The legendary Andy (sunglasses Andy as he tags himself in comments here) has been musing about Mentors for Youth worker/Ministers .... especially those who are new into role. I have in the past postulated that it would be great to be able to offer a 'Curacy' for youth worker/ministers BUT I recognize that Mentoring is the most realistic support and development possibility.
Andy has been chatting with Oasis, "We love our Youthworker" bods and CYM, as well as some of the Diocesan Youth Advisors and he is the main driver on this so I'd encourage you to be in e-mail contact with him!
But it strikes me that the blog would be as good a place as ever to explore the subject a little, questions like:
1. Do you have a mentor? (How did you end up with a mentor?)
2. Do you mentor a Youth Worker (how did this begin?)
3. Would there need to be a minimum experience/qualification et al set for Mentors?
4. Would mentoring best be served by the current 'system' of "If you want one, go find one" or are there practical network/organisational things that could be put in place?
5. If you are-being/have-been mentored, what has been the most significant benefit?
Legendary? not sure, imfamous closer!!!!!!!
thanks Ian for putting this up.
1: I recognised something of God and wisdom in someone who I had been in contact with, so asked them to be my mntor.
2: Existing networks might be a start, just so that something useful gets off the gorund.
3: go and find one, may not necessarily equal mentor, as you need to be able to be challenged by the mentor, as well as having them big you up. recognition of experience and wisdom, plus dose of thoughtfulness andrelfectveness, as well as understanding of the person concerend always useful.
4: mentoring a couple fo people currently, been asked to by their churches, working out well, as perameters have been set.
5: mentoring worked well for me, as he had access to all areas of my life, not suggesting this should happen for all, but useful for me.
If anyone has further thoughts, or wishes to be involved with me and others for taking forward this idea, do get in touch as we will be pushing this forward over the coming months. and do leave thoughts here also.
Mentoring is very useful in most circumstances - from a 'spiritual director' type to a 'friend'. Many management books can offer good advice but the best ones I have come across is where a) the trust is mutual and b) (as point 5 above) they have access to all areas i.e. personal, spiritual and work related so they mentor you as a person not just an employee.
Tim Schmoyer was involved with a great scheme in the US - details on his site.
The need for ongoing professional development is so important and we are probably at a stage in our "profession" (is that really the best word??) where we have the ability to set up more formal networks in mentoring in christian based youthwork. The biggest difficulty is having enough competent people who can mentor and with some of the great networks around there must be scope for something better.
One of the issues for me is the scope of it - is it in youthwork, youthwork and personal, spiritual growth, all of the above blah blah the list goes on
the relationship between the mentor and the person being mentorred is only at the depth of the erson who is being mentored. they only get out of it what they allow themselves to be exposed too. the mentor can only offer something that is asked or acccepted. at the end of the day, any of us who do any mentoring just offer thoughts, usggestions, questions, ideas, and if the people who we mentor chose not to accept our thoughts, that is down to them. But for a start, for some kind of security for new youth workers as they start out i still think some form of mentoring relationship is a good one.
I had an informal mentor in youth ministry when I first got started. He was the staff person when I was the chair of the youth ministry committee,and taught me much of what I know about YM. I currently act as mentor to a youth worker in a more formal mentoring relationship, and have been doing so for close to two years now.
I believe that mentoring can only happen when the person being mentored wants it to, so legislating it will not be much more effective than simply making people aware of the practice of mentoring when they join the ministry and recommending that they consider finding a mentor.
The most useful thing for me in acting as a mentor has been being called on things in my own life and ministry by the person I mentor almost as often as I've dispensed advice. :)
There are definitely some benefits for a mentor aswell !
a) it can help you rediscover your zeal for why you got into this in the first place
b) get ideas from the mentored on how to change things for themselves (a two way street in US parlance)
c) help you to remember how much you have learned (and sometimes forgotten) over the course of you 'career'.
Its the Japanese adage of valuing experience both for the mentor and the mentored.