The Mentoring Project – Recruiting 10,000 Mentors Through 1,000 Churches.

We’ll send you one free book for every $10 pledge you make between now and Christmas. When you give $10 per month, or more, we will mail you (immediately) an autographed copy of Jazz Notes, the special, gift-edition of Blue Like Jazz. This book was put together in coordination with the people at Hallmark, and contains a CD with one Don’s lectures, along with outtakes from Don recording the audio version of the book. In addition, this 140 page book contains an interview with Don five years after Blue Like Jazz hit the shelf. How had life changed in that five years, and since the book sold more than a million copies?

Campus Crusade For Christ’s program, “Athletes in Action”, sponsored a website about Coach Dungy and Coach Smith (www.beyondtheultimate.org). It is very well done, and tells their stories about what has made God #1 in their lives. If you are gearing up to give a club talk this week, you made find some great stuff to use. There is even some video!

There is something about hearing other people’s stories that helps us to see Christ in a new way, in a way that makes Him more real. And it is amazing how often our own stories change. So today, take a few minutes to think about what God has brought you through and where He is leading you. Then, take a few more minutes to share your story with someone else. By doing this, you will be able to help someone see Christ in a new way.

He asked the middle schoolers which careers appealed to them most: President of Harvard or Yale; the CEO of a big company like General Motors; a U.S. Senator; a Navy SEAL; and an assistant to a celebrity. Not a celebrity, but an assistant. … overall among boys and girls, celebrity assistant was in first place.

Full article here. Time Magazine will also have a cover story about the books findings.

Along those lines, this morning as I was preparing for a meeting with a friend I’m mentoring, I was reading my Wild At Heart Field Manual.  In it, John Eldredge suggests that we do a few things each week in preparation for each chapter.  Here’s what I’m supposed to do this week.

• Re-read chapter 3.
• Watch Legends of the Fall
• Stand buck naked in front of a mirror for ten minutes.

I kid you not.  Now, I think it’s important to evaluate ourselves, but that might just be going a little overboard, not to mention possibly making me puke.

Here’s a question…

I’m sure we all agree that serving others is not only a good thing but central to following Jesus. But what about using it as an outreach tool? Not to the people we are serving, but to the people we are serving with.Could we use service in our relational ministry to the un-churched, un-saved kids we hang with in our schools? I’m not talking about having saved kids do work crew; I’m thinking kids who don’t already have a relationship with Christ. I’ll let my pesky habit break loose here.

Could we successfully use service to give kids a picture of the kingdom they are invited into? Is this something worth trying out? Is so, what would it look like? If not, why? Would the un-churched kids be interested in doing that with their leaders? Could their leaders get them interested in doing that?

Thoughts?

Here’s a website with some good stuff about mentoring.

We started meeting before school every Thursday morning to do some mentoring/discipleship.  About the third week into our meetings, we talked about quiet times.  Turns out, he has a really difficult time knowing what to do when he sits down to spend some time with God.  It actually has made him not make them a priority, because (these are my words) it almost seems like a waste of time to him.

That got me thinking about our other kids.  How are we leading our Campaigner kids in the most basic Christian discipline, spending some alone time with God?  They don’t know how to pray, they don’t know what to read, and I realized I haven’t done a good job of leading them.

I decided to model quiet times for him, so that’s what we did for the next few weeks.  We sat at Denny’s and had quiet times together.  I also told him what I had done in my quiet time that morning, what I had read and what I had prayed about. 

I think it’s also important to give them some sort of structure for their quiet time.  Let them know God is not interested in the structure, but that it gives them a starting place from which to build their own quiet time routine.

Think about how uncomfortable it is to just sit next to someone with nothing to say, especially if you just met that person.  It’s the same with our relationship with Christ.  We need to have something to do together, at least at the beginning.  There is of course something to be said of those who reach a point in a relationship where just being together is bliss, but for those in a new relationship, we need to teach them some structure.

Here’s what I taught my friend.

1. Pray that God would teach you something while you read the Bible.
2. Pick a book of the Bible you will read consistently.  I talked to my friend about books that appeal more to the heart and books that appeal more to the head.  For instance, I love Proverbs, because I like thinking about wisdom and how to live.  My friend is more sensitive and prefers to read Psalms.  It would be a good idea to lead new Christians to one of the gospels, but don’t shy away from the chance to explain different books of the Bible.
3. Read a chapter.
4. Ask.  What is God trying to teach?  Why did He put this passage in the Bible?  How should this affect my relationship with God?  How should it affect the way I live?
5. Pray the scripture back to God.
6. Spend time praying for others.
7. Pray for yourself.

Incidently, I know a lot of leaders don’t have consistent quiet time, either.  So let me encourage you to do that.  It’s impossible to lead our kids in their relationship if we are not spending time getting to know Christ better ourselves.

Resources…

Gocampus.org – Quiet Times
All About God – Quiet Times – An Appointment
Myquiettimes.com – Ideas for Your Devotional Times
Time With Jesus – A little corny (and centered), but an example of someone who really values their time with Christ.

My Utmost for His Highest: Orange Cover (My Utmost for His Highest)