Welcome to our three-part series introducing a simple gospel-centered mentoring method that can be used to give inquisitive Christians a powerful taste of the blessings of mentoring. You will find Part 1 here.
A little Preparation
As mentioned above, Step 2 of the Thirty-Minute Mentor process is Bible sharing. Now, you may be thinking, “Here’s where the 30-minute process turns into 60 minutes or longer, because I will have to prepare a devotion for the mentee.” Not so. We will keep this as simple as possible.
All you need is a regular gospel-centered devotional life, especially if you use something like the 4Cs approach, which I will explain briefly here. As you read a section of the Bible for your devotion, looking for the 4Cs: Convict, Comfort, Calling, and Charge-up. Ask yourself the following questions:
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What Convicts me? In other words, where do I need to repent of sin?
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What Comforts me? How am I assured of God’s forgiveness and acceptance through Jesus?
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How am I asked to carry out my Callings or carry my cross?
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How am I Charged up by God’s promises for resting fully in Christ and reflecting Him faithfully?
If you view your devotional reading though the 4C lens, you will be prepared for Bible sharing. When you meet with the mentee, all you need to say is, “For my devotions this week, I was reading ______ in the Bible. This is how it convicted/comforted/spoke to our callings/charged me up through God’s promises. This is why I thought it would also encourage you.” Offer a brief explanation of how you believe it can encourage her, and you are finished.
Let me offer a brief example:
During my devotion time on Thursday, I read Psalm 73. I was convicted that, like the author, I often get consumed by self-pity. It’s pretty pathetic and skews my view of the world; I easily miss God’s blessings in my life, especially salvation. Thankfully, I was also comforted by the author’s words in verses 23–26: “Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
This is why I thought Psalm 73 would also encourage you: I know that you have been under a lot of pressure lately, but I want you to know that God is always with you, and He is also holding you by your hand, like a good father. You can keep serving at work without fear and with peace in your heart, even though your boss has treated you so unfairly lately, because God is the strength of your heart and your eternal glory.
It’s that simple.
Some Tips for Bible Sharing
If the mentee has not confessed any specific sin in his highs and lows, be careful of using this time to harp on specific sinful patterns you’ve observed in his life. There is a time for confronting sin in a mentee’s life, but it is not often in this brief mentor session. If you apply specific law as part of your sharing, do it in a “we” and not a “you” manner. This helps the mentee realize that she is not the only sinner in the world, nor a freak, nor worse than all the others. Like Christ, you can identify with her in her weakness even though you may not share in her specific faults.
When applying the gospel, however, it should be more “you” than “we”. That does not mean you should not include yourself in God’s promises, but the focus is assuring and empowering the mentee and not yourself.
Do not merely share what convicts us or speaks to our callings (these are matters of God’s law, God’s requirements), but also how God comforts us and charges us up with His promises. In fact, the gospel should always predominate. If someone asks the mentee after your mentor session with him, “What was your biggest takeaway from the time with your mentor,” you want his response to be something along the lines of, “I have an awesome and gracious God.”
What Next?
I recommend that mentors and mentees schedule these 30-minute sessions for every two weeks. The best practice is to immediately schedule the next thirty-minute session upon the completion of the current session.
As I mentioned at the beginning, my intent is not to diminish the importance of good training for mentors but to help Christians start mentoring so they and their mentees can get a personal taste of its impact. Once mentees are heard and seen, encouraged by God’s Word, and prayed for regularly, they will want more. As a mentor, you will be encouraged to mentor others, to improve your mentoring skills, and to take mentees to the next level.
Dr. Matthew Doebler, God’s Somebody, serves as professor at Asia Lutheran Seminary and missionary for the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. He is passionate about four M’s: mentoring, missiology, multiplication, and ministry of the gospel. As a mentor with over 10 years of experience and a coaching certification from NACC, he is committed to equipping others to develop into wholehearted followers of Christ who rest in Him fully and reflect Him faithfully. He is the author of “God Loves Nobodies: Good News for Somebody Like Me”, the forthcoming “Gospel-Centered Mentoring,” and an introduction to Gospel-Centered Mentoring course on Udemy. He also co-hosts the missiology podcast, “Jesus and Jetlag” (available on Spotify and Apple) He is blessed to be the friend, lover, and coworker of Christine, father to five (two by marriage), and grandfather of 2 beautiful little ones.