Although he may look serious most of the time, his smile was always warm. Indeed he was very caring as well. I give thanks for such a nice teacher. What amazed me more was that there have been more than 1000 people joined the Facebook memorial group dedicated to him. As I read through the comments posted on the group, I have nothing but a sweet memory of Leung Sir. His live wasn’t long, but he made an impact of 1000x. I have been asking myself this question since I come to Christ: what do I really want in the end of my life. Money? No. Fame? No. Then what? Looking at how people helped me through my troubled teenager days, I want lives to be touched and inspired. I want to have fun times with friends. I want to see lives transformed for Christ. I wish people will say the above by my graveside. What about churches? The command “multiply” God gave to Adam applies to Church too (spiritually). We must multiply in terms of evangelism, community service, or internally: mentoring, i.e. edifying lives, equipping people, and empowering leadership. Mentoring next generations indeed happens a lot in the Bible (see reverse). Someone said that if you are not a Sunday school student then you should be a Sunday school teacher. Allow me to broaden it: if you are not a protégé, then you must be a mentor. Churches are not just for fun. Mentoring is more than discipleship. It is holistic. It is a life approach, especially to leadership. Since God has given us so many gifts, why keep them ourselves? Younger people glorify God by using the gifts as we build His ministries. Older, we glorify God by passing the gifts as we build His people. Anytime, everyone. Here is my definition of mentoring: to build up a young leader so that I become replaceable. It sounds self-destructive, like those auto-exploding letters in Mission Impossible. But who am I anyways? Why would I not want to build up others? Do I want to reserve some skills? Not at all! For I know to have Christ fully living in me, selflessness and being humble are the least I can do. In the end, I want nothing but to finish well. I’d like to leave a legacy of 30x, 60x, 100x for Christ. Jesus said in Matthew 13.8: “Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” If the Lord is willing, may my life build 30x Christians leaders, 60x mature Christians, and 100x Converts. Would one of these numbers engraved on my epitaph? Want one?
Moses mentored Joshua and the elders of Joshua mentored the other army leaders. Deborah mentored Barak. Samuel mentored Saul and David who became Ahithophel and Nathan the prophet also mentored David. David mentored his army commanders and government officials, to establish the united nation of Solomon mentored the Queen of Sheba, who returned to her people with his wisdom in the form of Proverbs that applied God's law. Elijah mentored Elisha. Elisha mentored king Jehoash and others. Mordecai mentored Esther Esther mentored King Artaxerxes, which resulted in liberating God's people. Jesus mentored the twelve apostles who established the Christian church. The twelve mentored hundreds of other leaders, including Paul. Paul mentored Titus, Timothy and many others. Timothy mentored "faithful men" such as Epapharas. Epaphras and the other faithful men mentored "others also" (2 Timothy 2:2) which led to a chain reaction that resulted in dozens of new churches in chain; see The Paul-Timothy Leadership Training Chain below.
(From Jonathan W.) - Be clear about the stages of mentoring and the capabilities of the 'mentoree' (e.g. first stage: mentor does 100%, mentoree observes; second stage: mentor does 80%, mentoree attempts 20% of responsibilities; third stage: mentor does 60%, mentoree takes 40% of responsibility; and so forth...) - Mentor small groups or pairs rather than just one individual. This may help the 'mentorees' feel more comfortable that they are not doing it alone - Doing activities outside of church/Sunday school/fellowship settings with mentoree to build up a sense of friendship - Be supportive and encouraging. Focus on effort and not mistakes. - Let the 'mentoree' have a clear sense of what the goals and objectives are in the mentoring process. - Develop a true sense of intrinsic motivation in the mentoree so that they are actually willing to learn (From Eunice) - Intentionally sit beside a new/younger person during service/fellowship. That’d begin a relationship outside a “business” context, and hence giving the indication to the person that he/she matters to me just as he/she is (not because of ministries). (From PW, and also from another EM member)
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Mr. Leung (aka “Leung Sir”), my elementary teacher in HK, rested in the Lord last October at the age of 65. Sixty-five is quite young. If you ask me the first thing I remember about him, it would be him rejected me joining the school boy scouts when I was in Grade 1 or 2. The truth is I was quite a bully since then. Mr. Leung was the Head of Discipline (or if you know the Chinese title, you can understand it as “someone who spanks you till you fall down” – of course this kind of interpretation was invented by bad students like me).