One of the books I finally got around to reading this summer was Howard Gardner's Leading Minds. It had been in my library for a while, but I hadn't read it. (There are several books in that category. Its the consequence of a book fetish!)
Gardner makes a distinction between leading directly and leading indirectly. I think we could also apply that distinction to mentoring. There have been several men who have mentored me directly. But there have also been several who mentored me indirectly.
This idea came to me this summer as I began arranging my books on the new bookshelves we added this summer. I have a section in the shelves for the books and authors who had made a significant impact on my spiritual life.
Here are the books that inhabit that special section in my library:
Joe Aldrich, Life-Style Evangelism. This says more about what the church and believers should be, than what we should do.
Gary Friesen, Decision-Making and the Will of God.
Jerry Bridges, The Practice of Godliness and The Pursuit of Holiness.
John MacArthur, The Ultimate Priority. In case your wondering, the ultimate priority is worship. Between this book and Doug Sherman's book, I learned that worship is a "whole-life" concept and that everything we do is to be lived out as an act of worship.
Doug Sherman, Your Work Matters to God; How to Balance Competing Time Demands; and How to Succeed Where it Really Counts. Doug's books helped me to develop my whole-life view of success based on his idea of the pentathlon.
Lewis Sperry Chafer, He That is Spiritual. The best book on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit and what it means to "walk in the spirit."
Philip Yancey, Disappointment with God and The Jesus I Never Knew.
Chuck Swindoll, Strike the Original Match. Still my go-to book on marriage. This is the foundational text for the Legacy Marriage course I developed.
Gene Getz, Sharpening the Focus of the Church. Ahead of his time in calling for a church that is relevant to the culture in which it operates.
Richard Foster, Prayer. The introduction alone is powerful.
Gordon McDonald, Ordering Your Private World; Restoring Your Spiritual Passion; Rebuilding Your Broken World; The Life God Blesses; Mid-Course Correction; A Resilient Life; and Building Below the Water Line.
I consider these books mentors- although from a distance through the written word - just as much as I do those who mentored me directly.
They aren't substitutes for the direct mentors, but they are strong complements.
We need both.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
Catch and Release
Many of my friends – and my son – really enjoy fishing. For them it’s the joy of being on the water early in the morning or late in the evening, patiently casting and recasting. The thrill comes when a fish takes the bait and the fight is on to bring it in.
Successfully reeling it in is always accompanied by some shouting, some bragging, and on a few occasions - picture taking. (Now, I have to admit that these fish all look the same and I have even wondered if it wasn’t the same fish being caught over and over. Or, the same picture being recycled.)
Earlier this summer, I said good-bye to a man I have been mentoring for the last 6 years. It wasn’t really good-bye, but he has moved to Colorado and our relationship will change. And that’s OK.
I have thought a lot about how our relationship has evolved over the last 6 years. In many ways, it can be described as “catch and release.”
I “caught” him 6 years ago when I was serving as Dean and he was making a career transition. He was already a very accomplished author and consultant, but he was new to the academic world.
I invested intentionally in him for 6 years. Like a proud father, I watched with great pleasure as he became a star on the faculty and was named the first winner of a very prestigious teaching award. We wrote several papers together, and just last month submitted our book manuscript to the publisher. It has been a great collaborative relationship, and that collaboration will continue, even at a distance.
Those of us who mentor others understand that these opportunities present themselves for a season. We have people for a season, we make intensely intentional investments in them, and then we release them.
Like fishing: It’s all about “catch and release.”
Successfully reeling it in is always accompanied by some shouting, some bragging, and on a few occasions - picture taking. (Now, I have to admit that these fish all look the same and I have even wondered if it wasn’t the same fish being caught over and over. Or, the same picture being recycled.)
Earlier this summer, I said good-bye to a man I have been mentoring for the last 6 years. It wasn’t really good-bye, but he has moved to Colorado and our relationship will change. And that’s OK.
I have thought a lot about how our relationship has evolved over the last 6 years. In many ways, it can be described as “catch and release.”
I “caught” him 6 years ago when I was serving as Dean and he was making a career transition. He was already a very accomplished author and consultant, but he was new to the academic world.
I invested intentionally in him for 6 years. Like a proud father, I watched with great pleasure as he became a star on the faculty and was named the first winner of a very prestigious teaching award. We wrote several papers together, and just last month submitted our book manuscript to the publisher. It has been a great collaborative relationship, and that collaboration will continue, even at a distance.
Those of us who mentor others understand that these opportunities present themselves for a season. We have people for a season, we make intensely intentional investments in them, and then we release them.
Like fishing: It’s all about “catch and release.”
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