Twitter.com can sometimes bring to light ideas that have be stuck in neutral (in my head) for a very long time, that is, I know what the right thing is to do, but I sometimes find the business of life can distract me from doing what I know should be done...I am a leader in my church's Men's Ministry called Men of Faith. I recently sent a letter (via email) to each of our Facilitators for men's group sharing some thought and ideas about taking men's ministry to the next level. Let's just call it a 201 level were we will embark on an initial 6 month commitment with 4 to 6 men per group to go deeper, dig deeper and study scripture together.
Then I get this tweet on Radical Mentoring:
Radical Mentoring from Radical Mentoring on Vimeo.
The article along with it stated the following:
Ever been mentored? Ever mentored? Female or Male … if not, you are missing out. You are missing out on someone who has some years on you … challenging you, serving you, listening to you, guiding you, offering you examples of what they did and wished they hadn’t.
How would you classify your mentoring experience? Reactive or Proactive?
Back in 2007 … I (Bryan) went through a year-long structured mentoring group led by Regi Campbell (the guy speaking in the video above). It was like getting a baby MBA. Regi, as a successful business guy proactively led 8 guys around my age, with similar characteristics through a mentoring group that fascinated me. Regi was already busy … and yet … he had control of his time enough to investment in me and our group with his time. Not to mention that he is crazy in love with Jesus. I was in “RMG 7″ which stood for Radical Mentoring Group – 7th year.
Yip! 7 years … he had poured himself (as of 2007) … and now more groups have occurred. It felt like a Band of Brothers. We argued & push-backed. We discussed & learned from each other. We poked fun at each other. We read books together & netted them out with each other. We memorized scripture. We went on 2 private retreats. We prayed together. ALL under the watchful eye of Regi. Don’t miss this … he proactively guided eight 30-somethings with huge ambitions all in 1 year.
Some other mentoring considerations for you today:
- Are you hungering for a mentor? Seek one. Ask God to provide you with one.
- Be intentional about your mentoring effort … have a plan … regardless of whether you are the mentor or mentee.
- How long?
- What will you do?
- What will you read?
- How many of you will there be?
- What are your end goal(s)?
- I see too many young men who hunger to be mentored … BUT … their mentors are not structured. They think that asking tough questions can happen with someone once a quarter at a Waffle House is mentoring. That’s not mentoring … that’s having an arm’s length acquaintance. One-directional question asking is just that. As a mentor you have to expose all & be as transparent.
- What is at stake? Imagine more & more young people deciding to intentionally, and proactively be led by a person, for a defined period of time … with an end-goal of being more in love with Jesus, a stronger leader, better husband, greater friend, engaged parent, contributor to society … the list is endless.
Regi, has now created a new entity called Radical Mentoring. If you are interested in creating this sort of environment in your church or business … reach out to his new group.
Thank you Regi … for your proactive investment in me.
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So the question I have for you (Reader) are you being mentored? Are you mentoring? Whose life are you involved with? Why not? What is holding you back?
Dante