Every leader has room for spiritual and professional growth.
Mentoring is more than merely telling someone about the Word of God. It involves showing someone how to love and serve God.
Ultimately, Holy Spirit is our faithful guide leading us into all things pertaining to godliness, but God’s Word does encourage mentoring relationships. One of the best examples of this is shown in the relationship between Paul and Timothy. It is also referenced in Titus regarding older women mentoring younger women. Even the relationship Jesus shared with His disciples is a form of mentoring.
Mentoring is more than merely telling someone about the Word of God. It involves showing someone how to love and serve God. It is an active form of blessing where one person serves another through the shared gift of their life experience. Whether you are looking to develop your understanding of Scripture, clarify your calling, build your leadership gifts, or deepen your spiritual walk, you can benefit from a godly mentor.
A spiritual mentor can help you develop your overall skills in multiple areas as a leader or help you if you feel stuck and unsure about your next steps. Mentors often function at a level of experience and success you aspire to achieve. Their spiritual intelligence has been developed through experience with God in places you may not have encountered yet. Mentors can offer wise counsel and advice based on their own journey alongside the examples from Scripture. They are living epistles from which you can glean.
A mentor is concerned about all aspects of your growth and well-being. They often desire to have a doing-life-together relationship where they give you access to intimate parts of their life.
Spiritual mentors may also share personal details with you about their discipleship habits, introduce you to their friends, and act as a referral source for new opportunities to directly help you move forward in your calling. Mentoring is usually a mutual agreement based on relationships. Your mentor should want to mentor you as much as you want to be mentored by them. Godly mentoring can be healing and restorative for both parties involved when they share these five characteristics.
5 Key Characteristics of Healthy Mentoring Relationships
#1 Vulnerability
Mentoring relationships will require a greater level of vulnerability from both sides. The mentor must be comfortable sharing about both the high and low points of their journey and the mentee should be open to discussing their current struggles and difficulties.
#2 Personal growth
Mentoring often covers many interlinking personal growth areas affecting your calling. If you are embarking on a new opportunity, a mentoring relationship would encompass a holistic look at advancement in your personal growth.
#3 Accountability
Mentoring is not rigid but should have some level of ongoing feedback to keep you on track. There will likely be no established performance measures or specific assignments related to the mentoring relationship. Improvement is often measured by intangible interpersonal changes. The accountability is to help keep you from getting stuck in your problems and instead moving forward as you focus on God.
#4 Mindset management
A mentoring mindset focuses on a long-term relationship. When seeking mentorship, consider someone you know personally or professionally who you admire and would like to achieve a similar level of growth in an area.
#5 Authenticity
In your mentoring relationships, you should strive to be authentic in your interactions. For a mentor to guide well, you will need to feel comfortable being truthful about where you are getting stuck and most needing assistance. Before they can help you move forward, they will need to see where you are currently in the process. Lack of authenticity will negatively affect the effectiveness and limit the healing benefits of having a mentor.
