Why Mentorship Is Important: Lessons From the Influential MentorChikamu

Mentorship Is Modeled

“If you leave him here long enough, I’ll have him cutting the grass with me,” I remember that statement like it was yesterday. I was ten years old and my mom had just dropped me off at Mr. Hunter’s house. That day began a forty-year mentorship relationship that still exists today. Mr. Hunter mentored me, discipled me, and even helped me preach my first sermon in his living room.

In John 1:35-37, Jesus is beginning three years of powerful ministry that would culminate in His death on the cross. As Jesus is starting this ministry, John the Baptist recognizes that He is the promised Messiah and points the men that he had been mentoring and discipling to Jesus. In this passage, John the Baptist does what a mentor should do: he models to them what a true disciple should look like. The true essence of a mentor is to model what Jesus has placed in them so that their mentee will do the same in the life of others. John the Baptist modeled what he had learned from God, even when he knew that his time was up. John prepared the way for the Lord, and he knew that it was time for Jesus to start his earthly three-year ministry.

Howard Hendricks, who was a Dallas Theological Seminary professor, is renowned for mentoring some of the greatest Christian leaders of our day. During my two years of researching and writing about him, the number one quality that stood out to me was how he modeled what he taught in small but incredible ways. Hendricks had the opportunity to mentor leaders like Dr. Tony Evans, Robert Jeffress, Jennie Allen, Andy Stanley, and hundreds more. When I look at the list of people that Howard mentored, each one of these men and women is diverse and unique in their own gifting. However, when I asked them what they admired about Howard, the most consistent answer was that he had clearly modeled Jesus to them. Each of them is now living out their own perspectives of what Hendricks taught them in their ministry for God.

In reading John 1:35-37, consider this: are you investing your life deeply in Christ so that those you are mentoring want to follow the Jesus that resides inside of you?