The Dawn Treader

Maybe it was a teacher.  Maybe a coach.  Maybe a pastor.  Maybe a friend.  Perhaps an older brother or sister.

My life is the product of God's grace through mentoring.  I had a great teacher in 10th grade named Mrs. Carter.  She taught me to write.  I had some awesome professors at Covenant College.  Dr. Krabbendam and Dr. Lambert taught me the doctrines of grace and how to systematically understand the Bible.  Dr. Reinheimer, at Duke, taught me how to speak effectively and persuasively in front of groups.  Pastor Dick Anderson taught me the intensity and depth of God's love for me.  Pastor Clyde Godwin taught me how deep God's grace really is.  Jack Miller, through his impact on others, taught me how to live in light of the truth that I am adopted by God.  Howard Hendricks, through his writing and impact on others, taught me what it means to become a master teacher.  Rev. Perry Bowers taught me how to build bridges into the lives of non-believers.  Pastor Childs modeled how to lead a church and run an effective session in a PCA church.  Chuck Colson and Mark Earley both taught me the importance of spiritual authority in your ministry, and that we need to be involved in both teaching lives and touching lives.  T.M. Moore encouraged me to influence others through writing.  My own father has modeled and taught me how to be a life long learner, a master teacher, and to be intentional about finishing well.

I am only scratching the surface.

Each of us needs mentors ... and needs to be a mentor.

Clinton and Stanley, in their book Connecting, have developed a model of mentoring that is quite helpful.  It is called the constellation model.  Picture a large "X" on a white board.  It creates four quadrants. 

In the northern quadrant are upward mentors.  This quadrant is filled by those who give us wisdom, direction, perspective, counsel, advice, teaching and modeling.  We need them.  Without them, we will not grow.

In the southern quadrant are downward mentors.  This quadrant contains those whom we are mentoring.  However, we experience empowerment from them.  They bring accountability.  They help us to walk the walk ... not just talk the talk.   Downward mentors also bring a sense of renewal.  As we grow older, we can become cynical, jaded and plateaued.  Younger people help bring renewal, vitality, and optimism into our life.

In the eastern quadrant are internal peer mentors.  These are people who know us well.  They are trusted confidants.  They offer perspective and honesty.  They call a spade a spade.  They keep us accountable.  They walk alongside us.  They are at or near our level of development.  They bring encouragement.

In the western quadrant are external peer mentors.  They also are at our level, but they come from outside our immediate organizational network.  They don't necessarily share the same assumptions as we do.  They bring a different grid to the equation.  They help us with our blind spots since they see the world slightly differently than we do.  They bring objectivity.

Clinton and Stanley make a compelling case that leaders who finish well in life are intentional about setting up relationships in each of these quadrants.  They don't necessarily have all of the quadrants filled all at the same time.  But, over their lifetime, leaders who finish well often have people in each quadrant providing input into their life.

Where is the hole in your constellation model at the moment?  Which quadrant is empty?  What are you going to do about it?

Further reading:

, by Clinton and Stanley

by Clinton and Clinton

Mentoring Articles, Bobby Clinton website

Hat tip to Iceberg for the cool mentoring photo with the dogs.