A Christian Perspective on College Friendships

Pick it Up:

College is known as a time to find your lifelong friends. We’ve all seen movies where the best friendships are made through college roommates. Or we’ve seen tv shows where people make huge guy-girl friend groups in college and they’re friends for the rest of their lives. Upon coming to college, making friends is a huge concern. Everyone wants to find their best friend as quickly as possible. And if you don’t find that forever friend during your first year in college, you start to freak out. But I promise you, it’ll be okay. I’ve found some of my best friends in year 2 and year 3 of college.

As Christians, we are called to be in community. Specifically, we are encouraged to have a Christian community. In 1 Corinthians 15:33 it says, “Do not be misled: bad company corrupts good character.” We want to surround ourselves with good people, people who lead us closer to Jesus. We are also called to be friends with people who are different than us so we can represent Jesus (that’ll be a different blog post and podcast episode though). Today, we’ll be focusing on finding your Christian community while in college!

& Preach:

Listed below are some of my best pieces of advice for finding good Christian friends while in college. College is one of the best times for you to make deep friendships, as you’re constantly surrounded by people who are in similar stages of life as you are. Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity!

• Jump all in at a College Christian Community
  • If you want to find good Christian friends, joining a Christian community is the way to go (that’s how I found all of my closest friends)
  • The key is you have to jump all in! You can’t expect to be best friends with them on the first day, so keep showing up to events and getting to know people.
• Be vulnerable
  • At these events and small group settings, be vulnerable with people about your life. The easiest way to gain close friends is by being vulnerable with them. That way they feel like they can be vulnerable with you too.
• Be the friend you want to have
  • If you want to make good friends, then you need to be a good friend first! Treat people the way you want to be treated.
• Look to Jesus
  • Jesus is the perfect example of being a friend. Read the Bible. See the way that Jesus loved people. Be that kind of friend and spend most of your time with people who reflect Jesus. You become who you spend time with!

If you’re wanting to dive deeper into these tips and to learn more about them, check out our podcast on the topic of college friendships!

Podcast:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5YtOIMRBFFmIIVlIxzOXtn

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/campus-connections-a-christian-perspective-on/id1778314831?i=1000677345051