Who Ministers to the Minister?

(Most) Ministers are known for their dedication to providing pastoral care, wisdom, hospitality, and counseling. However, we are curiously poor in receiving the care and concern we dole out to so many others. Perhaps it is because so many of us have a messiah complex—we’ve morbidly convinced ourselves that we are the hope for the world; that we have the power to heal the sick, calm the storms, restore sight to the blind as Jesus did.

I am a part of a mentoring group this fall that is ministering to me. Wayne, Curtis, Cody, and Jon (four students at RC) are all younger than me but they have wisdom, questions, and insights beyond their years. This fall, we’ve spent our time doing our genograms (think: life maps, narrative introductions). Yesterday I finished telling them my story.

As I drove home yesterday from our mentoring group time together, I prayed a simple prayer . . . God, thank-you for placing men and women in my life who accept me for who I am; remind me that you could not love me anymore or any less than you do right now; that challenge me to become more in tune with the spirit of Jesus.

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.