Christian Men Mentoring

Hi readers and followers,

It's another Monday, welcome to Myss Lafunky's blog.  Also, welcome to the month of August.

For the last two weeks, I have written about mentoring, the importance of mentoring, and why God wants us to mentor others. The posts were obviously written from a woman's perspective.  

I felt I needed a post about mentoring from a man's perspective before I conclude the mentoring series post. So, I asked one of my male friends to write a post on biblical men mentoring, he humbly accepted the task albeit I only gave him a week's notice. Thank you Tosin.

Please, take time from your busy schedule and read this detailed post. I hope you will learn one or two things from reading it. This post can be used as a guide for teaching young/older men about mentoring, it can also be used for self-examination. Remember to share it with your male friends.

The discourse would be examined with the use of Titus 2.3, 6-8.

To the Older Men

• They should be sober
• They should be temperate
• They should be sound in faith
• They should be sound in love
• They should be sound in patience

To the Young Men

• They should be sober minded
• They should show themselves in all things to be a pattern of good works
• They should show by doctrine integrity
• They should show by doctrine reverence
• They should show by doctrine incorruptibility
• Their speech should be such that cannot bring condemnation thereby not allowing for another who is an opponent to be ashamed and have something evil to say concerning the young man

The Concept Of Mentoring

The concept of mentoring in my view is having to be like Christ in all things having submitted wholly to learn of Christ. The words of Titus 2.3,6-8 depict in clear terms the characteristic nature of Christ, Jesus Christ expressions were just like the father.  Scriptures further enjoin us to be imitators of Christ hence by inference putting Christ as our yardstick of measurement in terms of how we have a semblance with Christ in all that we engage ourselves in.

Man is the mirror which fellow man can see and attest as to whether or not one has being with Christ or not. Peter when confronted after the betrayal of his person by Judas Iscariot followed by his arrest denied that he ever was with Jesus even when it was in full know that he had been with Jesus all the time. Thrice, Peter denied the obvious but upon realisation he wept and repented.

As far as mentoring, the man who must mentor another or stands as a mentor to men must have dwelt with God in his presence. 

Such a man must have traces of Jesus in his life by manifesting the fruits of the Spirit - Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self- control (Galatians 5.22-23); his characteristic traits whilst he was on earth-hospitable, compassionate, prayerful, tender hearted, loyalty, integrity, giving just to mention a few. The life of a mentor must be like Christ. 

Myss Lafunky states that, a man who wants to mentor must also not exhibit Galatians 5-19-21, however, he must be ready to learn and be teachable also. 

 

The great commission as contained in Matthew 28.18-20 can be construed to be in the context of mentoring as it implores us to GO and make disciples of all nations teaching them to observe those things that he has taught us. Fellow men can’t be made to embrace the message of Christ when we have nothing to show that we are following Christ.

For a man to be a mentor, he must have being mentored by Christ. In being mentored by Christ, he must have submitted himself wholly to the lessons of Christ as presented to him by Holy Spirit. Today, men want to mentor others by force when they have not submitted to be mentored by Christ and Christ interestingly would not force a man, hence with such attitude, a man cannot be a successful mentor. 

 

Furthermore, a man’s loyalty is with God first as contained in Ephesians 5.25 though written in the context of marriage, however, men can only mentor their wives or children when they have demonstrated their integrity along with loyalty to God. 

 

Men by design are the mirrors to their wives and children, as well as to others around them, thereby taken cues, counsel and the likes from them. For the woman her loyalty is dual core it goes to her husband who is her head, and to Christ who is the head of the Church and saviour of the body (Ephesians 5.23-25).  The woman can be a mentor when she has patterned her life after her husband and Christ even when she is single, Christ is her husband.

Any yardstick of mentoring which does not have God as the utmost indices of example is bound to convey wrong signals and fail in the worst way possible. God alone is perfect and does not present any lapses for from time he has known all terrains and when worked and walked he excelled brilliantly. 

Biblical men that mentored others

In the Bible, the instance of Paul's encounter with God on the way to Damascus was the beginning of his series of experience of the power of God at work in and through him.  It was this same experience he presented to the Churches as well to Timothy and Titus who learned from him Paul.

Myss Lafunky states that, Elijah mentored by Elisha, Eli mentored Samuel.

These men, Paul and Eli, could not have being good mentors to the mentored if they had not learnt of God or experienced Him at varying points in time in varying times. You can give out only what you have received.

Are you undertaking the role of mentoring? How sad would it be if you have a message or a gift/talent that you had withheld from your fellow men? 

Take a step today and start mentoring (formal and informal) others. Remember, your way of life inspires others as well. 

I want to use this medium to celebrate all the men that are inspiring others positively and the men that have taken it faithfully as their role to mentor fellow men positively.

- Tosin

The last post on mentoring will be published next week, the focus will be on 'why we need mentors and what to look out for in mentors.'