MENTORING PROCESS

This week in leadership we talked about the mentoring process. Mentoring is one of a leaders primary jobs as he/she leads other people. Without mentoring there will be no one to pass the torch to when it is time for you to climb the ladder of influence to a new level. Remember there is no real success without a successor. If you never train people to take your place you will never have the opportunity to go to the next level in the calling that God has placed on your life.  Mentoring, like anything worth doing, is a lot of hard work and rarely brings instant gratification. Mentoring is often a process that involves a great deal of committment, time, and hard work. I am going to take a few minutes to review the mentoring process and then go more in-depth in the first step in the process.

Mentoring Process:

1. Modeling - People are first influenced and make a choice to follow a leader by what they see. 

2. Motivating - When you move from Modeling to Motivating you encourage and communicate with people on a emotional level. It is all about connecting with the person's personal story and speaking faith, hope, and love into that story whether it was a positive or negative story. We build people up in a powerful way when we believe in them.

3. Mentoring - Mentoring is the stage in the process where we take what has been placed in motion by motivation and give it direction. Mentoring is about helping people to gain and use wisdom on how to navigate the destiny God has for their life.  It is a balance of truth and relationship. 

4. Multiplying - This is the stage when you help your follower take what they have learned and pass it along to someone else. This should be the goal of every mentor relationship and will bring the most fruit in your ministry.

If you will learn to follow these steps you will be a successful mentor to the people around you. Lets look more in-depth at the first step in the process - Modeling.

MODELING

Modeling is all about a person's character. You can fake it only so long before your followers begin to see through you. People follow people that are real. The fact is that you cannot give away what you do not have. Below is some questions to ask yourself to see if you are really a person of character.

1. How well do I treat people from whom I can gain nothing?

2. Am I transparent with other people?

3. Do I role play based on the person(s) I'm with? 

4. Do I quickly admit wrongdoing without being pressed to do so?

5. Do I put others ahead of my personal agenda?

6. Do my circumstance determine the choices that I make or do my values?

7. Do I make tough choices even when they have a personal cost attached to them?

8. When I have something to say to someone do I say it to them or talk about them?

9. Am I accountable to at least one person for what I say and what I do?

Remember this quote, "Many succeed momentarily by what they know; Some succeed temporarily by what they do; but few succeed permanently by what they are." Take some time and review those questions and ask yourself if you are a person of character. Don't give yourself the answer that you wish you were, but instead be real with yourself. If you are struggling in the area of character today is the day to make a decision to make some changes in your life. Character is the some total of your choices that you make everyday. That is why excellence is in the details of your life. 

The next blog I will be writing will be about how to become a person of character that people want to follow. I hope some of these thoughts will help you grow as a leader as you grow other people. Leave me a comment. Thanks!

P. Jesse

Receiving a God Given Vision

God has built every person with this desire to know that there life has purpose. One of the best selling books of all times is called "The Purpose Driven Life." This book was writing about this very topic. As I teach and mentor many people I have found a couple of things that are true when is comes to the topic of purpose and vision.

1. Everyone has this desire to find there place or identity in life.

2. Most people have no idea how to.

When Jesus looked at the crowds of people He said, "They are like sheep without a shepherd." Jesus was able to be the most impacting leader of all time because He first knew his purpose, and knew how to help other people find theirs. God has called us to be the kind of leader that carry life and hope with us. The best way to empower or provide hope in someone's life is to help them discover there purpose. Below I have laid out some steps from Matthew 9 &10 that will equip you to show your students and friends how to get a vision for their life. It may also be the key to taking your leadership to a new level. Take your time and think through each one of these steps and let the Holy Spirit give you revelation.

1. When you don't know what to do. Take initiative to obey and get active in serving in the Kingdom of God. 

- "Jesus went about all the cities and villages..." (v.9:35)

2. Communicate the truth that you already have.

"... teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom" (v.9:35)

3. Observe the reality of the Human Condition

"But when he saw the multitudes..." (v.9:36)

4. Allow God to burden you with a specific need.

"He was moved with compassion for them, because they were... like sheep having no shepherd" (v. 9:36)

5. See a divine diagnosis. What is the issue to be resolved?

"The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few" (v. 9:37)

6. Pray to determine what action could meet the need.

"Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest" (9:38)

7. Choose a team and empower them for partnership.

"And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power..." (v. 10:1)

8.  Take immediate action toward the fulfillment of the vision.

"These twelve Jesus sent out..." (v.10:5)

This passage of scripture is truly amazing.  I think it is pivotal that we understand Jesus never thought about trying to fulfill the vision by Himself. See Jesus understood that anything worth doing was going to be bigger than himself. We have got to dream God sizes dreams that are going to stretch our leadership and cause us to put our faith in God to be the provision for the vision. Let us all enter into this new year asking the Holy Spirit to take us through this process of committing our lives to the call and God's vision.  This is the life Jesus has called us to, it is a life lived by faith. 

- P. Jesse

Empowering those that Follow you!

I am sitting here think about what it will take to build a youth ministry that can impact a city, country, and the world. What kind of leader do I need to be to see this happen in my lifetime. I begin to think about what Jesus did when He was on this earth in ministry. Jesus had a heart for the masses but also understood that anything worth doing has to be bigger than one person. In John 20: 21,22 we find the key t0 Jesus' ministry, he was a leader that empowered others. 

Many people talk about working themselves out of a job, but few really live their life that way. But that is exactly what Jesus did. In this passage we see Jesus put the final touch on His empowerment of his twelve, then turn them loose to make a difference. He gives them peace(vs.21) and breathes on them to receive the Holy Spirit(v.22). This peace and power would enable them to serve supernaturally. Those men He mentored were now ready to be change agents.

How can we do the same? What steps can we take to mentor and empower others? Here are some practical applications of the process Jesus modeled.

1. Pray for conviction and vision

2. Select a person or group from your sphere of influence to mentor.

3. Spend two initial meetings together to discuss expectations and goals.

4. Cast Vision to them for spiritual reproduction

5. Ask for commitment

6. Determine what tools or resources you will use together

7. Prepare yourself and set goals for each meeting

8. Meet regularly for a set time

9. Discuss and apply the truths you learn together

10. Invest yourself in the person, process, and the purpose

11. Help them find a potential person to mentor

12. Evaluate and launch them to try the process themselves.

If you will review these principals from the Word of God and apply them to your leadership people will be empowered. Go out there and find someone to pour into you and someone to pour into. Remember mentorship does not just happen it take hard work and time, but the reward is a eternal reward. Eternity is why God has called us to be Leaders!

- P. Jesse