Over my 50 years of public ministry, a mentor would have brought significant benefit. I, my family, and my ministry missed out, however, because I didn’t have a mentor.
I did have ministry brothers who were my go-to advisors, my encouragers, and my accountability partners occasionally. But I never had a formal agreement with anyone to walk with me as my mentor.
What were the barriers?
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Formal mentoring was an unknown concept in my spiritual culture through most of my ministry.
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There were no role models. Older pastors were never mentored so they never thought to mentor younger pastors.
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Those obstacles were compounded by the fear that mentors would abuse the influence over mentees or, at least, use the law over the gospel to try to empower Christ-like living.
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No one in our circles trained mentors.
I am grateful that Matt Doebler is tackling these challenges through his Gospel-Centered Mentoring training. Through Gospel-Centered Mentoring I have experienced the benefits of mentoring and being mentored.
For over three years, I have been in a co-mentoring relationship with a brother in public ministry. Founded upon God’s grace, we have committed to open our lives to each other. We share our annual plans for personal, spiritual, and professional growth with each other. We hold each other accountable for living out those plans. Together we have worked through a variety of family issues, personal challenges, significant life choices, and ministry difficulties. We know we can trust each other with sensitive information, confess our shortcomings to each other, and experience God’s grace through each other.
Matt Doebler has taught us to keep our Father’s love in the forefront as we urge each other to live as infinitely-loved sons of God.
In retirement, Pastor Jim Aderman has served as the executive director of a ministry that trains Chinese house church leaders, finished the third of his masters degrees, authored his fifth book, leads a Facebook group for church communication teams, and volunteered as the director of small Bible studies at the church he joined. You can find him on Facebook and Instagram.
Find Pastor Jim’s latest book about dealing with Cancer, “God, Can I Complain?” for sale here.