Find a Jesus-focused friend
The Path is walked with someone.
No one grows in Christ alone. The tools on this site can show you where you are, but formation happens between people. The relationship is the curriculum.
What a Jesus-focused friend looks like:
A Jesus-focused friend is not a program, a class, or a professional. It’s a person who is a step or two ahead of you and has a life worth imitating. They keep Jesus and the Scriptures at the center. They tell you the truth out of care and stay for your answer. They’re genuinely invested in your growth, not just someone you admire from a distance. And they’re someone you can ask to say the hard things.
Sometimes the friend God has in mind is a step or two behind you, someone he’s putting on your heart. Most people need both: someone ahead who pours into them, a peer who sharpens them, and someone behind whom they pour into. Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another (Proverbs 27:17, ESV).
- A Paul: someone a step ahead who is discipling you.
- A Barnabas: a peer walking beside you.
- A Timothy: someone a step behind whom you are discipling.
Where you find one
You rarely find this person by searching. You find them by showing up. Join a men’s or women’s community, a Sunday community, or a home group. Serve on a team, because many friendships form when two people work shoulder to shoulder toward something bigger than either of them.
How to Approach Someone
How to approach someone ahead of you
- Notice who God is drawing you toward. Take a few quiet minutes and write down one name. Look for a brother or sister whose faith you’d want to have.
- Ask them directly. Most people wait to be invited, and the invitation never comes, because the people who would say yes assume they aren’t qualified. Ask anyway.
- Start small. Ask for an introductory meeting. Ask them to pray about walking with you. You aren’t asking for a lifetime commitment.
- Follow up. If the answer is no, keep praying, and ask someone else.
When you do meet, start by sharing your stories. If you’ve taken the inventory, walk through it together. It works best as the opening of a conversation about where God has you and where he may be leading, not as an assignment.
How to approach someone behind you
Pray about who it is, then invite them onto The Path. Don’t come with a lesson. Come to listen, encourage, and guide, and let them see that you’re already on it too. Invite your own friend or mentor to walk alongside you as you begin.
No Timeline
There’s no schedule you’re behind on and no stage you should have reached by now.
There’s only the next step, and it’s available today.
