Mentoring
The thing which puts most of us off mentoring is that we really have little experience of it ourselves. Yet the idea of having an older Christian beside us helping us think through the daily issues we face from a perspective of experience and Biblical wisdom has great appeal.
One of my hopes is that even if we haven’t been mentored we may have the courage to offer such help to others younger than ourselves. I would love it if the IFES movements of Europe and Eurasia became known for a culture of mentoring young graduates as they make the transition into ‘life after university’.
Mentoring sounds like a big deal. It isn’t. It is a question of a Christian believer with a bit more know-how lending a listening ear and helping where they can. My experience is that if we’re reading God’s Word ourselves, and thinking through the way it speaks to our working life then we will always have good Christian wisdom to pass on to others.
So there is one primary qualification for being a mentor - that is a desire to live and grow as a person rooted in Christ in scripture! If that’s you then you can help another younger person think through how they can face up Christianly to the challenges of life after university.
Rico Tice - a friend of mine in London and author of Christianity Explored - often talks of the value of one-to-one discipleship (another name for mentoring) he received from an older Christian, while they looked over a couple of verses together in a break between tennis games! It is that simple. Find a