Closer Than a Sister is Here! {plus a giveaway}

It's almost here! I'm excited to share with you my new book, Closer Than a Sister: How Union with Christ helps Friendships to Flourish (Focus for Women), will be available tomorrow.

Closer Than a Sister is about friendship, but not just any friendship. It's about the relationships between women in the church. It's about sisterhood in Christ.

We often think of our friends as those people we would have chosen to be in our family, if we could have done so. Yet in the household of God, the friendships we have with one another are not of our own choosing. In fact, God himself has selected each person in the Body of Christ. Through our adoption into the family of God, the other believers in the church are our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are united to Christ and to one another—for all eternity.

The relationship we have with other believers looks different than other friendships we might have. It's more than just having something in common. It goes deeper than talking about our week or what our kids are up to. Sisterhood in the church is about sharing a common life together: spiritual life. My book, Closer Than a Sister, describes what sisterhood in the church looks like and encourages readers to cultivate those relationships in the local church. 

What does sisterhood look like?

• Sisters serve one another in love.
• Sisters mourn and weep with one another.
• Sisters rejoice over another's good.
• Sisters exhort one another on in the faith.
• Sisters disciple one another.
• Sisters grow together as they use their gifts for the building up of Christ's church. 

From my book:

"Sharing a common life together is not about doing activities but about sharing life. Spiritual life. It is about working together to bring about God's Kingdom purposes. It is about serving together, helping each other through trials, lifting each other up when we fall, praying for one another, urging one another on in the faith. And ultimately, it is reflecting Christ in our love for one another, imaging Him to the fallen world around us." (p.55)

What others are saying about Closer Than a Sister: How Union with Christ helps Friendships to Flourish (Focus for Women):

"Christian friendship is to be sought and stewarded with wisdom and grace. you hold in your hands a primer on how to weave (and allow yourself to be woven into) that blessed tie that binds." —Jen Wilkin, author of Women of the Word and None Like Him

"Writing from years of intentional relationship-building, Christina Fox's words are wise and challenging. Fox lays out the priority of community, describes its beautiful contours, and gives her readers practical help to overcome its ever-present obstacles. Whether you read this book by yourself or with a group, your perspective on relationships in the church is sure to be enriched.” —Megan Hill, author Praying Together

“Christina Fox’s new book, Closer Than a Sister, is a welcome invitation to seek meaningful and life-giving relationships in the church.  Fox helps us understand our need for community, the various ways we can support and encourage one another, and the challenges we face as we build fellowship with one another. Rather than attempting to survive on surface-level friendships, Closer Than a Sister shows us how to live in biblical community with one another.” —Melissa Kruger, author of The Envy of Eve and Walking with God in the Season of Motherhood

"As you read Christina’s book, you’ll be encouraged and along the way learn to be a true Christian friend and participant in your local church.” —Dave Jenkins, Executive Director, Servants of Grace Ministries, Executive Editor, Theology for Life Magazine, Co-Host, Equipping You in Grace Podcast

"Christina Fox has written a beautiful and helpful book outlining a biblical definition of friendship, bringing in the familial language of scripture ("sister-friend"), showing us the Bible's definition of friendship, and pointing us towards the one Friend who will never leave us or forsake us. If you want to become a better "sister-friend" or find yourself longing for a friend, this book will encourage your soul." —Courtney Reissig, author Glory in the Ordinary 

“Closer than a Sister skillfully blends the glorious life-giving colors with the lackluster life-taking contrasts into a vivid portrait of gospel friendship. Every stroke is saturated with scripture with its aim towards gospel-centered application. And the real beauty of this book is the Jesus Christ is the centerpiece of what it truly means to live out the content of the covenant in the context of covenantal community.” —Karen Hodge, PCA Coordinator of Women’s Ministry; author of Transformed: Life-taker to Life-giver

"Here's a book that will encourage you in the beauty of Christ-centered relationships, and challenge you to take faith-driven steps of love in friend-ing others. Closer Than a Sister comforted me with the depths of Jesus' friendship for me, and compelled me outward with a renewed desire to be a godly friend to others.” —Ellen Mary Dykas, Women's Ministry Director, Harvest USA; Author, Sexual Sanity for Women: Healing from Sexual and Relational Brokenness and Sex and the Single Girl: Smart Ways to Care for Your Heart

"Christina Fox has done us an enormous service by wedding a sound biblical theology of union with Christ to a sound biblical theology of fellowship--particularly as it relates to women in the church. In Closer than a Sister, Christina has done the hard work of laying the landscape while bringing the reader through all of the attendant obstacles that lead out to the green pastures of friendship building, maintaining, equipping and serving. This book is a timely, sound and engaging work from which any in the church may profit.” —Rev. Nick Batzig, Pastor of New Covenant Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Richmond Hill, GA and editor of Reformation 21, an online theological site of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.

"In Closer than a Sister, Christina Fox has painted a picture of biblical, God-honoring relationships among women in the church. She has then used that picture as a template to suggest how women can, because they are in union with Christ, live out this picture practically and by faith. Her honesty, transparency, and centeredness in God’s Word make this a helpful read." —Chris Larson, President and CEO of Ligonier Ministries

It's giveaway time! I am giving away three copies of my book, along with a super cute tea towel with Acts 2:46 printed on it. Enter below. US residents only, please. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Note: I am a member of the Amazon Affiliates program and links to books in this post are connected to my affiliates account with Amazon.com. 

Praying for Those Who Lead and Shepherd Us

The warning in the book of James to teachers is sobering, “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness” (3:1). Some of that “greater strictness” is seen in the responses of church members and the greater community to a teacher’s sin. These days, it seems like the whole world leans in to watch and remark about a church leader’s fall from grace. When a church leader or pastor falls into sin, we hear about it instantly and read about it over and over on social media. We shake our heads in sadness and think, “Not again.” We discuss among ourselves how such sin could have been prevented, how the church should respond, and may even secretly wonder about the leaders of our own church—will they too stumble into sin?

Paul asked the church in Thessalonica to pray for him and his fellow workers (1 Thessalonians 5:25). To the church in Colossae, he wrote, “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison—that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak” (4:2-4).The writer to the Hebrews, after calling them to obey their leaders and submit to them (3:17), wrote “Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things” (verse 18)...

To read the rest of this post, visit Christward Collective.

What Adoptive Families Wish Their Churches Knew

Often, when I think of a courtroom, I think of judgement, brokenness and sadness. As a social worker, I sat in court to support a rape victim as she gave her testimony against her rapist. As a counselor, I sat in court to speak on behalf of juvenile offenders. I’ve even sat in court as part of a jury selection for a heinous crime.

But there was one time I sat in a courtroom for a joyous reason. That day was the culmination of years of prayer. It was one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever witnessed. I listened intently as the judge declared that three children standing before him were taking on the name of one of my dearest friends. They had been adopted.   

The Beauty of Adoption

Most of us know someone who was adopted or who has adopted a child. According to the U.S. State Department, more than 7,000 children were adopted from other countries in 2013. Over 50,000 children were adopted in the U.S. in the same year. And there are millions of orphans around the world still without a place to call home...to read the rest of this post, visit the ERLC, my writing home today.