Levels and Stages in a Mentoring Movement

Can or should there be some measurable indicators of a national mentoring movement?  When can we say that a movement has begun?  How can we know where we need to invest time, energy or other resources to enable a movement? How can we know when a country has a firmly established movement?  What follows is an initial attempt to respond to these questions.

Normally, it helps to have measurable ministry indicators in most contexts.  They help us know where we are in the process, where we need to go and when we can say that we have arrived.  This can be applied to the goal of establishing a national mentoring movement.  What follows is an initial attempt at identifying such indicators and key steps in the process of working toward them.

The rather objective and straightforward ideas that follow are in creative tension with the mushiness and messiness of a movement.  If the creative tension is not maintained, we will have wine (vision and values) without wineskin (practice and structure) or vice-versa.  Both are needed, even though both have a tendency to challenge and even threaten the other.  What is being elaborated here are possible wineskins that will enable the wine not to be lost.

1. Levels of mentoring movements

Allow me to suggest that the heart of the vision of biblical movements begins and ends in the local church.  The priority given here to the local church comes from Christ’s promise to build his church and the priority of the apostles and prophets to work in and through the local church.  While the Kingdom of God is broader than the church, the church continues to be far and away the most complete expression of God’s Kingdom in the here and now.  If the mentoring movement within God’s Kingdom does not substantially affect the pastor and leaders of local churches, it is probably not a movement that will last.

A mentoring movement can be tested in the “fishbowl” of the local church.  Its validity, strength and value for being reproduced and extended can be established.  As it flourishes, it will become contagious in reaching other pastors and churches.  As the movement grows to each new level, its growth should be reflected in the numbers of pastors and churches joining the movement.

1. Local church: if at least three circles of people are committed to mentoring, the mentoring movement has begun.  This includes both horizontal (reciprocal or mutual) mentoring and vertical mentoring.  If 20% or more of the church are practicing mentoring, the movement is firmly established in the church.1  When all is said and done, the “proof of the pudding” is what is happening in the local churches.
   
   
2. City: the movement moves beyond the local church to affect a network of pastors or churches in a city.  When it spreads to at least three city-wide networks, the movement has begun to reach the city.  When at least 20% of the pastors and churches of the city are involved, we can say that the movement is solidly established.
   
   
3. State: when three of the most influential cities in the state each have at least three networks of pastors who are mentoring key leaders in their churches, the movement has begun to reach the state.  Again, when at least 20% of the pastors and churches in the state are involved, we can say that the movement is solidly established.
   
   
4. Region in a country: a grouping of three or more state-wide networks in a region.
   
   
5. Nation: the movement has begun to reach the nation when at least 20% of the states in the country have reached the minimal (beginning) level.  This normally flows from three or more regional networks in a nation.  A nation-wide movement is fully established when 20% of the pastors and churches are part of the mentoring movement.

At the same time that this vision flows from the local church, it can be developed simultaneously at all five levels, each level being synergistic with the other levels.  Strategies for developing a movement beyond the local church include:

1. Mentoring clinics for reaching pastors and leaders.  Target group: pastors and their 4-6 key leaders.  Result of such clinics: pastoring pastors groups in which the vision, value and practice of mentoring is cultivated and extended.
   
   
2. City and state-wide consultations for denominational leaders and leaders of pastors’ councils and associations.  Target group: pastors and leaders who are responsible for overseeing or caring for fifty or more pastors.  Result of such consultations: seed sowing, possible mentoring groups among this level of leaders and the adaptation of mentoring clinics or training to each of their contexts.
   
   
3. National (and international) consultations of denominational leaders and others who influence or are responsible for pastors.  Target group: pastors and leaders who are responsible for overseeing or caring for hundreds of pastors.  The result of these consultations would be the same as that of city and state-wide consultations: seed sowing, possible mentoring groups among these leaders and the adaptation of strategies and methods for passing on the vision, values and practice to their denominations, organizations or networks.

2. Expanding Spheres in Mentoring Movements

In each of the above levels, we can identify four expanding spheres that begin with 1) a leader and pass on to 2) a leadership team, 3) a broader leadership group and finally 4)reach a large part, if not the majority of the target group.  These spheres are visible in the local church as well as in city, state or national denominational levels.

1. Leader: A key catalytic and influential leader who gains the vision and practice, becoming committed to mentoring and being mentored.  In the local church, the best person in this regard would normally be the pastor.
   
   
2. Team: This leader mentors a team who gains the same vision and practice.  In the local church, this might be the pastoral team.
   
   
3. Leadership group: This team mentors a broader circle of leaders who in turn mentor the next level of leadership.  In the local church, this could be the pastoral team mentoring leaders who mentor leaders (Eph 4.11-12; 2 Tm 2.2).
   
   
4. Broader members: the entire leadership helps to mentor, pastor or shepherd the members of the target group.  In a local church, this will normally be through ministry teams and small home groups.  If these groups break into permanent sub-groups of 3-4 people every week, relational mentoring or shepherding will permeate the whole church (Eph 4.13-16). 

3. Stages of transition or change

Literature about change has identified five stages that people go through in adopting new habits or ideas. 

1. Pre-contemplation: when a person or group has not even thought about changing.
   
   
2. Contemplation: beginning to think about changing and passing through some initial new experiences.
   
   
3. Preparation: plans and serious attempts to change.
   
   
4. Action: active and systematic efforts to change.
   
   
5. Maintenance: once a change has been successfully instituted and incorporated, maintaining the new pattern (and avoiding returning to the old).

These five stages will occur in each of the four spheres indicated above.  A leader will go through them and then, if he/she is wise, will draw his leadership team into them.  Together they will develop a strategy that reflects these stages as they pass on the vision, values and practice to the over-all leadership and with their help reach the final sphere, which includes all the members of the target group.

While the above may seem technical or theoretical, it communicates a number of important truths.  Firstly, a movement requires one or more dedicated leaders who will work long-term with a specific target group.  It takes considerable energy and time to develop a movement, usually requiring synergistic efforts coming from multiple sources.  Secondly, as was pointed out near the beginning, movements and organizations are somewhat antithetical and yet need each other if either of them is to survive in a healthy way.  The creative tension is indispensable.2  Lastly, the above complexity should make us realize that we are lost unless we continually walk in the simplicity of Christ and the anointing of His Spirit.  They are the source of the new and renewed wine without which the wineskins become barren hurtful representatives of something which once had life, but now inhibits and works against that very life.

Return to the main page about catalyzing a pastoring of pastors movement, or learn about Joshua as a model of a leader of a movement.

1 Some would argue that ten percent is a better parameter throughout this proposal.  We might say that with 10 percent, the movement is established.  With 15-20 percent it is very firmly in place.

2 See my article “The Difference between a Movement and an Organization”.