The Importance of Mentorship in Faith Development
"The Sermon on the Mount" by Carl Bloch
In Christian mentoring, not only will the person being mentored grow in their faith, but the person doing the mentoring will grow as well. Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another” (New International Version). God uses the mentoring relationship to strengthen the faith of everyone involved.
Mentoring also helps people put their faith into action. Lots of people have the desire to live out and share their faith, teach others about Jesus or be a part of a ministry, but they lack the tools to get started. Once mentoring becomes a regular part of your life, your own walk with God will become more dynamic and exciting. Why? Because this is part of God’s plan for how you grow.
Think of the first two people God created, Adam and Eve. God gave them responsibility for watching over everything else in the garden and helping things grow. Mentoring follows in that tradition because God uses mentoring to help both parties grow more and more into who He designed them to be.
How is Christian mentoring different from other forms of mentoring?
Christian mentoring and secular mentoring look pretty different.
Secular mentoring tends to focus on professional development, leadership skills, or guiding people into skills they want to grow in. These are important and valid reasons to seek a mentor. But if your spiritual life is your first priority, why would you not invest the same time, energy and resources into it?
One of the elements of Christian mentoring are similar to a professional coaching relationship. You may want to grow in your capacity for leadership, and you may have goals you set for yourself over periods of time. But the focus is different in one really significant way.
Christian mentoring is about more than self-improvement or personal development. It’s about helping people become more and more like another person, and that person is Jesus.
In Christian mentoring, you can expect to see the following conversations and activities taking place:
Discussing specific areas of life to grow in.
Agreeing to a plan for studying the Bible and praying together.
Choosing a relevant book or series of articles to read together.
Spotting blind spots and opportunities for transformation in both parties’ spiritual lives.
Finding and celebrating evidence of becoming more conformed to the image of Christ.
For example, as a mentor, you may decide there is a certain level of disclosure that is not appropriate with a particular person which you might reserve instead for your own mentor. There are no hard and fast rules about this. You need to think about what will build trust and help your relationship to develop in the way you think it needs to. It’s normal for the person who has been a Christian for a longer time to take the role of the mentor.
Mentoring is an opportunity to receive a different perspective, be held accountable, and to get good, godly advice.
But there are some traits that Christian mentor should have:
As a mentor, you will need to be willing to listen a lot. The person you are mentoring will trust you to know what Christian growth looks like (although each of our spiritual journeys is unique in some way). It will be helpful if you know how to help someone make a simple plan for practicing the spiritual disciplines you’ll work on together, such as daily Bible reading and prayer.
But if you’re still asking yourself whether you are the kind of person who should mentor others, we recommend thinking first in terms of character qualities rather than specific skills or years of experience as a Christian.
The Bible provides many examples of what mentoring looks like. But the best model is found in the life of Jesus.
Here are some examples of mentoring in the Bible:
Jesus and Peter:
Jesus only spent three years of his life in public ministry. While this period of time is well-known for the miracles and other significant events, much of His focus was on the relationship He had with His closest associates, whom the Bible refers to as His disciples.
Jesus taught them everything they needed to follow Him for a lifetime. But most importantly, He taught them in a way that enabled them to teach everyone else they came into contact with.
Jesus knew He could not mentor everybody personally. So He chose twelve men whose responsibility was to multiply themselves by passing everything He taught them on to others, who would pass on to others still.
As you think about who you will mentor, follow Jesus’ example by limiting yourself to people you believe you can invest in significantly.
Paul and Timothy:
After his relationship with Barnabas ended, Paul brought Timothy, whom he was mentoring, with him on his journeys. They were so close that Paul calls him “my son” in 2 Timothy 1:2. Having a heart to help people grow and imparting the wisdom you’ve been taught is one of the foundations of Christian mentoring.
It’s a well-known idea that the best way to learn something is to teach it. The mutual blessing of mentoring someone is that as you help them grow, you grow yourself.
The key to Christian mentoring is that you entrust what you have learned to people who will eventually pass it on to others. Jesus’ disciples followed this practice. Paul, Barnabas and Timothy followed this practice. So should we.
Paul said to Timothy, “You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Timothy 2:1-2, NIV).
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