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Week 30: Why 3 Core Friends and How to Create Your Team
QUESTION
Do you have a couple of core friends who really know you, consistently check in, tell you the truth, pray with you, and help you become the man God calls you to be?
STORY
Bart interviewed my two closest Level 5 friends, Pete and Greg, to catch the DNA of our 10-year friendship. We’d huddled weekly using one main question:
“What’s the most important thing you need to talk about today?”
Then we listened, asked questions, spilled guts, and prayed for God’s good will in that area.
After Bart talked with each of us, he said, “Jeff, you guys are more than buddies or close teammates. You’re partners in each other’s lives. Partners in each guy’s thriving, health, and success.”
That’s the difference between casual friendship and a Core friendship. Camaraderie is good. Partnership is best.
SCRIPTURE
“Two are better than one… If either of them falls down, one can help the other up… A cord of three strands is not easily broken.” — Ecclesiastes 4:9–12
“Jesus took Peter, James, and John along with him.” — Mark 5:37
Jesus had three core friends. A partnership of 3 core friends adds balance, consistency, perspective, and strength in prayer.
EXAMINE SELF
What two guys know, or should know, your pressure points, patterns, temptations, dreams, wounds, and blind spots?
Are you taking the initiative to team up with core friends for the best in each other’s lives?
QUOTE
After one core friend died, C.S. Lewis said he didn’t get more of the remaining friend; he had less of him. A true third friend brings out more of each man.
TIP
Don’t ask, “Who are my perfect friends?” Ask, “Who are the willing and faithful friends God is calling me to pursue?”
Look for and become a friend of H.E.A.R.T.
Humble
Encouraging
Available
Real
Trustworthy
CONFESS
Father, I confess that I often try to handle life alone. I can stay busy, guarded, or vague instead of known. I sometimes wait for others to initiate what I need to initiate.
REPENTANCE
Forgive my pride, fear, and passivity. Lead me to the right friends. Make me the kind of friend I am looking for. Help me build a team that follows Jesus together.
COACHING
Don’t settle for one good buddy. Every man needs a couple core friends who know his story, see his patterns, guard his back, and call him higher. Uniting three friends doesn’t divide a bond. It strengthens it.
Your Core 3 is not a casual circle. It’s your trusted friend team that consistently helps each other thrive with God, family, work, health, character, risk areas, and calling.
Don’t wait, but don’t overcomplicate this. Be intentional to invite a couple friends into a simple rhythm of scheduled huddling. Perhaps say:
Hey, would you want to huddle with me and ________ weekly, as a couple of core friends who talk and pray about life, so we can follow Jesus better?
Your pattern can be simple.
Connect: What’s going on, really?
Confide: What’s the most important thing going on in you?
Contribute: How can we support, challenge, and pray?
ACTION
Who brings the most honesty and courage out of you? Pray for God to prepare those core friends and get them together or on a call to ask:
“What’s the most important thing each of us needs to talk and pray about today?”
TALK & PRAY WITH FRIENDS
Ask a potential core friend:
“So, are you open to teaming up as three core friends who are consistent and honest to help each other follow Jesus in every area of our lives?”
Pray:
“Father, lead us together, make us faithful friends to build the kind of team that helps us become more like Jesus.”
COMMITMENT
I will not wait passively for deep friendship. I will seek it out and take initiative.
HABIT
Weekly consistency sticks better when there are three friends, even if one man occasionally has to miss. Build a rhythm. Protect it. Let friendship become a team.
CORE 3 TAKEAWAY
Your core friends:
More than guys you just like.
More than swapping old stories.
More than occasional check-ins.
You’re partners in each other’s lives.
That’s Level 5 friendship.
_____
