Hey guys, my name is Johnny Artivannis and this is Dialin. In this episode, I sit down with

pastor and Professor Eric Tonus and ask him, why are biblical friendships so important? What's dial in?

Eric, I've heard you reference a number of times just the different friendships that you have in your life.

You're a guy who's in your 50s and you constantly, I feel like, allude to your mentors.

Can you talk to me about just the necessity of strong biblical friendships

in the life of a Christ follower.

It's absolutely essential.

We were created for God,

but in that we were created for each other.

And we need one another.

We were never intended to grow in our relationships with God independently,

individually, in any isolated way. We desperately need the fellowship of the saints to spur us on to love and good deeds, to be examples for us, to correct rebuke, to exhort and courage, to be an ongoing regular presence

in our lives, doing life together. And I would say starting with the local church family,

that's got to be our priority. I think we tend to put a lot of emphasis on the sort of one-on-one friendship, mentoring sort of thing,

which I think is vital. But I think what is even more important is to be mentored and to have

family and friendship among the people of God in a local church context. I think that's actually the New Testament priority.

I was actually one of my main mentors

is a man named Robert Coleman,

who wrote a book called The Master Plan of Evangelism

and then the Master Plan of Discipleship,

which have been hugely influential on me

and many, many others.

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