Mentoring is in everyday life. It’s showing up at your student’s game, competition, play, concert, or other extra-curricular activities. It’s inviting them to be a part of your life with family dinners, running errands, hanging out in the office, setting up/ tearing down for events or activities, or anything else they can join you in doing. And of course, it is studying God’s Word together.
When I first started out in ministry, I was a little tunnel-visioned with what mentoring looked like. I had always put the focus on the discipleship part of studying the Word. I never realized that it was more until I interned with a student ministry that spent the summer reading and discussing The Be With Factor by Bo Boshers and Judson Poling with the staff.
This book totally changed my perspective on mentoring as I learned studying the Word together was only one aspect of it. It was so much more because it involves “‘being-with’ in daily life.”(The Be With Factor, page 21) This made complete sense because Jesus set the mentoring example for us as He took along the twelve disciples on his three-year journey to the cross. He taught them with His words, and actions; always taking advantage of the teachable moments with them.
It was not a huge shift in my schedule to do life with my girls who I was mentoring because I was really already doing it without knowing. Going to concerts, plays, performances, games, and competitions was already something I was doing. Being single I was already inviting them to lunch and dinner or on occasion eating with their families. So, all I did was start to look for other ways to invite them into my life – shopping, running errands, working with me in the office, planning and preparing for events, and my personal favorite, going shopping for a student ministry event; there is always more of an adventure and lots of laughs when shopping.
