Tools for Mentoring: the Product of a Mentor’s Search

Lisa came into my life in the fall, and sometime that winter she let Jesus come into hers. We started setting aside a specific meeting each week so that I could teach her how to run life’s race successfully with Jesus.

While preparing for our times together, I asked myself, “What have I learned about Jesus that works for me? What freed me from the attitudes of my heart and ghosts from the past that entangled me?”

In my search for effective discipleship materials, I asked college students and friends the same questions I was asking myself. I looked through Winkie Pratney’s Youth Aflame to see what he thought was important. From these sources, I compiled a list of nineteen areas that I believe every Christian ought to work through in order to run life’s race unhindered. That list became the basis of what Lisa and I worked through together, and the basis of Tools for Mentoring.

When Lisa and I met together, I planned a subject to study together. Often, however, she came with her own questions: “What did Christ teach about getting along with an unfair supervisor? How do I stop sinning; how do I change? How do I order my time around my new priorities like prayer; what are my priorities as a Christian?”

If I didn’t have my files with me, or couldn’t remember where the Bible treated these issues, I stumbled around trying to do my best with her teachable moment. Going back to the subject later wasn’t quite the same. I needed a resource that could accommodate the need of the moment with ready-to-access Biblical truths. Therefore, I put the nineteen subjects into a quick reference format that works in real-life mentoring relationships as well as the dynamics of small groups. The applied studies develop trustworthy character, healthy relationships, and biblical priorities. The biblical truths along with the power of the Holy Spirit enable people to run life’s race unencumbered.

Joy Schroeder
Chi Alpha campus pastor at Montana State University