Church mentoring often begins with a simple yes. It is rarely about confidence or knowing all the answers, but about trusting that God will equip those He calls to walk alongside others in faith.

This month on our blog, we’re featuring a guest post from Gretchen Bredemeier, Minister of Spiritual Formation at Leesburg Community Church. Gretchen shares what happened when God called her to begin mentoring in her church, even when she didn’t feel ready or qualified.

I was the first Christian in my family. I didn’t grow up with anyone who read the Bible or prayed beyond mealtime and bedtime. I had an uncanny confidence in Christ’s saving grace, but I was clueless about what it looked like to live as a Christ-follower. 

So I began to pray at age 9 that God would send me a Christian woman to teach me. I prayed that prayer for years and then decades. I got to see snippets and glimpses as godly women would pop into and out of my life, and God surely taught me through what I saw, but a mentor never came. So, 20 years later I just started asking people. SO. MANY. PEOPLE. 

The answer was always a “no.” They didn’t know enough, didn’t have all the answers, lacked the confidence, lacked the time, weren’t called in that way… I respected all of these answers, but I longed for someone to walk alongside me, as I learned to walk with God. It just never happened.

By the time I came to work on staff at my current church, I was passionate about discipleship and loved working with students. To my surprise, however, God asked me to step into a new role, one where I had the opportunity to begin a mentorship program.

My Mentoring Journey

As I began to look for mentors, however, I couldn’t find anyone who was willing. The answers sounded familiar: a lack of knowledge, confidence, and calling. As I wrestled with how to begin the program, the Lord made it clear that I would be a mentor- an idea which seemed nothing short of ridiculous to me. One of the men in my church often reminds me, after all, that he has “SOCKS older than me.”

I was barely 40, didn’t have any children, had always had a difficult time identifying with most women in the church, and most importantly had never HAD a mentor. Yet God had done His work and was bringing young families to my church in droves! 

I was surrounded by young believers from wildly different backgrounds and experiences longing to know God better, and searching for a place where they could engage His Word and ask questions. I began to find myself consistently in the midst of conversations that started like this:

• “I know I need to pray and I want to pray- but how- I’ve never done that before.”
• “How do I read the Bible? Where do I begin? It is so intimidating! How do I do this well?” 
• “Is God trustworthy?” “Will He get me through this trial?”  “Will He actually catch me when I fall.” 
• “How can God forgive me?” “How can my spouse forgive me? “How can my Small Group forgive me?”
• “How do I walk in obedience here?” “Why is sanctification worth the pain?” “What will I find on the other side of obedience?”

When God Calls the Unqualified to Lead

God had delivered us a giant field for harvest and I was faced with a choice: doubt His timing, keep waiting in expectation for someone else, or say “yes” and assume He would equip me to be present as He transformed hearts and minds. 

I turned to Moses and Esther and Peter for advice, and as I grappled with these choices, there was a lingering question that sat on my heart like a dripping faucet: “Do you doubt that I love them more than you do?”

What is discipleship, if it is not a war for the hearts and minds of God’s people!? Like a 3-year-old “helping” her mother bake cookies, God was asking me to be part of His plans and purposes NOT because I could help HIM, but because the process would help me, train me, deepen my faith. I had forgotten that this is HIS war and that He is victorious. Full stop.

What a great reminder! God has a pattern of calling the weak, not the confident. You see, our value to our churches does not ultimately come from our strengths at all, but from our response to experiencing His strength. 

None of us are “great people of faith”. We can’t even muster the faith of a mustard seed or we’d be playing Jenga with mountains! We are nothing more than the dearly beloved goofballs of a perfectly faithful God. 

We don’t have great faith, we have great need. And as a result every one of our days strengthens the proof to the world that He is able.

• We do not mentor because we are great, but because He is.
• We do not mentor because we are confident, but because He is with us.
• We do not mentor because we identify with our mentees, but because we both identify with Christ.
• We don’t mentor because we are strong, but because we cling.
• We don’t mentor because of our age and perspective, we mentor because we depend on His perspective.
• We don’t mentor because we already know, but because we will never stop learning about the goodness of God.

In my “yes” I have found that there is untold blessing in having front row seats to God’s faithfulness. They are undoubtedly expensive, but they are always, always worth it!

The Invitation for You

Every church needs people willing to walk beside others as they grow in Christ. Whether God is calling you to start mentoring in your church or to become a mentor yourself, take the step of obedience and watch how He uses it.