Reading Your Life's Story: An Invitation to Spiritual Mentoring

"By applying the art and science of mentoring relationships to the canvas of spiritual formation, Keith Anderson invites us to see and hear, through the senses and heart of listener and reader, the story that God is writing in each life. Keith understands that spiritual mentoring brings mentor and mentee into the presence of God at work in both lives--two people observing together the movement of the Spirit around them. This important book invites, inspires, and instructs mentor and mentee alike."--Walter C. Wright Jr., senior fellow, Max De Pree Center for Leadership, author of Relational Leadership and The Third Third of Life

"Fashioned as a handbook for spiritual mentors, this book offers so much more depth and discernment than simple instruction. It has more the feel of an artisan teaching their craft than a technician explaining a manual. Poetic and deeply humanizing with story, metaphor, and cultural memory, Dr. Anderson invites spiritual mentors to listen to the life stories of their mentees as narratives cowritten with God. He reminds us that listening to God and being listened to are not competing ends. . . . Dr. Anderson's integrative thinking and thoughtful use of the his own narrative make this a rare and worthy offering."--J. Derek McNeil, senior vice president of academics, The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology

Spiritual mentoring is a particular kind of friendship in which, according to Keith R. Anderson, "two or more people walk together in heightened awareness of the presence of yet Another"—the Holy Spirit. "Spiritual mentoring is not a complicated process that requires technical training and complex protocol," Anderson continues. "It is essential, authentic, and maybe even natural human speech that is focused, disciplined and nurtured by training for one of the hardest natural things we do: listening reflectively to another. It is sacred companionship as life is lived and story told. Available to almost all, it requires deliberate recruitment, preparation and practice."These pages unfold a vision for mentoring that invites us to read our own lives as narrative and to learn how to enter the narrative of another life. The book covers the scope of the mentoring relationship through various seasons, offering helpful and inspiring metaphors for mentoring. All are invited to enter the mentoring story.