Jon is a young married man with two children who holds down a demanding job while also serving as an elder and youth leader in his local church. On getting promotion a couple of years ago he took the conscious decision to seek to adapt and put in place a model of accountability and mentoring that he had come across in business. It involves meeting with three people, one older, one younger and one contemporary in order to be helped and help others maintain their Christian focus. This is how it works:
The older brother: Once a month he meets for lunch with one of his fellow elders, a mature Christian leader. The agreed agenda is that Jon will be asked how his spiritual life is going, how he is caring for his wife and children, how he is avoiding any improper conduct with women especially his secretary, how he is using his money and what his concerns and aspirations are for the future.
The younger brother: Once a week Jon will then meet with one of the young men in his youth leadership team for no more than an hour, late afternoon, to seek to encourage him by asking some similar questions but also focus on particular issues of character development or Christian life that Jon will have observed through working together on the youth team. This is not a one-way process, since Jon has also made himself quite vulnerable by sharing his own struggles before they pray together.
The contemporary brother: Once every few months Jon treks along the M3 to meet up in a service station restaurant with a friend from College. It is essentially a time of sharing news and mutual encouragement but they will generally end up opening the Bible together and sharing things they have learned from the Scriptures or Christian books since last meeting.
What are the benefits of this ‘three way model’? "Besides being hugely enjoyable" says Jon, "it makes it very hard for me to slip away from Christian priorities! I love my wife, she is my greatest friend on earth, but it's great having three guys to relate to in a deep way who are committed to my spiritual well being."
What are the key elements to making it work? "Good time management—use meal times and those ‘dead’ hours at the end of an afternoon—and there must be absolute confidentiality," he said.
Tim Thornborough is the founder and Publishing Director of The Good Book Company. He is series editor of Explore Bible-reading notes, the author of The Very Best Bible Stories series, and has contributed to many books published by The Good Book Company and others. Tim is married to Kathy, and they have three adult daughters.
