{"id":44057,"date":"2011-06-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/positive-or-negative-influence-of-friendships-and-small-gro\/"},"modified":"2011-06-20T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-06-20T00:00:00","slug":"positive-or-negative-influence-of-friendships-and-small-gro","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/positive-or-negative-influence-of-friendships-and-small-gro\/","title":{"rendered":"The Positive or Negative Influence of Friendships and Small Groups"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An article from <em class=\"citation\">Wired Magazine<\/em> explored why AA has been able to help millions of people recover from an alcohol addiction. The article begins by stating, &quot;Despite all we&#39;ve learned over the past few decades about psychology, neurology, and human behavior, contemporary medicine has yet to devise anything that works markedly better.&quot; The question is: Why does AA help so many people find and maintain sobriety?<\/p>\n\n<p>This article focused on one factor: the power in a small group of like-minded friends who provide support, honesty, and accountability. The article described how honestly sharing problems with a small group of supportive friends has been shown to help people overcome their problems. As a few examples:<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\t<li>In 1905 a Boston physician named Joseph Pratt organized weekly meetings for patients with tuberculosis. He was simply trying to teach them better health habits; surprisingly, he discovered that the groups also excelled at providing emotional support. He concluded that by sharing about their &quot;common disease&quot; they developed a &quot;common bond.&quot;<\/li>\n\n\t<li>In a more recent study at Stanford University, a pair of researchers reviewed over 200 studies on group therapy and concluded that group members &quot;develop close bonds with the other members and are deeply influenced by their acceptance and feedback.&quot;<\/li>\n\n\t<li>A 2009 study of those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder found that 88.3 percent of those who participated in group therapy no longer exhibited PTSD symptoms, versus just 31.3 percent of those who received minimal one-on-one interaction.<\/li>\n\n\t<li>There is also evidence that the act of confessing one&#39;s faults to a few safe people&mdash;enshrined in AA&#39;s fifth step&mdash;helps in changing addictive patterns. According to the researchers, &quot;Revealing one&#39;s deepest flaws and hearing others do likewise forces a person to confront the terrible consequences of their alcoholism&mdash;something that is very difficult to do alone.&quot;<\/li>\n\n<\/ul>\n\n<p>Conversely, some research studies have shown how friendships can also lead us to adopt negative behaviors. For instance, a 2010 paper published in the <em class=\"citation\">Annals of Internal Medicine<\/em> found that a person is 50 percent more likely to be a heavy drinker if a friend or relative is a heavy drinker. Also, a 2007 study concluded that a person&#39;s odds of becoming obese increase by 71 percent if he or she has a same-sex friend who is also obese.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[410],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3368,3380,3405,3601,3644,3647,3664,3982,4019,4020,4021,4104,4164,4275,4383,4882,5003,5047],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-44057","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-acceptance","tax_ctp_tags-addiction","tax_ctp_tags-alcoholism","tax_ctp_tags-church","tax_ctp_tags-community","tax_ctp_tags-companionship","tax_ctp_tags-confession-of-sin","tax_ctp_tags-fellowship","tax_ctp_tags-friend","tax_ctp_tags-friendlessness","tax_ctp_tags-friendship","tax_ctp_tags-growth","tax_ctp_tags-honesty","tax_ctp_tags-intimacy","tax_ctp_tags-loneliness","tax_ctp_tags-sanctification","tax_ctp_tags-small-groups","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-friendship"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Positive or Negative Influence of Friendships and Small Groups - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/positive-or-negative-influence-of-friendships-and-small-gro\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Positive or Negative Influence of Friendships and Small Groups - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An article from Wired Magazine explored why AA has been able to help millions of people recover from an alcohol addiction. 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