Planned mentoring initiatives
can be powerful tools to help individuals develop spiritually,
professionally, and personally. At the same time, they aren’t
always the most appropriate intervention to use.
One of the most important questions your team or task force can
address is, "Should we implement a Christ-centered mentoring
initiative?" Carefully consider your reasons for wanting
to begin such an effort as well as your desired outcomes.
Planned mentoring efforts can be useful for the following:
- orienting attendees, members, or staff who recently joined
your church or other organization;
- helping newly assigned committee, session, or board members
learn their roles and responsibilities and become more comfortable
with their tasks;
- developing leaders (provided they receive additional training
to supplement the mentoring);
- assisting under-served members in all areas of their development;
- cross-training staff and lay leaders in new skill areas;
- exposing believers at all levels of spiritual development
to biblical concepts and practices.
Here are some questions to ask yourself and other leaders who
are considering the wisdom of improving mentoring in your setting.
Small focus groups are useful to provide this information.
- Who’s backing this idea and to what extent?
As with any organizational initiative, planned mentoring
must be supported by the leadership. If your leaders sense God’s
directing them to improve mentoring, they will have a better
chance of succeeding than if they don’t—or even
if they’re neutral on the idea. Does someone such as yourself
want to champion the effort including managing the many required
tasks?
- What’s our current organizational climate?
If your organization is growing, financially solvent,
leadership is supportive, the prospective participants are eager,
and the organization isn’t overloaded with other commitments,
the timing and situation could be right for a new emphasis on
mentoring.
- What will the goals or purposes of the new mentoring
effort be?
Be clear on the effort’s intent. Is it to develop
the character, knowledge, attitudes, and skills of new leaders?
If so, how was this development done in the past? How receptive
are people likely to be to the use of a new approach? Do you
want to focus on mentoring adults, children, youth, or all of
these? What are your reasons? The Christ-Centered
Mentoring Coordinator’s Handbook (see What
We Offer) contains several key ideas.
- How have comparable efforts succeeded in the past?
What’s the recent history of other efforts to
change and improve your church or parachurch organization? Which
ideas have been well received and carried out? Why did they
succeed, and what can be learned from those experiences? Which
ones ran into strong resistance or were dropped for lack of
interest? Again, what can you learn from these efforts for the
proposed new mentoring?
Next Month: Determining what mentoring strategy is right for
you.
For more ideas on planning and implementing Christ-centered mentoring,
see our What We Offer and Archive.
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