A brief reflection of mine to a friend wondering if pastors could be friends with those in their congregation.  My answer is “yes,” but my advice for all Christians is to choose wisely.  Here is my brief reflection:

You may know that Augustine wrote more about friendship than anyone else in the ancient period so his perspective adds light to our discussion.  Cicero, whose writings Augustine loved, also wrote on friendship.  Cicero’s work is just a little before Christ so the two give nice bookends to the ancient world’s perspective on friendship.  Cicero said you can’t be friends with tyrants or sycophants.  Yes, I know there are loads of those in the churches!  And with the laxity on choosing elders there are plenty of them on elder boards.  But the perversion of a good thing does not eliminate the need for the good thing.