Scott Sauls - Befriend: Create Belonging in an Age of Judgment, Isolation, and Fear

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT BEFRIEND

Books like Befriend have me hopeful that Gods people are going to rise to the occasion of our moment in history with Gods goodness and grace. I pray that as you read through each of these chapters, you might add more serious and diverse friendships to enrich and expand your view of what God is up to in our day. I couldnt be more grateful for Scotts voice on this topic.

MATT CHANDLER

Pastor of The Village Church, author of The Explicit Gospel , and coauthor of The Mingling of Souls

Scott Sauls is a pastor even through his writing. He doesnt preach; he cares for souls and gently reminds us of a better way, of the tension and beauty of following Jesus. Jesus was and is a friend. Scott not only writes masterfully about that but lives like Jesus in this way.

JENNIE ALLEN

Founder/visionary of IF:Gathering and author of Anything and Restless

In this accessible book, Scott Sauls looks at virtually the entirety of the Christian life through the prism of friendship, and thats a well-grounded project theologically. When the gospel makes God our friend rather than our enemy, and we are also reconciled to ourselves both our sin and our identity in Jesus, our friend then we move out into the world in a new way. As Scott so ably shows us, Christian practice is to a great degree an exercise in friendship. This is a helpful, practical, and rich encouragement to bring all of our life in line with the gospel.

TIMOTHY KELLER

Senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City

In Befriend , Scott Sauls provides real rescue from loneliness by highlighting what it means to be in real relationship and exposing the difference between friending and befriending. In a world full of likes, Scott points us back to love . There could not be a better time for a book such as this one.

ELISABETH HASSELBECK

Talk show host, wife and mother, and author of The G-Free Diet

It feels ironic that in an age when connectivity is on the rise, so is loneliness. Friendships, real friendships, arent always easy, but they are always important. Im glad that Scott has taken such an honest look at something we all need more of. And because hes my friend, he forgave me for ending that last sentence with a preposition and beginning this one with and .

JON ACUFF

New York Times bestselling author of Do Over

Simply stated, this book is important. For the kind of humans we want to be in the world in which we are living, Befriend is what we need to read and use as a guidebook as we work hard to love our neighbors well. Wanting to be culture shapers requires effort and focus, and Scott pastors us all toward that end in this and all of his writings. Im grateful for his voice in my life and in our culture.

ANNIE DOWNS

Bestselling author of Looking for Lovely and Lets All Be Brave

One of the major problems facing people today is loneliness. Friendships are hard to form and even harder to maintain. Isolation and superficiality are easier but deaden the soul. Respected pastor Scott Sauls here presents a Christian vision of deep friendship. This book is wise, biblical, and practical. It could help change your life.

RUSSELL MOORE

President, Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission

Todays Christians have a reputation for shaking our fists at our culture rather than shining a light within it. What if instead we led with 1 Corinthians 13 love, risking relationships with those we might otherwise avoid locally and across the globe? Thats what Scott Sauls challenges us to do in Befriend . This timely book is a guide for you and me to address relationship barriers we may not even be aware of and courageously engage heart-first in our world, drawing closer to Jesus as we do.

RICH STEARNS

President/CEO of World Vision

We Christians know that love is the greatest of these, yet we struggle to live out that love alongside other loved sinners. In this highly readable and timely book, pastor Scott Sauls draws on Scripture, pop culture, and his own life to illuminate the various and often unlikely people we are called to love. I hope and pray that this book will give more of us a deeper knowledge of our own belovedness in Christ, a knowledge that can set us free to love others well and with abandon.

KATELYN BEATY

Print managing editor, Christianity Today magazine, and author of A Womans Place

When I turned forty, I made myself a promise to throw myself into a resource I had long neglected while frantically climbing Mount Significance people and friendships. While Ive made significant headway, my only regrets are that I didnt do this sooner, and that I didnt have my friend Scott Sauls book Befriend as a treasure trove to guide me on the journey. Befriend is a book I will return to time and again... with friends, to both learn and be inspired in experiencing both the deepest longing and greatest challenge of my heart true friendship.

BRYAN LORITTS

Lead pastor of Abundant Life Church and author of Saving the Saved

Scott teaches us about befriending others by showing us how graciously Jesus has first befriended us. Befriend is both wise and earthy, relevant and practical. But most of all, as Scott reveals his own need for Jesus, amid the very real questions of our generation, we too see our own need and our own questions. This leaves all of us looking to Jesus. Thank you, Scott.

ZACK ESWINE

Pastor of Riverside Church and author of The Imperfect Pastor

As Scott Sauls says in Befriend , Real friendship happens when we move toward the people we are most tempted to avoid. Sauls challenges us to break free of those things than hinder us from befriending others, not by our own strength and might, but by the power of God through love. If God so loved the world, shouldnt we? Befriend helps us embrace this awesome calling and moves us one step closer to one another.

TRILLIA NEWBELL

Author of Enjoy (forthcoming 2017), Fear and Faith , and United

In an age of isolation, loneliness, and social fragmentation, there is a tremendous opportunity for the church to offer what Jesus offers: deep community to those who need it, namely all of humanity. With disarming candor and gritty realism, Scott Sauls demonstrates how to apply the gospel to befriend a wide range of broken image bearers... a group that includes you and me. A life-giving read for such a time as this.

BRIAN FIKKERT

Coauthor of When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor... and Yourself

In a world of superficial acquaintances, Scott Sauls casts a compelling vision of a better way. In Befriend , he insightfully diagnoses whats missing in our relationships and prescribes a practical and hopeful way forward. This book will challenge your assumptions of what friendships are with a fresh view of what they could be. Read this book with caution; it will move, convict, and stretch you to experience the kind of friendships God intended.

DARREN WHITEHEAD

Pastor, Church of the City, Nashville, and author of Rumors of God

Scott Sauls is the real deal! Honest, vulnerable, funny... In Befriend he teaches us how to lose control in order to find a better way a way full of freedom, joy, intimate community, safe harbor, and warm hospitality for those who often live on the margins of the church and society by no fault of their own the Way of Jesus. I hope youll read the book and take it to heart!