Today was a great Kingdom day for me personally. I have joined a select fraternity of brothers, bound by
blood and oath. Wait a minute, before you click off, listen to me. I know that this may sound far out to some, but permit me to explain.
I Samuel 16 tells of a story of two young men who gave themselves to one another in oath! Brothers band together by blood and purpose. A friend of mine suggested that David and Jonathan enjoyed a unique relationship because they valued their friendship and brotherly love more than their own welfare. They committed themselves to each other even if that commitment called for personal injury.
Today, I found myself in the company of dear friends and before the hour hand struck midnight, I had pledged an oath of brotherly love and mutual accountability with four of my dearest friends, brothers by the blood of Jesus and the words of our lives. We pledge to walk together with each other. We pledged to share with each other our deepest longings, our most grievous experiences, our greatest fears and most wonder-filled, faith-driven aspirations.
Our ministries are secondary to our brotherly commitment to fellowship and purposed accountability. Before we had a ministry, we were called to serve. David did not get so busy chasing the affirmation of Saul, that he missed the God-ordained fellowship of friend and covenant brother, Jonathan. Too many leaders are busy trying to find “new” fathers, when they should realize you can only have one father ~ good, bad, or ugly, you only have one father. However, you can gain brothers!
The future is brighter because we stand together united in purposed accountability. Too often, accountability is thrown around as a by-word to gain some modicum of acceptance among submitted people. But the accountability we are going to enjoy, is the accountability to one another to become, to allow, permission to be – to reverse mentor each other in the group.
What is reverse mentoring? Glad you ask. It is much more expansive than a paragraph could encompass. However, for this band of brothers it simply means we have taken a pledge to allow the younger men in our group to mentor the older men. Yes, I am one of the seniors in this group. For years, I have enjoyed being the “young gun” – representing all that was vivacious, lively, and unplugged. We lived large and we lived our faith out loud.
Reverse mentoring for me is accepting the fact that I have now reached an age that requires me to access a mentor to “go young” on purpose. If I am to relate to this generation, I must have a teacher who can help me understand the language and the nuisances of this generation’s lives. To know them I must fellowship their nuisances, idioms, ideas, and philosophies. I am reminded of Paul, who said I have become all things to all men that I might win some.”
I have asked these young men to talk to me, critique me, to instruct me so that I may better understand what I can do to be an effective leader to a generation that has been raised in a completely different paradigm. Their boundaries are different than mine. Their concepts erupt out of mosaics that are formed from a variety of voices, who all proclaim their myopic view of truth. This generation is a generation that desperately wants to love Jesus, yet they despise churchanity. They are a generation who will sing old hymns with a contemporary sound.
As a leader, I can fight it by dreaming up some man-made; home-made doctrine (from my own bias) or I can admit that, on the eve of 50 years of age, I need to retool my mind so that I may be effective in leading this generation to the feet of Jesus! They are not strangers to Him. He loves them. He designed them. He gave them to us. We have the responsibility to declare WHO He is to them in a way they can understand and respond to.
As for me, I prefer to retool than to become a novelty! I would prefer to remain real and transparent in my quest to love Jesus with them, than to become an iconic memory to them.
To my contemporaries, I say come on and make the investment. There are new tools for us to utilize and new concepts for us to gain. Don’t sit in your study frustrated, make the trip! Take the journey! Be to become! But don’t do it alone, bring a young man or woman into your circle and allow them transparent moments to WOW you with information that could possibly launch you into a new dimension of growth.
Growing in His Grace!
WEHII
