Video Transcripts: Mentor Centers Locally and Worldwide
So you're being mentored, looking for new mentors to help you, and you always will. Or you are a mentor, you're looking for others to help. And you always will. But what about starting a mentor center? Becoming one who organizes a movement of mentoring and education and mentorship and raising up more leaders? Is that a possibility for you? I want to tell you about a great story. I just love. It's a Francis Asbury. He's a great Methodist leader. He recruited men like bi-vocational Minister Richard Allen and many others in his mentor center around the turn of the century in the 1800s. So late 18, or 1700s, into the 1800s. He recruited the ex slave, Richard Allen. It's a great story, Francis Asbury, there's actually Asbury seminary named after him. And what he would do is he would recruit leaders. When they were new into ministry, He and he provided them with the intellectual training needed. When these new Christian leaders were looking for ministry opportunities, he guided them and promoted them to fulfill their callings. And to make the greatest possible impact. The story of Richard Allen is memorable for many reasons, the World Council of Churches estimates the membership of the AME Church at around 2.5 million with 38,017 pastors 21, bishops 7000 congregation. So what I'm saying here is, Asbury created a mentor center, where he mentored and created educational opportunities for bi-vocational people. Some of them ex slaves in America, who one of them, Allen started the American Methodist Episcopal Church, who today has 2.5 million members. I think thatmazing. So think about planting that seed in your heart, that maybe you're called to be a mentor center planter. Let's talk. Let's talk about the concept now of mentorship driven Christianity. In I Timothy 3:14, although I hope to come to you soon, I am writing these instructions so that if I am delayed, you'll know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. Christianity, set up formal structures that you might know how to conduct yourself. When the Apostle Paul was in ministry toward the end of his life, he had intentional thought given to mentors center culture, not just being a mentor or finding someone to mentor but creating organization. Even in Acts we read about the school of Tyrannus. These were places where people were being mentored. Today the mentor center concept goes like this. These centers our local ministries, organizations, maybe a business to start one and churches offer local gathering points could be over coffee, or a ministry brews coffee. These geographic touchpoints remaking the campus of Christian Leaders Institute physically spread throughout the world. Christian leaders is not going to have a physical location. But physical mentor centers started by volunteers like yourself bi-vocational or ministers can become places where the education can be processed, and then mentorship salted In the whole process, I just have a big imagination. And I can imagine the strength of the worldwide movement of Christianity if any local church ministry or Christian led ministry organization created a mentorship environment, what would it be like? I believe there is a new paradigm shift. Colleges, Bible schools in the seminaries have typically been geographically locked down in one location, maybe with a few satellite campuses. What also happens is that even when colleges and seminaries and institutions go online, they often still have sort of the paradigm is a geographic synchronistic paradigm where everybody starts a class at the same time in the class at the same time, that's very expensive. And Christian Leaders Institute is all the applications individually get sent to you individually. But then your responsibility, we believe, is to ground, your educational experience in a mentorship culture, so I can imagine what that'd be like to have a mentor culture, where new paradigms, new partnerships and local areas are created in organizations and businesses. And churches do this as part of their strategic calling to raise up more leaders. So this paradigm shift is so amazing, because Christian Leaders Institute brings high quality Christian correspondence courses and low cost credentials. It's a generosity supportive movement, where you and businesses and others support these being free classes and free opportunities for training. But then, organizations bring mentorship connections and opportunities. Again, it's something to think about to pray about, to plant seeds about where could this go? You know, and I can think of types of mentors centers, you know, study centers and local churches, young Christian leaders clubs. So instead of a college, you know, young person leaders will join study clubs or ministry clubs or business clubs, entrepreneur clubs, other clubs. Now, again, I realize there will still be colleges and seminaries and all that, but I'm just thinking, how do we make the most possible
impact to create the most possible cadre and group of Christian leaders for the Christian movement? I can see elder Deacon training studies. homeschools are amazing opportunities for local family mentor centers, Christian High Schools, I think more and more churches could open high schools. And these high schools can beam in the correspondence classes, and then students can get mentored volunteers can run these schools in churches, very cost effective. Post prisoner training programs. Who knows maybe training programs within prisons someday. women's ministry, training centers, Men's Ministry and leadership groups, bi vocational leaders training as businesses or churches. So you have business leaders lifting up their vibe bi-vocational leaders, for new businesses and new churches, life coach, Minister led organizations I really see endless possibilities. Can you imagine this? You seeding businesses and churches and ministries, through leaders that you've identified that you're helping take that next step? I can just picture. That's what it was like near the end of Paul's life. And when he writes, at the end of his life, it letters to like the Romans and again, not the end of his life, you know what I mean, toward the end of his life. And as he's done years and decades of ministry, I can just imagine him, you know, sending that letter to the Romans and Romans 16 culture. Imagine you are the Apostle Paul and you have spent your life mentoring leaders and creating mentors center where leaders are being developed and churches are being planted. You like the apostle Paul may be able to write a letter like Romans 16. Someday to those you have participated with in raising them up as leaders for revival. Imagine the potential where you're just starting here now. But look what happened. And we are seeing that at Christian Leaders Institute. We are seeing churches start mentor centers, we are seeing businesses that have studies that they can allow people to get their education. We've seen homeschooler on homeschooling families, utilizes correspondence, education and some more leaders. We have seen programs within churches like men's groups, we've seen that now. We've seen internet, mentor centers, encouragement, mentor centers. Truly, there are endless possibilities. You know, in my first church, the motto was endless possibilities. And I used to think to myself, That's a metaphor, endless possibilities, endless possibilities for spiritual growth for raising and more leaders. But today, I see that that we are part of a movement, and we're all part of it. So I'm excited for you excited in what God is going to do through you. Now, I know that that every one of your are going to start a mentor center, everyone of you has been called to mentor others, you know, in a way that has a lot of people involved. But maybe let's just put down to one thing. Maybe it's just you, is you receive mentors from mentorship from others. As you give mentorship to others, maybe one person, maybe that's your little mentor. And that's your life. Or maybe it's on a scale that I can't even imagine where hundreds of 1000s of people will be mentored through the efforts that you lead. I don't know, but I'm excited about the future. God has a plan. And I believe that you are part of that plan.