The title is correct. I am writing this paper on mentoring – a part of the big picture of the internship program that our group has created. It will be hard for me to just stick with the topic of mentoring but I will do the best that I can.

The mentoring part of this program falls into the relationship category. Before I get too far into this paper I guess I need to state what exactly mentoring is, because it must not be confused with discipling.

Both of these (mentoring and discipling) involve instruction based on a relationship. "But discipleship involves a call, a direct invitation from the teacher that borders on a command." The word disciple means "learner." Discipleship is usually narrowed to focusing on the spiritual dimension, by always asking the question, "How does this relate to Christ; how does following Christ affect my personal life, my work, my relationships, and so on?"

Mentoring (while centering around Christ also) is more about initiation than instruction – "bringing young men into maturity." The word protégé (another word for one being mentored) comes from the Latin word meaning "to protect." "The mentor aims to protect his young charge as he crosses the frontier into manhood." The key word here is "relate." Mentoring is all about men relating with younger guys (traditionally younger guys).

Reading this far one might be wonder, "Why is mentoring important, and why in an internship program?" Since mentoring is actually an initiation process (in this case helping young adults transfer out of their "high school" mode and into a higher level of maturity), then the students need someone who they can relate to to help get them through this difficult time of transition.

The decisions that are made during this time in a young person's life will drastically affect the rest of their lives. So then, mentoring seems like the right thing to do in order to mature into the man or woman God has made them to be.

Another reason mentoring takes place is so a person who has an awesome relationship with their Savior can share with others what Jesus has done in their lives (personal growth and maturity) and what they could do to have their own unique relationship with their personal Savior. Doing this the mentor should always keep in mind that he is mentoring his protégé so that the protégé can turn around and do the same to someone else (ministry of multiplication). This is important so that the mentor does not have any selfish motives.

We see how the ministry of multiplication works by the example of Barnabas. "By mentoring Paul, Barnabas had a profound impact on numerous cities and countless people throughout the ancient world. His legacy shows that a mentor's influence affects not only the protégé’s life, but every life touched by the protégé."

The question arises, "Who will be the mentor to the interns?" Well, if there is one primary leader of the internship along with two other leaders, that gives the program three people to be mentors. This is the best practical way of mentoring in an environment such as this. Of course the interns would get a chance to work along side other leadership positions in the church as part of the practical ministry portion of the program.

Since a young person will only do what he really wants to do, the mentor must help him find out what it is he really wants to do. Once found the mentor should "fan the flame." Casting vision in the interns is something that is so important to do. They must believe that they are capable of anything through Christ. Vision is usually something that a young person lacks coming right out of high school, so an integral part of the mentoring is to see past the facts of the reality of the intern's life and look at the truth of their God-given potential.

Vision is what is going to keep any person focused throughout their life. With a lack of vision life begins to seem pointless. I mean this seriously because I have been through times such as this.

It will be the leaders’ job to preach vision very strongly to the interns so they will learn to find direction from God to live out their life according to His plan.

My idea is that through this program mentoring will be taking place in and through almost everything that is a part of the internship. If this is the case, formal mentoring will for the most part not take place. One thing I can see though is the leader doing periodical "check-ups" with the interns to see where they are spiritually and to find out their vision and what they are doing to help birth it. I got this idea from one of my friends whose pastor does this with the whole church. His belief, which I find to be very accurate is to do these "check-ups" in order to know his flock. This is mentoring as well as pastoring at its best.

I believe that mentoring and accountability groups are some of the greatest ways to get people on the right track with God. When people are in youth groups they have a constant influence of the Lord. They have a place to learn about God and be able to keep accountable when they face trials in their lives.

I believe that youth groups are one of the best things that a young person could have in their lives. There is a problem to all of this though. That is, what happens to the young adults after they leave the youth group? I have seen people come out of youth group with fire in their hearts for God and after a time fall away into sin. They lose that constant source of God that youth group provided and without it they have no Godly influence on their level. Yes church is always good for them, but it is not enough. For one it is not directly focused on their personal level of life that they are dealing with, and second usually they are just another face in the crowd of people that are at the church.

Young adults at that time in their lives are very vulnerable to the attacks of the devil. They need up close and personal attention. They need someone who will be a constant influence in their lives. That is why mentorships and internships are a key. They bring the exact influence that the person needs at that time in their lives. It helps the young adults to be stretched and grown into the adults that they need to be. It also trains the people to be effective leaders in the church.

So now that we have the young adults involved with the mentoring and internships, how do we keep them motivated and on the right track. Just because they are in mentoring groups doesn’t mean that they are automatically going to be perfect Christians. They make mistakes just like anyone else. How do we keep them coming back to God when they do mess up. The way to keep them on the right path is simple, and that is accountability.

Accountability is where you meet with a person or a group of people to talk about the situations that have been going on in your life and the things that are wrong and you need to work on. In our lives we face many different kinds of trials, and everyone has their own weaknesses that they need to overcome. For some it could be lack of discipline and for others it could be something more personal. But the fact remains the same that we all have problems that we need to conquer.

Strongholds in people’s lives are some of the biggest setbacks that keep people from accomplishing what they have set out to do. God has a plan for each and every one of our lives. He wants us to succeed in all we do, but we, as humans are imperfect. We make mistakes that set us back and may even keep us from accomplishing Gods plan. The only way to overcome this is to find the imperfections in our lives and ask God to help us remove them. We need to ask for discipline and perseverance so that when the strongholds arise we are able to overcome them.

For instance I know a guy that had a problem with procrastination. He would put things off until the last minute. He did this in many aspects of his life. One of the main ones was his schoolwork. He had a habit of turning in his assignments late, or at the last minute. Because of this he wasn’t able to get all he could out of his papers and homework because he had to rush through it to get it done before it was too late. His grades also suffered because he was always marked down for turning things in late. What this student needed was a change in his heart and attitude.

This very much applies to mentoring groups and internships too. In these groups there is a lot of responsibilities put upon the people involved. It is very easy for them to become overwhelmed from all of the responsibility. Plus if they have anything in their lives that are not righteous, the devil could easily use this to discourage them and make them feel like giving up. This is exactly where accountability comes in into practice.

There are many kinds of accountability today. There are different kinds for different people. Each person has specific needs that must be met, and each one of them needs different ways to handle those problems. Over all there are two types of accountability groups. There is the one-on-one, and the group setting.

The one-on-one is usually done with a young adult and the mentor. By mentoring in this fashion you are able to become more personal with the mentor. Because of the way it is set up you are able to share more of the deeper issues that you have in your life that would be more difficult to do in a big group setting.

The key to having this sort of accountability is to be totally honest and open with your mentor. You have to let him know all of the problems you have in your life. In this way he will know exactly what he has to work on. If you are not transparent with him, he will not be able to fully help you. More than likely the mentoring program will flop, because you were not willing to change.

When you and your mentor do figure out the things you do need to work on what usually takes place is that the mentor will give you encouragement that the problem can be solved. Then he will give you counsel on how to deal with your problems. At the end of the meeting the mentor will most likely assign you homework that you are to take home and accomplish throughout the week.

For instance I had a friend that was trying to become totally on fire for God. The thing is he had a horrible time with his devotions and prayer life. This was totally keeping him from being close to God because he did not have that everyday personal relationship with God he needed. He told his mentor about it, and he agreed that it was a key to having that personal relationship with God if he was going to grow spiritually. To solve this problem the mentor had him go out and purchase a spiral notebook to keep track of what he prayed for and what he read in the Bible that day. By doing this, the mentoree was not only able to keep track of what God was showing him, but also the mentor was able to see if he had done his devotions every day.

There are going to be times that the person being mentored is going to fail. That person needs to understand that when they do that there is forgiveness involved. They need to realize that they will be held responsible for the mistakes that they made, but that they are also forgiven and need to learn from their mistakes' rather than beat themselves up over it.

In everything that is involved in a one-on-one accountability the most important thing besides God being the center of it is honesty. With that key element you will be able to take this kind of mentorship far, and really grow a lot from it.

The next kind of accountability is in a group. This kind is more for the internships. In internships there is usually a group of young adults under a staff of teachers. The internships are usually split up into two years. The first year is teaching of the basics. The second year is more involved in ministry, kind of a preparation for the ministry. In these two years there is a lot of stress and demands put on those people that are involved in the internship. It is easy for these people to get overloaded and burned out. When this happens people tend to get discouraged and start to give up and start slacking. This is one of the points where accountability comes in.

The way that the accountability is set up in the internship is that the instructors will split the group into smaller groups and then have them be accountable to each other. It is not usually this easy though. You cannot just number off the kids and then assume they will be accountable. It takes a lot more work than that to make the groups. What you have to do is observe the interns for a while to see what they are like. Then you have to decide which ones would work out best for each other. Try to find people that are dealing with the same issues. That way they will be able to better relate. It is up to the discretion of the people in charge if they want to make the groups co-ed. Personally I would find it better if they where separated into groups of girls and boys. That way the groups will be able to be more personal with each other without worrying about embarrassing the opposite sex.

There is a whole different approach to accountability in these kinds of groups. Instead of it being a kind of counseling session what these groups will need to do is a little different. The interns still share the things they need to deal with, but instead of trying to deal with every problem they have, they will pick specific problems at a time. In this way the interns will be able to set reasonable goals and accomplish them one by one instead of trying to change their entire life and getting discouraged in the process.

The interns are not supposed to take on and solve each other's problems in their accountability groups. Instead, when a person shares they have messed up in some area of their life they are supposed to pray for that person and be an encouragement to them. In this way they will not be stressed out by other people’s problems because they have taken them upon themselves. Plus this takes it off the hands of the interns and puts it in the hands of God.

Internships and mentoring groups need to be a big deal for all churches to have. They have helped out so many young people get through those toughest years in their lives. It is a necessity to have a godly influence when you make those life-changing decisions at that age. Mentoring and accountability groups are a definite way to go for that to happen. To make the mentoring and internship groups successful we need to have accountability. Accountability might seem like a little part of it all, but without it, it is nearly impossible to make a group successful.

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