{"id":3543,"date":"2024-04-04T08:07:04","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T12:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3543"},"modified":"2024-04-04T08:07:04","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T12:07:04","slug":"the-power-of-focused-friendships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/04\/the-power-of-focused-friendships\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Focused Friendships"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

A number of years ago, author and pastor Eugene Peterson was called to launch a new Presbyterian congregation in suburban Baltimore.\u00a0\u00a0

One of his obligations during the church\u2019s first three years was to write a monthly report to denominational headquarters.

The initial part of the report was statistical:\u00a0attendance, new members, financial receipts, and the like.\u00a0 The second part was more reflective:\u00a0How was he doing?\u00a0 Did he sense God at work in his ministry? \u00a0Did he have any particular questions or needs?

Peterson gradually began to suspect that his superiors were carefully monitoring the statistics, but doing little more than glancing at the \u201csofter,\u201d more personal content.

So he decided to test his theory \u2013 and to have a bit of fun at the same time.\u00a0

The next month he dutifully reported all the numbers.\u00a0 In the second part, however, he wrote that he had slipped into an alcohol-fueled depression.\u00a0 One Sunday, in fact, he was so drunk in the pulpit than an elder had to finish his sermon.\u00a0 He knew he needed some kind of treatment.\u00a0 How should he go about finding it?

No response<\/em>.

Next he cooked up an affair.\u00a0 He wrote that he had fallen into the arms of a woman in his congregation.\u00a0 They were found lying together on one of the pews by the ladies arranging the flowers for Sunday worship.\u00a0

What ramifications might this have for his ministry?

No response<\/em>.

Peterson then wrote that he had been experimenting with hallucinogenic mushrooms.\u00a0 When he introduced them to the congregation at the next serving of the Eucharist, \u201cit was the most terrific experience anybody had ever had in worship.\u201d\u00a0

He asked if this practice might violate any theological principles.

No response<\/em>.

Peterson and his wife had a delightful time cooking up a new crisis every month.\u00a0 When the three years came to an end, he knew he would need to have a face-to-face debriefing with the folks at denominational headquarters.\u00a0 He couldn\u2019t wait.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0

The New Church Development Committee commended him for the health of his young congregation.\u00a0 He had definitely hit a home run.\u00a0 Did he have any further questions or observations before they released him from the committee\u2019s oversight?\u00a0

Yes, said Peterson.\u00a0 He wondered why they had never read the second part of his reports.\u00a0

\u201c\u2019Oh, but we did,\u2019 they said.\u00a0 \u2018We read those reports carefully.\u00a0 We take them very seriously.\u2019\u201d\u00a0

At that point Peterson blew their cover.\u00a0 He pulled out copies of his reports and read them aloud.\u00a0 For years he enjoyed mentally replaying their anguished attempts not to look completely irresponsible.

Peterson writes, however, that \u201cthe laughter and fun of those days\u2026was cover for a deep disappointment.\u201d\u00a0

He had learned that he was, and always had been, utterly on his own.\u00a0 Institutions may say that they care.\u00a0 But they rarely keep their promises.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t to say that the NCD representatives didn\u2019t care, at least at some level.\u00a0 But there\u2019s a clumsiness, an awkwardness, an ungainliness associated with \u201cspiritual direction by committee.\u201d

What we really need to get through life are a few friends who know us well, love us unconditionally, and are willing to hold us accountable.\u00a0

It\u2019s no surprise that the richness of the Christ-following life, as described in the New Testament, is represented by 59 \u201cone another\u201d or \u201ceach other\u201d verses.\u00a0

One third of those verses speak to getting along with other people (Romans 15:7, for example, which calls us to accept each other).\u00a0 Another third beckon us to love each other (like John 13:35, which flat out states that the visible \u201cbadge\u201d of belonging to Jesus always comes down to love).\u00a0 An additional 15% of the one-another\u2019s call us to humility (like Romans 12:10, which urges us not to be haughty, but to be of one mind).\u00a0 Still others invite us to provide mutual comfort and encouragement (Galatians 6:2, for instance, describes the power of carrying each other\u2019s burdens).

What do all these verses have in common?\u00a0

It\u2019s exceedingly hard to live them out while sitting face-forward in sanctuary pews on a Sunday morning \u2013 not to mention trying to monitor a church\u2019s wellbeing by perusing statistical reports at denominational headquarters.\u00a0

The not-so-secret recipe for vibrant spiritual health is relationships \u2013 long-term, focused friendships in which we mutually open our hearts to God and to each other.\u00a0

As Peterson himself once noted, \u201cWe are not ourselves by ourselves.\u201d\u00a0

Which means we can experience genuine intimacy with God and others who are in his family \u2013 even without the hallucinogenic mushrooms.\u00a0
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here A number of years ago, author and pastor Eugene Peterson was called to launch a new Presbyterian congregation in suburban Baltimore.\u00a0\u00a0 One of his obligations during the church\u2019s first three years was to write a monthly report to denominational headquarters. The initial part of the report was statistical:\u00a0attendance, new members, financial… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3544,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[708,156,709],"class_list":["post-3543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-eugene-peterson","tag-friendship","tag-one-anothers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3543"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3545,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3543\/revisions\/3545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}