Pop-culture is full of entertaining but overblown, unrealistic models of mentorship, especially from the 1980s. Yoda and Mr. Miyagi come to mind. Both represent other-worldly, almost gnostic wisdom desired by inexperienced youth with concrete problems. The distance between mentor and mentee conjures false images of what mentors should be and where people should expect to find them. Sometimes we go looking for a little, green Jedi halfway across the galaxy when perhaps we should connect with people much closer to us and our work.
At least Dave Blanchard, co-founder of Praxis, suggests something like that. In Faith & Leadership’s interview with him this week, he discusses the role and importance of mentoring in their organization. Praxis is a nonprofit that supports social entrepreneurs who are compelled by their faith to start and develop service-based organizations. Within this field, Blanchard thinks the best guidance often comes from experienced practitioners who are only a few years ahead of their mentees, currently grappling with questions that these young social entrepreneurs will likely face in the near future.
We’d also like to know about your approaches to mentoring. For folks in mentoring and leadership roles: How do you understand yourself as a mentor? How do you make mentoring a part of your Christian vocation? Are there practices within your organization, school or church that cultivate mentoring relationships? For folks seeking mentorship: How do you look for mentors? What are the characteristics you’re looking for in a mentor and what do you expect from them?
For more on this topic, see Jason Byassee’s post, “Mentoring people with books.”
Benjamin McNutt is the editor of Call & Response. You can follow him on Twitter at @benjaminmcnutt.
