Mentoring: Focused on People and Processes

Mentoring is based on relationships with people, and it leads to a process of transformation over time for both mentors and mentees.  There are a lot of great outcomes that result when efforts to impact the world focus on people and processes.  In When Helping Hurts, authors Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert point out that when it comes to helping people, "The goal is to see people restored to being what God created them to be:  people who understand that they are created in the image of God with the gifts, abilities, and capacity to make decisions and to effect change in the world around them; and people who steward their lives, communities, resources, and relationships in order to bring glory to God.  These things tend to happen in highly relational, process-focused ministries more than impersonal, product-focused ministries."

Do you know any impersonal Christian ministry efforts?  Those types of outreach efforts are not helpful.  Often they can do harm to the people trying the help and the people being served.  Many Christians seem to want to make a difference in the world, but they don't know how and they don't know where to start because there are so many needs.  The key is to always start with relationships, not programs.  Actions that seek to help should always flow out of solid, authentic relationships.  Also, these things take time.  So many Christians want to change the world by going into a poor neighborhood or country for a day or a week on a short term project, instead of realizing the joy that can be found through building long term, authentic relationships over time.  Many people place outcomes and programs over the great joy that can be found in the journey that includes the process of transformation that God has in store for both those serving and those being served over time.