You Can Mentor: A Christian Mentoring Podcast You Can Mentor: Faith-Based Mentoring for Churches, Non-Profits, Youth Ministers, and Teachers

Mentoring can come in all shapes and sizes.  It can come when it's least expected or it can be intentionally sought out by either the mentor or the mentee.  It can be as simple as meeting intentionally with a student in your neighborhood on a regular basis, or partnering with a local non-profit mentoring organization to pour into one or more students at the same time.  Each mentoring relationship is unique, but the specific type of mentoring relationship tends to have similar characteristics and dynamics as other relationships of the same type.  This week, Zach and John hop on the pod to discuss the differences and similarities in characteristics and dynamics of mentoring relationships in a one-on-one, group, and organizational setting. 
Purchase John's Book:Mephibosheth! The Search for Identity, Purpose, and Community
Purchase the You Can Mentor book:You Can Mentor: How to Impact Your Community, Fulfill the Great Commission, and Break Generational Curses
youcanmentor.com 

Everybody has a unique personality.  Their life experiences, worldview, and socioeconomic status influence how they interact with other people and relate to one another.  That personality in turn affects how a mentor interacts with their mentee: their "style" of mentoring.  Some are encouragers.  Some are challengers.  Some are networkers.  There's many different styles of mentoring, and they each have their own unique strengths and weaknesses.  This week, Zach and John hop on the pod to talk about the different "styles" of mentoring, why mentoring is a team sport and not just something you can do on your own, and "style week".
Purchase John's Book:Mephibosheth! The Search for Identity, Purpose, and Community
Purchase the You Can Mentor book:You Can Mentor: How to Impact Your Community, Fulfill the Great Commission, and Break Generational Curses
youcanmentor.com 

Every mentor has a different story.  They come from different backgrounds, experience different things in life, and can bring unique elements to the table in a mentoring relationship.  The organization they get plugged into for support also affects the ways in which they mentor through different trainings, mentoring philosophies, and equipping.  That's why asking a mentor their why is so important.  Each mentor has a different reason for pouring into the next generation; to volunteer their time to help guide a child into adulthood.  Recently, You Can Mentor had a series hosted by the editor asking each of Forerunner Mentoring's coaches what their "why" behind the job was.  This week, John takes it to the next step to bring fresh perspectives in.  De'Onte Garrett, the Director of Mentor Connect at the Mentoring Alliance in Tyler, TX joins him to discuss his childhood, the mentors that poured into him growing up, and his why behind mentoring.
Connect with The Mentoring Alliance:https://thementoringalliance.com/
Purchase John's Book:Mephibosheth! The Search for Identity, Purpose, and Community
Purchase the You Can Mentor book:You Can Mentor: How to Impact Your Community, Fulfill the Great Commission, and Break Generational Curses
youcanmentor.com 

Effective mentoring means being in it for the long haul.  It means continuing to show up and pour into the mentee, even through the hard times, offense, and dry spells.  It means doing whatever it takes to meet the needs of the mentee.  Mentoring well means showing constant, sacrificial, self-less love for the mentee.  But effective mentoring is also draining.  Continually showing up like that can drain everything you have; especially when you don't feel like you're starting to see any fruit from your time with your mentee.  That is why longevity in mentoring is important.  It's how you can continue to press in when mentoring gets difficult.  Coach and Athletic Director Lanny Williams joins John this week to talk about the mentors in his life, the lessons he's learned in mentoring about longevity, some stories of kids he's impacted reaching out years later to thank him, and how we, as mentors, can set ourselves up to be in it for the long haul.
Purchase John's Book:Mephibosheth! The Search for Identity, Purpose, and Community
Purchase the You Can Mentor book:You Can Mentor: How to Impact Your Community, Fulfill the Great Commission, and Break Generational Curses
youcanmentor.com 

Offense, or taking things personally, is one of the most common tactics the Enemy uses to tear down relationships.  When somebody feels hurt in a relationship, their tendency is to pull away and isolate, which then leads to an even greater rift between the two parties.  This is true for all relationships, but mentoring relationships have the tendency to experience this on a much more frequent scale.  Oftentimes, the mentee is testing the relationship to see exactly how much the mentor will tolerate before they leave.  Because of this, it's so critical that a mentor can navigate the mentoring relationship without taking offense; because offending things WILL happen.  Zach and John are together on the podcast this week to talk through the dangers of taking offense, some practicals on how to avoid becoming offended in the mentoring relationship, how to stay in the mentoring game for the long haul, and what it looks like to focus the relationship on the main things.
Purchase John's Book:Mephibosheth! The Search for Identity, Purpose, and Community
Purchase the You Can Mentor book:You Can Mentor: How to Impact Your Community, Fulfill the Great Commission, and Break Generational Curses
youcanmentor.com 

Most mentoring relationships come to an end at some point.  Life circumstances change, you or your mentee move away, or some other event occurs that makes it impossible to continue the formal mentoring relationship in the same way.  In doing so, however, ending a mentoring relationship can be a challenge, especially when the mentee has a history of struggling with feelings of abandonment.  You, as the mentor, become just another person in a long list of people who have abandoned them.  So how do you navigate that?  How do you set your mentoring relationship up for success and communicate to your mentee that you leaving has nothing to do with them and that you still love them?  Zach and John take on this issue in today’s episode where they discuss the challenges that ending a mentoring relationship well can face and how to navigate those challenges.
Purchase John's Book:Mephibosheth! The Search for Identity, Purpose, and Community
Purchase the You Can Mentor book:You Can Mentor: How to Impact Your Community, Fulfill the Great Commission, and Break Generational Curses
youcanmentor.com