Thought for the Week

  • by: Senior Pastor Barry Yates 02/8/2012

thought for the week-slide

Friends

 

Over the last three weeks we have been talking about “The Big M”. Mentoring!  We have discovered it’s “a God given relationship in which one growing Christian encourages and equips another believer to reach his/her potential as a disciple of Christ.”  

 

Mentoring may seem new, but actually it is one of the oldest and best methods of learning. In times before degrees were mandatory, the mentoring system was the accepted one, not only in manual skills but in the professions, such as medicine and law.

 

This coming week our message is called “Can We Just Talk?”. I am not sure if people really realize that people are hungry for spiritual direction. I look at so many men and women who are making junkyards of their old age by the foolish choices they are making today. Many are coming to church but still don’t really believe what the Bible says we should do. There is a serious disconnect between what they know and how they live.

 

In striving to grow churches, we sometimes create an infrastructure of specialists who "deal" with the problems of the congregation. We are supposed to be a living organism that is to minister to one another. We are to bear one another's burdens, yet we are afraid to admit that our bright smile is the result of artificial whitening.

 

Nobody has time to mentor. In fact, conversations with Christian leaders reveal that the number one reason they don't take on a disciple or facilitate a mentoring program is that they simply have no time.

 

I want the people in our church to take off their "rugged individualism" mask and see that Christianity is about growing up in Christ and learning to be dependent on Him and others. I am learning that the investment of my time every year to meet with a person one-on-one is an important part of that process.

 

It will work!  I believe that mentoring is one of the most important strategies for growing the church into the next generation. Are you a mentor or mentee?  Everybody needs a mentor and everybody needs to be a mentor! 

 

How do you pick a mentor?  Great question!  Here is a list of things to look for:

●Mature but growing

●Confrontational but fun

●Persistent but patient

●Prayerful but confident

●Detailed but goal-oriented

●Demanding but forgiving

●Listening but advising

●Challenging but encouraging

●Empathetic but teaching

●Spiritually strong but dependent on God

●Knowledgeable but learning

 

If you look for somebody who meets all of these qualifications, you will never find a mentor; no one is perfect. Choose wisely, choose based on what your needs are, choose the qualifications that will help you change your life.

 

Lots of people would like to be mentored, but those willing to mentor are harder to find. What are the benefits of being a mentor?

 

One advantage of mentoring is the sense of significance you receive. Sometimes a person who is trying to help someone often asks the question… “Am I really making a difference?”  But in a mentoring relationship, we are usually dealing with people that are hungry to grow, and eager to learn, so there is a more visible return on our investment.

 

A second benefit is personal growth. As a mentor discusses character issues with a mentee, both are forced to look at their own character issues.

 

Mentoring is a one-on-one relationship between a mentor and mentee for the specific and definable development of a skill or an art. One of my favorite mentoring stories is the young pianist who came to Leonard Bernstein and asked to be mentored by him. Bernstein said, "Tell me what you want to do and I will tell you whether or not you're doing it."

 

When you analyze this, you realize Bernstein's deep understanding of mentoring. The young man initiated the contact, he had a specific request, and he made the request of an authority—not that he might get rich as a concert pianist or famous like Bernstein, but that he might become a better pianist.

 

Bernstein essentially said to the young man, "You're responsible for your playing and your practice. The one thing you can't do is hear yourself as a great pianist hears you. That I can do and will do for you."

 

The study of mentoring can be organized but not the application. Effective mentoring has no set formula. It's a living relationship that is always in progress.

 

Last week we discovered Paul and Timothy. Their mentoring relationship provides a model for us. First, Paul as mentor took the lead in establishing the relationship. Paul apparently kept his eyes open for his believers who showed promise, and Timothy caught his attention. Maybe Paul had heard from church leaders who recognized Timothy’s giftedness. However Paul enlisted Timothy, he eventually came to speak of Timothy as a fellow worker of the gospel.

 

I cannot get away from what Michael Card said he learned from his mentor. “A true soul-friend is willing to endure the inevitable pain that is caused by being in a relationship with another human being. We are fragile and fallen people, Bill would say, often we hurt each other. In a genuine relationship, friends always love and always forgive. A true soul-friend understands this and learns to rely totally on God’s grace to make it possible.”

 

Make Every Day Count!

 

 

Barry

 

Please know you are very important. See you Sunday, let’s change the world together!