Discipleship: Building Leaders for Ark
To address the topic of discipleship, I want to share with you two recent conversations I had with 20-something mentees.
One conversation was with my “Dream Team” - a group 20-26 year olds who met with me to talk about the challenges facing their (and the next) generation and to brainstorm on ways to address those challenges. One of the most significant points of discussion had to do with the importance of intergenerational relationships. A 20 year old college student said, “one of the keys to breaking the negative impact of social media on our generation is to build intergenerational relationships. Some times when I ask my Mom a question she tells me to 'Google it.’ I don’t want Google, I want to talk with her.” This comment points out just how critical it is that in the midst of digital advancement, we don’t diminish the importance of human connection and mentoring relationships.
Another conversation was with two of my mentees on the the topic of healing from trauma (Real Talk about Trauma, Part 1 and Part 2) . At one point, the conversation veered into a discussion about how mentoring/discipleship was an important tool in bringing about healing.
We also talk about rethinking the nature of these type of relationships. Instead of continuing to nurture the “us vs. them” narrative, we need to bridge the gap and see that we are one team, moving towards the same goal, but having different assignments. I wrote about that in Part 3. Here is how that conversation played out in real relationships:
Bridging the generation gap by learning to respect what each brings to the table of relationship is important and necessary, overcoming these divisions is also difficult. What are some the challenges and benefits?
🗣Let’s talk about it!
What are some key things you heard/learned from my conversation with my mentees?
What propels or repels from entering into a mentoring/discipling relationship with a young person?
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