Called to Influence – Krista Penner

When I visit churches and talk with leaders I consistently hear the same message.

“How can we establish a mentoring initiative that will actually work?”

There have been many attempts made to implement mentorship programs in the past few decades of church ministry. Many have failed and those who have experienced success have written books trying to help the rest of us figure this thing out! Maybe you have read some of those books and you are still trying to figure out how to transform theory into practice.

Making the connection between generations and passing down wisdom and leadership principles learned through experience is part of what we are called to do in the body of Christ.

Titus 2:7 - "Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, 8 and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us."

The Immerse program is built on the biblical principle of mentoring.

The real-time work of a triad of mentors speaking into the life of a future leader will, over time, help that young leader become a mature and equipped minister of the gospel.     

Immerse has some great mentor teams doing exactly what mentors are supposed to do: build relationships with future leaders and in the context of those relationships speak into the lives of our next generation of leaders.

This success took us back to the drawing board to see if we could create a foundational tool that would serve as the springboard for mentoring relationships within the local church community.

The idea is simple: Life on life, hands-on, organic relationships using up-to-date technology with the core goal to see our next generation of leaders excel and hopefully be better leaders than we are! 

Called to Influence came to life and we launched the initial modules at Impact 2017. Since then, a handful of our churches have started to use the online “just-in-time” learning modules and we have continued to add more segments over the past year.

The online format serves as a launching point for great conversation between a mentor and a mentee. Each module flows with carefully culled YouTube videos, easy-to-read information, Video Scribe segments and a forum for journaling. Both the mentor and the mentee have access to the site and can communicate with each other as they work through the segments at their own pace.

The foundational idea behind the format is to create conversation, tackling issues, ideas and concerns that young leaders are grappling with.

 Some of the topics include:call, gifting, integrity, leading, prayer, spiritual disciplines and influence.

The online format is just the launching pad.  Once the work is started the most important aspect of the program begins:

face-to-face interaction regarding the topic being covered in the Called to Influence module that the mentor and mentee are going through.

If you desire to see a mentoring program launched in your church please call me. I would love to share more about this program and help you make mentoring a reality in your church community.