Is Your Minister a Mentor?

You could have been confirmed, gone to church for years and nobody would have noticed except that a leader got together with you and started mentoring. That kind of commitment developed a mooring for the kind of leadership I imagine for the church. See St. Stephen's United Church.

There are countless testimonials across The United Church of Canada of different variations of that same story. Whether in business, commerce, education, government, or the military, our church's history is full of people who now have a relationship with Christ because of the impact of others on their lives. In fact, not only has it happened in individual lives, we also need faithful modeling and effective mentoring to happen in our emerging church life.

This mark of leadership is also a hinge, the point of transition between the commitment already identified by showing up on Sunday morning and further marks of leadership yet to be explored by the laity. When it comes to leadership formation, people need more than a good sermon; people need to be apprenticed or mentored. The combination of mentoring and leadership development equals apprenticeship, which seems to be a lost art in my church today. Case in point: consider the characters in the Bible of Paul, Barnabas, and Timothy. One contributes to the building of our life, another who is a brother or sister to keep us accountable, and a younger person into whose life we can contribute. Each person in the pew needs a "Paul." Each of us needs a "Barnabas." Each of us needs a "Timothy."

The time has longed passed in The United Church when the laity needs power figures or authorized structures to access information. Leaders who are still operating within a hierarchical structure see their role as one of delegating and granting permission. Laypeople today have quick access to a staggering amount of information. Our young people who already function within a network empower and grant resources to those around them without trying to exert control. Controllers bring a mentality of suspicion and inhibit individuals from excercising initiative.

The task of the minister is to serve in a mentoring relationship of mutual accountability so that discernment may be exercised. A mentor identifies the true motivation of the person being mentored while providing wise counsel and spiritual support. The combination of unbridled access to information and diffuse boundaries of truth available from today's technology creates a tempting and potentially toxic environment in which our laity makes decisions about life. I have an eighteen and a twelve-year-old son at home who can find anything available in cyberspace. They can search MySpace, FaceBook, UTube, private chat rooms, weblogs - it's a big world getting closer and moving faster all the time. Just like a parent, the minister can help the laity make their decisions and to help carry the responsibility for the course of action to which they commit themselves.