Praise for "Befriend"

"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 Woman's Place

"When I turned 40, I made myself a promise—to throw myself into a resource I had long neglected while frantically climbing Mount Significance—people and friendships. While I've made significant headway, my only regrets are that I didn't do this sooner, and that didn't 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, shouldn't 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, co-author 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 what's 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 of Church of the City in 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 you'll read the book and take it to heart!"
—Jeremy Courtney, CEO and president of Preemptive Love Coalition

"Befriend is a book about the everyday work of being a neighbor. It is as practical as it is pastoral, inviting us to bridge indifference, suspicion, even hostility to love the world God so loved. Sauls writes with refreshing humility and biblical wisdom: his is a voice to trust."
—Jen Pollock Michel, award-winning author of Teach Us to Want and Keeping Place

"Befriend is a practical, winsome, and engaging book that explores the complexities of friendship in ways that are bound to make you uncomfortable and to inspire you to look at your friends anew. Grounded in theology and personal experience, Scott Souls' book is a great daily devotional, small group study, or personal study on friendship and the gospel."
—Alan Noble, editor in chief of Christ and Pop Culture and assistant professor of English, Oklahoma Baptist University