Last week I had the opportunity to spend some time with two of my mentors. Lunch with Ken Robertson, my former boss at both Saddleback Church and Mariners Church, respectively and Stan Endicott, pastor to the worship world.

Both these men have been huge supporters and encouragers of mine for many years. Their presence in my life has been invaluable in so many ways.

Having those who have “been there and done that” speak into your life is vital to your personal and professional growth. Getting their perspective can help you make better decisions, not to mention that sometimes it’s good to hear the voice of experience say “I hear ya, I’ve been there.”

No matter your age or how long you’ve been doing what you do, you need mentors.

You also need to be one. As people feed and build into you, you must build into others. And this is not something that can be done quickly or in mass.

Each relationship must be cultivated over time. This may be months, but most likely, it will be years. If you really want to speak into someones life, it only happens if you spend time with them, lots of time. This, in turn, will then limit the number of people you can truly mentor. You can influence a large group, but you can only mentor a few. Jesus (the Jesus) only had twelve and He is God.

Pick those you mentor carefully. Since you will be devoting a large amount of time, you don’t want to waste it, and don’t feel bad that you can’t focus on everyone who may step into your path. Choose wisely, pray consistently, be humble, and most of all. do a lot of listening.

Here’s the amazing thing, you will benefit greatly from being mentored and you will benefit even more by being a mentor.

1 Corinthians 9:19-23;

“19 For since I am free from all I can make myself a slave to all, in order to gain even more people. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew to gain the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law)s to gain those under the law. 21 To those free from the law I became like one free from the law (though I am not free from God’s law but under the law of Christ) to gain those free from the law. 22 To the weak I became weak in order to gain the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that by all means I may save some. 23 I do all these things because of the gospel, so that I can be a participant in it.” New English Translation

I love Paul’s willingness to change his approach to “save some”.
Paul’s message never changed, he preached the “uncompromising gospel of Jesus” his whole ministry life. BUT, his method changed depending on who his was talking to.

One of the greatest examples of this was in Acts 17. Paul was in Athens, Greece and in a nutshell, addressed the people in a way that the culture understood. Instead of insulting them, he preached the gospel using themes they already knew, to share who the one true God is.

Over my life as a Christian, I have seen so many changes in the church, some good, some not so good. But I am a believer in doing what ever it takes to reach as many people as possible. To quote Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose Driven Life, “It’s not about you.”

I am blessed to be on a church staff, led by a Pastor that has a high value for those that are “unchurched”. In fact, our lead Pastor, Chris Sonksen, is first and formost, an evangelist. Above the doors of our main auditorium are the words “Turning unchurched people into fully devoted followers of Christ”.

So how does this play out in the production? Glad you asked.
We are creatures of habit. We naturally want our own comfort. We say we like change, but we really don’t. In the church, this attitude is a nail in the coffin of what keeps a church healthy, growing, and reaching out to the lost. Some get this, and some don’t.

Warning: There is a strong possibility that what you will read past this point may offend some of you. So there, I have warned you.

Many in the big “C” church, both attendees and staff, are very happy with way “their” church is. They like the “temperature”. They love the services! They love singing the songs they know, surrounded by the people they know. If there is something they don’t like, they will let you know, COUNT ON IT. They don’t really see a need to change anything because “they like it”, it’s “comfortable”. Even though they would consider themselves mature Christians, their number one concern is their own comfort and safety. (Refer to the warning above if you are getting mad at me right now.)

I have been privileged to know two men, who, if you looked at them, you would assume that they would have that attitude. Both had been in their church for more years than most of us have been around, both were looked at as “patriarchs” of the church. But these two men had a completely different take on it.

Howard was a man in his 80’s that had been the CEO of a Fortune 500 type company. He came in every week and filled the information holders in the lobby as well as making sure there were pencils and envelops in the chair racks. He didn’t really like the volume or style of the music, but he served the church week in and week out. One week after he had cancer removed from his arm, he was right back at church serving with excellence.

Myron Lillie was a man who literally was “born on Saturday and in church on Sunday”. His family name was actually part of the stain glass windows in the old auditorium. He was also in his 80’s when the new young pastor and some of us crazy young people decided to start a “rock and roll” service. This was in the 1980’s in what had been a traditional Baptist church. We had a lot of people in the church that were not happy with “all these kids, smoking on the front steps before they came into hear that Rock and Roll noise!” The very first service Myron showed up and sat in the front row! (Most of us were very nervous about this, I mean, the pastor didn’t even wear a tie!) After the service, the pastor was in his office and Myron walked in. “Pastor, can I talk to you for a minute?” the pastor thought “Okay, here it comes.” Myron continued “That was the worst music I have ever heard…..But if you have to bang on trash cans to get that many young people into this church, I will go down and buy the cans for you.” Myron was on the front row of that service every week until he died, and many of those “young people” openly wept at the news of this death. He had become like a grand dad to them, more than that, he had become Christ to them. It was not about him and he knew it.

I want to be a TD/ creative/ etc. with the heart of Howard, of Myron, of Jesus. It is not about me. It is about the vision for doing what ever it takes to reach people with God’s love. As I get older, I know that not everything that our church uses in the service will be to my liking, but if can attract those who have not been interested in coming and seeing, I am for trying it.

We as the church and as leaders have to be willing to have the mind of Paul to reach one more, no matter what that means. It’s not about us, it’s about showing people that we love them by meeting them where they are, in a language they are familiar with, even if we don’t personally like it. This isn’t “our church”, it’s God’s church and we “get to do this” it is a privilege and an honor to serve God and our community, paid or not.

I know that most of you reading this are TD’s or tech volunteers and some of you may think you have little or no influence on how things are programmed in your church services, but that does not mean you can’t suggest and encourage your leadership to step out of the comfort zone and try things they have never tried to reach those they have never reached.

Change the temperature, sing a new song, and surround yourself with some people you don’t know, and get to know them.

Chris Sonksen, Lead Pastor @ South Hills Church posted this on his blog. It is reprinted with his permission.

“Sometimes in leadership we face deep sorrow, and this week at South Hills we lost one of our own. Debbie Sloan passed away on Saturday morning after a long battle with cancer. She was/is loved by all who knew her. She was a tremendous asset to our team, a bright light in the office, and I personally will miss her. Today, rather than attempt to give you some deeply profound insight, I have chosen to simply let other staff members share about our dearly loved Debbie……….”

Read the full post here.