Role of the Mentor
To ‘walk alongside’ the participant to encourage personal and spiritual growth and development. This is not to be seen as teaching or training in skills, but rather the development of a Godly mindset and character.
Requirements
The mentor will:
- Commit to meet personally with the Participant at least once a month
- Pray with and for the Participant
- Be a good listener
- Be able to keep confidences
- Be non-judgmental, yet able to wisely direct and advise
- Understand that the mentoring process is for the benefit of the Participant. The mentor may share her/his own life experiences where these may be relevant and helpful, but will not burden the Participant with his/her own struggles.
- Be willing and able to inform the advisor of progress and without breaking confidences, alert him/her to any issues which may be affecting the life and ministry of the Participant.
Please note that:
- The onus is on the Participant to initiate the meetings, arranging a time and place that is mutually suitable.
- While your mentoring sessions are likely to include reflection on the course and its learning, you are not responsible for ensuring that the person you are mentoring is keeping up with course requirements. That is the responsibility of a supervisor who will be appointed.
Suggested guidelines for mentoring meetings
We suggest the following elements should be a part of the mentoring relationship.
- Prayer
Invite the Holy Spirit to guide your discussion.
Pray whenever appropriate during meetings
- Listening and Reflecting
The following areas may provide a helpful guide as you develop your mentoring relationship. They are a guide only: the direction of your conversation will depend on the needs of the individual and the maturity of the mentoring relationship.- Spiritual health
What are you discovering about who God is?
How is God currently active in your life?
What has God been talking to you about? What are you doing about this?
How is your soul?
Are there some things you don’t want others to know?
Are there things that you need to confess?
Are there things that you need to declare?
Are you aware of any vulnerability that the evil one could exploit as you grow in ministry leadership? - Health of key relationships
How are your relationships with family (spouse, children), friends, and ministry colleagues/supervisor? - Emotional health
How are you coping with the balance of workload, ministry, people, conflict, staff relationships?
How would you describe your level of emotional exhaustion on a scale of 1 – 10?
What things make you frustrated, excited, angry, anxious?
What brings you great joy? Deep sorrow?
What are you passionate about? - Present and future considerations
What are you learning
What questions do you find yourself asking?
Whose/what job would you love to have?
Although you may have dismissed it many times, what do you imagine yourself doing and loving it? - General lifestyle
Are you sleeping well, eating well?
Are you getting time off? What do you do with time off?
- Spiritual health
- Encouragement
Identify together:- The growth that you see in your Participant.
- The next steps for development.
- Challenge
In the course of the mentoring sessions, areas of need may become obvious. Take time to explore them more deeply and suggest action which could be helpful, such as meditating on a particular Scripture passage, reading a helpful book, practising relaxation or trying to restore a broken relationship etc.
In the next mentoring meeting, ask about any issues which had arisen previously and the results of the suggestions which were offered.
