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MentorNet
# 23 Applications of Christian Mentoring Copyright
© 2004 by George Patterson and Galen Currah The Holy Spirit uses Christian mentors in several powerful
ways for the benefit of congregations and communities. Commonly practiced
applications of Christian mentoring include these: 1. Christians mentor others for
non-pastoral purposes. Many Christian
coaches, teachers, caring neighbors and business associates let their light
shine for Christ by giving loving attention and guidance in non-religious
areas of life. 2. Others make disciples of new
believers and their families, establishing
the foundations of obedience and faith. 3. Parents train their children by example to pray daily and to feed on God’s Word. 4. Some counsel persons and
families that have problems. This type of
mentoring is often called ‘member care’. 5. More-experienced Christian
workers apprentice less-experienced ones for church ministries, such as
helping believers to do better counseling, to witness for Christ, to training
others, and to implement mercy ministries. 6. Shepherds and missionaries
apprentice novice leaders, including
shepherding elders (pastors), church planters and other types of
missionaries, by training them the way Jesus and His apostles did so in the
New Testament. For example, a pastor of a mother church may coach a
less-experienced pastor in a daughter church. The authors of MentorNet serve almost exclusively with the
last of those listed above, apprenticing novice leaders. Mentored training is
perhaps one of the most neglected areas of vital, fruitful ministry among
evangelicals today. Mentoring as a method to train new leaders was developed
and used widely by God’s people long before It is sad that so many Bible colleges and seminaries
overlook such a biblical, proven form of education. Thus, many young people
in training are being robbed of one of God’s most precious endowments to His
church. George Patterson recalls, “God used mentors (although we
did not call them that at the time) to prepare me to receive Christ, lead my
wife and me to a mission field, and to follow New Testament guidelines when
we got there. Almost weekly I hear someone mention similar fruit from
mentoring, including some in the secular world.” How prevalent was mentoring as a
training tool among God’s people in the Bible? Scripture shows many instances
of mentoring. Some trained ‘one on one,’ others coached several at once. The
size of the group must be small enough for all to listen to each other and to
deal with their concerns. Jesus sometimes mentored twelve, other times
three or even one. In Scripture, mentoring resulted in generational ‘chains’
with several ‘links’ of mentors whose apprentices mentored others, and
so on. Some
of the mentoring chains found in Scripture include these: Jethro mentored Moses, Moses mentored Joshua and the elders of Joshua mentored the other army leaders. God
originally gave the Ten Commandments for the use of newly-named elders. These
included leaders of 10, of 50, of 100 and of 1000. The shepherding of the
people occurred mostly in small groups of ten (Exodus 18–20). Deborah mentored Barak. Eli mentored Samuel Samuel mentored Saul and David who became Ahithophel and Nathan the prophet also mentored David. David mentored his army commanders and government officials, to
establish the united nation of Solomon mentored the Queen of Sheba, who returned to her
people with his wisdom in the form of Proverbs that applied God’s law. Elijah mentored Elisha. Elisha mentored king Jehoash and others. Daniel mentored Nebuchadnezzar, who humbled himself
before God. Mordecai mentored Esther Esther mentored King Artaxerxes, which resulted in
liberating God’s people. Jesus mentored the twelve apostles who established the
Christian church. The
twelve mentored hundreds of other
leaders, including Paul. Paul mentored Titus, Timothy and many others (2
Timothy 2:2). Timothy mentored "faithful men" such as
Epapharas. Epaphras and the other faithful men mentored "others
also” which led to a chain reaction that resulted in dozens of new churches
in Philip mentored the Ethiopian official who received
Christ and was baptized in the desert. Priscilla and Aquila mentored Apollos, for a much improved ministry. In most ministries across most
nations, it is far wiser for you to mentor novice leaders on the job, to meet
the needs of new cells and congregations, than it would be to send them away
to Bible school or seminary to learn an analytical, lecture method of
education with a lot of theory. Such graduates may consider
themselves to be professionals and expect to be given congregations that can
support the life style of a professional. Likewise, they often cause their
congregations to stagnate. After months or years of practical service, some
mentored leaders may benefit from more formal education, especially if they
must communicate with more highly educated people in urban communities. The
authors of MentorNet teach in both arenas, making a clear distinction of
where and when to apply both. We urge you to consider
prayerfully the potential value of various applications of mentoring for your
church or organization, keeping in mind that the final purpose for which God
inspired Scripture was not simply to inform us but that God’s people may be
equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17). To find mentoring tools and sites, visit <http://www.MentorAndMultiply.com>. |