By Philippe R. Sterling
The word mentor comes from The Odyssey. While Ulysses was away fighting in the Trojan War, he placed his son Telemachus under the tutelage of a sage named Mentor. The personal name has become a term meaning someone who trains a less experienced associate.
Mentoring is widely employed in business, education, and other fields. My wife has been an educational diagnostician. Every year, she was assigned one or more novice diagnosticians to mentor. I served as a ministry mentor to a young man in a seminary program. He also had an academic mentor and a spiritual life mentor. There is a large industry offering seminars and books to help mentors develop their mentoring skills.
Other processes share aspects of mentoring. There is coaching. The trades have long used apprenticeship. Of course, in the Bible we have discipleship.
We can differentiate between discipleship and mentoring. Discipleship is a general process to help believers grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ and to begin to serve Him. Mentoring is a specific process to help believers develop their service and leadership skills. As such, mentoring is a specialized subset of discipleship.
The word mentor is not found in the Bible, but the practice appears in both the Old and New Testaments. We find many examples of cross-generational mentoring that provide principles for our practice today. We’ll consider the examples of Moses and Joshua in the OT, and Paul and Timothy in the NT. We’ll see that the process they model is relational, experiential, and instructional.
Moses and Joshua
Several events in the lives of Moses and Joshua (as reported in Exodus and Numbers) illustrate elements of the mentoring relationship.
1. MOSES SENT JOSHUA TO BATTLE WITH AMALEK (EXODUS 17:9-14)
Moses said to Joshua, “Choose us some men and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.” So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and fought with Amalek…And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed…But Moses’ hands became heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands…and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this for a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.”
Moses told Joshua to lead the battle against Amalek. He believed him capable of leading. A mentor can assign important tasks to a mentee.
God told Moses to recount His present and future acts to Joshua. The battle foreshadowed what God would do in the future under Joshua’s leadership. A mentor should encourage a mentee to have an ongoing dependence on God.
2. MEETING WITH GOD (EXODUS 24:12-13; 33:11)
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you tablets of stone, and the law and commandments which I have written, that you may teach them.” So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up to the mountain of God…
So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.
When Moses met with God on Mount Sinai, he brought Joshua along. Joshua was an assistant who went with him to a divine appointment. Joshua was also there when God met with Moses at the tent of meeting outside the camp. A mentor should invite a mentee to key events, especially those focusing on God.
3. MODELING HUMILITY AND PROVIDING CORRECTION (NUMBERS 11:26-30)
But two men had remained in the camp: the name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad. And the Spirit rested upon them. Now they were among those listed, but who had not gone out to the tabernacle; yet they prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” So Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, one of his choice men, answered and said, “Moses my lord, forbid them!” Then Moses said to him, “Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!” And Moses returned to the camp, he and the elders of Israel.
Moses continued to mentor Joshua. One lesson concerned humility. When Joshua wanted to restrain those who prophesied in the camp, Moses corrected him. The text calls Joshua “Moses’ assistant.” A mentor should correct a mentee as needed.
4. CHANGE OF NAME (NUMBERS 13:8; 14:6-9)
When Moses sent twelve men from the twelve tribes of Israel to survey the land of Canaan, Joshua represented the tribe of Ephraim. Before Moses sent Joshua to survey the land, his name was Hoshea, Hebrew for salvation. After his display of faith in God, Moses called him Joshua, Hebrew for Yahweh is my salvation. A mentor can affirm the faith of a mentee with a descriptive name or nickname.
5. LEADERSHIP SUCCESSION (NUM 27:18-20; SEE ALSO DEUT 31:7-8, 23; JOSH 1:1-9)
And the Lord said to Moses: “Take Joshua the son of Nun with you, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him; set him before Eleazar the priest and before all the congregation, and inaugurate him in their sight. And you shall give some of your authority to him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may be obedient.”
Finally, God instructed Moses to pass on to Joshua the responsibility of leadership. Moses honored Joshua before the people, challenged him, and reminded him that God would be with him.
Moses prepared Joshua for leadership. Who will succeed us in serving God should be of great importance to us. God chooses the person, but we can help prepare the one God might choose. The day came when Joshua had to lead the people without Moses. He was well prepared. When the time comes, a mentor should pass on the leadership role to a mentee.
Some Key Principles of Mentoring from Moses-Joshua
» Assign important tasks
» Encourage dependence upon God
» Invite to key events
» Model humility and provide correction
» Affirm faith
» Pass on the role of leader
Are there some younger believers you could mentor?1 Look for strengths in their lives that you can help develop further. Affirm the ways that you see God using them in His work. Prepare them for leadership.
Paul and Timothy
Paul selected Timothy for mentoring on his second missionary journey through Derbe and Lystra. He was a young man with a good reputation.
Timothy traveled with Paul and Silas to Macedonia and Greece. Paul sometimes sent Timothy to encourage the believers in the cities where they had planted churches. Paul’s confidence in Timothy grew to the point that in Phil 2:20-22 he wrote:
For I have no one like-minded, who will sincerely care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus. But you know his proven character, that as a son with his father he served with me in the gospel.
Here are two of the many lessons we can learn from the mentoring relationship of Paul and Timothy:
1. BE SELECTIVE ABOUT WHOM YOU MENTOR (ACTS 16:1-3; 2 TIM 2:2)
Then he came to Derbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek. He was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted to have him go on with him. And he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region, for they all knew that his father was Greek…
And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
Paul based his choice of Timothy on what others reported about him. Paul would later encourage Timothy to instruct faithful men who would also be able to teach others.2 Not everyone qualifies for a mentoring relationship. A mentor should commit to a mentee who will faithfully learn from him and pass on what he has learned to others in a multiplying way.
2. APPROACH MENTORING AS AN INVESTMENT THAT WILL SPAN GENERATIONS
Paul’s training of Timothy was personal, experiential, and instructional. He entrusted him with greater and greater responsibilities. He wrote letters to encourage him, instruct him, and challenge him. Timothy became Paul’s trusted son in the faith. When it came time for Paul to depart this life, he wrote his final letter to Timothy.
Conclusion
Many consider Hippocrates the “Father of Medicine.” Here is a portion of the text of his famous “Hippocratic Oath” (ca. 400 BC, translation from Greek by Francis Adams, 1849):
I swear by Apollo the physician, and Aesculapius, and Health, and All-heal, and all the gods and goddesses, that, according to my ability and judgment, I will keep this Oath and this stipulation—to reckon him who taught me this Art equally dear to me as my parents, to share my substance with him, and relieve his necessities if required; to look upon his offspring in the same footing as my own brothers, and to teach them this Art, if they shall wish to learn it, without fee or stipulation; and that by precept, lecture, and every other mode of instruction, I will impart a knowledge of the Art to my own sons, and those of my teachers, and to disciples bound by a stipulation and oath according to the law of medicine…
Hippocrates was committed to passing on his knowledge of medicine to the next generation of physicians. He formed relationships with students he could mentor.
Moses and Joshua and Paul and Timothy modeled being mentors and mentees in the area of spiritual leadership. Let us adopt their personal, experiential, and instructional mentoring model to prepare the next generation of Free Grace believers. Be a mentor. Seek a mentor.3
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Philippe Sterling is the pastor of Vista Ridge Bible Fellowship in Lewisville, TX. He and his wife of 45 years, Brenda, live in Denton, TX, near their daughter, Sarah, son-in-law, Ben, and grandkids.
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1 Editor’s note: Every parent can and should mentor their children. Sunday school teachers and Bible study leaders have a mentoring role. Elders and pastoral staff are to mentor future leaders. All of us can mentor someone in the faith.
2 Editor’s note: Timothy oversaw the church elders in Ephesus. Most likely the faithful men of 2 Tim 2:2 were the elders. The others of 2 Tim 2:2 might refer to the next generation of elders the current elders would mentor.
3 Editor’s note: Even mentors benefit from ongoing mentoring.