Pastor's Notes: How To Mentor Someone

In this episode, Mike Glenn, president of the Engage Church Network, dives into the heart of leadership development within the local church. Drawing from biblical models and personal experience, Mike lays out a practical and prayer-driven path for identifying, discipling, and sending out the next generation of church leaders.

• Transcript

  Mike Glenn: Hi, I'm Mike Glenn, president of the Engaged Church Network, and one of the things that we want to do is to work with churches in identifying, training, and then releasing for ministry those people that are in your congregations that are called and gifted to lead local churches. Now, we talk about every Paul makes a Timothy, and we love that, that language, but when you actually start thinking about it, how do you do that?

  Well, actually, you begin by praying. Jesus, one time when He stopped to [00:01:00] look at the crowd that was following Him, became overcome with compassion, and He turned to His disciples and said ... You would think He would say, "Go be evangelistic. Go take care of the people." He doesn't. He says, "Pray. Pray to the Lord of the harvest that he'll send workers to the field."

  One of the things that we don't do is we don't pray for God to identify those people in hi- in whom life He's working. Who are those people? Who are those young men, those young women that God has already began to work in, and will He reveal that to us as pastors of our congregations? So the first thing you do is you pray and you begin to look in your prayer for those people that God is singling out.

  Now, be careful that you don't always look for the best leader, okay? Uh, we always, in our worldliness and in our humanity, we always choose the wrong type of [00:02:00] leader. Now, let's be careful when we choose a leader, okay? Uh, in our humanity and our worldliness, we always choose the best leader. We always choose Saul when God is working in David's life.

  So be careful that you don't do what everybody expects, but you look for the person that the Spirit is affirming. Begin to spend time with that person. Talk to them about their lives, their dreams, their hopes, their, their journey to this point, and ask them what they're thinking about their future, and do they see a future in serving the local church, serving in some kind of ministry role?

  and being part of what God is doing in his world. Talk about their giftedness. How do their gifts align with, um, whatever the calling would be? One of the things that makes gifts hard to, to, to understand is they're, they come naturally to the person. And because they come naturally to the person, we don't recognize them.

  We- that's just something we [00:03:00] do They're not recognized as a gift until somebody, a pastor, a Sunday school teacher, an elder, or deacon says, "You're good at this. You need to pay attention to this. I saw the way you spoke to, uh, your small group. I saw the way you led that Bible study. You're good at this. You need to pay attention to what God is doing in your life."

  And if you get that affirmed, if you sense that God's working in this person's life, they tell you that God is working in their life, then take them on an intentional journey to prepare them for their service. That means real serious discipleship, uh, beyond memorizing the four Gospels. I mean, the, the, the, the salvation history that's revealed in Scripture, how Jesus did his own ministry, how Paul did his ministry, and how Paul explained how ministry works in his letters.

  All of that and so much more. This is a lifelong journey, but begin the process in this person's life. [00:04:00] Next, give them a small place to explore. Now, notice before Jesus gave his disciples the Great Commissions, he gave them small assignments. "Go out, do this, preach, come back. Go out, do this, preach, come back."

  He would do it more than once. "Go out, come back, and let's sit down and talk about what you've learned." So let them preach, uh, a Wednesday night prayer service. Let them lead a, a Bible study. L- let them preach at a nearby church, uh, that needs a speaker. Uh, let them lead a certain thing in the congregation.

  Let them do what you see God doing in them and God calling them to do for the rest of their life. And lastly, be prepared to send them out. These children that we're growing up into adults, these called disciples that we are training to be leaders don't belong to us. Now, you get attached, I will admit, and you want to [00:05:00] keep all of the folks that you're training close to you, but that's not the job.

  We're training people to serve in the Kingdom of God, and they serve wherever God will send them. So be prepared to send them out. But when you send them, send them out under your cover. Let them know you're always here. Check on them, call them. Let them know that they're never by themselves in this lonely world that we call ministry.

  Every Paul makes a Timothy, so start praying now. And when the Lord points that person out, get into their lives and start training them for the leadership that God's calling them to do, and then send them out. You'll be part of a large number of people whose most important ministry was found when they trained another minister.

  I'm Mike Glenn. This is Engage Church Network. Thanks for being part of it.

  [00:06:00] Thanks for tuning in to the Engage Church Network podcast. We exist to train healthy and skilled leaders for congregations throughout Middle Tennessee. If today's episode helped you, share it with a fellow leader, and don't forget to visit engagechurchnetwork.com for more ways to grow.