You Can Mentor: A Christian Youth Mentoring Podcast

All mentoring organizations always need more of two things: Mentors and Money. November 15th officially starts the End of Year Giving season, so tune into our podcast to learn how to maximize your fundraising during the final days of 2024. Maintaining consistent communication with donors during this season is vital to ensuring their continued support with such critical funding at stake. Effective...

If you or someone you know grew up without a father, I’d like for you to check out my new book, Tell Me About Your Father. It is an auto-biographical journey that describes how I dealt with my fatherlessness. I pray it is a tool for mentors who have fatherless mentees, for mentors who may have grown up without a positive relationship with their father, or for anyone who has a loved one who has a f...

Hey mentoring friends, would you please give us that 5 star rating to help us reach more people? It'll take 19 seconds and it really means a lot to us. Thank you! -- If you are a mentoring leader, check out the You Can Mentor learning labs. We are a monthly leadership cohort that surrounds you with equipping and encouragement from other mentoring leaders. For an hour each month, we discuss a topic...

Ok. We got 5 asks. Our heart in all of this is to see you thrive. So here we go... Would you please: - Follow us on social media @youcanmentor to spread the word about Christian mentoring. - Check our books on Amazon. - Share the podcast with your mentoring friends - Give us that 5 star rating to help us out - Come to the National Christian Mentoring Gathering and Join the monthly Learning Labs. O...

Ok. We got 5 asks. Our heart in all of this is to see you thrive. So here we go... Would you please: - Follow us on social media @youcanmentor to spread the word about Christian mentoring. - Check our books on Amazon. - Share the podcast with your mentoring friends - Give us that 5 star rating to help us out - Come to the National Christian Mentoring Gathering and Join the monthly Learning Labs. O...

Creating a Foundation of Trust by Building a Safe Environment Trust is the foundation of your mentoring relationship. Above all else, your mentee has to believe that you are good and that you want them to succeed.  The author Stephen Covey says “Trust is the glue of life. It's the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It's the foundational principle that holds all relationships.” B...

All Frustration Comes From Unmet Expectations There is a temptation in mentoring to try to get your mentee to emulate all that worked for you. You want your mentee to go to college, get a job, wear a suit, and get married because you went to college, got a job, wore a suit, and got married. But what if your mentee doesn’t want to go to college? What if instead of a suit and high-and-tight haircut,...

Earn the Right to Be Heard You may have heard the saying “a kid doesn’t care what you know until they know that you care.” It is one of my favorite sayings because I think it is 100% accurate.  I have seen many mentors get rejected when they try to start the mentoring relationship with giving the mentee advice. Simply put, your mentee really doesn’t care what you know. Most are not impressed by yo...

With > For I love youth ministry. I am the product of a healthy youth group from the 80’s and 90’s that loved me well and gave me the chance to realize my identity and purpose within a group of youth workers and teenagers who were my community during those formative years. I also was blessed by a youth minister named Troy who encouraged me and equipped me to the point that after high school (an...

Ending a Mentoring Relationship Well What do you do whenever major life circumstances pop up that get in the way of your mentoring relationship? Maybe your mentee goes off to college or moves to a new community? Perhaps you get a new job and have to move across town or to another state? What if you started mentoring when you were single, but now have a family with a bunch of little kids running ar...

Kindness Kindness has that middle-child syndrome. Yes, it’s a fruit of the Spirit. But I think we have a funny relationship with the word. We know that we are to be kind. We know a few people who we would describe as kind. But if we’re being honest, do we really STRIVE for kindness? I think we relegate it to “random acts of kindness” or consider it to be a name of a granola bar, or (if you’re from...

Am I Qualified? When people consider starting a mentoring relationship with a child, one question that seems to always pop up is “Am I qualified?”  After all, investing into the life of a child is a big deal. But I think we are asking the wrong question. Instead of asking Am I qualified?”, start asking “Am I a couple steps ahead of my mentee?” If you are, then you have something to offer.  Mentori...

Faithfulness over Fruitfulness Early on in my mentoring journey, I thought mentoring was like a math equation.  A + B = C If I showed up + Gave them some wisdom = Growth in my mentee If I’m being honest, in my naivite, I thought my presence would solve all of my mentees issues.  I thought, because of me, my mentee would improve academically.  They would grow spiritually. It was only a matter of ti...

-IPC is a tool to help us understand our mentee (and ourselves) Identity is WHO WE ARE Purpose is WHAT WE DO  Community is HOW WE BLESS AND ARE BLESSED BY OTHERS I want to paint a mental picture for you on the canvas of your mind: Imagine our IDENTITY in Christ being a firm foundation. The bedrock that Jesus talks about when he mentions the wise builder who built their house on rock instead of san...

-IPC is a tool to help us understand our mentee (and ourselves) Identity is WHO WE ARE Purpose is WHAT WE DO  Community is HOW WE BLESS AND ARE BLESSED BY OTHERS King David had a high sense and value for HIS OWN identity, purpose, and community, therefore he was FREE to speak into and bless Mephibosheth’s IPC as well! -Identity: David sits comfortably on his throne and yells Mephibosheth! -Purpose...

-IPC is a tool to help us understand our mentee (and ourselves) Identity is WHO WE ARE Purpose is WHAT WE DO  Community is HOW WE BLESS AND ARE BLESSED BY OTHERS King David had a high sense and value for HIS OWN identity, purpose, and community, therefore he was FREE to speak into and bless Mephibosheth’s IPC as well! -Identity: David sits comfortably on his throne and yells Mephibosheth! -Purpose...

“IPC” -IPC is a tool to help us understand our mentee (and ourselves) -Identity, Purpose, and Community are three things we are presented with about King David in 2 Samuel 8. -Identity: 2 Samuel tells us David was a mighty warrior and a shrewd leader. -Purpose: Based on his being a warrior and leader, he was successful in battle and made smart leadership choices while subduing his enemy and growin...

This Mentoring Minute deals with a really good question you can ask your mentee to start some high-quality conversation. Back in youth group, we would trace out somebody’s silhouette on a piece of butcher paper and have students fill in the space with what a Christian looks like. It was hilarious to watch the paper person come alive with a Christian bookstore t-shirt, a WWJD bracelet, multiple bib...

All of us are here today because of our relationship with “that person”. You know, the one who made a profound impact on your life. For me, a few men made me who I am today.  It was a man named Bob who invested into me when I was in college and helped me see my need for Jesus. It was a man named John who discipled me and taught me how to read the scriptures. It was a man named Steve who showed me...

We’ve all done it. We have said something like “Wow, Brian is the best. He is such a good kid.” You may think there’s not a thing wrong with that statement. But what about this one, “Geez. Brian is the worst. He is such a bad kid.” While we wouldn’t think to say that about or to a kid, we should at least recognize that both statements exist on the same spectrum of thought and action. But what’s th...

Safety is the name of the game when it comes to mentoring. You always want to have safety on the mind when you are hanging out with your mentee. First priority is always to keep the child safe, but another aspect of safety is following rules and procedures so you stay above reproach and free of any possible accusation.  One of the best ways to keep everyone safe in the mentoring journey is called...

In my line of work, I hear these three little words all the time. They come after I give something to someone usually or offer to help someone do something. My nonproof is based on Jesus’s words to his disciples: “Freely you’ve been given, freely give,” so I practice the act of remembering whatever I have is really God’s and not mine anyway. WE’RE NOT CALLED TO DO THINGS HALF-HEARTED When I hear s...

I hate to fly. I hate everything about it. Getting up 72 hours before your flight so you can drive to a crowded airport with terrible parking. I hate the 19 lines you wait in to do all the things. Take your shoes off. Put your belt back on while scurrying to go buy a $12 bottle of water in a gift shop so you can sit on the floor next to a power outlet and charge your phone. Hurry up and wait.  Do...

If you’ve ever hiked up a mountain, it is no easy endeavor. There are easy parts and there are hard parts. Storms can pop up from time to time. Times of fun and times where you are challenged. But if you stick it out, the view is almost worth the struggle it took to get there.  One thing I know to be true about climbing a mountain is it is always easier when you do it with other people.  People ca...

Giving Gifts Giving gifts or purchasing things for your mentee is one of the more complicated topics you will face as a mentor. You want to be able to show your care and affection for your mentee through giving gifts, but so often they can become distractions in your mentoring relationship.  Let me be the first to say that this is a gray topic. It is not black and white. We are just giving you our...