Sacred Friendship Gathering

Back in November, I wrote a post about being friends with a man. It spawned some really interesting discussion, which is always a treat. In the comments, several people suggested that I check out Dan Brennan's book, Sacred Unions, Sacred Passions. I picked it up and absolutely loved it. It was so refreshing to read a book that treated cross-gender friendships as normal. Because, you know, they really can be.

Since I read Dan's book, he and I have been in touch. And I'm very excited to announce that I'm going to be attending the Sacred Friendship Gathering in Chicago, April 27-28!

In the coming months, I'm going to do a couple of interviews with some of the presenters at the event and sharing guest posts about cross-gender friends. I'll also be live(ish) blogging the event, both here on my blog and at Provoketive.

Through social media, a lot of us have become friends with people of the opposite gender. We tweet with them, we laugh at silly pictures they post on Facebook, we comment on their blogs, we pray for them. Out in cyberland, friends are just friends, regardless of their gender. We approach one another without fear because we know that relationship is based on way more than whether we're boys or girls.

In our flesh and blood relationships however, we still often carry some of those fears with us. I've experienced  them myself. And it's not just cross-gender friendships, but any relationship with someone who is different than us in some fairly obvious way.

I'm tremendously excited about this conference where we'll have the opportunity to discuss what it is to be a friend and how to be a better friend. Jesus showed us so much about friendship and I can't wait to share that with you guys!

If you're interested in participating in the Sacred Friendship Gathering, you can go here to register. It's just $50 for registration and space is limited.

And if you're in the Chicago area at the end of April, definitely get in touch with me and let's hook up!

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How have your ideas about friendship changed over the years? What aspect of cross-gender friendships would you like to see discussed?