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CELEBRATING THE SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES: Do you like westerns? They aren’t in vogue right now, but as we think about the spiritual disciplines I can’t help but wonder if the great American Western hasn’t informed and influenced our thinking. In the stereotypical Western bad guys come into town, run the sheriff out, and basically take the town over. They beat up the weak and bully the women. Bad guys have gangs. Good guys, on the other hand, essentially work alone. The Lone Ranger, Maverick, Zorro, the Cisco Kid, the Rifleman, Matt Dillon. All tough, self-reliant, self-made men who come from out of no-where to take on the gang, and save the town. They usually don’t say much and they always get the girl. Bad guys have gangs. Good guys work alone. And I would suggest that this model, this good guy independent model, has influenced many in the church today. We think that this Christian life is one that can be lived alone, independently. “I do my own Bible study, I do my own praying, when it comes to my Christian life I go it alone. I’m a Christian Lone Ranger.” But when Jesus Christ created the church He didn’t use the North American Western as His model. No, when He created the church He intended for His people to be in community, He intended for each of us not to be independent of one another but interdependent. So when Scripture speaks of the church it often compares it to a body in which each member is an important part. We are so interdependent, Scripture says it if one part rejoices, we are all to rejoice, and if one part mourns, we are all to mourn. (see Romans 12:3-15 ). This brings us to the spiritual discipline of mentoring. The books about the spiritual disciplines will speak of spiritual guides, a discipler, but a more contemporary name is mentor. Mentoring is a relationship in which one person empowers another by sharing God-given resources.1 The primary goal of this spiritual discipline is to break us out of that mold of going it alone, of being a spiritual lone Ranger. Think of how many people, leaders in the Christian community who have been brought down morally and spiritually because they had no one to guide them, no one to affirm them, no one to correct them, no one to bear their burden, no one speak the word of God into their lives. Doctor James Houston of Regent College speaks of the importance of spiritual mentors and states: “Sin always tends to make us blind to our own faults. We need a friend to stop us from deceiving ourselves that what we are doing is not so bad after all. We need a friend to help us overcome our low image, inflated self importance, selfishness, pride, our deceitful nature, our dangerous fantasies and so much more.”2 Is it Biblical? Indeed it is. Think of the models we are given, Joshua had Moses to mentor him, Samuel had Eli. Elisha had Elijah. Young Mary had her cousin Elizabeth. Paul had Barnabas, and Timothy had Paul as his mentor. And in Scripture we read of this need for the people of God to be interdependent on one another – the book of Proverbs speaks of this especially: “Make plans by seeking advice; if you wage war, obtain guidance (Proverbs 20:18) “A wise man listens to advice.” (Proverbs 12:15) “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed” (Proverbs 15:22) “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17) “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!” (Ecclesiastes 5:9,10) What are the types of mentoring relationships? There are several. I am indebted here to the work of Paul Stanley and Robert Clinton in their book called connecting for this diagram. I don’t have time to define all the terms that are used in this model, but what I want you to notice is the variety of models there are for mentoring. There are those mentors that are passive, usually people who influence you through their writings. For me, such people would be Hudson Taylor, D.L. Moody and Charles Spurgeon. There are occasional mentors, those we meet with once a year who give timely guidance, and teaching. Then there are those mentors that we meet with regularly, we are more intentional in our purposes, and the relationship is deeper, the level of trust is higher as life situations are shared. So let me expand this a little more and address the question what is involved in a mentoring relationship? And for this we turn to our text in 2 Timothy. Here we see Paul mentoring a younger pastor by the name of Timothy. And we see that mentoring relationship is motivated by loving care. You can hear that heartbeat of love that Paul has for Timothy in the opening words, verse 2, “To Timothy, my beloved child”. And when you read this whole letter you discover that it all pounds with that heart beat of loving care. Verse 4, “Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy.” Paul the older more seasoned Christian is greatly concerned for the younger Timothy and wants to see him grow in faith and his commitment to preach the Word. I will never forget a meeting I had with one of my mentors, (passive, through his books and occasional as we met and corresponded) Tony Campolo. His many books have been very influential in my life. I will never forget meeting him one on one. I had written him and asked if he would have coffee with me and he did. I met him at his hotel, and we went up to his room. And he asked me quite directly – “You’re from Acton right?” “Yes” I said, wondering where this might lead. He said, “Where did Acton get its name?” I don’t know, I suppose it was a name adopted from some Scottish or Irish town overseas. “No, No,” he said, “It got its name from Lord Acton who said, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” He then threw a tee shirt at me with Lord Acton’s picture on it. We spent the rest of the time talking about the balance that is needed between proclaiming the gospel in word and proclaiming the gospel in deed. But what I took from that meeting was appreciation for the level of care and forethought that he put into it. He is a busy man, he could have met me on the fly, but obviously he had put some thought into it and expressed a level of care. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if some of you who have a certain level of spiritual maturity would come alongside someone who is younger in the faith, and with loving care sought to help that young Christian grow in their love for God and all things holy. How wonderful it would be if motivated out of genuine concern you came alongside someone who has reached a plateau in their spiritual life and you offered to walk beside them to bring them over their struggles. Of course you don’t need to tell them what you are doing, just do it, just express your loving concern through a cup of coffee and a listening ear. Second, a mentoring relationship is empowered by prayer. Paul writes in verse 3 “I am grateful to God - whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did – when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. ” Can you imagine the comfort and encouragement this must have brought to young Timothy to know that Paul was praying for him? Wouldn’t you agree that to know that you are being prayed for is a heartening and fortifying experience? To know that there is one person out there, who is concerned about you and who is interceding on your behalf would bring strength to your resolve and calm in the midst of the storm. This is what happens in the mentoring relationship. The mentoring relationship is characterized by encouragement and correction. First there is encouragement offered. Verse 5 and 6 “I am reminded of your sincere faith, … for this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands:” Paul is encouraging Timothy here saying, “remember the gift that is yours, go ahead and use it. God has blessed it, so let it flame in your life.” Paul had a good teacher in the encouragement department. You will remember that two weeks ago I spoke about Barnabas whose name means “son of encouragement”. Well, he was Paul’s mentor. So you can imagine the encouragement that Paul received and had modeled for him. He now encourages the young Timothy. Whether you are old or young we all need affirmation. The world is full of discouragers, always ready to pour the cold water of their negativism and criticism over any enthusiasm, over any new idea, or vision that they find. The world is full of discouragers. But to encourage, to lift, to offer praise and hope – that is something special indeed, it is Christ-like service. We all need people who will encourage us. A mentor is one who will do that. But the mentoring relationship is also characterized by correction. Verse 7 and 8 “For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. Do not be ashamed then, of the testimony about our Lord.” I believe that Timothy was a timid man. He is hesitant to share his faith, he has some doubts about what to preach, and Paul says, Look, stop holding back, you have nothing to be afraid of, you have no reason to hesitate, God has given you a precious gift, and He has given us a spirit of power and love, so don’t be ashamed to talk about our Lord.” It is a word of correction. In a mentoring relationship we submit ourselves to the watchful eye of another and yes, we receive encouragement but the real growth comes when we receive loving correction. When another trusted individual comes alongside us and says to us you’re off-base here, you’re missing the mark. And this correction is best received in a mentoring relationship, because of the level of trust and care that has been established over a period of time. And again we all need that – we need someone to objectively watch over us and correct us so that we can grow in our Christ-likeness. This brings us to the whole idea of accountability. So many of us Christian Lone Rangers really lack any accountability. We love the unconditional love stuff, but don’t let anyone correct us. Don’t let anyone say to us that we are on the wrong path or in a bad relationship, or bringing dishonor to the name of Christ by our behaviour. “You have no right to tell me to do that.” Well, yes we do. Scripture says that we are to “admonish one another” (Romans 15:14) that is correct and warn one another. And in I Thessalonians 5:14 we read, “We urge you brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.” Accountability is not a bad word; it is helping people keep their commitment to Christ. Charles Swindoll has seven questions that he and a group of fellow pastors challenge each other with periodically:
That’s accountability. Let’s suppose for a moment that the Calgary Flames said to themselves, “We are really good. We’re not just good, we are great. We are so great that what we are going to do is fire the coaching staff and everyone is going to work out on their own. There will be no team practices, we don’t need that. And then we’re going to come together a few minutes before the game and pass the puck around, we know what to do.” What would happen? Without the coaching staff the Calgary Flames would lose the play offs. Why? Because coaches make people do things that don’t come naturally. They keep the centre ice man where they belong, they keep the defense from losing focus, and they keep the team in condition. And that’s not natural. They work to maximize strengths and minimize weakness. They adjust the team throughout the game, that’s what coaches do. And that’s what mentors do. A mentor coaches, corrects and picks us up when we fall. That’s what accountability is all about. There is one more thing to be said about mentoring relationship – it gives us a model to follow. Verse 8 “Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about or Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God.” Over and over again we see Paul hold himself up as a model for Timothy to follow. When you get home read verses 11-13 again and see how Paul does it. In fact we see this modeling all through Paul’s letters, to the Thessalonians, “… we made ourselves a model for you to follow.” (2 Thessalonians 3:9) To the Philippians he said, “Brethren, join in imitating me.” (3:17) To the Corinthians he declared, “Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.” (I Corinthians 11:1). A mentor models the faith. Now, when you look for a mentor don’t get sidetracked looking for a perfect model. You won’t find them apart from Jesus Christ. Instead look for people who progress in modeling certain values that you aspire too. That is the key. At one time it for me it was prayer. I wanted to find a mentor who had an active and dynamic prayer life. That requirement changes as I grow in the faith. I trust that you will be here next week as we look at spiritual discipline of fellowship. It does dovetail nicely with this idea of mentoring. It has been my prayer for you during this series that you would discover some means by which you can deepen your relationship with God. That you come to the realization that you do not need to stay on the plateau that you have reached spiritually but that there are deeper mysteries of God to probe, and more wonderful things to discover about Jesus Christ.
It is my prayer that
through this teaching you will each seek out a mentor and become vulnerable
for the sake of your spiritual growth. |
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Copyright MBC
and Tom Cullen - May 2004
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