I recently read these two blog entries from Chuck Swindoll’s blog on mentoring. They were very challenging. Below are a few excerpts and as you read them, ask yourself:
1. Is the sports ministry at my church a multiplying ministry? Is there one-on-one mentoring or small group mentoring taking place?
2. Am I, as a sports ministry leader, currently engaged in mentoring? Am I modeling what I would like other leaders, volunteers, and coaches to be doing?
You probably have never considered the Great Commission as part of what makes a church contagious. The command to “make disciples” has two parts. The first, “baptizing them,” assumes that we’ll share our faith with the lost. The second, “teaching them to observe,” directs us to share our lives of faith with those who have believed in Jesus. Looking at the second chapter of Paul’s final letter to Timothy, we see the practical outworking of how the Lord intends this “teaching” to occur:
“The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” (2 Timothy 2:2)
This verse offers us a practical principle: Churches that are contagious faithfully mentor those who are coming along in the Christian life. The verb that gives us this direction is “entrust.” The term literally means, “to deposit as a trust.” I like that image. We invest the truth like a trust in the lives of others. It is a valuable message that we pass along to others.
A church as God intends it is not a gathering of people who sit back and listen to one person preach. Instead, one life touches the life of another, who then touches the lives of people in his or her sphere of influence—those whom the originator would never have known. To make it even more exciting, those recipients, in turn, touch the lives of others also. That is a contagious ministry.
One of my mentors, Dr. Howard Hendricks, says that every Christian needs at least three individuals in his or her life. We need someone who has come before us who mentors us. We need another beside us who shares our burden. And we need someone beyond us whom we’re mentoring.
