Stuff That Matters In Life

I said I am the Team Leader of this Taiwan STM. Technically I’m not. I’m the Mission Mentor. Semantics matter.

I’m reviewing my training book today:

“Your primary responsibility is not just to “lead a team” but to mentor those on it (and potentially those who are not) through missions discipleship.”

“Mentoring is a relational experience in which one person empowers or helps another by sharing God-given resources. You will empower your mentees by focusing on two key mentoring concepts: investing and influencing.”

I feel relieved that I am not expected to lead the team to perform in some way. I would much rather be relational.

Here are some things that the book lists as investing and influencing:

• identify skills, develop giftedness in others
• affirm skills and develop confidence in others
• see potential others – vision casting
• tolerate mistakes or brashness
• understand that development takes time
• give encouraging and timely advice
• serve as a bridge to important resources
• model leadership
• take others with them in life
• release others into ministry

“Your investment can be as simple as encouraging your mentees in their pursuit of God by talking through questions and struggles, sharing in joys and praying together. If a mentee grows in their relationship with God, they are much more likely to discover God’s greater purpose for their lives. Mentoring is simply caring about someone’s life: his heart, his beliefs, his passions, his hopes, his fears and ultimately his knowledge of Jesus Christ. You are interceding on his behalf and listening to his heart.”

Based on this, I haven’t been a very good Mission Mentor. I’ve only been a Team Leader. I’ve been focusing on all the stuff we have to prepare for. Last year for Thailand STM we didn’t have to prepare anything, so it was more natural that our meetings were more relational. In retrospect, we should’ve started meeting sooner so we can have more time to share life instead of just going through details. Now we are only 1.5 weeks away from departure. I am going to talk about this at our next and final official meeting so we can be on the same page about expectations as quoted above.