Christian Well-being Mentor 

Here at Verve Lead, we are excited to be starting a new series exploring the profile of a healthy  Christian well-being mentor. This profile is centred around living a holistically healthy life that supports healthy well-being mentors. Whether you are a mentor or a mentee, or even simply considering the benefits of finding a well-being mentor for your life, this profile will help you recognise what healthy mentors look like and how they can best be of service to their mentees.

Profile Background: The profile we will be looking at was researched and developed by longtime friends of Verve lead; Dr Charles (Chuck) R. Ridley, Marcy Bradford, and Dr Robert E. Logan. Firstly, Chuck interviewed and performed a job factor analysis with the top well-being mentors in Australia; Dr Keith Farmer, Dr Rick Lewis, Dr Tim Hanna and myself (all with doctorates from Fuller Seminary). To determine the best ways to raise mentors’ vitality and sustainability, we examined behavioural qualities and expressions. 

Foundational Qualities for Mentors:

As a result it was discovered that, a healthy Christian leader and mentor has three characteristics that are non-negotiable:

• be mature in discipleship
• seasoned in Christian leadership;
• and have a healthy lifestyle.

Mature in Discipleship: Committed to being transformed into the image of Christ and obedience to the Greatest Commandments and the Great Commission. 

Seasoned Christian Leadership: Guiding others to follow Christ as one instructs them in scripture and imitates Christ. 

Healthy Lifestyle: Prioritizing physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. 

Essential Behaviours for Mentors: 

These ten categories of behaviours facilitate the mentoring process. They flow out of the foundational qualities and support the Healthy Christian Leader Assessment. Hence, each behaviour has an operational definition and a subset of behavioural expressions that clarify its scope. 

Building Relational Bond: Establishing trust, safe environment, and support. 

Investigative Inquiry and Discernment: Gaining a deep understanding of mentees and their context, relationships, and circumstances. 

Catalyzing Self-Reflection: Guiding mentees to honestly look at themselves, embrace who they really are and what needs to change to move in a healthy direction. 

Challenging and Confronting: Discerning when and how to address tough issues needing acknowledgement, embrace, and personal action. 

Empowering Transformative Action: Facilitating movement toward the mentee’s greater health and wellbeing. 

Keeping It Spiritual: The relationship between Mentor and Mentee has Christ at the centre.

Evaluating Process: Analyzing mentoring for effectiveness and adjusting for greater positive outcomes. 

Principled in Practice: Adhering to core values and beliefs rooted in sound doctrine. 

Risk Management: Neutralizing potential harm and danger to self, mentees, and others. 

Administration: Organizing and planning to ensure a sound execution and flow of work. 

Reflection Time:

Spend a few minutes going over the above. As a mentee – consider what a mentor brings to the relationship. Ask yourself how am I doing at helping this process? As a mentor – consider how are you doing in each area? Give your self a rating 0-10 and ask who can help me develop these competencies? Also, this profile is not about perfection because even the healthiest leaders have their struggles and make mistakes. It is about learning and understanding how to use these lessons to grow into who God wants us to be. 

Finally, our passion is to help mentors develop and be highly competent. This will guarantee that mentees receive the most from the mentoring relationship. 

We are excited to spend the next weeks diving deeper into this series. Whilst also exploring how mentoring can help guide mentees to better self-understanding and growth.