Pastors need personal mentors.  According to recent research from the Barna Group, in 2023, only 49% of 523 pastors under the age of 45 felt well-supported by someone close to them.^[1]  When asked how often they receive personal spiritual support, either from a network of peers or a mentor, only 19% of pastors were able to answer several times a month.  This number fell from 37% in 2015.^[2]  Lifeway Research reveals similar results in their 2022 Greatest Needs of a Pastor Study.  Of the 1200 pastors in the survey, 2 in 3 say they face stress in ministry and half deal with discouragement regularly. They found that younger pastors are more likely to deal with stress and discouragement.^[3]  These studies reveal a need for spiritual mentoring, especially for younger pastors in the local church.  In another Lifeway Study, some 77% of protestant pastors identify developing leaders and implementing a mentoring process as a great need.  In that same study, 75% of U.S. pastors reveal their openness to receiving advice or counsel from other pastors who have faced similar challenges.^[4] These findings expose the desire of many pastors to begin a mentoring ministry in their local church and a willingness to receive guidance from a mentor. 

There are varying expressions of mentoring. Formal and informal mentoring are two approaches to accomplish personal leadership development. In some churches, formal theological training for leaders is available, but informal and guided experiential learning in the form of personal mentoring is also essential to producing qualified, competent leaders. In their book, With: A Practical Guide to Informal Mentoring and Intentional Disciple Making, Alvin Reid and George Robison distinguish between formal and informal mentoring.  They frame the formal experience in terms of regular gathering for teaching and accountability with others in a group.^[5]  Informal mentoring is accomplished by involving mentees in the normal aspects and patterns of a mentor’s life.  These authors argue this is the most effective means of mentoring. They write, “Informal mentoring allows the mentees to see their mentors as they live life- how they respond to people, circumstances, etcetera. But it also lets mentees see mentors for who they are.”^[6]  

An example of informal mentoring in the Scriptures is that of Paul to Timothy.  In a series of blog posts, I will contend that Paul’s mentoring approach to raising Timothy up as a leader includes nurturing a person relationship with him, sharing life alongside of him, training him in an incremental way, and releasing him to multiply into other leaders.  Furthermore, I will expand upon these four components by considering the history of the word “mentor”, its biblical meaning, some modern spiritual definitions of mentoring, and through examining the mentoring relationship of Paul and Timothy in portions of Acts and the Pauline Epistles. 

Consider these Mentoring Resources

1. Keith Anderson. Spiritual Mentoring: A Guide for Seeking and Giving Direction.
2. Chuck Lawless. Mentor: How Along-the-Way Discipleship Will Change Your Life.
3. Bill and Howard Hendricks. The Transformational Impact of Godly Mentors. 

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^[1] Barna Group, The State of Pastors: How Pursuing Today’s Church leaders are Pursuing Resilience and Stepping into a Hopeful Future.  Vol. 2. (Ventura: Barna Publishing, 2024), 52. 

^[2] Barna Group, The State of Pastors: How Today’s Faith Leaders are Navigating Life and

^[3] Lifeway Research, “The Greatest Needs of Pastors Study,” January 24, 2022,Leadership in an Age of Complexity. Vo. 1. (Ventura: Barna Publishing, 2017), 20. https://research.lifeway.com/the-greatest-needs-of-pastors-study/

^[4] Lifeway Research, “U.S. Pastors Identify There Greatest Needs,” January 11, 2022 https://research.lifeway.com/2022/01/11/u-s-pastors-identify-their-greatest-needs/

^[5] Alvin Reid and George Robison, With: A Practical Guide to Informal Mentoring and Intentional Discipleship (Nashville, TN: Rainer Publishing, 2014),29-30.