Pastoral reflection on mentoring.

"Am I a good mentor?"
Someone asked this question during his visit to my place over the CNY. He was asking himself if he had been a good mentor to his boys.

What prompted him, to ask this question, was his dissatisfaction over some of the responses of his disciples.

My reflection over this question is as follow;
Expectation!
What has been the expected expectation from those he mentored?
Has this expectation been clearly defined and communicated?
Has a suitable culture and process been established to bring the expectation into reality? Or was it just an incidental approach to achieve an intentional goal?

Edmund Chan talked a lot about the certain kind of disciples. G12 spoke about G12 leaders; people who could multiple themselves 12x. Nav taught about 2 Tim 2:2.
Every one of the above did not stop at stating their end expectation. They developed a process and culture that would enhance their expectation to become a reality.
They commit EVERY resources within their disposal to ensure that the process and culture are properly established and refined over time.

Back to the question;
If there is no clear expectation, anything can also be considered as acceptable or otherwise.
If there is lack of commitment to the processes, than anything would be a bonus.

Some would raise the question about the lack of appropriate response from the disciples.
This could be resolved when we looked at Jesus and His experience. He had 4 categories of students ie core 3, group of 12, company of 72 and multitudes. And He had a Judas who betrayed Him, a Peter who denied Him, a Thomas who doubted Him, a team of 10 who left Him. By any count, Jesus would have been a failure in discipleship. But He was not. He came back to them, restored them and commissioned them afresh. Love never fails.

What does this mean for us today?
Identify who you have
Don’t expect the 72 to be as close as the 3.
Identify your present group where they are with you ie r they the core 3 or just
plain multitude?
Don’t be afraid to accept the fact that they are not your 3 nor 12.
Do give your best to raise the 3 and 12.
Challenge them to pursue their God given goals.
They must know God and God's dream in their lives
They must own their dream and pursue them.
Only when they own the dream, it will only be your doing in their lives.
The place of prayer and word life are very vital to their spirtual wellbeing; THERE IS NO SHORT CUT.
Accept their progress as your gift of worship to God.
Don’t lord over them.
Accept their progress, no matter how small, as your gift for God and not inflate ego.