having Jesus as your mentor

all my life i have had a lot of interaction with pastors...i think it probably has to do with the fact that i want to be one.

through my interaction, i have been "mentored" by several different people. today, i had an experience that reminded me of my interaction with doug over the past couple of years.

many times, i'll meet up with a pastor and be eager to talk about ministry because i like ministry. i don't meet many people who actually enjoy talking about what commentaries are good for studying the book of first corinthians, biblical church government, contextualization, dispensationalism...or any other -ation's or -ism's. i realize that i am a huge nerd when it comes to that. so when i get a chance to talk with another pastor nerd guy, that's usually what i have questions about and what he wants to talk about as well.

i have had many experiences with pastors that are all about going through a book together or working through a series of questions or accomplishing something during our meeting...but i have met few that will share their life with me.

many of you know the impact that Doug Murphy has had on me. i remember being so excited to go to credo my freshman year of college, wanting to get involved in a deeper way. i asked doug if i could start helping him with some stuff with credo. he agreed and told me to come into the office every monday afternoon for a couple hours.

i was so excited at first - getting to help doug with ministry at credo and get more ministry experience. i remember very distinctly the first time that we got together. doug had his feet up on one of the several chairs in his office...i walked in...he pounded my fist...and he says, "how's it going? what's going on? what's new and exciting?" i told him some of the things that were going on with me and asked the same question of him. he replied with some of the things he was wrestling with with ministry and in his relationship with God.

after doug finished this, i expected for him to have something for me to do or for us to talk about some sort of cool new ministry strategy...but we never did. we just talked about life, about the things that we were both wrestling with. and that was it. i went back to school after that.

the next week, the same thing happened...doug there sending friend requests to random people on facebook and with his feet up on one of the chairs in his office...another fist pound...and the same question - "anything new and exciting?" i told him what had been going on, and then he went into how he'd been wrestling with a similar thing...and once again. no talk about cool ministry strategies or things that he wanted me to do for credo.

this continued to happen, and i honestly was a little frustrated. this was not my normal experience with pastors. they were supposed to make me busy with things to do for ministry...not actually talk to me and know me and share their life with me! i was legitimately confused as to why this wasn't happening.

but, we continued to just share life experiences week after week. some weeks we would go through a passage that doug was preaching on at credo. other weeks we would listen to a podcast and talk through it...but nothing all that structured, and it wasn't like Doug had this grand idea of all these things that he wanted to teach me. he just shared his life with me - his struggles with God and family, his heart about ministry, his stories of ultimate fighting...



i'm in the middle of networking with some pastors around here, and it makes me sad that it seems like every time we meet we talk about ministry more than real life. i don't know a whole lot of them. they don't know a whole lot of me.

it makes me think - what would it be like if Jesus was your pastor and you were to meet with him? how would those conversations go? would he talk about what he wanted you to do, or would he share stories? would he go through the Bible with you? would he tell you how he was feeling and what he was struggling with?

i think that meeting wtih Jesus would be a lot like meeting with doug...that is, meeting with doug would probably be a lot like meeting with Jesus. and i think that some of us would react in the same way...a little frustrated with him and wondering why we were talking about things.

a little while after doug's been gone, and i appreciate him a whole lot more...but more importantly...i appreciate Jesus a whole lot more.