MENTORING :know what you teach, teach what you know
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
There seems to be a fine line today between being seen as someone who has the credentials to teach a subject and someone who actually knows what is going on with something in the real world. There are many different scholars who can quote passages of scripture who have absolutely no concept of how to apply that knowledge to life situations.
In the service I saw so many young commanders who were at the top of their class in an academy who cracked under the real pressure of leading men in a combat situation because they had a form of knowledge...a head knowledge of what they had learned to do in a classroom, but no practical knowledge or understanding of it's use in real life. Because of the lack of experience when the text book situation and application for what was learned no longer worked the officer no longer was of any value on the field of battle. I have heard in my life that" when someone has an ability they do; and if they cannot do they teach." I think the problem with much of our Christian faith deals with that adaptation to reality. We cannot afford to have mentors that themselves get lost in the world around them. That does not mean that we cannot find ourselves in difficulty or temptation because we all suffer under the same conditions, but we do need to have a source where we too can find help.
For each of us who do get into mentoring someone else we need to find a person whom we can count on to be our mentor as well at times. If for no other reason than to bounce things off of someone else to keep them straight within our minds we need that accountability. Another factor in this is actually teaching only what you know personally about Christ rather than trying to make something up to make self look better and impress someone. We need that personal experience testimony from people who can relate to the pain of what we go through in life. That cannot be had by reading about it, and so many people are quoting from this book or that book about the experiences of others. We need real and honest experiences that we can use in life to help others...they don't have to be fantastical or soul stirring things, but they do need to be real experiences that we have had in Christ. I believe that we fail so much of the time to reall savor those things that are perhaps small in our eyes , but which are none the less experiences that we can use to help others see how real God is to us. If He is real to us then what we share with someone else will be real as well. Knowledge is a key that we can use to unlock God's will in another's life, but we need to know what we are teaching, and then we need to teach those things that we personally know to be true. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
There seems to be a fine line today between being seen as someone who has the credentials to teach a subject and someone who actually knows what is going on with something in the real world. There are many different scholars who can quote passages of scripture who have absolutely no concept of how to apply that knowledge to life situations.
In the service I saw so many young commanders who were at the top of their class in an academy who cracked under the real pressure of leading men in a combat situation because they had a form of knowledge...a head knowledge of what they had learned to do in a classroom, but no practical knowledge or understanding of it's use in real life. Because of the lack of experience when the text book situation and application for what was learned no longer worked the officer no longer was of any value on the field of battle. I have heard in my life that" when someone has an ability they do; and if they cannot do they teach." I think the problem with much of our Christian faith deals with that adaptation to reality. We cannot afford to have mentors that themselves get lost in the world around them. That does not mean that we cannot find ourselves in difficulty or temptation because we all suffer under the same conditions, but we do need to have a source where we too can find help.
For each of us who do get into mentoring someone else we need to find a person whom we can count on to be our mentor as well at times. If for no other reason than to bounce things off of someone else to keep them straight within our minds we need that accountability. Another factor in this is actually teaching only what you know personally about Christ rather than trying to make something up to make self look better and impress someone. We need that personal experience testimony from people who can relate to the pain of what we go through in life. That cannot be had by reading about it, and so many people are quoting from this book or that book about the experiences of others. We need real and honest experiences that we can use in life to help others...they don't have to be fantastical or soul stirring things, but they do need to be real experiences that we have had in Christ. I believe that we fail so much of the time to reall savor those things that are perhaps small in our eyes , but which are none the less experiences that we can use to help others see how real God is to us. If He is real to us then what we share with someone else will be real as well. Knowledge is a key that we can use to unlock God's will in another's life, but we need to know what we are teaching, and then we need to teach those things that we personally know to be true. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
Comments
Post a Comment