Mentoring Youth In Pastoral MinistrySample

PAUL MENTORING A FEARFUL TIMOTHY

Paul was grooming a young and timid Timothy to be a pastor, encouraging and instructing him in how to deal with some of the issues he would face as pastor. Among all the issues Paul mentored Timothy in, three interesting aspects are valuable to any young pastor's learning today:

1) How to overcome fear

2) How to fight the good fight of faith

3) How to deal with the attitude towards finance.

Young Timothy, though new in the Kingdom walk, had a pastoral calling on his life. Fear could hinder him from fulfilling his pastoral duties. Paul's concern for Timothy's timidity arises from his own experience of pain when he was imprisoned in chains and shackles, which prompted him to write his last Epistles to his own son in the faith.

Paul was warning Timothy of the most dangerous aspect in one's spiritual life — FEAR!

Fear can crop up when we least expect it and it can cripple us into paralysis. A sense of fear can distract us from our spiritual calling, wasting our talents, aborting our responsibilities, which could affect our destiny.

Moreover, elderly and once strong people in the faith like Demas, Hymenaeus, and Alexander, who were working with Paul, abandoned him to go the world's way! Paul reminded Timothy that God did not give him a spirit of fear but He gave him a spirit of love, power, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). He encouraged him to be bold and courageous.

To overcome fear, we need to help young people understand fear does not come from God. Rather fear could result from a wrong understanding of things, developed in homes where fearful threats were used to get things done or arises from a demonic attack. Whatever the source, such fear is not from God.

Second, God has gifted us with the spirit of love, power, and sound mind. We don't have to accept what God has not given us. Timothy had to learn to use his sound mind to influence his thinking to overcome fear.

As Paul selected Timothy for mentoring him with deep love, we should select young people with great potential, grooming them well for the Kingdom of God by mentoring them with love, care, and faith.