What is required? 

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:  

  1.    Am I willing to listen? Listening is fundamental to building trust in the relationship. By listening attentively to one another we remind each other that our lives profoundly matter.

Read More

Mentoring Practices: Prayerfulness

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.” 

Read More

learn to be a mentor

A small yet powerful matter

I pin my hopes to quiet processes and small circles, in which vital and transforming events take place.

Rufus Jones (1863-1948)

Adults need a space and place to move deeply into their own experience and grow in the light of Jesus and his way in the world. Simply telling others where they must go or what they must do won’t cut it. Our mentoring tables need to be set for unhurried conversation.

Read More