Mentoring: Companions on the Road

Training

One two-hour training session will be offered before you begin your meetings as a pair. It is best if both partners participate in the training together, but sometimes it may only be possible, or desirable, for one of the partners to receive training. If you have formed a mentoring pair with someone who is not a member of any church, or with a confirmand, you will probably attend the training alone.

If you are unable to attend a training session, you might use the training materials (Samples B and C) as the basis for several of your mentoring sessions. They help get at the basic mentoring relationship and at some of the spiritual issues in your faith journey.

Here you will find helps for structuring your time together--a format for your meetings followed by three models of mentoring sessions. These may help you get started on your own ideas for how to structure your time together.

Sample B: Training Session for Mentoring Pairs

GROWING IN CHRIST: A JOURNEY OF FAITH.

Our journey of faith begins in Baptism. As we continue to follow Jesus our journey to live our faith takes us into all walks of life. In each place we can see how this gift of faith develops in us. Our faith becomes a matter of the senses, the heart, the mind and the will.

Faith of the Senses: In our early years we mimic what we experience. Children may understand little of a worship service, but they see those around them pray and worship. They experience an awareness of the presence of God through the actions of others. The mystery of faith stays with them all their lives. Little ones learn to pray, not through the words, but by seeing others pray and sing. They imitate. Faith comes through the senses.

Faith of the Heart: Between the ages of seven and sixteen we learn to belong to and participate in a family of believers. We open ourselves to the songs, liturgies, arts, prayers, rhythms of the community. We hear and become a part of the story of our shared identity. That story has authority in our lives. So the stories of Israel, the Church and Jesus must be told and heard as ancestor stories. This is who we are. As ushers, acolytes, choir members, and many other ways our faith is nourished as we are given tasks to perform, given a piece of the action. This early faith of the heart is focused in the community. It is not yet one's own. It is, unfortunately, the level of faith of most adults in our churches. Their pilgrimage ends here, with some form of identification with the community.

The Parish Mentoring Program is an invitation to continue to grow and live this faith in all the circumstances of our life.

Faith of the Mind: Let's call this searching faith. This is a faith of commitment, of readiness to act in the world. It is a faith at home with questions, doubts, a willingness to live through the ambiguities of life. As our faith grows, we begin the painful process of carving out our identities. The church is not always at home with uncertainty, tension and doubt. We're always giving apologies to folks whose lives are being torn apart. Instead of taking them by the hand and going into the deep darkness as the Psalmist said where God is, we quickly want to get them back on the faith. Daily life is the place of great light and deep darkness, where God waits to join those willing to search and join their neighbor in the search.

Faith of the will: On the other side of the tension, doubt and questions of searching faith there is owned faith, a religion of the will. Here, by the power of the Spirit, we claim our baptismal identity. In that faith gift we can act, stand up to the world. We become possessed by faith. Mature Christian faith, nurtured on Sunday and lived on Monday, is the goal described in Ephesians, "growing to mature personhood, to the stature of the fullness of Christ."

Sample C: Training Session for Mentoring Pairs

OUT OF THE BOAT: MENTORS AND COMPANIONS IN THE FARM

"And Peter answered him, "Lord, if it is you, bid me come to you on the water." Jesus said, "Come." So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water." (Matthew 14:28-29)

God gives us people who increase our faith, give us support and guidance, and help us grow.

Some are:
Benefactors: They give us something when we need it. We may not know them well, but for a moment they touch our lives and deepen our spirit.
Models: These are people we admire (maybe from afar). They are great examples and we want to be like them.
Mentors: A mentor is someone who helps us become what we admire. A mentor is a teacher, one who demonstrates, admonishes, agitates, is intimately involved with us.
Colleagues: They are those few people with whom we share our ministry and our lives. A colleague is a true partner in the Gospel.

Write down an example of each of these mentioned above from the Scriptures. Think about your own life. Who has been a benefactor, model, mentor, colleague and why. Share in a small group.

We can think of Jesus in each of these roles:

Benefactor--to the thief on the cross or the many who were touched by his miracles;
Model--to Peter as he showed him what it meant to forgive, even one who betrayed;
Mentor--to the 12 in a three year training course;
Colleague--as the second person of the Trinity

Read Matthew 14:22-33, "Walking On Water"
In what ways is Jesus, your benefactor, model, mentor, and colleague, calling you to get out of the boat and take a risk of faith?
Write down some areas of your spiritual life you would like to explore with another person.
Write down some parts of Scripture you would like to explore with another person.
Write down some people in your life with whom you would like to be a companion on the spiritual journey.

End of "Pairs Booklet" - Back to the Mentoring Home Page

Written by: Stephen P. Bouman

Copyright © by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 8765 W. Higgins Road, Chicago, IL 60631. 800/638-3522. Produced by Christian Education of the Division for Congregational Ministries.

Permission is granted for congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to reproduce this resource for local use.