Last week I wrote about peer mentors, this week we will discuss downward mentors. Downward mentoring is when you are depositing into others, be it one-on-one or to a group, periodically or aperiodically. This could be as simple as meeting with a young person who needs some guidance in discerning the Lord’s will or allowing someone to shadow you to learn a new skill. In essence, what you have learned you are pouring into others or at least pointing them in the right direction.
For a mentor, this does two things. First, you are blessing the next generation of leaders, pastors, missionaries, parents, teachers, prayer warriors…you get the picture. Right now I’m downward mentoring into a number of different people. There are a number of students at the college who periodically come into my office to discuss what they’re going through and I try to give them some wisdom. I meet one-on-one with a number of different young men who desire to be pastors. When I teach a class, I’m mentoring those students in my class. During this season of my life I’m teaching classes on discovering God’s will in a person’s life, particularly his/her destiny. Once the student gets an understanding of the direction God is pointing towards, it gives me an idea on how to mentor this student.
Second, mentoring the next generation provides a type of accountability that causes you to be strong in the Lord because those you mentor are watching you. As you go through trials and decision-making situations, those you mentor will watch how you respond. Additionally, you will be challenged to walk the walk that you are challenging others to walk. Knowing that I will be meeting with people throughout the week keeps me humble before the Lord. This, in essence, is how those I am pouring into are mentoring me – they keep me accountable.
Is mentoring scary? It sure is because I know that others are watching what I do. If I mess up, it will affect a lot of people. That’s why I engage in certain disciplines and enhancements to make sure I continue well in order to finish well. My goal isn’t to not mess up…it’s to stay close and intimate with the Lord. If I’m doing well with the Lord, then I know my lifestyle will be okay and I’ll be a good mentor to others.
But here’s the scarier part. If I don’t mentor others I become a bottleneck of Christianity. Imagine where the church would be if Jesus did not mentor his disciples. Imagine what would have happened to the spread of Christianity if Barnabas did not take a step of faith to mentor Paul. The Lord has blessed you to be a blessing. One of the things Solomon failed to do was to mentor his son Rehoboam in the area of wisdom. The wisest man on earth fails to teach his son wisdom. Thus when Rehoboam is given the option to listen to the elders or to listen to his peers, he choses the advice of his peers and tears the nation of Israel into two.
Not too long ago I saw a brother who is helping to plant a church and has been given an opportunity to teach. He said the Lord told him he needed to do this because he was getting spiritually fat – a lot of receiving but not a lot of giving. Are you spiritually fat or are you spiritually fit? What you have learned does not stop with you, it is to be deposited into others.
Questions to Think About:
How are you investing into the next generation?
Are you periodically meeting with others so that you don’t become the bottleneck of Christianity?
© Gary Lau 2013
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