My first mentor meeting took place on 10 th April 2019 and became an exciting experience right from the start. Pastor Alan Myrick is a renowned leader and shepherd with decades of pastoral experience and knowledge in spiritual matters. I felt extremely confident and happy that I was associating with such a wise minister and was eager to learn attributes and values which Pastor Alan incorporates in his practice. I remember vividly the moments as I walked in the office and my mind was excited to achieve such an opportunity and eager to acquire spiritual knowledge, guidance and mentorship. Moods were similar even as I walked out of the room: I felt empowered in Christianity and adequately equipped to face pastoral challenges in the community.
I acquired essential skills, knowledge and passion to effectively handle common financial shortcomings which may derail my practice and how to integrate the youth in today’s church. I gained advanced competence in guiding modern youth through pastoral processes such as witnessing to their peers and building Christianity through passion, devotion and exercising learnt competencies. I was jovial that I had gained all these attributes and happy that I had transformed to being an accomplished minister especially to the youth through vast leadership values and techniques. The meetings lasted for one and half hours and the first comprised of three major points of discussion. The main context was modern challenges which minsters face in their practice, their evolution and possible solutions through specific recommendations and Christian perspectives.
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The first issue was how the church can overcome modern hypocrisy and negativity in the unbelieving population. Sometimes, community members are entrenched in negative perceptions and ideologies which often challenge ministers when trying to break through their spirituality. Sometimes, people are engulfed in hypocrisy when they cannot admit true self and accommodate values and Christian attributes taught to then, or when they have conflicting issues based on individual and cultural ideologies and perceptions. The Church has a vital role and pivotal responsibility in ensuring that these populations are well managed and aligned with the rest of the believers. Through our collaborative discussion, we proposed that it was at the best interest that the Church builds and cultivates integrity through advanced leadership and meeting settings which offer better environments to instill the virtue. This is adequately important in mixed gender meetings and new memberships. Moreover, the Church is responsible for guarding its morals and principles against divergent cliques and ensuring that new members are efficiently integrated into the congregation with regular monitoring for adherence.
The second issue was how to effectively target the modern youth and instill passion for Christ in their minds and souls. We devised several recommendations based on youth characteristics and their expectations in religious perspectives. The Church can design youth-friendly ministries and avenues such as events and activities where mentorship programs can be launched and discipleship programs used to instill Christian values. Mentorship programs offer essential approaches in choosing proper friends, aligning with academic matters while effectively integrating with the Church. Discipleship instigates passion for community service and drives spiritual mentality among the youth. Lastly, we discussed how the Church can kill the spirit of competition as seen today. By bringing ministers and other religious leaders together, beneficial approaches on Christianity improvement can be nurtured through idea sharing and practical demonstrations of how the Body of Christ bond people together. Churches can also support other ministries in order to deliver spirituality to the community and mitigate systemic competition and denominational hostility. These discussion developed advanced insights to the scope of challenges faced by minsters and would have been better if more parties such as pastors with modern experience were available. The meeting contents clearly aligned with my leadership goals where I learnt how to effectively give out my capabilities to the Church who to consult and build connections with in order to better my performance. Moreover, I linked more with leadership development goals in contexts of youth ministries through passion ignition and spiritual liking and alignment. Finally, we scheduled three topics for the next appointment: Church finances, Millennial attainment and how the Church can target unbelievers.
Second Meeting
On 19 th April 2019, we held our second meeting and discussed the planned topics. First, we identified financial aspects and constraints which the modern Church faces; generational shift has cultivated on other financial obligations which has minimized giving, moral teachings on giving has reduced in churches and the change of giving dynamics i.e. giving for strategic purposes not contributing for organizational development. To leverage these shortcomings, the Church has to teach and instill stewardship values, create giving platforms e.g. donation pages and mobile offerings, and develop alternative income channels. These channels must be guided by proper leadership and giving through examples from leaders, based on concrete religious missions and ensures community mobilization to help them understand the role and cycle of finances in the Church. These strategic measures are aimed at ensuring Church survival and development least it will face devastating financial constraints due to reduced giving leading to stalled ministries and possible closure of some churches.
Third Meeting
On April 26, we held out third meeting where we discussed challenges faced by the Church in regard to Millennial and ways of overcoming them. In our discussion, we realized that the millennial population feels neglected by the Church and their contribution and capacity has not been effectively appreciated. Frequent moral failures and integrity issues has dissolved millennial confidence to the Church and they want to be part of the ministry. In order to effectively integrate millennial population, the Church must cultivate on integrity and clean up their failures to assure them of a changed system. Secondly, the Church must integrate rational measure to deal with millennial population which is lenient and relevant to modern times. Finally, the Church has to sincerely concentrate on its mission and purpose while inviting millennial to assist in development, leadership and solving issues. This can be attained through leveraged programs which are millennial-friendly and leadership platforms based on true discipleship and Christian morals.
Fourth Meeting
This meeting took place on 3 rd May 2019 and our core discussion was how the Church can develop and exhibit attractiveness to unbelievers. First, we had to understand the scope of challenges which surround the unbelieving population. We figured out that religion empowers religious relationships forgoing authentic ones, meaningless missions and hypocrisy in leadership wards off belief and the feeling of unimportance to the Church are the main challenges facing this group. To overcome these challenges, the Church must hierarchize genuine relationships above religious bonds, correct moral failures and histories and focus on people rather than programs drawing examples from Christ’s values on relationships and ways of strengthening them.
Fifth Meeting
Our topic on 10 th May 2019 was why the committed members have stopped attending church. We noticed that church service attendance has reduced even within the committed. Issues facilitating this phenomenon include time management issues with conflicting schedules and jammed activities, cultural shift in church attendance, increased online services and the feeling that does not have to attend church to have God in their life. To avert this changing paradigm, the Church should cultivate on cultural reversal to attain attendance through moral education and strategic targeting. Improving church environments and services increases attendance and helps members integrate with a wide variety of activities and different schedules of service.
Meeting six
On 17 th May 2019, our topic of the day was the main priority of the Church and its leaders. We highlighted four aspects in this section; adapting to meet 21 st Century culture and modern demands, shifting focus from programs to peoples, changing targeting and retention methods and diversifying love to integrate all groups regardless of historical disparities or ethnic background. To completely capture and conquer these issues, the Church has to commit to change and build proper adaptation mechanisms so that it can fully acknowledge modern cultures, systems and technology. Secondly, LOVE should be the foundation of every ministerial activity regardless of social, cultural, political or economic statuses. Thirdly, teaching should follow morals and proper conduct especially when dealing with millennial population which is more visual learners. Lastly, the Church should cultivate the culture of handwork and performance without exhaustion to ensure that the Word of God is well relayed in a consistent and professional manner.
