A wise leader does not entrust his follower with a task he has not first prepared him to receive. He gradually trains and releases over time and with great care. The mentoring approach of Paul to Timothy exemplifies this slow and deliberate process. The art of mentoring is on display when a mature mentor releases responsibility and authority to a mentee in a wise and timely manner.

Paul’s last two missionary journeys were a training ground for Timothy. He absorbs Paul’s teaching and way of life during these years.  He was able to observe the fruit of those who receive Paul’s gospel ministry and the pain of those who reject and persecute him. The third component of Paul’s mentoring of Timothy reveals the intentional release of Timothy to minister on Paul’s behalf to strengthen churches.  There are at least three examples of Paul’s incremental release of Timothy.

The first example is found in his experience with the Thessalonians.  One of Timothy’s first ministry assignments took place in Acts 17:10-15.  Having spent time with Paul in several cities in Macedonia during the second missionary journey, Timothy and Silas receive a charge to nurture the young church Paul had begun in Berea.^[1] An additional assignment came from Paul, following his time in Athens, for Timothy to go to Thessalonica in Macedonia. Paul shares his reasoning for sending Timothy to the church in I Thess. 3:1-2. He writes, “Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, ² and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith.” Paul language implies he trusts Timothy as a “brother” and “God’s coworker” in gospel work.  The word used to describe Timothy’s work among the church is to “establish” and is a word which means to “fix firmly in place, to set up, to support.”^[2] The work was also to be done in a close way as the word “exhort” communicates a sense of proximity and a “call to one’s side”^[3]  Timothy would be engaging in the same kind of “exhorting” he experienced under Paul’s mentoring.  In I Thess. 3:6, Timothy reports back to Paul as a faithful messenger.  The Thessalonian assignment was of utmost importance to Paul because he knew their hardship.  Not just any minister would do, he would require a faithful ambassador, like Timothy, for such an assignment.  In his book, Epistle to the Thessalonians, Charles Wannamaker comments on the importance of this task.  He writes: 

Timothy’s work of confirming and encouraging the Thessalonians in their new faith had an important purpose, namely, helping them to face and endure the oppression that they experienced as a result of their conversion to the Christian faith. In his concern that not one of his converts be lost Paul had sent Timothy back to Thessalonica.^[4]

The trust of Paul toward Timothy for such an assignment conveys Timothy’s growing maturity and Paul’s desire to give him greater responsibility and authority. 

A second example, which proves to be more challenging, is Timothy’s assignment to the church in Corinth. In Acts 19:22 Paul sends Timothy and Erastus to Corinth.  Three times he mentions Timothy in the letters to the Corinthians (I Cor. 4:17; 16:10-11; II Cor. 1:1).  The assignment anticipates some resistance to Paul and Timothy as his representative (I Cor. 4:14, 18). This anticipation reflects Paul’s confidence in Timothy to accomplish a harder assignment.  Eventually, Paul would reach Corinth and wrote to Romans mentioning a positive greeting from Timothy (Rom. 16:21).  

A final example is Paul’s assignment of Timothy to be a leader in the church of Ephesus after his first Roman imprisonment. Paul and Timothy spent time together in Ephesus during his second and third missionary journey.  It was a longer span of time than many other places that they ministered together.  In Bibliotheca Sacra, it says, “When Paul, on his third missionary tour, tarried a long time at Ephesus, Timothy was with him.”^[5] Following his time with Paul, Timothy would eventually be sent by Paul back to Ephesus to lead the church.  The Scriptures do not explicitly say Timothy was the overseer of the Church of Ephesus, but there is biblical and extrabiblical evidence that he was a leader of distinction in the church and a fellow Elder in Ephesus.  First, Paul charged Timothy specifically in the Pastoral Epistles to defend the church against false teaching (I Tim. 1:3) and to hold onto the prophecies made about him regarding his faith and calling (I Tim. 1:18-19).   Second, Paul also reminds Timothy that he is set apart as a leader by the existing Elders through “laying on of hands” (I Tim. 4:14, 2 Tim. 1:6).  Finally, extrabiblical evidence also suggests Timothy was a leader in the Church of Ephesus. In Bibliotheca Sacra, it says, “According to church tradition, Timothy was the first bishop of Ephesus. From the First Epistle to Timothy, we merely learn that the oversight of the church at Ephesus was committed to Timothy by the Apostle, a similar office to that exercised by the apostles over the Christian churches.”^[6]

The amount of time Paul spent with Timothy in Ephesus, the incremental release of responsibility and authority over time, and his later charge to Timothy to function as a distinguished leader among the Elders effectively demonstrate Paul’s intentional and incremental mentoring approach.

Pastor’s must consider Paul’s example of training and releasing when they are mentoring others. It takes time, trust, grace, and much patience to develop leaders in the church.

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^[1] “Introduction to the Pastoral,” Bibliotheca Sacra 8 (1851): 320. https://www.dts.edu/bibliotheca-sacra/article-url.

^[2] “Introduction to the Pastoral,” Bibliotheca Sacra 8 (1851): 321–322.

^[3] W. Stanley Outlaw, “Commentary on the Books of 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy & Titus,” in 1 Thessalonians through Philemon, ed. Robert E. Picirilli, First Edition, The Randall House Bible Commentary (Nashville, TN: Randall House Publications, 1990), 167.

^[4] William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 945.

^[5] William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 764.

^[6] Charles A. Wanamaker, The Epistles to the Thessalonians: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1990), 129.