Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like the wise man who built his house on the rock. -Jesus (Matthew 7:24).
We face tremendous pressure in our lives today to be spectators of this Jesus. But faithful living has never been a spectator sport. Danish Christian thinker Soren Kierkegaard emphasized this by drawing a contrast between being an admirer and being an imitator. He wrote: Read More
One of the things our VantagePoint3 team has been paying close attention to over the past few years has been mentoring. Our deep conviction is that a “mentoring attention” is required if leaders are going to help men and women grow up into Christ in every way (Eph 4:15).
A Mentoring Guide: Christ. Conversation. Companionship, this website amentoringway.org , as well as mentoring workshops, and our most recent course “Spiritual Mentoring: Recovering A Leadership of Companionship” have all been expressions of our belief that the quality of our relationships significantly shapes our ongoing growth and maturity.
This mentoring effort continues with the launch of 30 DAYS OF MENTORING!
There is no one-size-fits-all technique for mentoring. So don’t try to squeeze yourself into a mold of how others mentor. Be open to discovering the ways the Spirit has uniquely wired you to pay attention and companion others.
That said, there is much we can learn from other wise people who have walked well with others. VantagePoint3’s founder Randy Reese is one of those wise friends Read More
I have been inspired recently by Emily P. Freeman’s words when she wrote,
“I have a vision of a generation of believers who understand that the goal of life is Jesus and all the ways he wants to offer himself both to us and through us to the world.”
Yes, yes, yes!
Beginning with Jesus’ earliest words to the men and women who would become his disciples, “Follow me,” Read More
A few years ago I stumbled across a journal entry of Henri Nouwen; and as so often before, his words deeply resonated with my heart. Nouwen wrote,
“I have come to realize how hard it is to have a real spiritual conversation. I keep wondering how people with deep religious convictions can speak together at table about the life of the Spirit…. It always strikes me how grateful people are for a good spiritual conversation, but also how hard it is to make such a conversation happen.”
In the circles in which I move, I sense a longing among people for better conversations, more soulish conversations, conversations around the big questions and wonderings of their lives. And yet, despite all this longing, people confess a reluctance, or perhaps inability, to initiate such spiritual conversations. Why is this and what can we, who feel such things, do about it?
Read More
God has ordained things that we grow in faith only through the frail instrumentality of one another.
St. John of the Cross
Our growth in Christ does not occur in isolation; it takes place within the company of others who provide presence and perspective along the journey.
One specific form of being “in the company of others” is called spiritual mentoring; that is, a relationship between two or more people and the Holy Spirit where we can discover who God is, who we are, and what God desires to do through us.
Finding a spiritual mentor or even being a spiritual mentor has been a proven way over the years of discovering more of what this life with God is all about.
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Craig had never thought about mentoring before. It was during his facilitator training retreat for The Journey that he first heard about walking with another person in an intentional spiritual friendship. “The more I thought about what I’ve read in the Scriptures,” Craig, 63, said, “it seemed to me that mentoring relationships have been lost in the church for decades.” Read More
God is already up to something good…
Helping others grow up into Christ rests on an understanding and conviction that the primary shaping work in a person’s life belongs to God. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10, NIV). Our burden as people, and as mentors in particular, is to first be alert and receptive to God’s relentlessly creative handiwork in the world. All our best thinking and acting, listening and asking questions and praying, is secondary to and cooperative with the Spirit’s work.
This is such good news for us. Read More
What is required to be a mentor or a spiritual friend to another?
Many times, we overcomplicate this question. For one reason or another, we tell ourselves, I simply don’t have what it takes.
I have found over and again that these four questions below have a way of orienting our hearts around what is required to walk well with others.
Allow these questions to ready your heart:
The third practice for a friend or mentor to walk well with others is prayerfulness.
Prayer in this mentoring context is about cultivating a deep trust in the loving movement of God in the life of another. As mentors or friends, we pay attention to the everyday life of others, helping them identify and see what is already in play and at work. Amidst the comings and goings of work and school, amidst the meals and chores, amidst the anxieties and arguments and joys of family and community, we become what Barbara Brown Taylor calls “detectives of divinity.”
"Practical. Insightful. In my 50 years as a pastor, I’ve read many of these. This is THE best. I ordered 12 to give as gifts.”
