Monday, March 7, 2011

Mentoring



"More time spent with fewer people equals greater Kingdom impact." Regi Campbell

I am turning 30 in a few months (gasp) and mentoring is an a word I've recently been focusing on. Jesus began his public ministry at age 30 when he turned the water into wine at Cana. (I've always loved that he started his ministry up by hooking up the party goers. What an awesome God we serve!)

Over the past several months I have kind of felt scattered in this area and decided it was a high priority to get some principles in place to help me be more effective and efficient with my time and energy in this area. My husband is a student pastor and I am a music educator by vocation, so this is an area where having the right tools is essential to being successful in pointing people in the right direction.

I sent out an email to a few trusted and respected friends (some of them mentors to myself!) and one sent me a book called MENTOR LIKE JESUS. It is written by an elder from Northpoint Church, Regi Campbell, who has had great success mentoring groups of men over the past several years. He lays out some VERY practical ways to help with mentoring. I am not using his exact model yet, but have incorporated a lot of his ideology (which really ends up being Christ's methods with his disciples) to be more intentional with some of the girls at our church.

And low and behold, the flood gates have opened with opportunities now that my heart is in tune with the Holy Spirit's nudging on this. The Type 1 diabetic sixth grader who is trying to control his disease while not letting it control him, the fifth grade girl who has decided to get baptized and learn how to play worship songs on the piano, the two high school foster boys who are searching for acceptance and direction, the Freshman who initiated starting a youth praise band for our Wednesday night youth group meeting, the seventh grade girl who is planning a 30 Hour Famine to raise money for World Vision, and the long lost cousin in prison who is reaching out for hope and a fresh start.

I can't even explain how thankful and humbling it is to be able to be living out what you know you were born to do every day. God created us with a need to feel purpose. And when you discover what that is for your life, you start living it with a passion that you've never felt before.

1 comment:

Dana said...

Hi! I'm a type 1 in Seattle and my husband and I are currently pregnant with our first child. I'm also a Christian. I have been sooo incredibly worried about how my diabetes is effecting our little boy, but it looks like you were able to have healthy children---which is SO encouraging. I'm really trying to hand everything over to God (somehting I have to do about every 5 minutes) but it's been really difficult. Whenever people hear that I have diabetes and am pregnant, I get questions about macrosomia, shoulder distocia, putting my child at risk for obesity, etc. (I'm an RN...so always surrounded by the medical community) SO hard! I would love to know how you dealt with everything!