Using principles of mentorship to grow ministers

As we’ve come to learn, raising up ministers within your own church to do the work of the church body is a vital component of a healthy and growing church. There are many ways to effectively do this, but one that we’ll touch on today is the method of mentoring.

Pouring into the members of your church is similar to investing yourself into an individual’s life. Tim Elmore, author of Mentoring: How to Invest Your Life in Others, defines mentoring as: “A relational experience through which one person empowers another by sharing God-given resources.” He goes on to say, “Mentoring is a positive dynamic that enables people to develop potential.” As a church leader, you no doubt understand the importance of empowering and developing potential in your members, especially as you desire for them to become the ministers of your church.

Elmore lists some ways that mentors can help their mentorees, and I believe they are interchangeable with a church leader/church member relationship, as well:

• Flexibility in responding to people and circumstances
• Patience, knowing that time and experience are needed for development
• Timely words of counsel and insight
• Ability to readily see potential in a person
• Gifts and abilities that build up and encourage others

The model of mentoring is an excellent example of how to go about fostering ministry leadership in your church members. Elmore describes mentoring as “useful for leadership development” and points out that “Jesus treated his disciples or mentorees like apprentices. … There was ‘on-the-job’ training.” Jesus trained and raised up his disciples to be Christ-followers and as Christ-followers that meant they would be lifelong servants, involved in ministry for as long as they were on earth. You, as a church leader, have the ability and the honor to guide your members into becoming lifelong servants and by living as servants, they will inevitably be living as ministers and leaders according to God’s design.