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As you plan your role in your church's small group ministry, it's important to remember the key principle behind your role as spiritual mentor: More time spent with fewer people has a greater impact. Let's break this down:

1. The starting point of all effective mentoring is RELATIONSHIP. Mark 3:14 says, "And he chose 12, whom he named apostles. 'I have chosen you to be with me,' he told them. 'I will also send you out to preach.'"

2. More than teaching, effective mentoring is SPIRITUAL FATHERING. First Corinthians 4:15 says, "Even though you have 10,000 guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel."

3. Effective spiritual fathering requires good MODELING. First Thessalonians 2:10 says, "You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed."

First Corinthians 11:1, "Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ," reminds us that we cannot pass on what we do not possess.

4. Effective spiritual fathering requires SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP. First Thessalonians 2:11-12 says, "For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worth of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory." But you must be skillful and wise to know when each of these is needed.

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