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Is mentoring the same as discipleship or is mentoring something totally different? A discussion on the meaning of mentoring will help us distinguish between these two terms.  The actual word mentor or mentoring is not found in the Bible.  This shouldn’t upset us, as we see that the word Trinity is not found in the Bible either.  However, the concept is.  Although mentor or mentoring is not found in the Bible, be sure that the mentoring process and concept is clearly  seen in the inspired pages of God’s word. 

The term disciple is found in the Bible. 
Mentoring is really  today’s definition of discipleship redefined.  We rarely use the term disciple today in the true biblical sense of the word.  The Greek word for disciple is mathetes. The verb form of this word occurs 25 times in the New Testament and only 6 times in the gospels.  The noun form however, occurs 264 times in the New Testament, exclusively in the gospels and Acts.  One of the primary hermeneutical principles of biblical interpretation is exegesis rather than isegesis.  In other words, it is invalid to read into and to apply to the first century text meanings from our culture and time.  Correct interpretation entails discovering what the context was like and what that word meant at the time it was written.  We have to ask ourselves what the biblical writers have in mind when they used the term mathetes.  What would someone who heard the word or read the word mathetes in the first century understand it to mean. 

That’s exegesis not isegesis.  In the ancient world mathetes, disciples, designated an apprentice or one who accompanied a teacher in order to learn from him.  In classical Greek, a man was called a mathetes or a disciple when he binds himself in order to acquire the practical and theoretical knowledge.  He may be an apprentice in a trade or a student of medicine or he may be a member of a philosophical school.  In the New Testament the term is used to indicate total attachment to someone in discipleship.  Jesus’ disciples did not assemble in a formal classroom, but in open fields and secluded places.  Jesus did not give his disciples interpretations of others, but he gave them his own divine words.  Jesus’ twelve disciples were  followers, learners, and pupils who accompanied him with a total attachment to the master to learn both  practical and theoretical knowledge.  By being with their master day in and day out, they heard him teach, they observed him in practice, and he helped them  in their daily application of learning. 

From this description, it sounds like Jesus was mentoring his disciples.  He was able to teach through modeling and sharing.  The disciple seemed to more like protégés rather than classroom students.  They were learning a way of life and not merely facts and figures.  It appears that Jesus mentored his twelve disciples.  In the a biblical framework, disciple is a close synonym for mentor and discipleship would be a close synonym for mentoring.  Since the term mentor or mentoring is not found in the Bible, the term disciple contains the concept of mentoring. 
If biblical discipleship is the same as mentoring, then why do we confuse it by adding another term like mentoring?  The term mentoring is used, because we rarely use the term disciple in it’s true biblical sense.  If the word mentor wasn’t around and everyone used the terms disciple and discipleship the way the Bible use these words, then there would be no confusion. 

In our culture the term discipleship has tended to focus on a very narrow segment of spirituality.  We think of discipleship as Bible study, scripture memorization, coming to Sunday School, and why we should join a church.  Discipleship in our culture is so completely void of the mentoring aspect.  When a church offers a discipleship class, what do they talk about and how do they teach?  Normally it’s offered on a Sunday morning as a Sunday School class and it lasts about one hour and usually there is one teacher that presents the knowledge.  This is not mentoring.   
A delineation and distinction  between disciple and mentor is helpful and necessary.  Mentoring involves much more than the narrow segment given to discipleship today.  Mentoring involves the development of the whole person.  It involves the shaping and molding people as wells as influencing people and shaping response patterns and attitudes and perspectives.  It involve acquiring new habits and enlarging one’s view of and hunger for God.