Living and Dead Mentors

"Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ."

1 Corinthians 11:1

I have been blessed to have many amazing mentors in my life.  From high school, to college, to seminary, to ministry.  Names like Tim Kurth, Bill McClure, Mark Hallock, George Dockery, Marc Galaske, Steve Johnson, Mike Warner, and Andy Veith.  These men have pushed me, challenged me, encouraged me, loved me, prayed for me, and simply been an example to me.

Some of theses people I have personally sought out, others were naturally in my life, like my dad.  In Seminary I was given two mentors: a ministry mentor and character mentor.  In fact, my Seminary tried to specialize in mentor-ships instead of internships.  To be honest, I think mentoring and discipling are lost arts in some ways.  Why has the church and so many pastors given up on one to one discipleship and mentoring?  It's easier to just be ok with mass discipleship and programs.  But we need to do one on one discipleship.

Do you have a mentor?  Do you have someone in your life who you can imitate as they imitate Christ?  Do you have someone saying to you: follow me, watch me, do what I do!  Are you mentoring anyone?  What about discipling someone to know Jesus?

Lately I have found myself mentor-less.  Maybe you're there too.  One of the places I have recently turned to for mentorship are old, dead, pastors.  Three men in particular have been incredibly influential: J.C. Ryle (1816-1900), Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892), and Martin Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981).  All three of these men were pastors, prayer warriors, loved the Word, loved their flock, and taught other pastors well.  I loved Ryle's book Thoughts for Young Men with his whit and high calling for young guys like myself.  But most of all, his illustrations are so spot on.  I'm about 300 pages through Spurgeon's Lectures to My Students (only 200 more to go...).  Adrianne can tell you that I regularly laugh out loud reading him and have to share quotes with her, which she graciously listens to and pretends are interesting to her.  I love my wife.  Spurgeon's thoughts on prayer and a minister's self watch are so convicting and uplifting.  Finally, Lloyd-Jones' book, Preaching and Preachers, has been a great influence on the way I view preaching: "preaching is theology through a man on fire."

Do you have dead mentors?  People whom God still uses to speak into your life and challenge you to obey Christ?  I pray that you do and would love to hear who they are!