Kregel Book Review: The Mentoring Church

The Mentoring Church is a book that has been needed for the past 30 years. In the church, we have been so focused on church growth that we have forgotten to look at discipleship and mentoring new Christians to take on the yoke of ministry.

One thing that we forget is that leaders are the beginning of mentorships. The disciples were mentored by Jesus, the early churches by Paul and then the church fathers mentored new leaders. Today it seems that we are letting down the church by not providing good mentorship programs or even that we care enough to mentor our “called to ministry” or new Christians.

The early church lived within community of each other—they grew and shared their experiences with one another. This book goes through a historical survey from the birth of Christ to modern era and we see that there are different aspects to mentoring.

In the 16th Century, we read about the great reformers, John Calvin and Huldrych Zwingli. They stressed training in biblical exegesis; preaching; sound doctrine; and godly pastoral examples. The 17th and 18th Centuries are shaped by the Puritans, the German Pietists; and Colonial American Baptists. We come across names like Philip Jacob Spener, John Gano, and how they manage to mentor leaders in the midst of their faithful labor. By the 19th and 20th Centuries, new leaders emerge in the form of Charles Spurgeon and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Both remained committed to the ministry of the Word and the training of disciples. Contemporary figures mentioned include Mark Dever (Capitol Hill Baptist Church); JD Great (Summit Church); Scott Patty (Grace Community Church); and Al Jackson (Lakeview Baptist Church). After surveying the historical developments of mentoring and learning pointers from each era, Newton proposes four different models for us to consider adopting.

The author concludes with five key observations.
1) Mentoring must be within a congregational framework
2) Mentors speak into the lives of their mentees
3) Mentoring focuses on relationships
4) Effective mentoring is more team based in training
5) Mentors trust their protégés

If I am honest, I think the modern church could take a lesson from the Methodists—to become more connectional and learn that when we don’t know the answers we can find it through speaking one to another.

Overall, I enjoyed this book; I handed it off to another church who also needed to hear Newton’s message. They are going to start implementing some of the strategies for ministry. I look forward to seeing where this leads. I’d give this book 5 out of 5 stars!

Book was provided to me by Kregel Academic for an unbiased review.