36: Mentoring

Guest: Barb Brown

• “[Mentoring is a relationship between] two people where one is ahead of the other a little bit in their life journey, age and stage of life, and the other has things they can learn as they continue to journey together.”
• “Neither of you has reached the end of the journey. You’re both continuing on the journey, and you’re going to do it together, which is, in this context of spiritual mentoring, pursuing Christ and knowing Him better.”
• “As mentor and mentee, both have things to learn as they grow in this relationship.”
• “Expectations are really important to identify so that there aren’t misunderstandings.”
• “Jesus mentored a group of ragtag men who were future leaders of the Church, so that is a wonderful example. He took them on a journey; they learned by being with Him.”
• “The Body of Christ is built on relationships like [the ones] we’re talking about, and I think it’s important in our modern-day churches to be looking for that and to be intentional about pursuing them so that we can build up not only one another, but the Church, and be built up in Christ.”
• “We have a phrase ‘have a mentor, be a mentor,’ so it’s not necessarily one or the other. Go ahead and invite someone to pour into your life, and then pour out, be available.”
• “Transformation [...] happens in our lives by the work of the Holy Spirit when you’re in an intentional relationship with somebody who’s walking the same direction as you, pursuing Christ.”
• “There’s a need for humility in these relationships because we are not everything this person needs. We need to recognize that we don’t have all the answers, so a mentee should not expect a mentor to solve all her problems. We should expect that that person would take us to Jesus.”
• “Each relationship is unique because the two individuals are unique.”

• Heather: Hosting TeachBeyond Orientation last month
• Barb: Anticipating a grandson!