Mentor Like Jesus—The Radical Approach

In his book Mentor Like Jesus, our founder Regi Campbell unpacks the Radical Mentoring mentoring approach, which is deeply rooted in how Jesus modeled relationships, growth, and leadership. 

Rather than offering just a modern business or coaching framework, this book encourages mentors to adopt a relational, intentional, and transformational style, as exemplified by Jesus during His time on earth.

At its heart, the journey is rooted in three key pillars: intentional relationships, authentic community, and reproducible impact.

Intentional Relationships

Jesus didn’t just randomly gather followers — He chose His disciples deliberately. We encourage mentors to do the same: select a small group of mentees with care, focusing on those who are eager to grow and who demonstrate teachability. Then we apply the four L’s of mentoring – Love them, Listen to them, Learn them and then Lead them.

A mentor is not called to mentor everyone but to focus on a few — just as Jesus focused on twelve. Radical Mentoring stresses the importance of relational investment: spending time, showing up consistently, and being present in both the victories and struggles of life. Mentoring, in this model, is not a once-a-month coffee meeting but an immersive, walk-alongside relationship over a season.

Authentic Community

Jesus created a community where His disciples could be vulnerable, ask questions, and even fail safely. Radical Mentoring stresses that real mentoring happens in the context of authentic, grace-filled relationships.

This means mentors must set the tone for honesty early in the season by being open about their own struggles, failures, and growth areas as part of sharing their own story first. It’s not about being the “perfect” mentor but about being real and approachable. Vulnerability fosters trust, and trust is the fertile soil where growth happens in our mentoring groups.

The environment that we create in our group settings matters. Our mentor-led small groups by design create richer learning opportunities, peer accountability, and shared wisdom. Just as the disciples learned from Jesus and each other, mentees today benefit from the communal journey.

Reproducible Impact

Perhaps the most radical part of Jesus’ mentoring approach was that it didn’t stop with His twelve. He trained them to go and do likewise — to make disciples who would make more disciples. At Radical Mentoring, we believe that effective mentoring must include this reproducibility mindset.

Mentors should be developing mentees not just for their own personal growth, but so they, in turn, can mentor others. This means passing on tools, practices, and mindsets that are transferable — not dependent solely on the mentor’s personality or expertise.

At the end of a mentoring season, mentees should be challenged and equipped to step into discipling roles themselves, carrying forward a multiplying effect that can ripple out to families, churches, workplaces, and communities. 

Final Thoughts

Mentor Like Jesus is not a formula but a call to relational, intentional, Christ-centered, “radical” mentoring. By focusing on selecting the right people, cultivating authentic community, and aiming for reproducible outcomes, mentors can follow Jesus’ example and leave a lasting impact on the lives they touch. To date, over 29,000 lives have been directly touched by this journey.

Would you like to join us in this?

If you feel called to lead a Radical Mentoring group and make a lasting impact, we’d love to walk with you. Learn more about how you can become a mentor and guide others on their transformational journey.