Introduction

Two weeks ago I introduced my sermon with some scary statistics showing how rotten and corrupt the church in America has become - especially the leadership. And we saw that many of those fallen leaders lacked the characteristics that Jesus exemplified in verses 5-11 - especially His humility. Scripture presents humility as an absolute prerequisite to exaltation, and it is extremely dangerous to elevate a person to a position of responsibility if he doesn't have humility. The greater the elevation, the greater the need for humility. God trusted Jesus with the greatest exaltation in the universe because He was the most humble human in the universe.

Then last week Gary spoke on how impossible it is to be a light bearer if we are not in the presence of God's light - not just in devotions, but throughout the day. When we walk in the light, God begins to produce profound changes within us. The Spiritual disciplines are not do-it-yourself disciplines. They must be grace-saturated disciplines.

Well, that brings us up to verses 19-30, where Paul presents us with two models of leadership that exemplify those qualities as well as other critical leadership qualities. I will look at Timothy today and (Lord willing) Gary will look at Epaphroditus next week. And the beautiful thing about these two examples is they show us that it is possible for sinful humans to become model leaders by God's grace. Some people excuse their shortfalls by saying, "Hey, I'm not Jesus." But these two men are models of leadership for all of us. And models need to be imitated. So even if you are not a leader, these are characteristics that all of us should strive to grow in. This is not just a sermon for leaders. Kathy and I sought to cast a vision for these things in our children as they were growing up. And I will try to apply this sermon practically to where you are living at.

Though Paul trusts Timothy, his ultimate trust is in Jesus (v. 19a)

But I want to start by pointing out that even though Paul trusts Timothy and sees him as a model leader, his ultimate trust was not in leaders, but in Jesus. He begins his discussion of Timothy by saying, "But I trust¹ in the Lord Jesus..." Where is Paul's ultimate confidence? Even though Paul does have confidence in Timothy, Paul knows that human leaders can let you down. So Paul's ultimate confidence is in Christ.

One commentary summarized the first phrase this way: "As servants of Christ Jesus (1:1), Paul and Timothy did not make plans without seeking the direction and approval of the Lord."² So that first phrase is not a throw away phrase. It is critical for both leaders and followers to fix their eyes on Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith. Without Him we are toast. We cannot do it on our own - no matter how gifted we may be.

Why Timothy was a model leader

But Paul immediately moves on to let the Philippian church realize that Timothy is indeed a model leader that all of them could imitate. And there is nothing complicated about this passage. It is simply a good listing of leadership qualities that all of us should aspire to, and that we should expect in our leaders. Let's go through each one.

Available (v. 19b)

First, Timothy was available. That may seem so obvious that it hardly needs mentioning, but since Paul mentions it, I will too. He says that he plans "to send Timothy to you shortly." Up to this point Timothy had not been available for this task. Paul had needed Timothy for some work in Rome, so Timothy was totally tied up. But Timothy would soon be freed up and available to go to Philippi.

And availability is something we should look at when selecting leaders for tasks. They may be willing to do it, but perhaps the timing is not right for them. Sickness, a death in the family, a family crises, a military draft, or any number of things can providentially hinder a person from fully serving in a church. That's not a demerit for the person at all. It's just a reality. Has God freed up that person's time for them to truly be available to engage in the calling for office that they are in or that they aspire to? I know that a couple of the deacons have been absolutely swamped, and we should be sensitive to that. We all have seasons of life.

Encouraging (v. 19c)

The next hinted characteristic is given in the next phrase, "that I also may be encouraged when I know your state." Paul knew that Timothy would bear news in a way that would be encouraging and uplifting. We know elsewhere that Timothy encouraged both Paul and the saints in many ways. He was not a gloomy person who cast a dark shadow on every room that he entered. He was the opposite. For example, Paul expressed his confidence to the Thessalonians that Timothy would be a great encouragement to them when he says, "we... sent Timothy, ...our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you and encourage you concerning your faith." Paul elsewhere describes Timothy as being so full of God's joy that that joy radiated into the lives of others - including into the life of Paul. One time he told Timothy, "I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy" (2 Tim. 1:4 ESV). "I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy." If Paul were here today, could he say that about you? Every time Paul was around Timothy he was encouraged. Church leaders should aspire to be encouraging to their flock and to each other. Parents should aspire to be encouraging to their children and to each other. Bosses should aspire to be encouraging to their employees and to the fellow leaders at the work place. The gift of encouragement is a wonderful gift and reflects the presence of Christ within us. Obviously there is a time for correction and serious talk and even for rebuke, but the question I have is, "Does your overall disposition tend to be an encouraging one? Or do you cast a dark shadow on every room that you enter?"

Like-minded (v. 20a)

The next characteristic was that Timothy was like-minded with Paul. It's a very interesting Greek word. The Greek word is ἰσόψυχος, which literally is like-souled. And even that definition doesn't fully capture the meaning of the term. Commentators point to other places where this unique word refers to having similar heart-burdens, vision, and ways of thinking. In other words, Timothy and Paul were on the same page for their ministry goals and ideals. And if any of you have an NIV Bible, several commentaries have pointed out that the context does not allow for NIV's translation - of there being no one like Timothy. The comparison is not Timothy to other people, but Timothy's heart-vision to Paul's heart-vision. Many in the church at Rome didn't share Paul's heart, his vision, his principles, and his way of thinking. And that wasn't necessarily bad. Several commentators point out that the first statement in verse 20 didn't necessarily disparage all of the other leaders in Rome, but it just meant that they weren't a good fit for Paul's team, and thus they weren't available to do what Paul needed Timothy to do. Paul had a unique mission that required unique people. So Paul says, "For I have no one like-minded..." or "like souled."

Let's apply this to modern missionaries. You might wonder why missions boards do so much vetting of missionary candidates. They know from experience that this point is critical. Missions teams (and really all ministry teams) should look beyond competencies when selecting members. They need to see if the new people who want to join them are a good fit in terms of personality, vision, goals, and burdens. I think all of that is involved in the meaning of that term "like-souled." And the more dangerous the missionfield is that the team faces, the more critical it is to apply this qualification to the missionaries. And thankfully, most mission boards nowadays recognize this and have made this a top qualification. Having grown up on the missionfield, I have seen numerous problems out there when this qualification was ignored. I’ve known missionaries who were otherwise qualified but were not like-minded with the team, and there were constant battles of the will on what vision, what tactics, what priorities, what money should be spent, and what directions the team should go. It's just a reality of life that teams should be like-minded. Otherwise they really aren't a team.

And that is true of churches, families, and jobs as well. It's especially true of marriages. People who get married based on feelings, romance, and good looks alone are later surprised that it takes them a long time to get a cohesive vision. I don't expect every family to have the same kind of radical vision that Kathy and I have had throughout our marriage. Both of us turned down otherwise qualified spouses who were very interested in us, but both of us turned those opportunties down because we knew God's calling on our lives, and it was not until we met each other that we knew it was a match. When you are looking for a spouse, do your search through the perspective of God's call upon your life. Of course, you need to understand what God's calling upon your life is.

And a lot of times elders boards don't think about this when they recruit members. They see an incredibly gifted person and they know that they need co-laborers, so they add him to the team, but down the road they realize that the tensions of not being on the same page make them less efficient, not more efficient; they are getting less work done, not more work done. And this is true of seeking a business partner, or bringing someone on to any team that has decision-making authority. Far more important than competencies are being like-minded or like-souled. Competencies can usually be trained (usually), but like-mindedness is essential for direction and cohesion of the team. I'm not sure that I would have been a fit on Paul's team. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I would not have been fit. I doubt Paul would have accepted me. I love Paul's vision, but I am not called to do the kind of kamikaze missions work that Paul was called to. So hopefully this issue of likemindedness makes sense. Rejecting a person from a team is not necessarily to disparage the person rejected. He's just not a fit for that team, and may need to be encouraged to be involved in a different area of ministry or work. So if you are rejected at some place of employment, don't necessarily take it as a negative thing.

Sincere (v. 20b)

OK - the next qualification is sincerity. This too is important. Verse 20 goes on, "who will sincerely care for your state." Sincerity is a quality of open transparency that has nothing fake or artificial about it. You don't want elders or deacons who are fake. You can put up with all kinds of personality differences, but sincerity is needed for transparency between the team members and transparency of the members of the congregation with their leaders. I am so thankful that Gary and I have a total transparency between us because we both share this desire of wanting to be sincere and transparent with each other and with the church. I think you can see how on a dangerous mission like Paul was on, this would be super-essential. But sincerity is an important qualification for any ministry team to be fully effective.

Caring (v. 20c)

And the same phrase shows that Timothy cared for the church deeply. I think every word in this paragraph is important. And I will hasten to say that most of the leaders of the church in Rome had this quality of caring. They cared for their own congregations, but they also cared deeply about the Philippians, as can be seen by the greetings that Paul had sent from them earlier. Yet the leaders of the churches in Rome weren't on Paul's ministry team because that called for an extraordinary measure of caring across churches and caring for the lost, and caring for the broader church as a whole. But it should be obvious that all on a ministry team should have a heart burden for the people that God has called them to care for. It's not a job - it's a calling to minister to hearts. And nowadays there are plenty of theologians on the web who are very smart, but it is pretty evident that they care more about their theology and winning arguments than they do about people. Both theology and caring for people are important.

Unselfish (v. 21a)

The next characteristic is given in verse 21 - "For all seek their own..." or as some translate it, "their own interests." Paul had already said in verse 4, "Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others." When selfishness creeps in, people have a hard time sacrificially doing the tasks that God has called them to do. All church ministry involves sacrifices of our own comforts so that the church as a whole will prosper. Some people are quite willing to serve if such service is easy, or if the people they serve are easy to get along with, or if such service somehow benefits their own interests. But Paul and Timothy were quite different. Because they saw themselves as being first and foremost bondslaves of Christ, it was easier for them to unselfishly be a bondslave of others.

But some people wonder who the "all" in this verse are referring to. Walter Hansen asks the same question in his commentary. He asks, "When he says 'everyone,' does he mean the entire population, all Christians, all eligible candidates among Paul’s circle of co-workers..." or some other group? After giving contextual clues on why the earlier groups could not have been meant, he concludes that,

By everyone he must have meant those he had already described as preachers of Christ out of envy, rivalry, and selfish ambition (1:15–17). They are the ones who look out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. This limitation of Paul’s reference to everyone works well in the context of the letter and sets up the contrast Paul draws between Timothy’s genuine concern for the welfare of the church and the selfish ambitions others.³

And several other commentaries concur.⁴ There were preaching elders in the church of Rome who lacked this characteristic of church leadership, and it created problems for Paul and for others. And Paul adds this observation so that every generation will consider this to be an important ministry qualification. When you are looking for people to put into leadership in the church, ask yourself in what specific ways they have already shown a real care for people that is practical. Pastoral work is not just about good preaching. It's about deep care for the sheep of Christ - and especially intercessory prayer.

Christ-centered (v. 21b)

The next characteristic is "Christ-centered." Verse 21 again: "For all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus." I gave an entire sermon on this in verses 5-11 of this chapter, so I won’t expand on this too much. But I pointed out in that sermon that even respected leaders in various denominations have successfully hidden their secret sins for years because they were not Christ-centered. This is an absolutely critical characteristic of good team members, but sadly, it only becomes apparent when difficult times come that truly test the person - which is the next point.

Tested/proven character (v. 22a)

Verse 22 begins, "But you know his proven character..." There is one Greek word that is translated as "proven character" (δοκιμή), and it is used of metals tested in the fire.⁵ It sometimes takes fire to test the purity of gold and silver, and when it comes out the other side of the fire it is said to be δοκιμή - or authentic, genuine, or fully tested. And God often uses real-life-fiery-trials to purge the character flaws out of our lives. By the way, this is why elders should ordinarily be older. That’s what the word elders means. It usually takes time for them to be tested by the hard knocks of life. Timothy's character had been proven by the fiery testings that came through the difficult ministry of working in the dangerous situations that Paul was in. He had been proven to be a trustworthy leader. Paul was not about to put a person straight out of seminary into a leadership position. That's usually a recipe for disaster. in fact, having trained their own children is elsewhere stated to be another essential of eldership. Any of you who have had children know that children can be one of those testing grounds, right?

But I love the way Paul words this. It shows that Timothy learned on the job. God and Paul tested Timothy's character by having him go with him on all kinds of difficult assignments. It's not enough to be a good leader when everything is hunky dory. Testing in real life situations is an important part of leadership qualifications. It's when trials come and conflicts come that the character of a man is proven. Let me quote from Precept Ministries. In one of their books they said,

Ray Pritchard adds that dokime means "to be approved by passing a test. It has the idea of demonstrating under pressure that you have the “right stuff.” How did Timothy prove himself? By sticking with Paul through thick and thin. By volunteering to tackle the hard jobs. By refusing to cut and run under fire. By doing the menial tasks, the “dirty work” so that Paul was freed up to do what he did best. Note that this kind of “proving” doesn’t happen overnight. Too many people want “instant” spirituality and overnight maturity. God doesn’t work that way. Producing Christian character takes time and effort. Here’s a simple equation:

T + D = G

T = Time, D = Discipline and G = Growth.

[And I will parenthetically insert here that this is why Gary and I keep pressing the book Spiritual Disciplines on all the men that we mentor. It's a good book for women too. But leaders especially need to be tested and have proven character on those spiritual disciplines. Anyway, back to this quote from Precept Ministries. It says, "T + D = G. T = Time, D = Discipline and G = Growth."]

This formula works in every area of life, whether it be weight lifting, piano playing, Scripture memory, or learning to speak Ibo. Nothing worthwhile can be conquered in one evening. You can’t “blitz” your way to spiritual leadership. You’ve got to do what Timothy did — put yourself under a good leader and then pay the price over time. When will we learn that God is not looking for superstars? We already have too many superstars in the Christian world – people who build their careers on hype and glitz and marketing pizzazz. God wants faithful people who have proved their worth over the long haul...

Remember … you can buy talent, but you can’t buy faithfulness.⁶

And I say, "Amen!" All of us should be willing to be tested in the fires of God's providences. Too many Christians get discouraged and want to give up when the going gets tough. But consider that those tough times may very well be God's testing of your character. Sam talked about this in his devotions at the men's prayer breakfast - that we need to have a God-centered perspective on the difficult things we go through. We need to be asking, "What is God doing in my life through these things?" Timothy was tested and came out with a proven character. So was Epaphroditus - the leader that Gary will preach on next week.

Willing to be mentored (v. 22b)

But of course, all of this assumes the importance of the next qualification - a willingness to be mentored. The next clause says, "that as a son with his father he served with me in the gospel." This shows that Timothy's training was not simply an academic one. In biblical times, sons often learned their trade from their fathers, working side-by-side with them. It was a hands-on mentorship that came from both learning and doing. That's a wonderful model of mentorship. Do you really want all of your children to come out of training looking similar to you? If not, you still have more things to work on in your own life. God really designed us to learn a lot by imitation. And if mentors are not willing to be transparent about their failures and successes, we short-circuit that training process.

Now, since Paul likens his mentoring to "as a son with his father," I want to make an application directly to you fathers. Fathers who work away from home today often find it difficult to impart this kind of mentorship in their children because they don't have nearly as much time to do so. But if you are transparent (an earlier qualification) you can still be open with your children about your successes and failures, how you learned certain lessons, and other experiences that have helped to shape your character. Just talking openly about those things is a kind of mentoring. Even if you don't have lots of time with your children, you can still pass on a lot to your children. Mentorship requires such transparency about our past failures. We want those that we mentor to avoid the mistakes we made. Amen? (At least I do.) But that can only happen if you are open about how God gave you the victory over your past failures and how God is continuing to grow you out of your current issues that you are working on. So that's my application to parents.

But certainly this is an important thing for preparing ministry leaders. Seminary can prepare you academically, but it can’t prepare you to be a good pastor. Max Anders says of this verse, "Every young minister needs a senior mentor as his ministerial father."⁷ Jay Adams says, "That is the way older and younger ministers of the gospel should pair up."⁸ That's certainly the way Jesus trained the apostles. Let me give you five things that good mentors do.

1. First, they are intentional in selecting who they will invest in. Obviously pastors invest in everybody on some level, but I’m talking about intensely investing in people who might be officers. Obviously a pastor can't invest in everyone to the same degree. He simply can't. He doesn't have the time. So if that pastor is going to pass on the baton, he will need to be very intentional on who he selects.
2. Second, teaching must be coupled with doing. This can be done by working on projects together, or having the mentoree work with others on projects together, praying together, and working on ministry together. Note that the text does not say that Timothy served, or even that Timothy served Paul. That was certainly true, but the text says, "he served with me in the gospel." You can only mentor a person in serving if they are enabled to serve with you in the ministry.
3. Third, this implies that mentors must trust their mentorees with more and more independent responsibilities if they are to be truly tested. That means trusting their mentorees to make mistakes, and then to gently correct them and mature them and help them to succeed the next time. And that will show if they are easily correctable.
4. Fourth, the mentoree needs to be given opportunity to train others who are equally teachable. Paul mentored, and he had all of his team members mentor others who were not yet where Paul's mentorees were. Which in turn meant that Timothy's mentorees needed to eventually begin to mentor. Families can do this with their children. A father or mother mentors his or her child, and little by little teaches that child to mentor one or more of the younger children on what it means to clean the floor, wash the dishes, and do other household chores, and other household ministries, or even how to nurture and care for a sibling who is hurting. You train that kind of nurturing. How in the world is a child going to be prepared to be a good mother or father if some of these characteristics are not already being put into their lives when they are quite young? So mentor your children to mentor the younger children.
5. And fifth, there must be honesty, vulnerability, and transparency of the mentor's own life struggles and successes. Failures are part and parcel of ministry, and the more transparent a mentor is with the one that he is mentoring, the easier it will be to turn those failures into successes.

And by the way, all of you can mentor someone. I’ve already mentioned that children can mentor those who are younger than them. And mentoring doesn't have to be formal; it really doesn't. It can be a situation where a mom asks if she can come over so that her kids can play with the other mom's kids while she helps the second mom with cleaning or organization in the house. And in the process of serving in this way, there will be all kinds of opportunities to informally share your life with another person who will hopefully benefit and grow. The other mom can learn from you on how you train and disicpline your children - just by watching you, or hearing you tell how things went the day before. I learned a lot about parenting by watching other parents disciple, discipline, care for, instruct, admonish and do all the other things that a good parent does with their children. But if they had not allowed a single guy into their home to see that, I would not have had the opportunity to grow. I give kudos to the elders and others in the church I was a member of in my twenties. They were so good at that. So hospitality is a fantastic way to informally mentor others as they watch your leadership in your family. Keep in mind that Paul says "as a son with his father..." These principles are common to life.

A servant (v. 22c)

But I want to comment on the fact that Timothy and Paul had servant hearts. Paul says, "as a son with his father he served with me in the gospel." Both served together just as parents serve together with their children. It's not just deacons who are called servants. All elders must have this qualification if they want to honor God in the ministry. But parents pass on a servant's heart by being servants. But since Paul especially has ministry in the church in mind, let me quote from a pastor who has served in a church for thirty years. He said,

Some men want to get up and preach, but they are not all that interested in serving. Ask them to get up on the platform and speak, and they are all over it. Ask them to fix a toilet, and suddenly they are really busy. There is a long line of men who have their eye on the glamorous aspects of the ministry, but they don’t have a servant’s heart. Some tasks are beneath them. Not Timothy. He took the posture of a slave.⁹

I love that! But being willing to serve isn't just seen in menial jobs. It can be seen in caring for a person who is going through pain, inviting someone over for dinner and hospitality, protecting a child from the abuse of another child, writing a letter to a senator about a bill that could negatively impact the community - like many of you do. Those are inconvenient things to do. They take the sacrifice of time and energy. But they also show a servant's heart. So there are many ways to serve. This is precisely why our church has always given opportunities for people to not only receive hospitality, but to engage in hospitality, and to take turns setting up here at the church meals. Hospitality is a fantastic service opportunity.

Anyway, radical servanthood is obviously not a popular subject nowadays. One of the books that has been a best seller for the last quarter century is a book called Boundaries. And that book would have basically told Timothy, "Hey man, you've got to put boundaries in your life. You need to learn to say "No" to Paul once in a while. Don't be too vulnerable or you will get betrayed and hurt." Timothy didn't buy into that philosophy. When you look at the life of Timothy, you realize that it was a life of self-sacrifice. In Hebrews 13 Timothy was in prison, about to be released, at which time he was sent on to his next assignment. What's with that?! He's just gotten out of prison, but he was sent on an assignment to the recipients of the book of Hebrews. But God had placed that service burden within Timothy's heart, and that's what made him such a great leader. In the 25 times we see Timothy in the New Testament, he is either staying in an unpleasant place or doing some very hard work. And someone might wonder, "What about Timothy's aspirations, dreams, goals, and recreation?" Well, he had aspirations, dreams, goals, and time off, but his life revolved around serving Jesus. That's what Christianity is about. We have been bought at an incredible price, and knowing the sacrifice Jesus made for us, we gladly serve Him as His bond-slaves. He’s purchased us. So because Timothy loved Jesus, he poured out his life for others. A servant heart is an essential qualification for ministry office.

Gospel focused (v. 22d)

But that ties in to the next phrase, "he served in the gospel." Timothy was Gospel-focused. Serving in the Gospel is not just preaching it; it is also living it. It is being grace-saturated in everything that we do. But there is more to it than that. When you remember that you were headed to hell and that God saved you by shedding His own blood, it makes you want to serve Him and never forget the incredible sacrifice that Jesus made for you. The Gospel-centered life interprets everything we do (whether relationships, work, ethics, recreation, or societal issues) through the filter of this gospel-reality - that we were blood-bought and are here to serve Jesus. It helps bring an eternal perspective to what we do. It removes complaining and replaces it with gratefulness. It makes us rely on God's grace in everything that we do. But obviously it also includes sharing the Gospel with others so that they too can have what we have. Leaders who are not always Gospel-conscious are imbalanced. And parents, if you are to avoid behavior modification with your children, you need to constantly help your children focus on the cross. You can train rats to be obedient. We trained rats through behavioral modification in science class to do all kinds of things. That’s not remarkable, but you can't make rats love Jesus. You want your children to grow up with a passionate love for Jesus.

Works well with other leaders (v. 23)

The last characteristic of Timothy was that he worked well with other leaders. Verse 23 says, "Therefore I hope to send him at once, as soon as I see how it goes with me." Timothy was working with Paul in Rome while Paul was under house arrest, and in Romans 16:21 Paul calls him, "Timothy, my fellow worker." And I have verses in my notes here that show that Timothy worked well with Silas (Acts 17:15; 18:5; etc.), Erastus (Acts 19:22), Silvanus (2 Cor. 1:19; 1 Thes. 1:1; 2 Thes. 1:1), and many other leaders (Acts 20:4). A person can be a theological genius, and an organizational wizard, but if he can't work with other leaders without creating constant tension, that is not good.

Note that while Paul delegates to other leaders, he does not abdicate his own responsibilities (v. 24)

But the final thing I will say about this passage is found in verse 24, which says, "But I trust in the Lord that I myself shall also come shortly." Paul never sent Timothy on tasks that he himself was unwilling to do. Paul was either in prison at this point or under house arrest in Rome (and most people think he was under house arrest). Either way, he didn't know what the outcome of his court trial might be. But this verse indicates that he wanted to do the same thing that he was sending Timothy to do. And you can see that attitude in many other passages of Scripture. Paul never gave tasks to others that he himself was unwilling to also do. Leaders who are unwilling to do what they are asking others to do are not good leaders. This is true of parents, its true in business, church, and everywhere.

Conclusion

Well, you can see that these six verses contain a lot of convicting stuff. They hold out a pretty high calling. And you might think that this is beyond you. Well, cheer up! It is beyond you. It was beyond Timothy. But it was not beyond what God's supernatural grace can produce in us. We need to memorize Philippians 4:3, which says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

In conclusion I would like to give two challenges:

1. First, I want you to evaluate which of these virtues in Timothy's life that you need to grow in. Put an x beside them and then put those things into your to-do list to work on by God's grace. You won't consistently grow if you don't maintain a list of items that you are constantly working on. So that's the first challenge.
2. The second challenge is this: Find a mentor and be a mentor. A mentor doesn't have to be an officer or even someone who is far more mature than you are. You can approach a person who excels in just one or two things that you don't excel in, and you can ask them if they would advise you, pray with you, and encourage you to grow in those one or two areas. And actually (as I've already mentioned), it doesn't even have to be a formal mentorship program. In fact, some of the people who have mentored me over the years (or even now) didn't realize that they were mentoring me. They might have freaked out if I had asked them to mentor me. But even as a pastor, I know that I can still learn from others - and even others in this congregation. I've learned a lot from you. So I have just hung out with the person and as I have gotten to know them better, I have asked strategic questions, and in the process I have grown by learning how they have excelled in the areas I have wanted to grow in. Or it may be that I was touched by an action or statement that they have made, and it has made me want to excel in that area. They didn't think they were my mentors, but they were. I'm not going to tell you who they were - there are quite a few people actually. The point is that mentorship doesn't have to be formal. You just have to seek out those that you can learn from. And in similar ways, you can seek to be an example to another person without telling him or her that God has called you to mentor them. It doesn't have to be formal. But make it your goal to have a mentor and to be a mentor throughout your life. I've made it my goal to never stop growing till the day that I die, which means that I need to be mentored and need to mentor others till the day that I die.