At The Hills Church, we have made several attempts at having a mentoring ministry for our men. Some would start out strong and successful because of the connection between the mentor and mentee. Others struggled, often due to the lack of equipping we provided to the mentors. There was no consistency in our mentoring, resulting in poor discipleship results.

In 2020, our leadership began praying about a five-year vision for our church. One of the defined goals of this vision was to create an inter-generational mentoring experience that helps men and women mature into Kingdom influencers. I was tasked with finding a mentoring strategy for men to help us achieve this vision. 

After praying and researching, I brought Radical Mentoring to our leadership. It stood out because of testimonials from participating churches and the intentional training available to mentors. We saw it as a vehicle to maximize the time investment of current spiritual leaders who would serve as mentors, as well as a discipleship tool for developing future leaders who would influence the Kingdom. Trey Brush patiently answered our questions and has remained a constant source of encouragement and support.

In the fall of 2021, we launched four pilot groups across our three campuses. Over the past five years, we have seen the ministry grow to serve more than 250 men. Since partnering with Radical Mentoring, we have seen God produce consistent spiritual fruit for the first time in our mentoring attempts.

The Fruit of a Faithful Mentoring Ministry

While our initial vision has been completed, Radical Mentoring will continue as a ministry of The Hills Church. We’ve experienced great success by following the program as designed, and the Radical Mentoring team has been wonderfully supportive and flexible, encouraging us to add meaningful elements, such as a wife’s letter to her husband.

While it is difficult to describe all the positive effects of this inter-generational mentoring experience, with the Holy Spirit’s empowerment, we’ve seen:

• Future generations are impacted by dads who lead their marriages and families spiritually.
• Marriages that were threatened by infidelity, rescued, and thriving.
• Pornography addictions brought into the light and overcome.
• Men leading as Christ-followers in their workplaces.
• Iron sharpening iron – where everyone can share and learn, regardless of age.
• Mentees taking what they’ve learned and putting it to use mentoring within the church and community. 
• Mentors who serve year after year, willingly sacrificing time to impact generations.

There is so much to celebrate at our church because of Radical Mentoring. This quote from one of our mentees’ wives speaks volumes: “The transformation I have seen in him is something I can’t explain. I love the man he was, but I adore and treasure the man he has become”.

Your church doesn’t need to start with big numbers for its impact to be felt. Reach out to Trey and ask questions. Find mentors willing to be honest and transparent facilitators and allow the Lord to go to work. Lives will never be the same!