I have been involved in mentoring for a number of years now. I have been mentored by others and I have mentored others. This is a passion of mine because I have benefited from having some key people in my life and pivotal times that have directed me, encouraged me and challenged me.
So what is mentoring? Here are a couple of good definitions that I think describe mentoring well:
- Mentoring is a relational experience through which one person empowers another by sharing God-given resources. – Paul Stanley & Robert Clinton
- Mentoring is a relationship in which a mentor helps a protege reach his/her God-given potential. – Bob Biehl
A mentor helps a mentee in some specific ways by having the:
- Ability to readily see potential in a person
- Tolerance with mistakes, brashness, abrasiveness and the like in order to see that potential developed
- Flexibility in responding to people and circumstances
- Patience, knowing that time and experience are needed for development
- Perspective, having vision and ability to see down the road and suggest the next steps that a mentee needs
- Gifts and abilities that build up and encourage others
- Timely words of counsel and insight
- Resources such as letters, articles, books, websites, etc.
Tim Elmore shares this simple word picture in describing what mentoring is all about. A little boy and his dad were walking down a rocky road one evening. After stumbling and falling to the ground, the boy looked up at his father and said, “Dad, why don’t you watch where I am going?”
Mentoring is about watching where others are going, and I would go a little further and say that it is helping the other person develop to the point that they can watch where they are going on their own and eventually watch where others are going themselves.
A successful mentor is going to be a:
- Guide
- Encourager
- Resource
- Evaluator
- Provider
- Coach
If you have an interest in becoming a mentor, I would encourage you to start praying about it. I believe that many of the experiences you have gone through happen so that you can in turn mentor others through similar experiences. NewPointe Community Church has an active mentoring ministry. Every Monday night at NewPointe mentors are meeting with mentees.
If you would like to join our mentoring team at NewPointe, please send an email me at cstutzman@newpointe.org
If you are interested in being mentored, you can email mentor@newpointe.org or call 330.602.2699 to make an appointment.