Importance of Mentors

This weekend served as a good reminder to me of the value of mentors in the lives of students. For the past 8+ years, we have made small groups a primary part of our student ministry. We connect students with adults who will meet with them on a regular basis to build relationships, to study God’s Word and to create a safe place to share both the trials and triumphs in life. This weekend, we experienced a couple of “wins” that reinforced the value of that.

I am learning the importance of celebrating the wins. We tend to focus on what’s not right or what didn’t work and there is value in pointing out when good things happen. Also, with the nature of small groups and student ministry in general, you don’t normally see fruit or results until later down the road.

This weekend one of our junior high boys small groups made an effort to invite and include another guy in their group. They saw the guy at church, invited him to come to small group, made sure they knew where he needed to meet and he showed up! While they were encouraged by their small group leader, the students made the invitation.

Another of our groups – a 6th grade boys group – just completed a challenge put forth by their leaders. Each boy was given a certain amount of money to invest into a kingdom project. Each boy was given the freedom to choose where to use that money. I just received a report from the leaders about what each boy did. That’s a win!

Then, this morning, on my way into the office, I was listening to the Catalyst Podcast. One of the interviews was with Josh Shipp, who leads a mentoring ministry.

He said the biggest problem our students face today is a lack of Christian, caring adults involved in their lives. He then shared these two statistics. Students who have a caring adult who is not mom or dad in their lives are 50% more likely to succeed and 50% more likely to stay away from things that are destructive. What he shared just continued to point to the importance of involving caring, Christian adults into the lives of our students.

The entire interview is a good as Josh shares his story of how mentors in his life made a huge impact on him. (The Mandisa interview which preceded his is good, too.). Check it out on the Catalyst website.

I’m so grateful for the adult leaders who have been (and still are) are a part of my own children’s lives and for the small group leaders that lead in our ministry. They are making a difference.

Good to Great

One thing my wife enjoys doing when we are running errands is to visit a Goodwill store. Now, she has hooked me on it as well. In the past couple of visits I have picked up some nice, inexpensive dress shirts. The other thing I enjoy doing at Goodwill is looking at their books. You can get a good hardcover book for just under $2. Several weeks ago I saw a copy of Good to Great for just $1.99 and I couldn’t pass it up.

Good to Great by Jim Collins has sold over one million copies and has been read by many people in the business world. As I was picking it up I knew I was way behind the curve (it was published back in 2001).

While this is written about companies in the business world, there were several principles in the book that apply to all organizations, including the church.

The first principles is the Level 5 Leader. I listen to the Catalyst podcast and they continually use the phrase Level 5 Leader. Leadership plays a huge part in any organization being successful and Collins talks about that from the very beginning of the book. He identified several people who were able to lead their companies to be great and spelled out characteristics they modeled.

Another principle from the book was “First Who, Then What.” What Collins’ research team discovered was the great companies focused first on getting the right people in place, then zeroed on what they wanted to do. Some companies he highlighted hired people who were believed to be the right people before the company knew exactly what its main focus was going to be. The people in an organization are so valuable and Collins showed how it was important to start with the people first rather than some great business strategy.

I’m sure many people have already read Good to Great and know about the principles Collins identifies. If you lead on any level in any organization and haven’t read it, it would be worth your time (especially if you find it on the rack at Goodwill!)