4. Invest in friendships outside your church
This is hugely important! You have to invest in solid friendships outside your own church so you can share about situations once in a while with people who don’t know the players. This was hard for me at first, as many of our friends were from inside our church. When our church hit some rough roads, I couldn’t share it with them because I didn’t want to burden them with too much negative info. I’ve had to find other friends I could share with who didn’t know anyone in our church.
5. Seek a mentor or coach
I really recommend you search for a coach or a mentor or whatever you want to call it. You’ll not only be able to share whatever you’re dealing with and thus relieve some of your loneliness, but you’ll get good feedback and advice at the same time!
Right now, I’m mentoring a young guy in my former church. He just struggles with several issues in his role in youth ministry, but he can’t share that with most of his friends because they’re all in the same church. So we Skype once or twice a week, and he unloads with me. Sometimes, I give advice. Sometimes, I just listen, but the simple fact of being able to talk to someone makes his life easier.
