June 4, 2025

The Gift of Mentors

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, in keeping with the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,

2 To Timothy, my dear son:

Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.  3 I thank God, whom I serve, as my ancestors did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.4 Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. 5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and I am persuaded now lives in you. 6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 13 What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus.

1 Timothy 1:1-6, 13

There are at least three types of relationships everyone should have: everyone needs a Barnabas (encourager), everyone needs a Paul (mentor) and everyone needs a Timothy (protege).

In recent weeks, we’ve focused an incredible amount of attention on the value of encouragers and rightfully so. It is the entire basis of the ministry of fuel2ignite.

But over these next two devotions I want to look at the importance of mentor/protege relationships.

The Bible is filled with mentor-protege relationships.

To name just a few:

• Moses mentored Joshua

• Elijah mentored Elisha

• Paul mentored Timothy

• Jesus mentored the disciples

The Bible is literally teeming with examples of mentor-protege relationships. It’s like the Lord is trying to tell us something!

The passage we are focusing on in 2 Timothy 1 speaks to the importance of Paul and Timothy’s mentor-protege relationship. First, we can see that mentoring is important because God saw fit to include these two letters from Paul to Timothy as part of the canon or the Holy Bible as we know it. The letters are Paul literally pouring himself into teaching Timothy, who he had met on his missionary travels and taken him under his wing. At the time of this writing, Paul was in prison for or his outspoken faith and he knows his time on earth is limited. He senses the end is coming, so what does he do? He pours out his heart and his wisdom to his young protege.

Paul does what a spiritual father should do. As the passage indicates, Timothy had the influence of godly women in his life - his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice were both believers. But apparently his father was a Greek man who did not have a relationship with Christ.

Paul had led Timothy to the Lord, which is indicated by Paul calling Timothy his son in the faith, and now he has turned over the reigns to one of the churches he had planted to Timothy and is giving him instruction in these letters on how to lead the people well.

In this passage, Paul is exhorting Timothy to fan into flames the gift of the Holy Spirit that is in him. Furthermore, in verse 13, Paul implores him to emulate the pattern of sound teaching that Paul had modeled before him.

Paul also knew that Timothy struggled with timidity. Perhaps he was an introvert, but Paul reminds Timothy that God didn’t give us a spirit of fear when it comes to our faith. He challenges him to be bold in his faith.

In his previous letter to Timothy, in 1 Timothy 4:12, Paul urged Timothy, “12 Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.”

Paul is reminding Timothy over and over, you’ve got this. Just fan into flames what you’ve learned from me and the Lord will be with you and equip you as you lead.

Thank God for the mentors in our lives. They see potential in us when we don’t see it in ourselves, they push us, they challenge us and they give us wisdom from the life lessons they have learned along the way.

We all need mentors - someone who is a little farther along in their faith and who can help us grow in ours.

There is incredible value in these relationships. Chances are that you already know the importance of mentors because of the invaluable role they played in your life.

Just stop for a second and think about who would be on the Mount Rushmore of mentors in your life. (Take a few minutes to dwell on the mentors who impacted your life).

My Mount Rushmore is four men who God brought into my life at a critical juncture. Like Timothy, my Dad was unsaved for much of my early life, and I desperately needed male Christian role models in my life.

Here is my Mount Rushmore:

Terrell Watts - He was my Youth & Music Pastor when I was in Children’s Choir. He showed me that you could be a Christian and have fun (he got in there and played with us and was like a big kid), but he was also the first person in my life to pull me aside and share the gospel message with me. Before I could graduate into youth group age, he accepted a call to preach. He spent about 6 months as our Interim Pastor and I had never heard someone preach as passionately about Christ as he did. He had a way of grabbing your heart and he was a great influence on my own teaching style when I was later called into ministry.

Mark Hill - He was my Youth Pastor after Terrell Watts left to become a Pastor. He and his wife, Janet, had a profound impact on my life. They modeled what a Christian marriage should look like and what a Christian home should be in the way they raised their children. I had a godly Mom but my Dad was far from God at the time, and the environment I grew up in was dysfunctional. I tried to spend as much time as I could in Mark and Janet’s home and soaked up as much as I possibly could. I had my wayward moments as a teenager and they showed me unconditional love every step of the way. I will forever be grateful for the models they were to me and I have tried to emulate those lessons in my role as a husband and father.

Lewis Perkins - He was a man who went from being far from God at one point in his life to on fire for God after encountering Jesus. He taught Youth Sunday School through my middle school and high school years and then taught my College class as well. I had been subjected to a lot of religion along the way, but he pointed us to a relationship with Jesus at every turn. And when the light went on in a student’s life and they finally got what he was trying to teach, he would let out a big, “Whoop!” Later, when I became a Youth Pastor for the first time, he would stop in weekly to check on me and very casually mentor me through the learning process.

Rick Speas - When I moved on from my home church to my second stint as a Youth Pastor, I was still green as could be and had no formal training or education in ministry. Rick Speas was the Pastor at my new church and he took me under his wing and showed me everything about what it meant to minister to people. He was the rare Pastor who was both a great preacher and great at pastoral care. He was and still is the most complete pastor I have ever known. I remember him taking me out on visitation and we would be in the home of an elderly person dying of cancer. He showed tremendous love and care for everyone he visited and I appreciated the lessons. But, to be honest, I kept wondering, “Why is he taking me to all these places?I’m a Youth Pastor.” Suffice it to say that I have used the lessons he taught me in those in-home visits far more than I would have ever imagined as I became a Pastor several years later. It took awhile for the lessons to sink in, but through the years I have tried to emulate what I learned from him. I will always be indebted to the time he invested in me and the potential he saw in me.

Where would our lives be without godly mentors? We were blessed by these people and it is part of God’s plan for is to do the same for others. Just as others invested in us, God wants us to invest in others.

Who is God leading you to mentor today?