Daniel Darling: The Power of an Average Mentor

It was an inauspicious meeting, really. It took place in the corner booth at a Burger King. He, in his early 70s, a veteran pastor and church leader. Me, a young Bible college graduate and soon-to-be pastor. I was serving as a volunteer youth pastor at a struggling church in the Chicago suburbs and he was the interim, brought in to stabilize the congregation during a period of turmoil and decline.

I wasn't really sure why I called Bill and asked for a meeting. I told my wife it was simply to "get on the same page" with the senior pastor of the church I was serving. But I had other motivations. I was contemplating a full-time call to the pastorate, but casting out for better leadership examples than what I had seen modeled in my previous ministry experience. I also knew that Bill had influence over the church's search committee and … if a miracle occurred and he liked me, maybe he'd put my name in the hat.

I didn't telegraph that intention in our conversations, but I did honestly share with him my doubts about pastoral work. Because I was never gifted with a sort of Type-A, rah-rah leadership style, I'd been told I wasn't pastor material. In the paradigm I had grown up in, servant leadership was eschewed in favor of top-down, aggressive management. Not only did this kind of leadership make me cringe, I didn't think I could pull it off.

But Bill … he was different. Refreshingly different. Kind in every way, a great conversationalist, a gentle, caring shepherd of a man. We hit it off right away and soon Bill urged me to apply for the senior pastor position. He not only championed me before the search committee, Bill coached and encouraged me. This was in the fall of 2007. By June of 2008, I was installed as the senior pastor of Gages Lake Bible Church. Keep reading

Also see

Dave McDowell: The Gift of Mentoring
Where Two or Tree Gather