Mentoring and memories

Mentoring
Today was the first day of teaching classes. What a great time. I taught three sociology of American youth classes. The topic of the day was mentoring, which I loved the fact that I was able to share about mentoring. Some of the main points:

Mentoring is a new experience for most. Mentoring is not something that has been modeled by older generations. This is an area of ministry that current generations have been lacking. There have been no healthy examples of mentoring. Ministry seems to be especially "self" focused. It is not an excuse to not mentor others if you have not been mentored yourself. Mentoring has to be a value, even if it hasn't been valued by others before you.

Society is mentoring: the Donald, P. Diddy, Eminem... if we don't they will.

Mentoring is reproducing your life in someone else. The good and bad are reproduced. You cannot reproduce what you don't have.

Mentoring WILL hurt. On the flip side, mentoring WILL be the most rewarding thing you've ever done.

Push through the pain to the point of growth. Be willing to deal with the tough stuff. Care enough to give "real-time" feedback.

You won't have all the answers. Mentoring is not about being some "Plato" philosopher, it is about being willing to go through life together.

Memories
I had the opportunity to visit with the senior pastor of the church that I did my internship at. It was great to get to visit with him and see how well they are doing. It is amazing that it was almost 10 years ago that I was doing my internship and getting ready to get married. I remember, as interns, Alan and I making a "paintball" video dipping tennis balls in cans of paint and throw them at each other... walking out of the cableguy and getting our money back... hangin out at the Mall of America. It has been fun to remember all of the good times associated with Minneapolis and NCU. I remember our first apartment and the crazy landlord (early morning phone calls). I remember the good life in Minnetonka. It was so much fun starting married life here. Glenda, you are the BEST! It has also been great to have God remind me of some dreams of ministry. It is fun to see the pure dream of ministry again. It is so easy to get jaded and hurt as you enter the "church-world". College is such a little world of it's own, a safe place to dream and believe that ministry will be great. I believe that it can be great again. I am so glad to begin to close this last chapter of ministry; I am also excited to start a new chapter. God's ways are higher. I want to live in those ways.