Thank you for this post. I am the president of our struggling women's group at church. In approximately 18 months, I expect to be leaving and going to seminary. I have been very concerned about raising up leadership for the group. This just may be a way.

Many thanks and God bless.

Do you have any samples of the information profiles? I'm interested in hearing about how the ministry came together. Did you look for mentors first and train them? Or did you just start by finding mentors and mentees at the same time? We are currently praying about the possibility of a mentoring ministry for women and I'm trying to get some ideas. Thanks for this.

God Bless.

Good bless you! I’m very interested in receiving details on how the program works and the techniques in running the mentoring process. Is this only a group mentoring during the once a month meeting or also an individual mentoring? I love mentoring myself however it’ll be more effective if a group with same passion have instruction on how to do it? I would love to know how I works?
Thanks so much and Blessings

Mentoring is so vital, especially as women are less connected to older family members and move from community to community. I crave a mentor for myself, but I've never been in a church with a mentoring program (and I'm shy about just asking someone!) - so I am working to get something started in my current church. And simple is good because we are a new church (1 yr old) and everyone is doing everything! Here's a thought: this forum is for leaders, but how many moms - esp. stay-at-home moms - would just love to have another, older mom mentor them? Sure, it's not leading a group, but boy oh boy are they leading with their lifestyle! (As a SAHM myself I say AMEN to this!!)

I was momentarily encouraged when I saw the excerpt on mentoring, but was surprised and saddened when I came to the part where it says "our goal is not intense Bible study but meeting for encouragement." What a waste of opportunity. An older woman mentored me for 5 years and her format was an indepth Bible study and its relevant application to my everday life. I can attest that there was absolutely nothing more encouraging than discovering that God was speaking directly to me, everyday, not only through his word, but also through the people around me, books I happened upon, television programs, nature, etc.-- and I would'nt have realized any of it without the deep, thoughtful study of his word.

The really sad possibility is that there are very few older women who know how to study their own Bibles, and therefore do not have the knowledge and expertise to shepherd another. Life experience is in no way a substitute for spiritual knowledge.

I'm beginning to think that the way we do 'church' looks nothing like the vision Christ has for us, or even remotely resembles the plan he so clearly outlined for us in his word. For example; Titus 2 does'nt suggest that the older women should maybe think about sacrificing a part of their lives and careers to get together with 1 or 2 younger women for an occasional encouragment session. It's a definite mandate, not a "let's see if we can fit this in" idea. In short, it's a picture of how we can make things actually work.

The problem with most of our churches boils down to relationships. In fact, the entire Christian life is about relationships--it's the reason Christ died for us--but when you look at most christians in most churches, you will find that it's all about power, politics, money, self-promotion, hierarchy, the 'mission statement', programs, and other essentially meaningless endeavors. Relationships are neither valued nor fostered.

Mentoring is a way to promote the Gospel of Christ, the love of Christ, and the knowledge he so desperately wants us to learn. It also provides a picture of how the entire church body should function, from the senior pastors to the custiodial staff. In fact, it would be a good idea to have the pastor mentor the janitor--or vice versa! Please don't water down this vitally important ministry to a mere social encounter.

Several women at our church are seeking ways to strengthen our struggling women's mentoring program. Specifically, I'm looking for ideas/topics/activities for encouraging the mentors at our meetings. Typically, we mentors meets about every 4 months. Any ideas?

I have a suggestion for Doreen and her mentoring group. . . as a long'time church veteran and sometime leader, I heartily suggest that you all go out together, catch a movie, eat pizza and get tattoos. :>)

Well said sister Linda. Do you think I could sign up? I've always wanted a tattoo.

As for you Doreen, it might be helpful if you figured out why the group is struggling in the first place. I've seen quite a few of the 'canned' variety mentoring programs offered, and have also watched many of them fail. Would you like to know why they don't work? (I actually feel a little stupid having to say this) Mentoring is not a program, it's a relationship. It can't be forced, it can't be organized, it's a byproduct for heaven's sake, not a marketable commodity! I'm sorry, I get carried away sometimes. (I think I may have a serious case of spiritual PTSD) What I meant to say is that when your church is hungering and thirsting after righteouness and you have a Godly, qualified, pastor who is teaching you, mentoring occurs naturally --without the necessity of a visual aid package from associated press.

On the other hand, if your church community is a spiritual wasteland; you need to pray and ask God to send you an older, wiser, woman of God to teach you about him. Newsflash! He's not gonna say no. (Although He might send you off to a different church.)

If you're serious about mentoring, I have a little index card that tells you everything you need to know to get started--no program and no meetings. (tattoos optional)

marilyn

Wow this is great. I guess in some circles I would be considered the younger woman,it's nice to think that even Older Season Godly Women discuss ways to reach out to us, the need is so great especially now with the divorce rate, pervasive immorality and the like... we need our Mothers or should I say Godly Seasoned Women. Thank you for discussing us, caring about us, loving us, wanting to reach out to us,I'm afraid that this need for mentoring is at an all time high. We have so much to learn and so much love to get. Oh well,continue the work that you are doing, and know that your labor is not in vain. Remember Each One can Reach One.

Thank you

Hi,

Where can emerging women leaders get a mentor from in the UK? I have sought for many years without success and now am in an assistant pastor role, but still don't have a mentor. Men often feel uncomfortable mentoring women, though have supported from a distance.

There are so few women of mature leadership experience and mature faith who could act in this role developing and growing leaders within the church. I have leadership experience in the secular world.

I have had a strong faith and desire to serve God for over 30 years though I came to strong faith whilst very young. I have done the looking round for women I admire, but sadly can't think of any who would be in a position to mentor me.

I have started to mentor women in my Church who show leadership potential, but still struggle to find someone myself.

This must be a problem for many emeging women.

What can be done?

Maybe this will help: Our 4-year-old church is taking steps to intentionally nurture an environment that will make Titus 2 relationships a natural byproduct of a maturing faith walk. The first step is equipping women so that they can confidently and accurately handle the Word, our best mentoring resource. We're studying Proverbs topically as a “mentoring manual” to pass along the essence of a gospel-filled life to the next generation. And - we begin each study focusing on the attributes of God, whose life is to be lived out through us. (Only a high view of God will produce women of strong faith.) We're praying that out of this inter-generational study will come on-going mentoring relationships. Then, as other thirsty women see this life-giving water being passed along, they will say, "I want somma that!"

We have felt for some time now that we were being called to start something exactly like what you are talking about. Do you have any books that we should use to get started or any ideas that we could study prior to getting started. We truly feel like the women in our church need mentoring, an accountability release, a way to unload, talk, fellowship....
We would appreciate any insight you would be willing to share with us.
Thank you! Brenda and Lisa

We have felt for some time now that we were being called to start something exactly like what you are talking about. Do you have any books that we should use to get started or any ideas that we could study prior to getting started. We truly feel like the women in our church need mentoring, an accountability release, a way to unload, talk, fellowship....
We would appreciate any insight you would be willing to share with us.
Thank you! Brenda and Lisa

Our church has a large group of young moms who were seeking mentors in their lives. We set out to find a model of a program that would help facilitate matching young women with older, seasoned Christian women, only to find that many existing models were too canned for our needs and had been tried by our church in the past without success.

After much research, we decided to begin a ministry where women were simply made aware of the call for women to fulfill the Titus model, recognizing that we are influencing women every day and that we must be intentional about our encounters with women of every age within the church, looking for opportunities to reach out and avail ourselves to women who are seeking to make connections with women who are at a different stage in life and could offer council and encouragement.

We offer coffees three to four times a year, where women gather to connect and get to know one another, and we emphasize the call to fulfill the mentoring role within and outside of the church. We have older women who have expressed a commitment and desire to mentor, share their life stories, the difficulties they’ve experienced, the life lessons they’ve learned through those experiences and how God worked through the good times and the difficult. We use games which allow circles of women to share about themselves and fun mixers get things going. Many older women interested in reaching out to younger women, attended the coffees and enjoyed the chance to connect with other women. A few younger women attended.

We based our philosophy for the program on Carol Kent’s book, “Becoming a Woman of Influence” and met for a Bible/book study once a month as a kind of training or preparation and inspiration for mentoring, and the interest was great, but the group rarely drew in the young women who expressed a desire to be mentored.

We also have scheduled activities once a month, which are strictly for fun and allow for women to just let down their hair and be themselves with each other. We hoped this would be an easy way for younger and older women to get to know one another. Through these efforts, we hoped that women would be able to naturally form the mentoring relationships we talked about at the mentoring coffees and the study, but still, the younger women do not show an interest or the ability to make it to these activities.

We are in the process of re-evaluating the format, and may continue to meet and encourage awareness of our call to mentor and positively influence women in our lives, but we also realize that something is not working with our ministry model, and women are not taking advantage of the opportunity to meet and get connected with women who are open and ready to come along side women who desire mentors in their lives.

Any insight as to how to make this more effective? We are planning to do a mail-in survey to see what younger women are thinking about the existing ministry and how we may improve the interest and involvement by the younger group expressing a need.