Author: tim

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A simple one page guide to mentoring

Help! I have been asked to be a mentor and I would love to say yes, but I don’t know what to do!

Mentoring another person is one of the greatest gifts you can give. It is an act of service, creating an environment where the person can share openly, deal with issues and grow. Mentoring does not require a degree or high level training (although training can make a significant difference in effectiveness). Anyone can mentor if they are willing to take the time to put some basic principles into practice.

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Leaving Well–A guide for working with people in transition

Making the decision to leave a church family is a difficult process filled with conflicting emotions, some positive and some negative. Once once a person has made the decision, the key task is to leave well.

It is easy in these situations for a person to think that the best thing to do is make a quick and clean exit in order not to hurt others. In fact, the opposite is the case. Quick exits often complicate the pain felt by everyone. It is analogous to a ‘sudden unexpected death’.

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Filling or Draining? An Emotional Depletion Worksheet for use in Mentoring

 

Our lives and ministries revolve around a constant flow of giving out and taking in.  We regularly teach, counsel and care for people, listening and giving of ourselves in the process.  This spiritual and emotional outflow has to be balanced with input.  Family time, recreation, nature, music, retreating, reading, art, hobbies, sport… all in different ways put something back in our emotional tanks.  Getting the balance right in both the short and long term is essential for ongoing ministry and wellbeing.  We can become seriously depleted through attempting to ‘run on empty’. 

Try this attached resource for use in mentoring.  Let me know any adjustments you find helpful. 

Your Emotional Reservoir

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Mentoring in 5 key areas

by Keith Farmer

Re-posted from The Australian Christian Mentoring Network www.mentoringnetwork.org.au/2012/01/mentoring-in-5-areas/

The role of the Christian leader, particularly the role of leading a local church, is one of the most diverse and difficult vocations in our society. The pressures and stresses of Christian leadership have led many to abandon ministry, and in some cases to abandon church and faith altogether. Continue reading “Mentoring in 5 key areas”

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Who have been your mentors?

One of the exercises we ask our in-training mentors to complete is a reflection on who has built into their lives.  It is well worthwhile taking some time to think through who your mentors have been, what it is that they imparted to you, and how they did it.

Mentoring is not always intentional, neither is it always personal.  Some mentors are writers, theologians, musicians and poets who have no idea of what they have contributed to the lives of others. Some have been gone for some time.  One of the most influential men in my life is George Macdonald.  I have learnt much from his fiction, poetry and sermons.  While this is mentoring of sorts, it really doesn’t quite fit the concepts I sit most comfortably with.  These include a level of relationship and intentional input toward growth.

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