Mentoring is:
1) A relational experience through which one person
empowers another by sharing their wisdom and resources.
1) A relational experience through which one person
empowers another by sharing their wisdom and resources.
Mentoring is not:
1) A program or production line to proliferate leaders
2) Restricted to people who likes structures or are highly disciplined
When a person chooses to mentor, he is selecting and limiting the volume of people he meets at one time so as to better multiply himself. The transaction goes from informational in nature to transformational. This can be observed through the life of Jesus Christ as He focused on His twelve disciples (not the crowd) and invited each of them to follow Him on a redemptive journey. Jesus invested vast amount of His time speaking truths into their lives and preparing them for the Great Commission.
This is an intriguing phenomenon. The Son of Man came down from heaven and He could have beckoned a thousand to follow Him but He strategically chose only a handful to train. From a human perspective, it sounds rather inefficient. Couldn't Jesus have done more than just twelve? But scriptures remind us of how those twelve turned the world upside down and swept the gospel across continents after the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Clearly, the Son of Man redefined effectiveness and knew what He was doing.
Dawson Trotman once said, 'More time with less people equals greater impact for everyone.'
A teacher delivers content that is academic, cognitive and cerebral. Though it engages the mind, the teaching is often passive and theoretical. Teaching is the most efficient in transferring information verbally in a classroom, but not the most effective for transformation.
On the other hand, a mentor relates to an individual(s), engages the heart and has a curriculum that revolves around on-the-job-training. The experience is pro-active and practical. Teaching may provide assessment and correction that are highly essential for growth but it fails to provide accountability, feedback and debrief.
In a Greek culture, which embraces the Classroom Model (teaching), it is common to ask the question, "What is the subject you are studying?" In the Hebrew culture, the question would be, "Who are you studying under?" The emphasis is on the mentor, not the material.
Acts 4:13 says: 'When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they note that these men had been with Jesus.'
In this passage of the Bible, the teachers and elders of the law were dumbfounded by these two apostles. The most significant aspect is that they were with Jesus. The focus is on the 'who' and not the 'what.'
At the heart of mentoring, it is simply about a master
asking his disciple to go on a life journey with him.
Dawson Trotman once said, 'More time with less people equals greater impact for everyone.'
A teacher delivers content that is academic, cognitive and cerebral. Though it engages the mind, the teaching is often passive and theoretical. Teaching is the most efficient in transferring information verbally in a classroom, but not the most effective for transformation.
On the other hand, a mentor relates to an individual(s), engages the heart and has a curriculum that revolves around on-the-job-training. The experience is pro-active and practical. Teaching may provide assessment and correction that are highly essential for growth but it fails to provide accountability, feedback and debrief.
In a Greek culture, which embraces the Classroom Model (teaching), it is common to ask the question, "What is the subject you are studying?" In the Hebrew culture, the question would be, "Who are you studying under?" The emphasis is on the mentor, not the material.
Acts 4:13 says: 'When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they note that these men had been with Jesus.'
In this passage of the Bible, the teachers and elders of the law were dumbfounded by these two apostles. The most significant aspect is that they were with Jesus. The focus is on the 'who' and not the 'what.'
At the heart of mentoring, it is simply about a master
asking his disciple to go on a life journey with him.
