Episode 1659
You Need Friends – God’s Cure for Loneliness – Jake Thurston part 2
You Need Friends
God’s Cure for Loneliness
Jake Thurston part 2
Pastor Bob Thibodeau continues a profound conversation with Jake Thurston, focusing on the pivotal role that friendships play in combating loneliness and fostering a sense of community.
The discussion explores the alarming effects of loneliness, revealing its physical, psychological, and spiritual ramifications, and underscoring the profound connection between one's relational health and overall well-being.
Thurston emphasizes that true depth in friendships requires vulnerability and the willingness to share personal experiences, which can significantly enhance relational satisfaction.
As they explore various types of friendships—from casual acquaintances to intimate confidants—Thurston delineates how one’s circle of friends shapes their life outcomes, from emotional health to professional success.
This episode serves as a clarion call for individuals to actively pursue meaningful connections, offering actionable insights for those yearning to reclaim their God-given design for community.
Takeaways:
- Pastor Bob Thibodeau's Kingdom Crossroads podcast highlights the importance of community and authentic friendships in combating loneliness, as discussed by guest Jake Thurston.
- Jake Thurston emphasizes that the depth of one's friendships is contingent upon the willingness to share personal vulnerabilities and foster trust within those relationships.
- The podcast reveals that loneliness can profoundly affect one's physical and mental health, indicating a need for a supportive community to mitigate these detrimental effects.
- Listeners are encouraged to actively seek out and cultivate friendships, as the podcast discusses practical steps for building meaningful connections in a disconnected world.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Email: jake@youneedfriends.com
Website: https://www.youneedfriends.com
Book: You Need Friends: Reclaim Your God-Given Design for Community and Remedy Your Loneliness for Good – on Amazon
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Transcript
Welcome to the Kingdom Crossroads podcast with Pastor Bob Thibodeau.
Speaker A:Pastor Bob conducts personal interviews with Christian influencers from around the globe, helping Christian authors, recording artists, CEOs, entrepreneurs, non profit leaders, and yes, pastors and ministry leaders to get the word out about what they are doing to impact the world with the gospel.
Speaker A:Our podcast has been rated in the top 1/2% of all podcasts in the world by ListenNotes.com so you know your message will be heard.
Speaker A:Now here is your host with today's interview, Pastor Bob Thibodeau.
Speaker B:Hello everyone everywhere.
Speaker B:Pastor Bob Thibodeau here.
Speaker B:Welcome to the Kingdom Crossroads podcast Today.
Speaker B:We're so blessed.
Speaker B:You're joining us for part two and the conclusion, an amazing interview with Jake Thurston.
Speaker B:He's the author of a fabulous book.
Speaker B:It's titled you need friends.
Speaker B:Amen to that.
Speaker B:But you need friends.
Speaker B:Reclaim your God given design for community and remedy your loneliness for good.
Speaker B:Now, if you missed part one, you need to go back and catch up because there's just so much great information in there that we don't have time to go back and cover it all over again.
Speaker B:Amen.
Speaker B:But today we're going to pick up this conversation where we left off.
Speaker B:And Jake is talking about the different kind of friends that we have and the different kind of friends we need.
Speaker B:Praise God.
Speaker B:How to separate them both and still be a minister of the Lord to them all.
Speaker B:Amen.
Speaker B:Let's jump right back in the conclusion of this great interview with Jake Thurston.
Speaker B:You have friends that you go work with.
Speaker B:You have friends that you go do recreational things with.
Speaker B:Sometimes they're the same.
Speaker B:You also have friends that you can become intimate with.
Speaker B:And I'm not just talking about sexually and all that, but you know, sharing those deep personal things and, and know that they won't judge you.
Speaker B:Now, they may bring some things to the forefront that you didn't want to hear, but, but they're doing that out of their act of love and friendship as well, things like that.
Speaker B:So in your research, what were the most surprising effects of loneliness that you discovered physically, psychologically and spiritually?
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker C:Oh my gosh.
Speaker C:Loneliness undergirds so many of our culture's problems right now.
Speaker C:Like, you would be shocked of how much it comes back to loneliness.
Speaker C:So first, as far as, like, the physiological, physical effects of loneliness, extended periods of loneliness increases your experiences of anxiety and depression.
Speaker C:Typically, everyone who commits suicide has extensive feelings of loneliness behind it.
Speaker C:So it increases deaths of despair.
Speaker C:It increases feelings of irritability, anger issues and addictive behaviors, but it even goes on to do things like it affects your sleep quality and therefore it affects your immune system.
Speaker C:Even those who suffer from cardiovascular diseases are less likely to heal from them if they have fewer friendships and community, whereas those who do have stronger relational networks to support them tend to heal quicker in anything.
Speaker C:So that's super extensive in itself.
Speaker C:But then, I mean, you got to think, like, if you're anxious and you're depressed because you don't have any friends to support you, I mean, that's not just a physical, you know, psychological issue.
Speaker C:Like, that is a spiritual issue that the enemy will use.
Speaker C:Because if the enemy is going to try to make you feel all those things, he's also going to really try to ensure that you don't have anybody to help you navigate that.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker C:So there's all those issues with loneliness, but then it also really barrels down and affects the way you think and the way you are.
Speaker C:It's unreal.
Speaker C:But then when you look at the, in the inverse, the other side of the coin, those who are embedded into strong, significant friendships, you know, both on the, like, the personal, intimate side, all the way to like, you know, kind of your casual friends, if you have like full range of your relational satisfaction, those friendships can boost your immune system.
Speaker C:They can increase your sense of purpose and happiness, and even goes on to affect your life in so many ways.
Speaker C:Like how and what you think is determined by the friends you have.
Speaker C:How you feel on a given day is determined by the friends you have.
Speaker C:How much money you make is determined by the friends you have.
Speaker C:Because get this, think about it.
Speaker C:If you are surrounded by good people who make you feel better and are therefore happier, you're going to have a stronger work ethic.
Speaker C:And therefore you're going to get noticed at work for the awesome work that you're doing.
Speaker C:And therefore you're more likely to get promotions.
Speaker C:Therefore you're more likely to make money.
Speaker C:Same thing that your kids are more likely to do better in school.
Speaker C:If you're surrounded by good, significant friendships.
Speaker C:Why?
Speaker C:Because you're happier.
Speaker C:You're going to most likely surround yourself with other families who have kids who succeed.
Speaker C:And therefore you're going to live your life and parent your kids in a way that's going to help them succeed in school.
Speaker C:Like you are, who you're with is the ultimate claim I make.
Speaker C:And so you're formed by those you surround yourself with.
Speaker C:And so if you really want to see yourself grow in any area, whether that's your pursuit of Christ likeness, you want to lose weight.
Speaker C:You want to overcome an addiction.
Speaker C:You want to get better with xyz.
Speaker C:Surround yourself with friends who are pursuing the same thing, and you are exponentially more likely to get there.
Speaker C:That's the power of friendship, especially in comparison to the effects of all.
Speaker B:What's the old adage is, you know, birds of a feather flock together.
Speaker B:You are.
Speaker B:You are the sum total of the five people you hang out with the most.
Speaker B:Or something like that.
Speaker B:All those things, yeah.
Speaker B:Amen.
Speaker B:Well, you've been working on this for 10 years or more.
Speaker B:What's one takeaway from your journey that changed your understanding of community and friendship the most?
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker C:Honestly, the biggest thing that came out of my research with my dissertation is the power of confession and vulnerability in increasing the rate of depth with your friendships.
Speaker C:Like, if you want to have deeper friendships, because that's actually really where a lot of the loneliness stems from.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:When we think of people who suffer from loneliness, you think, oh, they're isolated and have no friends.
Speaker C:No, that's not true.
Speaker C:Loneliness can be as simple as you don't feel understood by those around you, or you're not feeling connected on a deeper level with some friends.
Speaker C:You might hang out with people at work or whatever, but you don't have that core who's always there to support you no matter what.
Speaker C:If there's anything about your life you are keeping hidden, you're technically isolated in that sense.
Speaker C:So when I did my.
Speaker C:My study, you know, I had a group of 30 young adults come through this program where I taught a lot of the different contents of the book.
Speaker C:But then I put them in spiritual direction.
Speaker C:Groups is what they were called.
Speaker C:For four weeks, these were small groups of three to five people.
Speaker C:And literally the whole group structure was designed around you, taking 10 minutes to talk about whatever you just needed to process.
Speaker C:And then the next 10 minutes were spent by everybody in that group going around and asking you questions about your experience, trying to understand what's going on, but also to help you process and see where's God in the midst of that.
Speaker C:And almost everyone who said that they experienced an increase in connection and friendship talked about just how being able to talk about the deep parts of their life built trust quickly and expedited that whole process of getting closer to each other.
Speaker C:And so really, kind of the main point I had is that if you want to increase the depth of your relationships, you need to increase the depth of yourself you're willing to share.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:The depth of your relationships is determined by the depth of yourself you're willing to share.
Speaker C:And you know, you can't just share that with everybody, so you need to be selective in who those people are.
Speaker C:But truly, like, if, if you want to help cultivate that stronger sense of support and connection, you.
Speaker C:You need to take the first step and just get the things off your chest and no one else knows about.
Speaker C:And the, and here's like the oxymoron.
Speaker C:The paradox is that we think that by hiding it, that's what keeps us safe, right?
Speaker C:We don't want people to think negatively of us.
Speaker C:We want to.
Speaker C:We want to keep an arm's length from that.
Speaker C:We're going to hide these things to keep us safe.
Speaker C:But no one actually ever feels safe when you hide those things.
Speaker C:Actually, when you feel the safest is when you expose those things to your friends and they love you anyway.
Speaker C:And now you are entrusted by them and you're trusting them to cherish this really, really precious thing that you just shared with them.
Speaker C:That's how trust is built.
Speaker C:That's how community is built.
Speaker C:And in a lot of church, small group ministries aren't structured that way.
Speaker C:You know, small group ministries very much talk about, you know, if you want to find good Christian community, join a small group and you might develop some good social friends discussing the Bible or a book.
Speaker C:But it can take years of haphazardly sharing these experiences until you really can experience close spiritual friendships.
Speaker C:Because if you want to get there quickly, it ultimately comes down to how much of yourself you're willing to share.
Speaker C:And that actually means getting our group smaller and structuring it intentionally with that end goal of how can we be vulnerable so we can support each other in that way?
Speaker B:Well, in that vein, what's your opinion on what role, I guess you'd say, should churches be playing right now to combat loneliness in their church and in their communities and all that?
Speaker C:For sure.
Speaker C:I think for one, you need to understand that six out of 10 people, adults, experience loneliness at any given day.
Speaker C:So that means 60% of your congregation is likely experiencing it.
Speaker C:Now, those who are committed in Christians and religious communities, like, tend to have lower rates of loneliness because of that.
Speaker C:But just be aware, like, that could be a lot of the reason for why people are the way they are, because they feel disconnected or don't have a lot of other significant friends.
Speaker C:So first recognize that.
Speaker C:But then second, I love some of the principles that Joseph Myers shares about in his book the Search to Belong, because at the end of the day, our, our search for connection and belonging is a subjective Experience loneliness in itself is the subjective feeling of being alone or not having your ideal relationship situation met.
Speaker C:You feel like there's a discrepancy between what you need and what you have.
Speaker C:So when what churches need to do is provide a variety of spaces where people can connect in those ways, maybe they have a good group of friends already, but they need to belong to a strong Christian community on Sunday mornings and where honestly attending worship is good for them because they have that other group.
Speaker C:Others are maybe honestly just looking for kind of that entry level connecting point of a small group where you can have, you know, the, the discussion over scriptures and stuff like that, that entry level form of friendship or joining a serving team, you know, for kids min, guest services, first impressions, whatever, on Sunday mornings.
Speaker C:But then, you know, the hardest part is being able to try to provide those spaces for the personal and intimate friendships where you can really be able to provide that strong sense of support.
Speaker C:Because we don't have a lot of small group models that do support that there.
Speaker C:You know, sometimes they're called cell groups or, you know, John Wesley called them bands, you know, where they're intentionally small, three to five people, and you're talking about just the nitty gritty, dark details of your life.
Speaker C:So if people then are looking for that, you can have that environment ready to point them towards, you know, so that's something we're currently working at with our church is how can we provide all these different on ramps for people to find the various depths of community that they're looking for.
Speaker C:So we can't force people into these spaces of saying, like, we know intimate relationships are really important for you, so let's just force you into this group of three to five people you've never met to start talking about your, you know, it's like if they're not there yet, we can't really force them into that.
Speaker C:You know, no one likes being forced into those kinds of groups.
Speaker C:But if we continually talk about the importance of all these different areas of belonging and then give them the next step to choose what that looks like, then that'll really set us up well for success.
Speaker B:I think when the church is organizing all these different activities and things like that, what kind of, I guess we call it social pressure is added to that mix because then they feel like, oh, I have to be at church, you know, every day, you know, because we got, you know, church in the morning, church at night on Sunday.
Speaker B:Then we got, you know, Monday night men's meeting, Tuesday night ladies meeting, Wednesday night, you know, Bible study, Thursday night, young groups.
Speaker B:And you know, all these things are happening all the time.
Speaker B:There's no time for the family connection.
Speaker B:There's no time for, you know, your friends at, well, I can't, sorry, I can't go to the movies with you tonight because I have to be at church tonight.
Speaker B:You know, type things like that.
Speaker B:Can that get overwhelming as well?
Speaker C:For sure, absolutely.
Speaker C:You know, there's another great book out there about simple churches, like less is more in a lot of ways.
Speaker C:So really trying to be simple in your approach of, you know, Sunday morning worship plus one or two other things.
Speaker C:Is that a small group?
Speaker C:Is that a prayer breakfast or something like that?
Speaker C:Because like, like you said, you don't want to take them away from their time for that.
Speaker C:But then, but also remembering, like when you have this lens of the importance of connection and spiritual friendship, how can you then make that the focus through everything you're already offering, Right?
Speaker C:So that doesn't necessarily mean you have to add all of these extra groups and programs so that everyone has all these different things to join, but rather think of it as this.
Speaker C:How can you intentionally have some time set aside before or after service for more meaningful connection than just come in worship leave?
Speaker C:You know, so what, here's an example for what we do with our serving teams.
Speaker C:We start service at 10am Everyone gets there between 7:30 and 8am to help set up.
Speaker C:You know, we're set up and tear down church.
Speaker C:We're always done in 30 to 45 minutes.
Speaker C:So instead of getting there at 8:30 or 9:00 clock and then just going into service, we intentionally save 9 to 9:30 for our teams to have time to connect with each other.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker C:For them to develop that, that team culture, to be more of a family dynamic, to start cultivating those friendships.
Speaker C:And that's not an extra thing that they're participating in.
Speaker C:That's, that's adding in a community friendship development opportunity into something that's already there.
Speaker C:You know, one of the other things we always do is I love the meet and greet time.
Speaker C:I know introverts hate it and I know churches are all over the place with, right there you should turn to your neighbor and you know, greet the like.
Speaker C:But I'm, I'm seeing it come back in churches and we specifically always ask like a fun discussion question to turn around, meet someone new and just connect over that.
Speaker C:Because all friendships start with the finding the commonality of something small.
Speaker C:Oh, you love Star Wars Episode 4 too.
Speaker C:We talked about Star wars this last Sunday because It was International Star Wars Day.
Speaker C:So I had them connect about what's the best movie?
Speaker C:Oh, you've never seen it either?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Wow, those dweebs.
Speaker C:You can connect over the fact that you're culturally irrelevant.
Speaker C:You don't watch Star wars.
Speaker C:And it's that small little connection right there that could spark a friendship with someone they never met before or someone that they've been slowly getting to know.
Speaker C:And then that could lead to another follow up conversation the following Sunday.
Speaker C:And then that deepens and then before you know it, maybe they're serving on the same team together or they're grabbing coffee.
Speaker C:Like, how can you embed time for connecting and friendships into all these things you're already doing?
Speaker C:Because if that's what people are really hungering for.
Speaker C:And at the end of the day, they don't really even, like, I hate to break it to us, like, they don't care about our music, our, our vibe, or our preaching near as much as we think they do.
Speaker C:They're willing to put up with whatever the church does as long as they feel like they belong.
Speaker C:At the end of the day, it is connection first in this time of loneliness in our culture.
Speaker C:So if you can find more ways to embed it into everything you do, I think that's going to be the most efficient means of not just having them join all these extra things.
Speaker B:Amen.
Speaker B:Amen.
Speaker B:Well, for those who feel burned out or betrayed by friendships in the past, how can they go through a healing process and step back into the ability to be trusting with others again?
Speaker C:Oh, such a good question, Bob.
Speaker C:Because that takes so much time and depending on the extent of the wounding, you know, like, do you need some professional counseling to overcome that, you know, or even, you know, tapping into your local pastor's limited counseling experience.
Speaker C:You know, we're nowhere near trained professionals, but we know a thing or two about helping people.
Speaker B:I took two classes in Bible school.
Speaker C:Yeah, that's all you need.
Speaker C:Or three if you took.
Speaker C:If you had a master's degree, you know, so funny.
Speaker C:We read books about it, so I.
Speaker B:Think I heard somebody else talk about it, so.
Speaker C:So I know how to do it.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:But honestly, for a lot of people, just being able to process that in itself is huge, you know, so if you've never had the chance to process those woundings before that, that's absolutely the first step.
Speaker C:But eventually there comes a point where you just have to put yourself out there again.
Speaker C:You could almost call it exposure therapy.
Speaker C:You know, if someone's like terrified of spiders and you want them to not be afraid of spiders anymore.
Speaker C:What do you do?
Speaker C:You expose them to spiders to convince their brain, look, you survived.
Speaker C:You're okay.
Speaker C:You know, it's the same thing with friends.
Speaker C:Because the other comparison that I.
Speaker C:I like to make when I'm asked this question, Bob, what's your favorite food franchise?
Speaker B:Oh, Lord.
Speaker B:I guess I'll just say McDonald's.
Speaker C:McDonald's.
Speaker C:Okay, so McDonald's is your favorite.
Speaker C:If you go to one McDonald's, maybe you're on a road trip or something, and you go and you order the same thing, and they bought your food, their customer service took forever, is terrible, you know, and, like, you get it.
Speaker C:Like, the bun's all soggy and everything.
Speaker C:Like, does that just ruin your experience with McDonald's forever?
Speaker C:No, probably not.
Speaker C:It was.
Speaker C:You'll just say, that was.
Speaker C:That was one poor experience.
Speaker C:How can you judge the rest of the McDonald's out there because of this one bad experience?
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker C:It's the same thing with friends.
Speaker C:Like, friends are both the people we can trust with our whole lives while also recognizing that they could stab us in the back at any given point.
Speaker C:That is inevitable of all people, and we don't have control over that.
Speaker C:But instead of constantly worrying about that happening again, there's also the possibility of the people out there who can love you anyway and can actually prove to you that people are good, friendships are good, and, you know, it might take some time for you to find those people.
Speaker C:You.
Speaker C:But you.
Speaker C:And you'll really have to work to lower those guards down.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:And maybe that's where even tapping some of the resources at your church of trying to connect you with those people that you can trust.
Speaker C:Like, if your pastor trusts them, then maybe you can trust them, too.
Speaker C:And then it just requires you to take that step, befriend them, take them out to coffee, open up a little bit about your life, see what happens.
Speaker C:Yes, there is the possibility they might do the exact same thing that previous friends did, or they might surprise you and say, like, yeah, that's so hard.
Speaker C:I'm so sorry you went through that and still love you anyway.
Speaker C:And then the more you can do that, the more you can build trust.
Speaker C:Then you're.
Speaker C:Then that's really where healing can begin.
Speaker B:Amen.
Speaker B:Amen.
Speaker B:What's one step someone can take today if they're feeling isolated and they want to begin building true godly friendships?
Speaker C:So good.
Speaker C:So many next steps.
Speaker C:And it all depends on where you're at.
Speaker C:If you don't have a church that you can that you regularly attend.
Speaker C:Maybe you listen to podcasts every once in a while or you attend when it's convenient.
Speaker C:An easy next step is just to commit to going there regularly.
Speaker C:Church is not just another service to consume, it's a place to belong.
Speaker C:So if you don't have a church to attend, that's a great next step.
Speaker C:Maybe you do attend church, but you're not connecting with anybody.
Speaker C:How about you try showing up 15 minutes early or stay 15 minutes late for the people who say, oh, I go to church, but no one, no one wants to talk to me, well, you're getting there five minutes late and you're leaving five minutes early too.
Speaker C:You know, like, you got to put your neck out there, you know?
Speaker C:And then if you want to go even further, ask them to hang out outside of the program times of Sunday morning or your small group time.
Speaker C:These sound so simple, but people are so afraid to do it because they don't want to come across as needy.
Speaker C:Like, it's a lot more mainstream to talk about mental health issues right now.
Speaker C:But loneliness is still something where we say, like, oh, I don't want people to know that I'm lonely.
Speaker C:I don't want people to come across like.
Speaker C:Or to think that I'm coming across like, I'm desperate for friends.
Speaker C:But just own it, because your life isn't going to get better until you can make that, that, that reach out, that invitation.
Speaker C:Ask that person that maybe you've been exposed to or you're like, that person.
Speaker C:Seems like a good friendship material.
Speaker C:See what happens.
Speaker C:Somebody has to give eventually and make the ask, you know, because chances are good that that other person would love to reach out to, you know, but are you going to be the one to actually make the invitation and the ask, though?
Speaker C:And that.
Speaker C:That's where it has to start.
Speaker C:You have to start there.
Speaker C:You can' Immediately.
Speaker C:In fact, sometimes we might scare people away if you go too deep too quickly.
Speaker C:You kind of have to feel that out based off of the relationship and.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And how.
Speaker C:And how that progresses.
Speaker B:I could just see someone walking up, you know, after church service, and they're out in the lobby and they say, can I just ask you something?
Speaker B:I got these feelings here, like, I just need to kill somebody.
Speaker B:What do I need to do with it?
Speaker B:Could you imagine walking up to a stranger and saying something like that?
Speaker C:Oh, my gosh, you need severe counseling right now.
Speaker B:Pastor.
Speaker B:Pastor.
Speaker B:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker C:Call 911 maybe.
Speaker B:So, yeah, be tactful in how you approach this.
Speaker C:Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Yeah, those, I think you talked about.
Speaker B:You know, people showing up five minutes late and leaving five minutes early.
Speaker B:I've seen that all the time.
Speaker B: y say, well, church starts at: Speaker B:And, you know, they always start with it now, hi.
Speaker B:Turn around and shake hands with everybody and all this stuff.
Speaker B:And so we'll just skip all that and walk in with.
Speaker B:When the first song is about halfway through.
Speaker B:And then at the end, you know, okay, this is the end.
Speaker B:They're gonna go into their announcements now, so we can leave.
Speaker B:You know, you see that all the time.
Speaker C:Yeah, gotta get got.
Speaker C:We got lunch plans.
Speaker C:You know, the.
Speaker C: The football game starting at: Speaker C:You know what I mean?
Speaker C:Oh, gotta get home.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Amen.
Speaker B:Amen.
Speaker B:Well, where can folks pick up a copy of your book?
Speaker B:You Need Friends.
Speaker B:How can.
Speaker B:And how can they connect with you for more resources?
Speaker C:For sure.
Speaker C:So you can look up my book on Amazon.
Speaker C:Just head over there to Amazon.com or your app, search for you Need Friends by Jake Thurston, and you'll.
Speaker C:It'll pop up there.
Speaker C:You can get in paperback or Kindle.
Speaker C:I'm also going to have the audiobook coming out this summer, hopefully, knock on wood.
Speaker C:So that's on the docket there.
Speaker C:Or you can visit www.you need friends.com.
Speaker C:that's my website for the book.
Speaker C:And it includes, you know, not just more links where you can find the book, but also just more information about the topic, resources that I provide, like recommended reading if you want to dive deeper into this, as well as this little tool I developed called the Friend Zone Matrix that helps you identify the spiritual quality and the depth of your current friendships to help, you know, like, how is your current friendship situation forming you into Christ likeness, as well as, like, other podcasts and video teachings and stuff like that, you know, it's all there on that website.
Speaker C:You can connect with me, me that way, too.
Speaker C:You can send me an email through that website or you can follow me on Instagram at.
Speaker C:Pastor Jake Thurston can connect with you there.
Speaker C:And if for some reason you're one of those people where, like, you only shop local and you don't have Amazon to buy your books, you can just email me and I will mail you a copy and we'll get it done.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker B:Amen.
Speaker B:Amen.
Speaker B:Praise God.
Speaker B:I'll put links all that in the show notes below.
Speaker B:Folks, are you feeling lonely even in a crowd?
Speaker B:Well, Jake Thurston's new book, you Need Friends, offers real answers.
Speaker B:Drop down the show notes right now.
Speaker B:Pick up your copy of Jake Thurston's book you need friends.
Speaker B:Reclaim your God given design for community and remedy your loneliness for good.
Speaker B:That link's down below in the show notes.
Speaker B:Drop down there right now.
Speaker B:Click it.
Speaker B:Do it now while you're thinking about it because you know as well as I do that once you click off here, you're probably gonna forget about it.
Speaker B:So do it right now while we're talking about it.
Speaker B:Because in this book, Jake unpacks the root causes of our nation's loneliness epidem and shares how the ancient practice of spiritual friendship can transform your life from the inside out.
Speaker B:Amen.
Speaker B:You'll discover practical steps, steps that will help you to build the authentic Christ centered friendships that heal and grow your faith.
Speaker B:Amen.
Speaker B:Drop down the show notes right now.
Speaker B:Get in touch with Jake.
Speaker B:Order this book right now today.
Speaker B:Jake, thank you again for taking the time out of your schedule to come on here and share all about the this great book with us.
Speaker B:Brother.
Speaker B:I appreciate everything you're doing.
Speaker C:Thanks so much Bob.
Speaker C:Just such a pleasure to be here and blessings on you and your ministry, man.
Speaker B:Amen.
Speaker B:Appreciate it folks.
Speaker B:That's all the time we have for today for Jake Thirst, myself, this passed by reminding you to be blessed in all that you do.
Speaker A:Thank you for listening to today's episode of the Kingdom Crossroads podcast.
Speaker A:Please subscribe to our podcast so you can be notified when another episode is published.
Speaker A: interviews and: Speaker A:Please visit our website@www.podcastersforchrist.com that web address again is www.podcastersforchrist.com for more information.
Speaker A:Until next time, Be blessed in all that you do.
