Dear friend, welcome back to the mentorship course.
Mentoring here at Setting Captives Free is a challenging job but not an overly complicated one. In short, people come to us with problems and we point them to Jesus. They come to us with their burden of sin, and we point them to the cross where Jesus removed their burden. It is very straightforward. We just give them Jesus. We tell them how we, ourselves are washing at the cross, walking by the Spirit and warring against our flesh with the specific plan God is giving us.
Each of us has our own way of pointing people to Jesus, but there are some basic guidelines for doing it here at Setting Captives Free.
Some key elements to mentoring are:
Share some of your own story with the student
Give your students the gospel
Pray the Scriptures for your students
The idea here is that you will do all three of these things spread throughout the student's lesson. Let's talk about each one:
First, share some of your story.
In 1 Timothy 1, Paul shares his story with Timothy, and he states the reason why he does so in verse 16:
1 Timothy 1:16 NIV But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.
Likewise, we should share some of our own story with the same intent - that of giving hope to those who will hear or read it. We also share our story so that we might be humble before our students. We want them to know that they are not alone in their struggles and that we understand what it is like to be caught in a sin trap and then to be set free by Jesus.
We want our students to know we are not experts but rather fellow brothers and sisters to whom Jesus has revealed Himself. It shows humility for us to share parts of our story, to identify with our students and to let them know we struggle too and are being transformed as we look at Jesus.
Along with sharing our story, we should be asking the student to share his or hers. We need to become good listeners, really hearing the hearts of our students and drawing out the motivations of their hearts. "The purposes of a person's heart are deep waters, but one who has insight draws them out" (Proverbs 20:5). We want to connect the gospel story with our student's story, in wise and caring ways.
In every lesson, you will be sharing a short part of your own story, struggles, etc. with your students. You might begin with, "Oh, yes, I identify with what you said here, I too have struggled..." or "That's a good point, Mary, I was like that too..." or something along those lines.
We point our students to Christ but we also show them how we’re learning to wash at the cross, and what that means to us, personally. We are learning to walk by the Spirit, and how He changes how we live. We are learning to war against the flesh rather than just give into its cravings and yearnings.
Question 1. What value can you see in sharing parts of your story and identifying with your students?
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