Mentoring

A four-week walk

Not a binder. Four meetings. A name, a table, and the Word.

Discipleship at Journey is a slightly further-along believer walking with someone in Scripture, life, and prayer. This plan is small enough to keep. If it goes well, you keep going. If it doesn't, you still blessed someone for a month.

• Same gender when possible. Meet in sighted places — a cafe, a walk, the church foyer.
• You are not their Savior, their therapist, or their secretary. Keep short notes. Close well.
• If something is over your head, walk them to a pastor. Mentoring is not secrecy.

1. Week 1

   Story

   Learn a name. Hear a life. Set a rhythm.

   Belong before you try to fix anything — including yourself.

   Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

   Romans 15:7

   1. Settle (5)

      Coffee, a walk, a table. Thank them for coming. Pray one sentence: Lord, be in this.

   2. Story (20)

      Each of you takes about five minutes. How did you get here? What is Jesus doing? What feels heavy?

   3. Hope (10)

      Ask: If these four weeks went well, what would be different?

   4. Rhythm (10)

      Agree on a cadence — weekly or every other week, 45 minutes, same place. Put the next two dates on the calendar before you leave.

   Ask

   • — Where did you grow up, and what was church like?
   • — When did Jesus become more than a word?
   • — What are you carrying that is heavy right now?
   • — What would welcome actually look like for you this month?

   Send. Text them one specific thing you heard. Pray for them by name before Sunday.

   PathGuide

2. Week 2

   Gospel

   Say the good news in plain speech.

   Make sure the center is Jesus, not self-improvement.

   But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved.

   Ephesians 2:4–5

   1. Check the week (10)

      High, low, where you saw God, where you hid. No fixing yet.

   2. Open Ephesians 2 (20)

      Read 2:1–10 twice. Circle every verb God does. Underline every verb we do. Notice how short our list is.

   3. Say it (10)

      Each of you tries the gospel in under a minute, without church slang. Help each other until it is clear.

   Ask

   • — When did the gospel stop being a church word and become your story?
   • — Where are you still trying to raise yourself?
   • — Who in your life still needs to hear that Jesus saves?

   Send. Write your one-minute gospel. Share it with your walk partner, then with one person outside this church.

   PathLessonWord

3. Week 3

   Practice

   Leave with one keepable obedience.

   The Word becomes a walk — one practice, not five resolutions.

   But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

   James 1:22

   1. Check the week (10)

      Did last week's send happen? Tell the truth either way. Grace, then a retry.

   2. Open their path step (20)

      Use whichever Journey path step they are on. Read the Scripture. Pick one practice. Talk it through until it is small enough to keep.

   3. Pray it on (10)

      Pray the practice onto their actual week — calendar, people, the hard room.

   Ask

   • — Which practice is God highlighting, and which one are you avoiding?
   • — What would make this practice fail by Wednesday?
   • — Who could help you keep it besides me?

   Send. Do the one practice. Text your partner when it is done — or when you failed, which is also walking in the light.

   PathGuide

4. Week 4

   Send

   Bless, decide, and look for the next name.

   The path does not end with a certificate. It ends with a name.

   What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others also.

   2 Timothy 2:2

   1. Look backward (15)

      What changed in four weeks? What didn't? Thank God for both.

   2. Look at the body (15)

      Where might they stand in this church — greeting, prayer, a table, a gift? Calling is often the church's need meeting a yes.

   3. Decide (10)

      Keep walking together, pause, or send them to walk with someone else. Say it out loud. Close well either way.

   Ask

   • — Who poured into you, and what did they actually do?
   • — Who is already near you that you could invite for four weeks?
   • — What excuse do you use to stay on the sidelines?
   • — If we continue, what is the next practice?

   Send. Write one name. Invite them, or turn on 'available as mentor' in your profile. Multiplication is the point.

   PathLessonGuide