Transformational Mentoring for Ministry

Abstract

Over and over again, research has proven that good mentors are essential for the advancement of ministers-in-training. There is significant emerging research on the life-long impact that mentoring has on individuals who are preparing for vocational ministry. This work is written to mentors of ministers-in-training. In this dissertation, I will take a deep-dive into the emerging research. Particularly noteworthy is the work of Dr. Matthew Bloom at the University of Notre Dame study, Flourishing in Ministry. This research has shown that mentors are one of the most important factors in the well-being of a person in ministry (especially early on in the formation of a person in ministry). Role models and mentors shape an individual’s journey into ministry. In this work, I will closely examine four movements of transformational mentoring: selection, shepherding, sponsoring, and sending. In the scriptures we are called into a new way of thinking about mentoring. I have leaned into the words of Romans 12:1-2 in this work. The Romans 12 model cautions us with “do not be conformed” and calls us instead to “be transformed.” Mentoring is not meant to be a model of duplication that leads to repetition of the same patterns. We are called to live outside of the predetermined mold and to live into transformation. Transformational Mentoring is the process of mentoring people to become that which we may not yet be able to see or know. They become more fully the person that God has created them to be, and in the process they learn to use their unique gifting in their ministry—they begin to flourish. Transformational mentoring allows an individual to fully be the person God has created them to be without the pressure of being duplicated into a particular expected mold. When a person is being transformed, they begin to live outside of the expectations imposed upon them, and they begin to see themselves through God’s lenses. For one to flourish in ministry, they must be invited into a process that allows for transformation to occur. Transformational mentoring allows God’s presence and power shape a person. Thus, creating something new and beautiful and healthy and flourishing.