Mentoring Lesson 1: The Faith Journey

Tip of the Week: Prepare Well

Imagine this. You realize it is the night before your first meeting with your mentee. That realization sends you into a panic. Remember, if you love God and have a heart for teenagers, you'll be a great mentor — as long as you prepare.

Teens are not used to having conversations with adults. They're used to being lectured or taught. As a result, you can't expect to sit down in your first mentoring meeting and have your mentee talk nonstop for the next hour. That simply won't happen.

To prepare for your mentoring meeting, spend time in prayer, calming your heart and mind. Then spend time praying for your mentee by name. As you get to know your mentee better, allow your prayers for him or her to become more specific.

After you've prayed, read the relevant mentoring lesson, along with the related Bible passages. Highlight or underline key words or phrases so that when you glance at the pages, you'll quickly be able to skim the question and know what you're supposed to ask. Think through how you'd answer each of the discussion questions. Jot down notes to help you remember important parts of your answer. Contemplate potential follow-up questions to take the conversation deeper and make note of those as well. Some mentors find it helpful to rewrite the discussion questions. The act of slowly rewriting them often helps to internalize them, making discussion more conversational.

If possible, spend a few minutes the day of your mentoring meeting reviewing the lesson, Scriptures, and your notes. It's OK to take this book with you to the meeting. No one expects you to have every aspect or question memorized. However, you should be familiar enough with the content that you aren't glued to the page.

After your mentoring meeting concludes, spend a few minutes reflecting on what aspects did and didn't go well. Then decide what you need to tweak in preparation for your next mentoring meeting.

Lesson Summary:

Transformation is a process; it's part of a journey to becoming more like Christ. While parts of the journey must be traveled alone, the journey cannot be completed without the involvement of fellow travelers. During this session in Affirm, students explored their pace of transformation and learned how it is unique to the purpose God has for them. They also wrestled with the role the community of faith plays in supporting and encouraging them along the way. The anchor point for this session was Philippians 1:6:

"I'm sure about this: the one who started a good work in you will stay with you to complete the job by the day of Christ Jesus."

Catch-up Questions:

Your role as a mentor is to develop a relationship with your mentee. To help you develop a relationship, begin your time together by simply catching up on the previous week.

This week catch up by sharing your highs and lows. Share a highlight as well as a low point from the past week. Ask your mentee to do the same.

Consider closing your catch-up time in prayer by praying for the highs and lows you and your partner shared.

Discussion Questions:

Spend the majority of time together with your mentee discussing and, in some instances, wrestling with the following discussion questions.

1. What is the best journey you've ever taken?

2. What must you do to prepare for a journey?

3. How, if at all, is faith like a journey?

4. Who or what has prepared you for your journey of faith?

5. Where would you say you are currently in your faith journey: the beginning, middle, or end? Why?

6. When, if ever, have you felt stuck in your journey of faith?

7. How has your journey of faith changed over time?

8. In general, is change easy or hard for you? Why do you think this is true?

9. What grade were you in a year ago? How were you different? What extracurricular activities filled your time? Who were your closest friends? What was important to you? What did you do most often in your spare time?

10. What's happening in your life now? What grade are you in? What extracurricular activities fill your time? Who are your closest friends? What's important to you? What do you do most often now in your spare time?

11. How have you changed since last year? Do you think these changes are positive or negative? Why?

12. If you were to ask your parents how you've changed since last year, what do you think they'd say? Would they say you've experienced positive or negative changes? Why?

13. Think about your life throughout the past several years. What are some of the most significant periods of change you've experienced? What prompted those changes? In retrospect, were those changes positive or negative? Why?

14. What, if any, role has God played in the changes you've experienced in your life over the last few years? Is God's role only in changing your faith, or do you think God is involved in other changes in your life also? Why?

15. Now think about your faith. What three words would describe your faith a year ago? What three words describe your faith today? How has your faith changed during the past year?

16. Would you say your faith today is stronger or weaker than it was a year ago? Why?

17. Read 2 Corinthians 5:17. What do you think it means to be "in Christ"? Are you "in Christ"? Why or why not?

18. How has your faith in Jesus made you a "new creation"?

19. What "old things" have gone away as you've matured in your faith? How has this changed you?

20. A year from now, how do you want to be able to describe your journey of faith? In order to describe your faith journey in that way, what must you do or change between now and then?

Closing Prayer

This week, as you close in prayer:

• Pray that your mentee would experience God in the midst of all the changes of his or her daily life.

• Ask God to help your mentee see him or herself as a loved, forgiven "new creation."

• Pray that your mentee will have the courage to continue growing in the journey of faith.

• Ask God to help your mentee take the steps needed to grow in faith.

After praying for your mentee, give him or her the opportunity to pray for you as well.

Mentoring Lesson 2: The Faith Given to You

Tip of the Week: Share Your Story

One of the unique aspects of mentoring is that it's a two-way street. That's why we've written the mentoring lessons as discussions rather than bulleted lists of talking points. Notice, however, the word we used here: discuss.

That's important.

These lessons are written as discussions and not sermons or outlines, because you shouldn't be the one doing all the talking. Remember, your...