This can be called friendship building or networking or relational work. While trying to be strategic, we spend time in various environments from the US Congress to business people to neighbors to students. We are always enthusiastic to encounter and connect with new groups of people who may become friends. Our hope in all of these relationships is to encourage personal and spiritual growth. Our core is always Jesus and His life and teachings.
The best way to grow as a person is to be part of a small group of like-minded people who work at being gentle, honest, and open with each other. We encourage our friends to form little fellowship groups to work at life together. Many choose to study the life and teachings of Jesus, and seek to become more like Him.
As we become friends with others and with other groups, we work to connect those friends with others who have similar interests and passions so there can be more connection and sharing of ideas, efforts, and resources. This helps all of us to feel more deeply that we are part of a global family whose pain and blessings and trials and victories should be shared by all when it is possible. This makes it much more likely that each of us can actually make a difference in the lives of others. This is not a pooling of resources, it is a family staying in touch and helping as we can. Jesus said we should call each other brother and sister. That is family.
We encourage our friends to study the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth by regular reading, study, and discussion of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, as well as the rest of the Scriptures. We regularly lead, moderate, and encourage small group studies with business and political leaders and with young people. In order to deepen the family connections and to stimulate the study and discussions of Jesus' life and teachings, our friends often hold local, national, and regional gatherings of friends. These are not so much conferences, as gatherings of friends.