Issue link: http://denverseminary.uberflip.com/i/1181004
MENTORING DAN STEINER IS AN ASSISTANT LECTURER OF TRAINING AND MENTORING AT DENVER SEMINARY. HE HAS AN EXTENSIVE BACKGROUND IN YOUTH MINISTRY, SMALL GROUP MINISTRY, PREACHING, TEACHING, MENTORING, AND LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT. DAN HAS A PASSION FOR EQUIPPING PEOPLE TO CARRY OUT THEIR PERSONAL SENSE OF CALLING IN DOING THE WORK OF MINISTRY BOTH WITHIN AND OUTSIDE THE LOCAL CHURCH. ra2studio/iStock W MENTORING WITH WISDOM IN A CHANGING WORLD By Dan Steiner We live in a changing world. The essence of the challenges we face today are not new, but the way they take shape looks different from generation to generation. For example, when I was a kid, our phone was anchored by a cord to a physical location in the house. We progressed to cordless phones, and eventually cell phones. Now, we use smartphones for much more than talking. While many of society's advances have enhanced our lives, significant challenges have also emerged. For example, young people feel relentless pressure to own a smartphone, have a social media presence, and stay constantly connected to their peers. We can even "connect" with people around the globe at any time—but we find ourselves in a loneliness epidemic. So how can we faithfully engage new challenges that neither we, nor those in the generations before us, have faced? Here is where mentoring from wise individuals can play an important role in how we navigate the ever-evolving cultural realities in front of us. In Courage and Calling: Embrace Your God-Given Potential, Gordon T. Smith observes that one of the primary responsibilities of older generations is sharing wisdom with others. This does not mean that a mentor must provide a perfect prescription for a mentee to follow. Rather, a wise mentor can be someone who has walked faithfully with the Lord, is informed by a great sense of hope in the finished work of Christ, and is willing to draw from their own experiences as they imagine with others a faithful way forward through challenges. Walter Brueggemann observes in Mentoring: Biblical, Theological, and Practical Perspectives, "One cannot simply replicate or reiterate old wisdom without recognizing that a leap of imagination is required in order that the wisdom of older experience can be recalibrated for new circumstance." There is freedom in pursuing life together in this way. The pressure to find a mentor who has been in the exact situations and circumstances others find themselves in is removed. The mentor can simply listen well, ask good questions, and provide insight. We know that new challenges will arise. Will we be willing to humbly and courageously continue to engage one another in ways that catalyze such a transfer of wisdom? ENGAGE 15