Spiritual Mentorship

In America, we spend billions trying to get physically fit. We hire personal trainers to work with us one on one to educate, encourage, and push us to reach our goals. When you join the gym, they tell you the key to a successful workout program is using one of their personal trainers. Personal trainers are paid to be with us at our worst in hopes that we will change. They see our weakness, but they also see what we might become if we continue to meet with them. We need people like this in our spiritual lives who have this kind of dual-vision, seeing the present and the future at the same time so that we can press on in hope. Having a spiritual mentor is a personal trainer for the spiritual journey.

A mentor can give us perspective in a confusing situation, guide us deeper into Scripture, and answer our theological questions. But even more, it is a personal relationship in an increasingly non-relational world where we are actually cared for, pushed, praised, and kept accountable.

In college, the Director of Campus Ministries took me under his wing and mentored me for several years. Through formal mentoring and just spending time together, he made a tremendous impact on my life and spiritual growth. He taught me that God is gracious, faithful, and desires a personal relationship with me. It wasn’t so much his words that taught me this but how my mentor reflected the character of God in his own dealings with me. While I think it is important for mentors to guide mentees into deeper knowledge of Scripture, the investment a mentor makes in another person reflects the reality that God is also pursuing a deeper relationship with us and is calling each of us to fulfill the purpose He has for us in His Kingdom. Without his investment in my life, I am not sure I would have cleared the hurdles of my own personal doubts that were hindering me to become what God intended.

At CPC, we have trained spiritual mentors waiting to invest in your life. Mentors meet weekly or every other week to talk about your spiritual life, study God’s Word, and pray together. God uses people to shape us and transform us “so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). The truth is that we all need mentors in our life. There isn’t one of us who couldn’t benefit from having someone walk alongside us in this journey.

Are you ready to invest in your spiritual journey? It’s time to get a personal trainer for your soul. For more information about obtaining a spiritual mentor, contact me at 952.920.8515 x308 or jamesm@cpconline.org.

JAMES MADSEN serves as Director of Community Development

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