The most amazing discovery I made as a mentor was stumbling on this idea of mentoring in a group. Duh.
Jesus figured it out 2000 years ago, yet, most mentors (including me for a long time) don’t get it. We stay in our comfort zone – getting together for coffee and letting some young guy treat us like a sage. Show me when Jesus ever did that!
I’m going to talk about my selfish reasons for mentoring in a group in the next chapter. But here, I want to hit on why it’s more powerful for the mentees to be mentored in a group.
Symbiosis… remember that?
Definition 1: Interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association, typically to the advantage of both.
Definition 2: A mutually beneficial relationship between different people or groups.
Have you ever sat in a coffee shop with a group of people and have the caffeine kick in all at the same time? Remember how one person would say something that stimulated a thought from another person who added that to the dialogue? On and on, energized conversation would build on itself. Time flew by. You didn’t want it to end. Well that’s never happened in one of my mentoring groups! (But it could).
The point is that we stimulate each other intellectually. We stimulate each other spiritually. When one person comes clean with something he’s been holding back, everyone in the group connects with them because they’re battling the same things. When one person “poses” and keeps a game face on, rather than face up to a truth about himself, the other members see through that and call him out. That never happens when mentoring is one-on-one.
Other people who’ve been through mentoring small groups together tell me they found friends there who will go with them for the rest of their lives. Peers loving peers. Iron sharpening iron.
Sound familiar?
