Contact :

For mentoring to be effective, regular contact and interaction is vital. In this ministry, absence does not make the heart grow fonder, just the opposite happens. Suspicion mounts and distrust soars. Therefore, mentors should expect to have a minimum of two contacts per month with their intern with one of these being in person . E-mail and phone can be of great assistance for even more interaction. Face-to-face meetings should be balanced between both the intern's and the mentor's sites of ministry. Failure of mentoring teams to meet is the primary reason for mentorship breakdown, and a guarantee for failure and frustration.

Content :

What occurs during interaction generally depends on the concerns and needs of the intern. The greater part of responsibility for learning is on the intern, not the mentor. Mentors re-act, interpret, encourage, advise and hold interns accountable. Visit content should be specific, to-the-point times of concentration on what the seminarian/intern is experiencing in actual ministry. Perspectives and alternatives from mentors are invaluably helpful in aiding the intern in round out his/her ministry perspective and philosophy.

Constraint:

A common challenge for ministers is verbosity. Most mentors will need to restrain from excess advice giving. "A good mentor is not so much about providing all the answers about a philosophy of ministry for a mentoree. It is more about getting him/her to think about issues in a way that makes them brighter. A mentor always needs to keep in mind that the best teacher displays their greatness by the questions they ask, not by the information they give." Harold Westing

Commission:

InMinistry mentors serve as defender, role model, encourager, facilitator and counselor for an entering, unordained, less skilled and/or less experienced pastoral intern. This union is to facilitate the personal, spiritual, and professional development of pastoral competencies in the intern, resulting in being all God intends of an ordained Adventist clergy person. Your influence as mentor potentially touches thousands of lives. What an awesome privilege.