Ministry Matters: More on Mentoring

Last week, I shared about the mentoring program we’ve used at our church. Since then, multiple women have emailed asking follow up questions. I’ll try to cover the main questions I’ve received.

1. What training guide do you use for your mentors?

We don’t have a specific guide that we use, but Susan Hunt’s book Spiritual Mothering helped develop the philosophy behind our mentoring program. I’ve put together a mentor leader’s guide that I use in our training. I’m sharing it here as a PDF. It contains some of the materials we use in our training. It has the outline of the talk I give, an explanation of well-balanced discipleship, the “Sharing Your Story” form that we use for our first mentor meetings, and a “Setting Expectations” guide to help the mentor and disciple group consider their responsibilities to one another. Here’s the guide: Mentor Leader’s Guide

2. How do you choose mentoring curriculum?

We use mentoring groups as an opportunity to focus on topics of interests, so typically we haven’t used Bible studies for these groups. We first work together with the leaders, asking if they have a book they’d like to use in their mentor group. Some might have an idea of what they’d like to study, but often are looking for book recommendations. We use a wide variety of books, but they are generally set up so that it makes it easy for the mentor to guide the group in three ways:

They’re usually between 8–12 chapters. This makes it easier for leaders to divide up the material well.
They often have questions at the end of the chapters for group discussion.
The chapters have enough thoughtful material in them to generate helpful discussion. The book/topic needs to be “meaty” enough to discuss for a year.

Taking these items into account means some of my favorite books aren’t on the list below. We choose books that have solid content and are formatted well for mentors to use. Also, I may not agree with every line of every book, but I trust our mentors to use their discernment to lead the discussion when practices or teachings arise that differ from our church.

In addition to books that we recommend, some mentors use multiple books or develop their own curriculum. One group we’re considering starting this year is a mentoring group that memorizes a passage of Scripture each month. The women will meet together and say the passage to one another, and then discuss what they learned as they memorized it over the course of the month. The mentor will choose the memorization passages and lead the discussion. All and all, there are many different ways to arrange these groups. I always enjoy seeing how God prepares just the right person for just the right topic.

3. What are some of the books you’ve used for mentoring?

Here are some of the books we’ve used, as well as some new books that came out this year and we haven’t had the opportunity to use. I’d recommend these based on their content and formatting, but there are many books that would work (and I’m sure I’ve forgotten some of the ones we’ve used). I’d welcome hearing your recommendations as well.

Christian Living:
Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life
The Measure of Success
A Woman’s Wisdom
Finding God in my Loneliness
Praying Together
Season of Waiting
Chasing Contentment
Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment
The Envy of Eve: Finding Contentment
Enjoy
Lies Women Believe
The Organized Heart
Suffering and the Sovereignty of God
Because We are Called to Counter Culture
Open Heart, Open Home
Practicing Hospitality
Respectable Sins
The Dangerous Duty of Delight
Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God
Women of the Word
None Like Him
The Good Portion: The Doctrine of Scripture for Every Woman