How Christian mentoring helps in short term sprints, but also to run life marathons, thriving and growing to the end.
The present crisis with COVID 19 has made many of us focus more attentively on what is happening today. That has taken lots of resources and in the short term because of the challenges of life now we have needed to drop our eyes from longer term planning.
However sooner or later, we will need to resume a more distant forward gaze.
Research on Christian discipleship has shown that this is where mentoring is extremely helpful. Mentoring not only helps us with support in short term need, but also to ensure we think about important things for the longer term!
Some years ago, American pastoral leader Terry Walling did research on Christians who finish well.[1] Yes, we can all start well, but how well do we persevere? Do we continue to thrive in all the different seasons of Christian life? Will you and I run hard to the end?
Walling’s research showed that statistically, finishing well is associated with 5 key attitudes, and two of these are:
- A commitment to mentoring and being mentored. Through having a proper mentoring support framework we can thrive and grow, we can meet the challenges of the various seasons of life, and we can continue to be a life giving force in the hands of Christ for the blessing of the world.
- Being committed to ongoing growth and development as a Christian in formal, non-formal and informal training.
In the BST Mentor Equipping program that starts in June 2020, you can engage both of those critical points for your own journey to the end! The Mentor Equipping program gives you the opportunity for personal and ministry growth and development as well as showing how as a mentor you can offer that blessing to others.
I would love to hear from you, answer your questions, and share with you how you can be part of our BST Mentor Equipping program.
Rev Dr Peter Moore (peter.meqsydney@gmail.com)
[1] We will consider this research in our BST Mentor Equipping course.
