What is Mentoring?

Christian Health Mentoring is largely about modeling a mature Christian life and being there for mentees as a sister in Christ. This does not mean that you as a mentor are perfect, but that you are modeling your need for God, sin and repentance, and your desire to grow closer to Him each day. This modeling generally comes from being an example through prayer, growth in biblical understanding, Christian living, and worship. It is the practicing of what Romans calls mutual faith, which means encouragement and support, in order to inspire, encourage, and instruct one another (Eph. 4:15-16). Christian Health Mentoring is not supposed to be used in place of a local church, but is meant to add to the global church through women encouraging others in order to strengthen the global church.

The 4 Principles of Mentoring:

TEACHING: A CHM is essentially a teacher. This teaching should include the basic doctrines of the Bible: God, Jesus, man, sin, salvation, etc. and how the principles of the Bible call us to care for our bodies and souls. You do not have to be an expert on all Biblical and health related topics, but you should be able to answer basic Biblical questions or know where to find the answers. Many times the best teaching comes from researching together to find the answers from God’s Word (2 Timothy 2:15).
MODELING: Jesus taught His disciples to follow Him and mimic Him by living with them (John 1:38, 39). As a CHM women will be listening to you, watching you on social media, and looking up to you as a sister in Christ. This should not be taken lightly. Living a life above reproach is what God calls us towards because it honors Him. Check in with where you are and how your life does or doesn’t exemplify how God desires you to live your life and constantly thank God for His grace and pray for endurance as you battle over the flesh.
PRAYING: As Christians we should surround our days with prayer and as a CHM this same principle applies not only to you personally but to the women you will be mentoring. As Christians we say we believe in the power of prayer, but how often are we engaged in serious prayer for others? Paul opened many of his letters with the comment that he has prayed for the believers he is trying to teach. Praying for women before, during, and after a session surrounds women in prayer and helps focus you back on God doing the work in the women’s hearts and not you. (Philippians 1:3-6; 1 Thessalonians 1:2, 3; 3:10-13; etc.).
ENCOURAGING: Spiritual growth does not happen in a vacuum. We can have all kinds of knowledge, but unless we put it into practice we don’t have any proof of learning. In 1 Thessalonians Paul told the church to grow in love (1 Thessalonians 4:9, 10), to comfort, encourage, respect and support one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11-15). In reading the book of 1 Thessalonians—which is a great book to draw out principles of spiritual mentoring—we can see that Paul uses the way we treat one another as Christians as signs of spiritual maturity. A CHM should encourage women to learn how to deal kindly and Godly towards other people, and be an example through treating all women you mentor with love, patience, and respect.

CHM Growth Process: (These below questions you should be initially asking of yourself and then your mentees, to gauge where the heart is)