The Mentoring Manifesto, Vol. 33: On the Intentional Habit of Reading
When we mentor, we want to help our mentees develop intentional habits and practices that will help them be better husbands, better dads, better friends, better leaders, and better Jesus-followers.
One of the ways we do that is a focus on reading. In a Radical Mentoring group, guys are required to read, most likely more than they currently do.
As mentors, you have valuable wisdom to share, but even you, the seasoned mentor, are limited by your life experience and knowledge. So, we bring the expertise and insight of others into our mentoring through carefully selected books.
And through the discipline of reading a book a month, the requirement of completing a written net-out, and the positive peer pressure of presenting takeaways from each book, a reading habit forms.
People are stimulated by learning. Mentees are stimulated during the mentoring season, and most continue to be readers long after the intensive period of mentoring is over. I can trace my reading habit back to my time as a mentee in Regi Campbell’s group in 2002.
Discipleship is a lifelong learning endeavor, which is why I think it’s safe to say most mentors are readers. They have an insatiable hunger to learn and be more…to have more to share, more to give to those they mentor.
Carey Nieuwhof wrote, “great books shape how we think, and how we think is who we become and how we lead. So read well.”
With that in mind, here are some helpful resources related to reading, including the link to join us for our first “Radical Mentoring Reads” event with our friend John Lynch, where we’ll discuss his re-released book, On My Worst Day.
RADICAL MENTORING READS: JOHN LYNCH
THE SECRET TO GETTING MEN TO READ
HOW WE CAN REGAIN THE MAGIC BEHIND READING
READING IN EXILE: EUGENE PETERSON BOOKS
Breathe New Life Into Your Discipleship
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