Mentoring . . .

Mentoring. . . is a buzz word these days. It's in the same category as "spiritual formation" "postmodern" "missional" "radical" and "emerging"--everyone loves to use these terms but not everyone knows what they are saying when they employ such words. Or . . . not everyone means the same thing.

I am a product of great mentors.

Beginning with my mom and dad (the best mentors I've ever had) . . .

Continuing to my high school basketball coach (who saw more in me than I saw in myself) . . .

Garth Pleasant (one of the best men I've ever known) . . .

David Fleer (who opened me up to Bible as no one has ever done since) . . .

John York (whom I consider one of my closest friends and teacher extraordinaire, he taught me to view graduate school as a gift) . . .

Rubel Shelly (the hardest worker I've ever been around, he challenged me to think about ministry in categories I did not previously have) . . .

Others have greatly influenced me: Doc Shelton (MLK basketball coach in Nashville), Randy Harris, Lee Camp, David Greer, John Mark Hicks, Phillip Camp, George Goldman, Mike Cope (who I listened to on tape from the time I was 18), Patrick Mead, Dr. Loren Siffring, Beth VanRheenen, Diane LaRosa (high school French teacher), Mrs. Hopkins (fifth grade teacher, Air Force pilot), and Mark Brackney.

I stand on the shoulders of those who have come before me.

And now . . . as I am approaching 30 (March 2009), I'm beginning to realize that this is the season of my life in which I now have the opportunity to do the same. Courtney Jenko, Katy Allison, Riley Chowning, Courtney Strahan, Dave Rotberg, Wayne Beason, Stephanie Maurice, Dave Watts, Shaun Hover, Liz Trainor (and others)--I pray that God would use me to raise up another generation of leaders for the cause of Christ.