Future Pastors Need Mentors: What We Can Do Now To Shape Who Comes Next
We all need mentors. With so many voices telling us what to do, it’s vitally important that we have godly, thoughtful, experienced people showing us what to do. Preparing for a life in ministry in the PCA is demanding work—and I’m not just talking about your seminary workload. You need real-life pastoral experience under the direction of a mentor.
I serve as director of field education at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi. Much of my work involves talking to students about their relationships with their pastoral mentors. Since 1987, I’ve mentored men preparing for ordination. While serving on Boston’s North Shore, I mentored many men in the Gordon-Conwell field education program. Before coming to RTS, I employed men pursuing ordination. Mentoring has been a key part of my pastoral ministry.
What follows are my thoughts on what makes a good mentor. While I’m acutely aware of my weaknesses, much of what I know I learned from my mentors and have sought to put into practice, however imperfectly. One of the advantages of my job is that I continue to learn from the superbly skilled mentors who serve our students. As you search for a mentor, what should you be looking for?
Good Mentors Do:
- Introduce pastoral interns to all areas of the minister’s work. This includes preaching, teaching, visitation, administration, assisting with funerals, leading worship, serving the poor, and chairing meetings. Whenever appropriate, I involve interns in pastoral counseling sessions. My goal is simple: when a man arrives at his first church, I want him to have experience in every aspect of pastoral work. Many of the difficulties young men face in their first church arises from inexperience in the common duties of pastoral ministry. I strive to eliminate the unknown.
- Arrange regular preaching opportunities for their interns. Too many men accept an intern position, preach a handful of times a year, and then seek a pastoral call in the PCA without serious preaching experience. Their congregations suffer needlessly from their inexperience. It’s the mentor’s job to provide sufficient preaching opportunities and to evaluate their student’s quality of preparation and sermon delivery.
- Share their work. They take their students on pastoral visits to homes, prisons, hospitals, and nursing homes. They make evangelistic calls with them. They take them to community schools, businesses, and civic clubs, and seek to build goodwill between the church and community. On the way to events, they share what will take place. On the way back, they talk about their visits. When a young man serves as a church’s intern, he must make scores of these visits if they’re to meaningfully shape his future ministry.
- Pray with and for their interns, that they’ll continually cultivate the character and skills necessary for a long and fruitful ministry.
