Teachers Need Different Kinds of Friends

Friends who bring out the best in you -- developing your strengths, helping you guard against slipping back.

Friends who mentor us, because they're farther along the discipleship curve than we are. (These friends may be authors of books, too.)

Friends who ask us hard questions, challenge our comfortable assumptions, and don't let us settle for status quo. (Quick story -- a good friend recently asked about the key visions and strategies for our church. I told him that we wanted to focus on making disciples. He quickly broke through my 'comfort' by pointing out a key idea: "Glenn, you're making disciples. It's just a question of what kind of disciples you're making." Zing!)

Friends who are with us in the deep things of the Spirit.

Now sometimes you will find all these types of friends in one person, but it's more likely that you need to cultivate multiple friendships, at different levels of intimacy, for this. We are meant to live in community, after all, though it is hard because of sin.

( based these thoughts on an article by Ike Reighard. He's writing about pastors, but I believe the same is true for all Bible teachers. )