by David Melton
I know February is the love month. I certainly love my wife, Kim, and we have had a blast serving the Lord and raising boys together for 21 years. Just so you know!
But other kinds of loving relationships are God’s gifts to us also; certainly high among them is the gift of a loving friend. I’m not talking about Facebook friends either, as cool as that may be. I mean David-Jonathan kind of friends. I am so glad that the Boston campus is where those kinds of friendships are born and grow. If we are really equipping young people for leadership in our churches, one of the most valuable tools we must give them is the gift of friendships. Everybody needs that kind of love. It’s the biblical “cord of three strands” thing in flesh and blood.
Last night my oldest son hung out with some of the college guys. Dave will be a freshman in Boston this fall, but has a head start on some college friends for some pretty obvious reasons. When I texted him to find out who he was with, I was more than a little happy to get back, “Alex, Chet, and Chris.” All three of those guys are former or current Boston students, all three really love God as best I can tell, and all three are already faithfully serving in youth ministries — investing in other young people. That’s the kind of friends all parents want their teenagers to find.
Surely one of the greatest strengths any ministry college can have is a “friendship fabric.” I know (since this is high season on recruiting) that prospective students and their parents ask all kinds of questions as they move toward a decision on where to go to college. I suggest a question to put high on the list is, “Who will my child’s friends be?” That may well trump a question about your child’s major, tuition, and the city where the college is? (Though I like all our answers to those questions, too.)
I talked to a couple of recent Boston grads last week. One of their college buddies had experienced a tragedy halfway across the country. They were trying to figure out how to be there for their friend. That’s what happens when you are a part of a college where friendships based on common love for Christ and His work are the thread and weave of everyday life. I watch it happening every day here — friends praying with each other, serving in ministries together, sometimes even getting in each other’s faces when one or the other needs a little loving exhortation.
I know a lot of you who visited Boston last fall really liked our city, but you absolutely loved our students. You got a taste of the kind of young people God is growing here. It’s a lot of fun to watch the Lord put this thing together. BFFs — Boston Friends Forever.