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Learning for Life: Cultivating a Student Spirituality
Week 11
Mentoring
Mike Wagenman, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario
11.1 Mentoring? So What?
Read 2 Timothy 1
Years ago, The Harvard Business Review published an edition with this title: "Everyone Who Makes It has a Mentor." Inside, readers discovered one surprising common denominator among Fortune 500 executives: they each had a mentor. They each had someone they could go to with questions, encouragement, brainstorming, or catastrophe management. Mentoring matters - even for those who publicly appear to be self-made leaders. In fact, they were who they were because they were mentored.
Mentoring is not in the Bible. But, it's a concept that floats behind many of the Old Testament heroic stories and was certainly central to Jesus' relationship with his disciples. Mentoring is a relationship of trust with someone who is wiser or more experienced than us. A mentor is someone a few steps ahead of us in the journey of life and faith - someone who walks beside us, a source of encouragement to be all that God created and calls us to be.
Significant shifts have been taking place within our North American culture lately - shifts influencing the Church as well. One has been the movement away from formal structures or institutions to more informal and spontaneous relationships. This opens up exciting innovations in life and ministry. But it has also resulted - for many - in a sense of being alone. It's amazing how alone you can feel on a campus of tens of thousands of students. Because of these cultural shifts and the resulting breakdown in cross-generational relationships, it's time to resurrect a robust practice of mentoring.
If you're flying through your college or university education disconnected from others in deep and meaningful ways, consider this: half of the Nobel Peace Prize winners in 2004 were mentored by former Nobel Peace Prize laureates. Mere coincidence? I think this confirms the way God structured the world: that we can only discover who we truly are in relationships of trust, encouragement, and guidance. Mentoring is a way of living in community with others and God's Holy Spirit.
Prayer: Triune God, create in me a heart for community and a desire to intentionally grow in your grace. Amen.
Quote: “Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world--indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” (Margaret Mead)
11. 2 Finding a mentor
Read 2 Timothy 2
Christian college and university students living today in 21st century North America ask questions similar to Timothy's in the first century: How do I live an authentic life of faith within an oppressive, dehumanizing culture that seeks to capture my imagination for its purposes?
We each have our own unique personalities, gifts, and callings. We each live in our own particular context of family or educational backgrounds, dreams, and struggles. But we also have something in common: God's invitation to pursue a mature life of faith that engages the world for good.
How can you discern how God is calling you to be an agent of reconciliation? With a trusted conversation partner - a mentor who will walk with you through life decisions, stages of faith development, and the emotional roller-coaster ride of young adulthood.
The Apostle Paul was Timothy's mentor. Paul was the older, wiser, more experienced man in Timothy's life who encouraged Timothy to grow into the fullness of his identity and calling. For Paul to be a good mentor of Timothy, Paul had to be the kind of person who had shown himself to be trustworthy, faithful, and true in his own life. And when Paul writes the words of 2Timothy 2 to his younger friend, Paul's words depict the comprehensiveness of life lived before God.
Do you have a mentor - someone you can confide in over coffee, someone who will challenge you (and, who you can receive a challenge from), someone who will look out for your best, someone who has cultivated this kind of character in themselves already, someone who is available for you, someone who is able to wisely point you toward your true vocation?
If you're a Timothy, you need a Paul: your confidential conversation partner with whom you can share your dreams and your nightmares, your successes and failures, your anxiety and your joy.
Prayer: Father of Light, you call us to walk with each other along the pathway of faith you illumine before us.
Open my eyes to see the opportunities and the potential of mentoring relationships. Amen.
Quote: "Few things in the world are more powerful than a positive push. A smile. A word of optimism and hope. A "you can do it" when things are tough." (Richard M. De Vos)
11. 3 Historical mentors
Read 2Timothy 3
Up through the Middle Ages, a robust study of the arts and humanities within the university was commonplace. Christians pursued the full enjoyment and study of the products of human culture throughout history because they were convinced human beings were made in God's image. And, while the dawning of the Enlightenment began to downplay the importance of the arts and a full-orbed embrace of what it means to be human, this has never been altogether eliminated.
One of the key components of this "incarnational" education was the pursuit of virtue. Good books, exemplary historical and contemporary figures, and fine works of art would spur humanity on to grow in respect, love, tolerance, generosity, and grace.
This approach doesn't take the Fall, sin, and our need for God's forgiving grace seriously enough (as if our separation from God could be restored merely by viewing an inspiring painting or statue). But, this emphasis on virtue is important: we are shaped by the influences (for good or ill) around us. Our existence is plagued by brokenness, strife, and outright evil that tends to condition us toward human vices, so it makes sense to counter-balance this by immersing ourselves in a sea of goodness - examples of virtue.
I don't know how much you like to read. Often students shy away from extra-curricular reading for fear of being labelled "odd" - or worse. But through reading great works of literature or reading biographies of exemplary world leaders, we are shaped toward the good God desires for us.
The Bible functions like this. The Bible contains stories of historical people who serve as reminders of who we are as image-bearers of God. When Paul writes to Timothy in 2Timothy 3, Paul explicitly writes about those who live a life of vice and who would seek to pull us down to their base level. But Paul also encourages Timothy to search out the good examples who are striving to be counter-cultural because of their faith.
The choice is ours: either we can allow the surrounding culture to squash us into its mold or we can search out those examples of a godly life. In the end, we'll become like our mentors.
Prayer: Lord of all the faithful, use the stories in your Word and the examples in my own time and place to spur me on toward further growth and maturity in you. Amen.
Quote: "...since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses..." (Hebrews 12.1)
11. 4 Virtual mentors
Read 2Timothy 4
Years ago, I lived through the advent of email and the internet. In fact, it was just after I graduated from university that young people were labeled the "Plugged-in" or "Logged-on" generation. Of course, today's generation is wireless and most forms of communication - if we're honest about it - take place via email, IM, or online networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. It's ironic; today we're living in the "Virtual Generation."
Yet, with the proliferation of virtual and other forms of envelope-pushing technology, young people today face a world filled with myriads of media previous generations couldn't have even dreamt of. If you're a student today, you will need to make a very concrete and relevant decision: what virtual media will you surround yourself with? Mentoring isn't just about the formal connections we have with trusted friends who help us avoid the pitfalls of life. Mentoring also happens through informal, serendipitous ways - mentoring happens virtually as well.
Who are your virtual mentors? What sites do you visit daily? Paul didn't have the internet, but he writes in 2Timothy 4 for his friends to come to his side, urging them to bring the current technology - his scrolls. Paul knew - and he tells Timothy - that unless concerted effort is brought to one's discipleship, there is little way to avoid the cultural onslaught of relativism, nihilism, and apathy.
Paul closes this letter reflecting on his times when faithfulness to Jesus Christ was the toughest. He had been arrested, tried, and imprisoned for his faith. And like Jesus at his point of greatest need, everyone had deserted Paul as well. Immersing myself in these words of Paul's, I have the conviction that even when Paul was standing in that place of utter loneliness, he knew that he really wasn't alone. His character and faith had been shaped, his mind and heart were convinced that God was with him and would never abandon him. It's this kind of conviction that mentoring aims for - so that when we're alone and no one is looking, we still live a life of unshakable faithfulness.
Prayer: God of grace, the world around seeks to press me into its mold. Free my imagination from being held captive by shallow and empty ways of engaging the world. Give me the faithfulness I need to follow you. Amen.
Quote: "We are surrounded by God's benefits. The best use of these benefits is an unceasing expression of gratitude." (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, III, xx, 28)
11. 5 Turning the Mentoring Corner
Read Genesis 12.2-3
Consider these two significant bodies of water: the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. Both of these lakes loom large in the biblical story with both the mundane and the miraculous taking place on or around them.
While both of these bodies of water have many geographic similarities, there is one significant difference: the Sea of Galilee is filled with life (fish and vegetation) while the Dead Sea is an utter wasteland.
Why? Well, the Dead Sea is continually fed by the Jordan River that flows into it from the north. And likewise, the Sea of Galilee is fed by the runoff of the surrounding mountainous terrain. But the main difference lies in the fact that the Sea of Galilee is the headwaters for the Jordan River. The Sea of Galilee takes in from its environment and also gives back to it in the form of the Jordan River. In contrast, the Dead Sea only takes in.
This is a good metaphor for the life of a Christian. Are you going to be a Sea of Galilee or a Dead Sea? Are you only going to be on the receiving end (of your educational process and your mentoring relationships)? Or, are you going to receive and then, in turn, give away to others?
Abraham faced this question head on. Abraham received blessing upon blessing from God. Then in Genesis 12, God comes to Abraham and tells him something that we still find revolutionary today: the blessings in Abraham's life weren't supposed to stop with Abraham - they were to be, in turn, shared with the entire world.
Unless you want God's blessings to choke life right out of you, you will need to explore ways in which you can share your blessings with others. A great way to do this is to become a mentor yourself. In fact, in many communities where mentoring is taken seriously, to have a mentor means that you will also be a mentor of someone else.
This week, we've looked at Paul's second letter to his mentee, Timothy. Interestingly, Church history tells us that Timothy didn't just receive from Paul without end. Timothy became Bishop of Ephesus in 65AD, eventually dying a martyr's death in 80AD. Thanks to Paul's mentorship, Timothy grew into a mature faith that then reached out to bless others in the church and the wider world.
Are you going to end up a Dead Sea or extend what you've received to others like a Sea of Galilee?
Prayer: Spirit of the Living God, as you brooded over the waters of Creation, calling order and life out of chaos, stir up the waters of my life that I may truly find life in you. Amen.
Quote: "When I grow up I won't have to think / I won't have to see unpleasant things / It'll all be perfect just like on TV / When I grow up I won't feel a thing / I won't triffle in other peoples' pain / I'll put those childish things away." (Pierce Pettis, When I Grow Up, 1988)
11. 6 Becoming a mentor yourself
Read Philemon
The Apostle Paul wrote two letters to his mentee Timothy, encouraging and challenging Timothy to mature into his God-given potential. But, in the letter to Philemon - a short, personal letter, the kind one wouldn't expect to be in sacred Scripture because it seems so ordinary - the authors are now Paul and Timothy.
Timothy has probably come from Ephesus (where he was serving as Bishop) to Rome where Paul has been in prison. (The mentor is now in need of some encouragement himself.) As a result, Timothy has met another of Paul's mentees, Onesimus - Philemon's run-away slave. After investing themselves in Onesimus, Paul and Timothy are now sending him back along with this letter encouraging Philemon to receive him back as a Christian brother.
In the course of life - maybe even already for you as a student - we have opportunities to both receive mentoring from others and to begin a mentoring relationship with people we meet. The opportunity to mentor someone - to invest yourself deeply in the life of another person - is one of the grandest opportunities for a full and fulfilling life. With the opportunity to mentor someone comes the opportunity to extend your influence in the world.
Max Talmey was a professor in early 20th century Munich, Germany, when he met a young student he decided to mentor. Talmey invested five years in the student until they both left Munich. Years later, after Talmey had moved to New York City, he met up with his mentee again. While almost no one has heard of Max Talmey, everyone is aware of his mentee - Albert Einstein.
When Paul and Timothy write to Philemon about their mutual acquaintance, Onesimus, one of the implied challenges they put to Philemon is to make the counter-cultural transition from being Onesimus' master to his mentor. Paul and Timothy encourage Philemon to invest himself in this new Christian for the sake of the Kingdom.
Invest yourself in others. Share the gifts and resources you have received to bless someone else. Like Paul and Timothy challenge Philemon, I challenge you to become a mentor yourself.
Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, you set your glory aside in order to seek me out. Now, empower me to prioritize giving to others more than receiving the gifts of others. Amen.
Quote: "When there is a question as to whether a man is good, one does not ask what he believes, or what he hopes, but what he loves." (Augustine of Hippo, Enchiridion)
11. 7 The Church is a Mentoring Community
Today, many Christians are gathering for corporate worship. Songs will be sung, scriptures read, sermons delivered, gifts offered, blessings invoked, and people renewed.
While worship is primarily about ascribing glory and honour to God, worship is also a time for the covenant community to renew their relationship with God. Today is the day to renew our commitment to Jesus' band of disciples - a mentoring community of faith of which we are a living part.
Jesus is our redeemer, friend, and also the one in whom we rediscover who are have been created to be in community. That means we immerse ourselves in the story of God's grace recorded in the scriptures. That means we meditatively ponder the life and ministry of Jesus. That means we seek to live in a counter-cultural way that seeks the common good. That means we care for and support one another on the journey of life.
Being a member of the church means we have already embarked on mentoring. We have older brothers and sisters in the faith who offer their wisdom to us. There are younger sisters and brothers we befriend through the stages of adolescence.
Maybe you've never considered the church from this perspective, but at its best, this is the community of disciples Jesus gathers together even today. As you immerse yourself in this mentoring community, may life's richest blessings be yours!
Prayer: Redeeming God, I thank you for the gift of community in which I find a home. Make me a welcome and hospitable presence for others. Amen.
Quote: "In an age of relativity the practice of truth when it is costly is the only way to cause the world to take seriously our protestations concerning truth" (Francis Schaeffer, The God Who Is There."
Copyright © CRCMA 2008
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