Mentoring is a Must

Older women must train the younger women is a major ingredient of women's ministry (Titus 2:4).  There is no way around it. Why? That little word "must." The Greek translation is exhort earnestly, admonish,  a call to duty. It's a very strong word.  Whenever God uses the word "must" in that tone we need to pay attention, it is a health and vitality issue.  This isn't a suggestion, this isn't a "do this" on a list of "to do's." It is a command, straight from the Throne of God, and the very health of the women's ministry depends on it. 

It is a "must!"

Training up the younger women, speaks of mentoring and screams of mothering. 

We have an obligation to the next generation.  We can teach them performance type task, however in a few years those type tasks, those how to do this and that will be obsolete.  For instance, it wasn't to far back we used to have overhead projectors and transparencies for singing our hymns, before that was the red back hymnal.  Now we have screens, overhead projectors even live streaming to ipads all over the world.  This "must training" is about developing character and heart in the next generation living in the midst of a society that offers so many options and mind-blowing technological advances. It is about modeling before them strengths and attitudes that are timeless.  

We are to say "my ceiling will be your floor." 

courtesy of istockphoto.com

This "must train" mandate means we are not letting the next generation have to reinvent the wheel.  We are to leave them with a legacy.  We are to blaze some trails for them, pave some paths, remove some obstacles and give them a leg up.  This means training them to take what we have and go with it, in their unique way. We are to give them everything we got, to completely pour it all out even to the last drop, give them every chance to succeed.  This "must train" means we are to show up in heaven empty.  When God asks you what you did with your life, you can say "I couldn't bring it with me, so poured it all out on those girls you sent me." You give them your everything, they are going to need it.  

Train to live victoriously in their moment.

Things are moving fast for them, and each wave of new technology makes the last wave look prehistoric. Let's take a look at a couple of things just to make this clear, texting has replaced phones and internet has replaced TV. Texting means no face to face time, communicating openly and honestly during conflict and misunderstandings is going to take creativity.  TV time used to be family time (bowl of popcorn and the wonderful world of Disney), before that dinner time was family time, before that harvesting was family time (kids stayed home from school for that). How can we train them to live victoriously in their moment if we don't understand what their moments will be? What will life for them look like when we are gone? And what can we train them in to overcome the obstacles that are coming their way? How can we model being a powerful woman of faith in the midst of crisis and success?

We are to fight for them.

There is a gap between the generations and God is implying in the "must train" that gap be closed completely.  There is a word for that, intercession. We need to stand in the gap for them, without judgement and with a whole lot of mercy and grace. We need to fight for them.  We need to fight for them in our prayer closet, in our messages, in our outreaches.  How can we fight for them when they seem so unreachable, so far away, so independent and so self confident?  We look for common ground, common battles. We have a mandate to show them how to fight the good fight, which means we need to show them the power of God through His Word. As you pray over them, speak over them, walk with them you are giving them a front row seat to Holy Spirit power in action.  Train them to fight for their families, their friends, their employers with faith. We can train them to take their best shots with what they have by modeling it.  When they know we are for them, they will be open to connections. What is worse than being "uncool" to them is being fake.  Intercession is where the rubber meets road, it's where you say what you mean and mean what you say.  It is your commitment to fight for the relationship.  You see they have a 1000 friends on Facebook, but really, how many of those friends will go the distance with them? 


for related post check out:
Mentoring for the Future
Google has replaced Mentors


In today's church culture what does mentoring look like? Is it being done by the youth department or the women's ministry department? Leave a comment.