Mentoring for Service

INTRODUCTION

What does the word "mentoring" mean to you?

The dictionary defines a mentor as "a guide and friend; one who acts as an advisor; a wide and faithful teacher who guides, encourages and points out specific skills in a person that they might not see in themselves." Mentoring should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and tangible.

Why would we want to practise mentoring in the church? We need to develop leaders, assimilate new members, build a sense of belonging and take the responsibility of church citizenship.

Let's take a look at the Bible to see how God used mentoring to add to and to strengthen the church.

MENTORING IN AN ADVISEMENT CAPACITY - Jethro and Moses

Through Jethro (or Reuel, meaning friend of God), God gives direction (Exodus 2:16, Exodus 3:31 and Exodus 18:13-27.

No one is indispensible. One person should not assume they are responsible for all that takes place. Moses was to encourage others to do their duty. He was also there for the leaders to come to if they had difficult cases with which to deal. Notice how Jethro was a mentor to Moses and Moses, in turn, mentored the leaders of Israel.

• What does Jethro do after he counsels Moses (Exodus 18:27)?
• What short-term lesson can we learn from this?
• What lesson can we learn from this as we mentor children? high school students? young couples?

MENTORING BY EXAMPLE - Moses AND Joshua

There is an old saying that goes like this, "It is not what you do, it is the way you do it." Sometimes we want to show people how to do things. Sometimes we feel it must be done our way or no way.

Joshua spent 40 years learning from Moses. Still, when the twelve spies explored that beautiful land of Caanan, Joshua and Caleb were the only two who lived to return. The
other spies were too afraid and forgot to trust God. When Moses' mentoring of Joshua came to an end God gave specific directions to Moses (Deuteronomy 3:28).

Leaders are made, not born.

• What are some of the advantages of training a leader for as long a period as Moses mentored Joshua?
• Are there any disadvantages?
• Do you see any advantage in training another person to be a leader?
• If you are an officer in your LWML, how might you personally achieve this?

MENTORING THROUGH SHARING GOD'S WORD - Priscilla, Aquila and Apollos

• Thinking back on your life, who would you say had the most influence on your staying in the church?
• Read Acts 18:24-28. Have you ever thought of this as a mentoring process? Do you, or should you, still have a mentor in this regard?
• How did Priscilla and Aquila approach Apollos about his teaching? What does this tell us about our approach to mentoring?
• Could you describe one of Jesus' disciples as being of a like temperament to Apollos? Who would you pick?

MENTORING NEW MEMBERS - Barnabas, Paul and Ananias

• Both Ananias and Barnabas were mentors to Paul. In what capacity did Ananias serve? Barnabas?
• Some of you have not always been life-time members of one congregation. Can you think of someone who, when you joined a new congregation, became your mentor? Were you aware of the process going on?
• How do you think Paul felt as a newcomer to the church? How do you feel when you enter a church for the first time? What makes you feel different?

THE MENTORED BECOMES A MENTOR

• To whom did Paul mentor? Read Acts 16:1-5.
  Paul did not require Timothy to be an apostle, or even to write as Paul did. What he did require was that Timothy serve and Timothy did just that.
• Do we sometimes try to mentor people into areas they should not be, or place them in jobs without proper training?
• What are the results of such mentoring?
• How would this compare to Paul's mentoring of Timothy?

CONCLUSION

Do you, personally, see any advantage in training another person to be a leader? What might YOU do? Thinking of what might deter us from mentoring, what are some of the roadblocks that might get in our way? When this happens, what would God want us to do?

Jean M. Wagner, Vice-president for Mission Service, February 8, 2002    

 

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