraging others\u2014are woven throughout life and relationships. Each of these things overlaps and flows through the others, creating a strong cord of friendship that cannot be broken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-consider-how-you-can-engage-in-spiritual-friendships\">Consider how you can engage in spiritual friendships:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>What do you think about the difference between a mentor and a spiritual friend?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Who has been a spiritual friend to you?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What barriers do you face to building rich spiritual friendships?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What are you currently wrestling with that would benefit from someone speaking into your life? Who do you know (even if you don\u2019t know them well!) who could provide insight and help?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Who in your life can you reach out to and invest in?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>There are five elements of spiritual friendship: caring, accepting, serving, offering hospitality, and encouraging others. Which of these is hardest for you? Which of these comes easily to you?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<br>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group cta ticss-63dda377 has-cool-gray-background-color has-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\" id=\"h-share-this-navigator-discipleship-tool\"><strong><strong>Share this Navigator Discipleship Tool<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">Download a print-friendly PDF of our Spiritual Friendship resource to pass along and share with others. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/resources\/\">Navigator Discipleship Tools<\/a> are designed for sharing with your Bible study, church group, and those you are discipling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons alignwide is-horizontal is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-499968f5 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-orange-background-color has-text-color has-background wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/navtool-spiritual-friendship.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">DOWNLOAD NOW<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<br>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Content adapted from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/p\/becoming-gertrude\/20766\/e-book\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Becoming Gertrude: How Our Friendships Shape Our Faith<\/a> by Janice Peterson. Copyright \u00a9 2018. Used by permission of NavPress, represented by Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries. All rights reserved. For purchases please visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">navpress.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\r\n\t\t\t<div id=\"daexthefup-container\"\r\n\t\t\t\tclass=\"daexthefup-container daexthefup-layout-stacked daexthefup-alignment-center\"\r\n\t\t\t\tdata-post-id=\"96457\">\r\n\r\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"daexthefup-feedback\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"daexthefup-text\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"daexthefup-title\">Was this helpful?<\/h3>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"daexthefup-buttons-container\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"daexthefup-buttons\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t<div class=\"daexthefup-yes daexthefup-button daexthefup-button-type-icon-and-text\" data-value=\"1\">\r\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"daexthefup-button-icon\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\r\n                <svg>\r\n                    <defs>\r\n                        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feedback!<\/div>\r\n\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\r\n\t\t\t","protected":false},"featured_media":96472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_helpful_pro_status":1,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"mission":[],"topic":[44],"class_list":["post-96457","resource","type-resource","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","topic-discipleship"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource\/96457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/resource"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96457"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource\/96457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":265516,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource\/96457\/revisions\/265516"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"mission","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/mission?post=96457"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=96457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}