Why Mentoring Matters

I keep in my desk a Father’s Day card from a student in whom I invested significant time. That card encourages me to press on when I get tired of the bureaucracy, paperwork, meetings, and tedious tasks that sometimes come with the job of being a seminary dean. It also reminds me that most churches have not yet figured out how to do discipleship.

Most churches—if they do discipleship at all—still do it programmatically. That is, they organize a program, teach some classes, and evaluate the program’s success based on numbers attending. The more who attend, the better the program is assumed to be.

To be clear, I am not opposed to programs. Well-designed and well-implemented programs can be an effective step in disciplemaking. My concern is that programmatic discipleship built solely around small groups and directed studies misses the most obvious New Testament means of disciplemaking: one-to-one mentoring.

Jesus produced disciples by investing first in a group of twelve men, and then more pointedly in a group of three. He called them to be with Him, taught them, empowered them, prayed before them, sent them out, challenged them, called them to account, and even fixed a meal for them (see Matt 5-7; Mark 3:13-15; Luke 9:1-6, 18, 29; John 21:9). They in turn became leaders of the early church.

The Apostle Paul followed Jesus’ model by pouring his life into a few young men. The best example is Timothy, whose life was never the same after the missionary evangelist called him to join his team (Acts 16:1-3). The young protégé watched Paul minister, surely rejoiced with him when lives were changed, and prayed for him when he was persecuted. What joy Paul must have felt when he could end his race with the
knowledge that Timothy would carry on the work of the gospel (2 Tim 4:1-8).

Why should we make disciples through mentoring? Read more