Mentoring is a popular word in Christian circles nowadays. While many people use it freely and liberally, not many really understand what it mean. That is also why many mentoring ventures begin with a heightened wow only to fall hard down to earth with a thud. This book helps us appreciate what mentoring is and offers great examples and how-tos for women. Men need not be left out, as there are many lessons to take home too. After all, learning is gender neutral.
conrade
TITLE:
Organic Mentoring: A Mentor's Guide to Relationships with Next Generation Women
AUTHOR: Sue Edwards and Barbara Neumann
PUBLISHER: Grand Rapids, MI:
Kregel Publications, 2014, (224 pages).
Imagine a community without women. Society would be impoverished. From non-profits to charitable organizations; from churches to various religious institutions; women form a sizeable portion of the community of care and help. Imagine further what an empowered community of women can do to change the world. That would be awesome indeed. Since the days of Jesus and the Early Church, women have played a critical role in society, both at home as well as in society. They have created an immense impact in many places. Yet, like so many things, past successes are no guarantee of the future. If women of the next generation can be mentored and discipled, society gains as a whole. This book is an effort to mentor and cultivate mentoring culture for the next generation.
The authors have a mentor-mentee relationship via a supervisor-student relationship where Barbara was a doctoral student and Sue her supervisor. Both had similar passions: to help bridge the modern and postmodern women through appropriate mentoring. Before introducing new ways, they point out the differences and the reasons why the outdated models and paradigms need to be changed. Based on their research about women and mentoring in a postmodern era, Edwards an Neumann make a compelling case for change, for adaptation, and for hope.
