I’ve been attending my church for a little over a year, and right from the get-go I was on the watch for a mentor. In my spiritual growth thus far, nothing has impacted me more than the examples of women who had vibrant, thriving relationships with Christ and who have poured truth, grace, and love into me. So I was eager to be in a mentoring relationship like that again.
I prayed to that effect. I got involved in an inter-generational Bible study, attended Sunday school classes, and kept my eyes open on Sunday mornings for women who had that tangible aura of spiritual maturity about them; women whose lives I wanted to emulate. But the truth is, it takes time to build relationships, and asking a stranger to commit to meeting with you and taking an interest in your life is daunting. After six months, I still hadn’t become close enough to anyone who I felt comfortable asking to listen to me for an hour a week.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful, I thought, if there was a ministry in the church that connected people who desire to be mentored with those who are itching to use their gifts of encouragement, discernment, and wisdom? One of the roles of the church is to unleash the gifts of the saints, and a ministry like this could help people recognize their gifts and put them to use.
As I thought more about it, though, I realized that inherent in any formal mentoring program is the danger of artificiality. Any relationship that doesn’t grow up organically between two people will be tinged with the taste of “programs,” will feel a little forced, even when both people have volunteered for said relationship. And there’s always the risk of complications – personality differences, mismatched expectations, a lack of commitment on one side or the other.
So I’m asking a real, legitimate, non-rhetorical question: How is it to be done? How have you seen mentoring work in churches you’ve been part of? How do we, as church leaders, facilitate mentoring?
