When I (Tom Grove) was the executive pastor at the Arlington Adventist Church in Texas, my son was nine years old. However, he did not have much interest in going to church. He wanted us to get to church as late as possible and leave as soon as we could. One day as he was sitting in my office waiting for my wife and me to finish visiting, our community services director saw him and asked him,
“Mark, would you be interested in learning how to run one of the cameras for our media ministry?”
I don’t know what prompted Mark to say yes, but he did. She told him that one of our media team members would be in touch. The next Sabbath after church, one of the media volunteers found Mark and showed him how to run the camera. He told Mark that he would be scheduled for the next Sabbath to be on duty. The following week, Mark was sitting behind one of the cameras operating it during a church service. For the next few months, Mark was scheduled almost every week running a camera.
About this time, Mark had begun to make friends with some of the media ministry volunteers. One of the individuals Mark met was our internet broadcast sound engineer, Doug. Doug was in his early sixties and was, by his own admission, “loudmouthed and cranky.” But for whatever reason, Mark and Doug clicked. Mark started learning about running the sound board but also began to learn some life lessons from Doug. Questions and situations that Mark wouldn’t discuss with my wife and me, he began to talk to Doug about. Because Mark wanted to spend time with Doug, he started begging to get to church early and leave late.
Unfortunately, in the summer of 2021, Doug contracted COVID-19, was hospitalized, and ultimately succumbed to the virus. Mark was devastated. At Doug’s memorial service, Mark decided he had to say something about Doug. He told the entire congregation how much Doug meant to him. He told how Doug would give him advice on life situations, taught him how to be a sound engineer, and shared his love of sports.
A few weeks later, I received a text from our media director that contained a picture. It was of Mark sitting in Doug’s chair, running the sound board that Doug had once run. Doug’s mentoring paid off, and his legacy lives through Mark leading in the media ministry of the church.
In this two-part article we will give the definition of mentoring, some biblical examples of mentoring, some of the benefits of mentoring, and how to create a culture of mentoring in the local church. If this culture becomes a part of the local church, you will see your children, youth, and young adults engaged in spiritual development and growing their faith through ministry. You will also see your church more effective in ministry and new ministries emerge as this culture grows.
DEFINITION OF MENTORING
Mentoring is the process of intentionally facilitating the spiritual development of an individual through spending time and training with someone who is more experienced. This was a way of life in Scripture and should be a way of life today. The apostle Paul wanted to build this culture as part of the DNA of the church, so he instructed Timothy, “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 Tim 2:2, NIV). This is how values, faith, experience, and ministry are passed on from generation to generation.
BIBLICAL EXAMPLE OF MENTORING
Some biblical examples of mentoring are Jethro to Moses, Moses to Joshua, Eli to Samuel, Elijah to Elisha, Mordecai to Esther, Jesus to His disciples, Barnabas to Paul, Paul to Timothy and John Mark, and Timothy to all the faithful Christians who mentored others. Each mentoring chain equipped believers to carry on the work of God.
Note how Jesus, Paul, and the rest of the disciples mentored the new generation of ministers and the lessons we can learn from them. Jesus modeled wholistic and effective mentoring relationships with His twelve disciples. The group watched how Jesus demonstrated living in the will of His Father, His nights of prayer, the journeys they took together, and how He treated people. Because He was with them constantly, He was able to impact them by using teachable moments. They also had plenty of opportunities to watch each other, contrasting their behavior with that of Jesus. The disciples were able to learn from each other as Jesus sent them out two by two. They became sources of support and encouragement as they shared life experiences with each other.
THE BENEFITS OF MENTORING
One benefit of mentoring is seeing the baton of leadership passed on from one generation to another. We see this in the ministry of Paul as he mentored the next generation of church leaders, Timothy and Titus. He saw the potential in these two young men and then invited them to accompany him and do ministry alongside him. When Paul felt they were ready, he assigned them leadership responsibilities in some of the churches they had already planted. He assigned Timothy to Ephesus (1 Tim 1:3) and Titus to Crete and Dalmatia (Titus 1:5; 2 Tim. 4:10).
The second benefit is passing on faith from generation to generation. This begins in the home as parents teach and model their faith to their children (Deut 6:4– 9). The instructions of God to Moses are that teaching of faith is much more than just a few minutes a day; instead it must become a part of seizing every opportunity to teach our children about God through nature, Scripture, experience, and even work. This can be done not only by parents, but grandparents, aunts, uncles, and any loving and concerned church members.
CONCLUSION
As we have seen, mentoring plays an important role in the home and the local church. Mentoring was an integral part of the culture in biblical times, and we in the twenty-first century need to recapture the importance of mentoring in passing on faith and leadership to the next generation.
Joseph Kidder, DMin, is professor of Christian ministry and discipleship at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary in Berrien Springs, MI, USA.
Tom Grove, DMin, is the associate director of ministry and evangelism for the Texas Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Alvarado, Texas, United States.
