click here to download audio of today’s weblog Download 100305_podcast.mp3

Relationships are an
important trademark of Christianity. Why are more people seeking someone to
mentor them? There are many reasons, but
there are three I want to look at.

First, people are beginning to realize it’s
value for them. Many are beginning to
wake up to the fact that the process of
learning and the process of maturing needs time and needs many, many
relationships. Home schooling is a good
example of expanded growth. What began
as mainly a religious context is gaining more and more people of which fifteen
percent have no religious reason for pursuing this type of education. One reason home schooling is growing, is that
more and more people are discovering the value of one on one interaction. There’s really even a renewal of references
of mentoring in business literature, the world of education, and in social
work. More and more individuals are
seeking out a mentoring relationship because they recognize it’s value to
learning, it’s value to growing, and maturing as an individual. As a human being, I have a deep sense of or
longing of wanting to have values and ethics imparted to me by someone who has
been there and done that. I have a very
close older friend who has taken me under his wings and has mentored me in the
process of being a pastor. During this time
of friendship, I have greatly enjoyed the camaraderie that has came in this
mentor – protégé relationship. The
bottom line is that I need this kind of relationship in my life.

A second and very big reason
mentoring is on the rise, is due to the growing recognition and acknowledgment
of the tremendous relational vacuum in our individualistic society. We are beginning to realize that we are
relationally deficient. We are beginning
to realize that we need lasting relationships in our culture that are important
and meaningful.  Americans cling rigidly to their personal
independence, but God did not create us
for independence, but dependence upon on Him and interdependence with each other. We are not to be self sufficient and move
through life alone. Dr. Terry Wise, a professor I had at Trinity, at mentions a
study where six hundred leaders were surveyed and it found that each of these
leaders had three to ten significant people who help shape their lives. They got where they are because they had
help. The growing recognition for one’s
need for meaningful relationships can be a springboard for growth and
development.  This reason goes along
with what I mentioned in the first reason. I came from a large family, four brothers and four sisters, and have
been accustomed to being around people, and I loved it. As you get older and move away from your
family, I found myself looking for other people to fill in that gap which
mentally I thought I had lost, but hadn’t. Now as I am yet even older, I strive to draw closer to my family and
seek to enhance the family relationships with close, personal relationships.

Third, individuals are
discovering anew that almost all of the
training of the people in the Bible occurred in a mentoring context. Preaching and the acquisition of biblical truth is not enough to develop a
full Christ likeness. We not only gain facts
and knowledge in a mentoring context, but we also gain a way of life, an
attitude, and we get to see a personal example. Mentoring is not a new that fad that will disappear. It is based on the view that relationships
are important to God and the very basis for the living and learning of our faith. We need to realize that there is no such
thing as a “Lone ranger” Christian. When
we try walking this Christian life without any Christian friends, mentors, or protégés,
we will become very, very lonely and will not develop spiritually as we should. The old saying, “two heads are better than
one”, can stand true in this context. When someone, because they are driven by God’s love, will invest
themselves into the life of another for
the sake of the kingdom, God is honored and the individuals involved get a
little taste of heaven.