PastorMentor.com

Five Benefits of Having A Mentor

A few years ago I hired a mentor. It was kind of humbling. After all, I had spent the previous three years mentoring nine pastors myself. But I finally admitted it: I don’t know everything I wish I knew!

 

Hiring a mentor was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, both for my personal development and for the health of our church. I benefitted so much that my staff and Board encouraged me to hire a mentor every year. I hired this year’s mentor two weeks ago. We’ll start formally in August, but we’ve already talked by phone and he’s given me several nuggets that should help right away.

 

The Benefits of a Mentor:

Ø  A mentor can help you to see what you don’t currently see.

Without a mentor, I wouldn’t have known the difference between ministry expansion and ministry multiplication. I wouldn’t have known what to do to help our subministries break through the 69 barrier. I wouldn’t have read a half dozen books that have boosted my knowledge and enthusiasm. The list goes on.

 

Ø  A mentor can help you get to the next level.

New Song had plateaued over the previous few years. Within months we were back to growing 10-20% annually. On a personal level, my mentor challenged me to new and deeper habits. He held me accountable to work on the church more and in the church less.

 

Ø  A mentor can stimulate you to work more on your church and less just in it.

Ministry is so daily, it’s easy to get caught up in the trees and forget about managing the forest.

 

Ø  A mentor can help improve the health of your church.

All of us are good at a few things. Our strengths tend to be reflected in our churches. A senior pastor should major on the things he’s good at. But that doesn’t mean we can neglect the things we’re not-so-good-at. This is one of the greatest benefits of having a mentor: they can spot weaknesses and help us admit (1) we’re probably never going to be great at those areas of weakness and (2) help us figure out who in our church might love doing those things that need to get done for the church to be balanced and healthy.

 

Ø  A mentor can help you lead your church to growth.

I had a conversation with one of my mentees yesterday. Today he emailed me to report that he’s recruited two new Sunday School teachers, planned a Church-Wide Campaign for January, laid out a pre-campaign series to help his members gain a heart for the lost, and started a visitation program. Think growth will come from that?

 

Joshua had Moses. Elisha had Elijah. Timothy had Paul. Paul had Barnabas. Twelve guys had Jesus, and they changed the world. Pastor, who is the Lord calling you to mentor, and who is two to three steps ahead of you and can help you in your journey?

 

Learn about resources from Hal at www.pastormentor.com.

 

 

Introducing... The Introducer

During a job screening one day, the interviewer asked me a question that threw me off: “Growing up, what role did you play in your family or origin?”

 

I didn’t know what he meant. He read the wrinkled look on my face and gave me some help. “A family is a system,” he said. “Every member plays a role. Were you the achiever, the analyzer, the clown, the one everyone else looked after, or what?”

 

Churches, like families, are also systems. Members all have a role to play. Some are organizers, some are givers, others are encouragers, and still others play roles with children and youth. One role that’s seldom noticed, but essential for every healthy, growing church, is The Introducer.

 

The Introducer is the man or woman who introducers newcomers to their future friends. He or she is not necessarily everyone’s friend, but when you trace back how people found their friends, the line almost always leads through the Introducer. Great Introducers establish the church lobby as their home base. They instinctively seek out newcomers, find out their interests and stage in life, and then introduce them to people who are like them.

 

This role is crucial, and very hard to train for. In my experience, great Introducers are born, not made. The role is so important, you should pray that God sends you one if your church doesn’t already have one. And until that person comes, you need to throw a half dozen well-trained and well-intentioned greeters into the lobby to make sure that newcomers meet core members who are like them.

 

I watched an Introducer take her perch one day. Her name was Vicki. She and her husband visited the church I was then part of and decided the next weekend that this was going to be their home church. A week later she arrived early and staked out her spot in the lobby. That was 24 years ago. As far as I know, she’s still in that lobby to this day.

 

Ask members of that church, “Is Vicki your best friend?” and most of them will say “no.” Ask them “Who introduced you to your best friend?” and after giving it some thought, most will say, “Vicki!” (Bear in mind, this is not a small church. It was about 200 when I joined and 400 when I left, in 1985. Today, it’s over 3,000.) Most of its newcomers are still being introduced to their friends by lobby-loving Vicki.

 

Who is the Introducer in your church? If you don’t have one, I can almost guarantee your church is not growing. If you do have one (or more), thank God for him or her; and tell the rest of us about them in the comments below. – We can’t all be Introducers, but we can all increase our friendliness factors by learning from them.

Webmentoring

A few summers ago, I did a sermon series on the book of Titus. The whole thing was kind of by accident, but once I waded into it, I found myself teaching our congregation about mentoring. It’s a central theme in Titus.

 

That teaching sparked some things in me. I’ve now got four groups I mentor face to face: seminarians, local pastors, smaller church pastors in a retreat setting, and large church pastors (which is actually a mutual-mentoring thing I’ll be doing in January). Last week, in a conversation with my wife, another spark was lit, which is why I'm beginning this blog. I'll continue to blog occasionally on Amazon on things like books, resources, writing, etc., (http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/A1F5BTA0EIVMAI/ref=cm_blog_dp_artist_blog)  but the main chatter will be here on typepad. My hope is to stimulate dialogue that's helpful to  healthy, growing churches and healthy, growing Christian lives. I’m thinking of it as “webmentoring” and hope to receive as well as give.

 

In coming weeks, I hope to cover principles and phenomenon that have been the most helpful to me, like "Pastor/Parish Poker," "The Berry Bucket," "The Whitewaters of Chaos," and "Hill-taking." I'm hopeful others will join in with things they've seen that enhance church health as well. So here's a question: what is the most helpful thing your church is doing these days to build believers, bring people to Christ, or care for your community?