Mentoring in the Gospel: Accentuating a Rediscovery of the Jesus Model of Mentoring for the 21st Century Christian Leaders

Today, the need for making disciples for Christ across world communities put enormous responsibilities on church leaders to replicate themselves in the younger generations of Christians for the advancement of the work of the church. Consequently, mentoring the mechanism by which this could be done has become more of a necessity today than ever before. Incidentally, the gospel records reveal that mentoring was the mechanism adopted by Christ in the replication of his own life in the apostles. This study therefore is a reflection on Jesus model of mentoring. It discusses mentoring in the Jewish community of the time which Jesus shared the same style with, highlights the content of his mentoring programme, identifies and discusses his mentoring methods - preaching and teaching, role modelling, practical demonstration and coaching; advocates this model of mentoring as a way by which contemporary church leaders can reproduce themselves in the younger generations of Christians, so as to prevent a dearth of leaders in the church in succeeding generations and makes suggestions as to how this can be appropriated. Although studies on Jesus model of mentoring cannot be said to be new as such studies have been conducted in time past, however, the leadership deficiencies observed among Christian leaders today in Africa in general and Nigeria in particular, calls for a rediscovery of this methods in this 21st century. The study adopted the descriptive approach, backed with qualitative use of existing literature.