ymCafe

by Anna Aven Howard

Mentoring and discipleship are terms that we throw around frequently in ministry; however, too often we don’t have an adequate Biblical understanding of what mentoring looks like, the logistics or thrust of mentoring and what the out come of mentoring should tend to be. An analysis of the life of Jesus shows the time that he devoted to the men who were following Him as well as the way He focused their attention on the things of God, followed by the things of ministry. I learned once in a speech class in college that people usually remember the first things you say and the last things you say the best. With that concept in mind, for this paper, I will look first at the last thing Jesus said on earth, as well as the first thing that He said to His disciples as a starting point for discussing what it means to equip, what the mode of mentorship is as well as what Jesus’ time allotment looks like from the narrative that we have in the gospels. Then from Paul’s epistles, I will look at selected texts that lend insight on the directional focus of mentoring as well as the dangers for the mentor in ministry.

First off, then, the last thing that Jesus said before He left the earth was “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt 28:19-20 NIV). This is his commission to the disciples after they had been following Him around and learning from Him for three years during His earthly ministry. These are now seasoned followers of Jesus. Yes, they have much to learn as the book of Acts and letters of Paul reveal to us, but these are the most mature followers of Jesus that were currently in existence. The point of this is not to look for some sort of Christian super-star—for clearly, there are none if we are all truly seeking to follow Jesus He is the only star that we can have The point then is that the mentor should be further along in his/her walk with the Lord then the person that he/she is mentoring. This is more significant as an overriding principle than the age difference, though the very model of family that God initiated—children having parents to raise them—points to the importance of young people having an older person to mentor them both in the faith and in life.

Now that this instruction to go and make disciples has been established, the next thing we need to ask ourselves is “how do we go and make disciples?” Aside from the directives in the Great Commission to baptize and teach, where do we start? Going back to the beginning of the gospel narrative, we see the first thing that Jesus does in His earthly ministry was not to perform some miracle, hold a service, or even start teaching. Rather, he goes along and calls people to Himself to follow Him through His ministry and learn of Him. His words them are “Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men” (Mark 1:17, cf. Matt 4:19 and Luke 5:1-11). The call to the disciple then is twofold: (1) Follow Jesus and (2) make other disciples. The two parts of this call must be in this order, but both must be present. They are intertwined, inseparable concepts for we cannot make disciples without following Jesus ourselves, and we cannot follow Jesus authentically without doing what He did—make disciples. The call is to Jesus, as a person. He didn’t invite the disciples to come follow an idea or to come because He needed volunteers to help Him lead small groups. He said, “Come follow Me.” This is an invitation to relationship. The first question in our ministries then is not what program are we starting, but who are we taking into ministry with us as we make disciples. This is the foundational aspect of mentoring. A mentor must bring the person he/she is mentoring along in ministry/life with him/her. This does not have to be vocational ministry, rather, for the purposes of this concept, I would like to view ministry as following our calling be it in the church or in the secular work place. It is bringing the young person into our life and inviting them to walk with you.

What then does mentoring look like? If it had to be summed up in one word (other than relationship, see above) it would be equipping. Jesus doesn’t send the twelve out to do ministry until they’ve been with Him for a while and been equipped to do what He is sending them out to do. In Luke 9, it reads, “When Jesus had called the Twelve together, He gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases” (v. 1). He empowers and equips them and sends them out. Later (v. 10), they return and give a report on what their experiences had been. Then Jesus, takes them with Him again. Here you have not only teaching (prior to this chapter, and in the parallels), but also empowering, equipping, the giving of authority for a task, a commission, and feedback. All of these are essential to a healthy mentoring relationship for mentorship is not a stagnant process, but a dynamic one. One where the person being mentored is not only growing personally, but is also then equipped to start the cycle all over by being ready to disciple others.

What does Jesus mode of discipleship look like? Two key things must be noticed about the overall ministry of Jesus throughout all four gospels. (1) He takes His disciples everywhere with Him, BUT (2) He doesn’t neglect alone time with His Father. Again, both of these are essential. One cannot maintain longevity without the second one, and one will not develop deep relationships without the first. Jesus never seemed to be at a loss for teaching materials for His disciples were observing His life. When an event happened, Jesus responded to it, or Jesus taught the crowd. After, He turned and taught His disciples, helping them to better understand what He was trying to say (e.g. Luke 9:18-27; Matt 5:1-2; Luke 6:20).

In the gospels we can even get a feel for how Jesus proportioned His time between the crowds and His disciples. The crowds were always following Him, but frequently we see Jesus spending the majority of His teaching time with the disciples. He often leaves the crowds and turns and spends time with his disciples (e.g. Matthew 13:36, 14:22; Mark 7:17, 8:10). It is interesting to note that the word disciples is found 240 times in the gospels, while the word crowd or crowds is only found 125 times. It is also interesting to note that while there are some mentions of Jesus leaving the crowds with or to be with His disciples, He only leaves the disciples to be with His Father. In our day, the crowds represent the overall crowd of the youth group or church along with the programs. We spend too much time focused on this and not on the disciples. Chuck Miller spoke recently in Paul Jenson’s class, Spirituality and Discipleship: College and Young Adult (Lecture on May 29, 2003). He used a model of the pitcher, cup, saucer and plate, wherein the pitcher is God, the cup is you, the saucer is the people and the plate is the program. With the cup, saucer, plate stacked on top of each other, the life of God should flow from the cup—from it’s overflow—to the saucer to overflow onto the plate. This is the same idea that we see when looking at Jesus’ time allotments in the Gospels.

Next we need to look at the directional focus of mentoring along with the pitfalls that mentoring has for the mentor. The two do actually go together. The key passage for this concept is seen in excerpts from 1 Corinthians 1:18-3:19. The focus is not about the knowledge that the mentor has acquired, but rather that the mentor knows Christ (see 2:1-5). Likewise, it’s not about the perceived spirituality or wisdom of the mentor, for God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise (1:27). Paul also reminds the Corinthians to remember what they were when Jesus called them. Not many of them were wise by human standards, not many were influential (1:26). A great pitfall of ministry is that in a position of leadership, people perceive the leader as a wise, spiritual presence. This can very much be true of the leader if he/she has been spending the time with the Father to work on his/her relationship. However, once this spirituality is perceived, people credit it to the leader, not seeing behind the scenes. It is easy for the leader to get wrapped up in the perception and forget from where he/she came. This is why this reminder is in this book. The mentor has to constantly remember that mentorship is about pointing to Jesus.

This idea of pointing to Jesus seems like such a simple, obvious concept, yet it’s so easy to slip into wanting to be perceived as spiritual, to come with the eloquence and superior wisdom (2:1). But Paul says, “No, don’t be like that. Resolve to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (2:2, my paraphrase). It’s not enough even to just resolve to know nothing but Christ, we must constantly point to the crucified Christ. It’s tempting to only point to the resurrected Christ, the Palm Sunday Christ, the triumphant-over-demons Christ, the raising-of-Lazarus Christ, the walking-on-water Christ. But we must resolve to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Remember the cost of our freedom. Remember that following Christ means dying to ourselves, means taking up a cross and following Him (Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23).

Successful mentoring is not about what we can do, but it points to God’s power (2:5). If it doesn’t point to God’s power, then the faith of the people we are mentoring doesn’t rest in God, but rather on human wisdom, which is a shaky foundation (see also 3:11). So the directional focus is toward God and His power, teaching on the foundation of Christ (3:11-15). If we build on any other foundation than that, it won’t last when things get difficult and it won’t last in the Day (3:13).

Lastly, there has to be a passion for the person or persons that we are mentoring. All of the other things mentioned above are vital, but useless if there is no passion for the person. In 1 Thessalonians, Paul is separated from the people, and he is longing for them. He is so bonded to them that separation cause grief (1 Thess 2:17). His passion is shown by his intense longing for them, and that he feels he has been torn away from them (2:17-18), language which paints a verbal picture of a painful parting. And why is this? The people are his crown (2:19). This is Paul’s lasting accomplishment—the people he has taught! He says, “you are our glory and joy” (2:20). To borrow from Chuck Miller again, in the end, it’s not about what we’ve done, but who we’ve brought (clearly, we can’t bring people if the things we are doing are not in line, but ultimately the people are what matter). Books and speaking engagements are important, but can be forgotten. True relationships last.

Passion for the people we mentor involves keeping track of their faith. Paul was worried lest they had fallen away (3:5), and sent a messenger to them when he couldn’t go himself. Paul’s satisfaction and encouragement comes from finding out that these disciples are still standing firm in their faith (3:7-8). His joy in the presence of God is contributed to by knowing that they are standing firm. But, he doesn’t leave it at that, but, rather, continues in constant prayer (night and day, 3:10) for these people. It is an ongoing relationship even when Paul cannot be physically present with them.

Mentoring then is a multi-faceted process that is based upon a relationship that opens up our lives as mentors to the person that we are mentoring. This relationship draws them into our world where we intentionally teach and equip them to in turn make disciples. The people we mentor ought to be the primary focus of our ministry, with the programs and crowds as secondary focus. Always, the mentorship must point to God and His power, not to any accomplishments or wisdom of the mentor. But, all of this is worthless without passion for the person. Remember, it’s not what we’ve done that matters as much in the end as who we’ve brought (Chuck Miller, see above).

(c) June 2003 Written for a Fuller Theological Seminary Class