Mentoring Companionship

We may have learned a great deal by attending classes or seminars, gaining much knowledge by reading books, and developing our thinking through interactions with experts in various fields, but most of the time in ministry, we simply need someone with whom we can pray, someone we can rely on in sharing our burdens, a friend we can trust as an accountability partner, a companion who can track exactly where we are. Such a reliable person undoubtedly may also serve as our mentor in time of need. Right at the crucial moment in the most critical time, God often speaks to us through His word, our family, companions, special occasion or events, and visions to direct our paths.

Trials and temptations often come all of a sudden without our invitation. The most difficult situation is when we are alone without companionship, and are emotionally, mentally, and spiritually not in good shape to face these challenges. Sustaining each other for victory over trials and temptations is the vital role of mentoring companions in mentoring each other. It is highly risky for leaders to be alone and unapproachable. Whenever praise and honor dominate the hearts of leaders and the joy of experiencing God’s blessings has been replaced by pride, soon or later leaders may drift away from their vital relationship with God. When leaders are connected to one another to exhort, encourage, pray, admonish, and mentor each other, they will become more effective and fruitful in ministry.

Apart from the various profound definitions of the word leadership, I am convinced that leadership is about serving. Mentoring is Coming Alongside to Strengthen Each Other. In mentoring each other, mentors and mentees together must put their trust in God, strengthen each other in faith, and rest in His promise. Regardless of position and gender, they could probably be pastors, partners in ministry, elders or deacons of the church, members of our peer group, retired leaders, ordinary persons from the congregation, or anyone included among our family members or close relatives. To start a relational-based mentoring companionship, we need to meet our pairing mentors and mentees whom we can trust and to be connected with them.

To sum up the important task in mentoring companionship, there are two urgencies that make it so challenging. First is our primary concern about being leaders, serving as leaders, living as leaders, and the ongoing process of becoming leaders. We are warned from the word of God to pay close attention to our lives and our teaching, for by so doing we will save ourselves and others who hear us (1 Timothy 4:16). What we need to obtain in ministry has actually nothing much to do with the system, methodology, and principles of mentoring, but something to do with the leaders’ lives. Second, we have a short time span in which to serve and we probably have run out of time, yet haven’t done much toward the accomplishment of the task. Moreover, living in such a rapidly changing society with all the positive and negative impacts today requires well-equipped and well-prepared leaders to carry out the Lord’s mission. Furthermore, there are indispensable needs to meet in ministry, so much pressure and stress that causes us to be unable to focus our heart to serve God and apparently can lead us to risk missing our goal. The tight schedules in ministry often even cause us to fail to practice training ourselves in godliness (1 Timothy 4:7). Most importantly, we have so little time left and so many things to do. We are reminded to make the most of our time, because our days are evil (Ephesians 5: 15-20). In short, we all have internal and external struggles in today’s time-constrained and challenging ministries. We certainly could not accomplish our mission by ourselves. We need companions!