John Stott would never have called it ‘mentoring’, but, throughout his life, he instinctively drew alongside younger men and women from across the world, gently pastoring them within the context of a warm, genuine and healthy ‘Paul-Timothy’ friendship. Why aren’t these intergenerational friendships more common in the Church today?
In Transforming Friendship, John Wyatt acknowledges that recent serious scandals and suspicion prevalent in our culture have made people more cautious about these kinds of relationships. The church, therefore, needs to lead the way in seeing friendship transformed into something safe, life-giving and Christlike.
Wyatt shares the transformative experience of being Stott’s close friend. Using examples from the Bible, Christian history and the church today, he makes the case for a model of ‘Gospel-crafted’ friendship, with a particular emphasis on the need for more Paul-Timothy type relationships like the one he enjoyed with Stott.
Tabella dei contenuti
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. A brief history of friendship
2. The sexualisation of friendship and the ‘hermeneutic of suspicion’
3. Friendship in the Bible
4. Gospel-crafted friendships
5. Would you like to have a cup of coffee with me? My own experience of friendship with John Stott
6. The stories of friends of John Stott across the world.
7. Paul Timothy relationships and comparison with mentoring, coaching and pastoral care
8. How friendships go wrong
9. Simeon, Newton, Wilberforce and the Clapham sect
10. Transforming friendship
11. Notes and further reading
Circa l’autore
John Wyatt is Emeritus Professor of Neonatal Paediatrics at University College London, UK. He is an author of multiple books, a regular public speaker and has a podcast with Premier Media called Matters of Life and Death.