At this year's leadership retreat we spoke about mentoring - something that is very important to the culture of New Life. New Life needs people who can help others grow as they grow. There are two specific areas which require mentoring -- personal spiritual growth and leadership or ministry development. Let's take a look at the second area first.
Mentoring in ministry or "on the job training" is an important part of New Life culture. We encourage every New Life servant-leader to develop others in their area of ministry. This requires a number of important skills. Leaders must be willing to 1) step back to create a void or need, 2) recruit others by making them feel welcomed and valued, and 3) be willing to take the time to show others how to perform specific ministry tasks and help them until they get it right. Including others in the ministries of New Life is the responsibility of every leader. We should not rest until every newcomer has an opportunity to serve.
A second area in which mentoring is very important is personal spiritual growth. Mentoring for spiritual growth is an important part of our core values at New Life. We believe spiritual growth happens as you BELONG, that is connect with Christ Jesus and other believers. The Bible says, "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." (Proverbs 27:17) Because of American culture, many of us hide from real spiritual relationships with others, but God calls us to walk with Him and connect with other believers at New Life.
Mentoring for spiritual growth can be organic and unstructured. Sometimes it just naturally happens as people connect, form friendships, and share their struggles, successes, and search for significance. At New Life we encourage you to form meaningful relationships and help each other grow. In addition, however, we value the structure of small group ministry as an excellent way to encourage relationships and spiritual growth. And my prayer is that many New Lifers will become excellent small group leaders in the months and years ahead.
Mentoring for ministry is what I call level-1 mentoring. Mentoring for spiritual growth is "Next Level Mentoring". Here are some practical tips for mentoring at either level.
1. Ask God for a BIG heart for people. Let's think of BIG as an acronym.
B= Blessing. People need you to bless them with words of encourage and acceptance. People are often drowning in negativity. God's heart blesses people. So don't be the "nay sayer", be an encourager.
I = Influence. At New Life we utilize something called the "leadership ladder". It begins with "attracting others" and climbs to "reproducing others". Mentoring is really all about influence. But to influence someone towards spiritual growth in Christ Jesus, you first have to attract them to you and to Christ. This is actually the work of the Holy Spirit in your life as a mentor / leader, but you need to be aware of the importance of attraction. As you attract others, you have the opportunity to influence their spiritual journey. A mentor focuses on helping a person develop a close relationship with the Lord so that their life produces spiritual fruit--that's spiritual reproduction.
G = Grace. Grace is essential to living with God's heart. The Bible says, "For by grace are you saved through faith--and this is not from yourselves, it is a gift of god, not by works, so that no one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9) God loves us and offers us His unconditional love--that's grace. We don't deserve it and can't earn it. As a mentor of others, we need to operate with God's heart of grace. Only God's grace can redeem us or empower us to grow spiritually. Focusing on God's grace will remind us to be patient when people aren't growing according to our time tables. Only by God's grace will they grow, not by our efforts.
2. Make time for people at New Life and in your circle of influence. I recently heard a message in which the pastor spoke about busyness being the #1 sin of Americans. We are often so busy we don't have time for the truly important things in life. Building relationships take time, patience, and intentionality. If you want to be a spiritual leader at New Life, you must take time for people. We are all busy, but the truly important thing in life require that we set aside time for relationships. Because relationships take time, we should focus only on a few. Jesus only chose 12 and we certainly should try to do more than Jesus. Focus on a few and build meaningful relationships with them.
3. Consistently direct people towards a closer walk with Jesus Christ. They say that a person's life is made up of very few themes. If you want to be a mentor / leader at New Life, one of the major themes of your life must be a love for God and a desire to point others towards Christ. You do this by pointing people to a deeper devotional life of prayer and Bible study. After all, spiritual growth is the work of the Holy Spirit in a person's life, not our work. The work and gifting of a small group leader is to work with God's Spirit. A small group leader consistently and patiently points others towards a relationship with Christ as the answer to all of life's problems and the key to a truly great life.
Three things you can do to mentor others at New Life. It works when mentoring for ministry and it works when you are mentoring others for spiritual growth.
Amen! :-)
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