You are about to embark on an amazing journey of church planting mentorship. Being a mentor to a church planter is as rewarding as it is enriching. Cultivate mentors participate in the great commission by coming alongside prospective church planters to help them fulfill their calling. Churches need planters, and planters need mentors.
Definition
A mentor is an experienced and trusted advisor who will join with the prospective church planter and help them train and grow for the mission ahead. A mentor is usually the pastor of the local host church, but can also be a skilled worker, ministry leader, or pastor’s assistant.
Exciting
When you become a Cultivate mentor you get the unique opportunity to be a part of God’s bigger mission to reach the world through church planting. Although you are not the one who is sent out, you will experience the blessings of church planting by becoming part of the process. By imparting your wisdom and skill, you will make a dramatic impact on the candidate, as well as the future church they are planting. Valuable mentors can be the difference between success and failure. God wants to use your gifts and talents to pour into the church planter and help them achieve kingdom results.
Manageable
We encourage a mentor model so that church planters are trained while serving in the context of a healthy local church. In this way, lessons can be caught as well as taught. Jesus used a mentor model with His disciples, as was the typical rabbinical approach. He spent about 1,000 days with them. Some lessons can never be learned by reading books or taking classes. So, we encourage meaningful service in a local church, either in your existing context or in proximity to the area where you desire to plant.
Cultivate mentors are expected to connect with the potential church planter on a regular basis and provide counseling, training, advice, and direction. This will take approximately 2 hours a week, but mentorship time should be flexible depending on the candidate. We understand that you have many other obligations in ministry, so we want to make this as manageable as possible.
Post-launch the candidates will receive at least one support meeting from the mentor every 1-2 months, and at least one in-person visit. In the second year they will receive at least one support meeting every quarter, and an in-person visit.
We will provide you with all the materials you will need, as well as a coach to work with you in this process. Coaches are valuable resources that can be called upon to offer assistance and guidance in the Cultivate program. They will help you with access to both the required and recommended resources in the cultivate program.
Effective
The potential church planter isn’t called to be a lone ranger. They need assistance at every level, especially in preparation to launch out on a new church plant. Mentors play a valuable and effective role in the new candidate’s step of faith by helping them avoid mistakes, and by imparting effective strategies and policies that they have found helpful in ministry. Mentors let the church planter know that they are not alone.
Summary
Mentors are experienced advisors who join with the candidate in the exciting calling of planting a church. Mentors will spend time with the prospective planter, imparting their wisdom, and training them for the ministry ahead. During the process, mentors will be given access to resources and training materials for the candidate from our Cultivate coaches.
