Mentoring for Lifelong Ministry
FOR RELEASE: Tuesday, March 12, 1996
1996 Ronald A. Hoffman LectureApril 16-17, 1996
Graduate School of Christian Ministries
The 1996 Ronald A. Hoffman Lecture series "Mentoring for Lifelong Ministry" has been scheduled for April 16 and 17 at the Huntington College Graduate School of Christian Ministries. Bobb Beihl, founder of the Master Planning Group International, and Mark Arnold, president of Mentoring Today, are scheduled to appear at the two-day conference.
The Hoffman lectures will offer ideas and help ask the right questions on mentoring. This series is designed to help Christian ministers in multi-staff churches, pastors who want to be mentors or to be mentored, denominational leaders and parachurch ministry leaders who desire to mentor peers and future leaders.
Clarence A. Kopp, bishop emeritus of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ and director of the Mentoring for Life Center at Huntington College, explained that mentoring is an educational model somewhat akin to an apprenticeship. "In the middle ages, novices learned their trade by working closely with a master artisan. This lecture series is designed to help prepare both ministerial students and accomplished pastors to participate in the same kind of educational process."
"The idea of mentoring in ministry has Biblical foundations," Kopp continued. "In the New Testament, Jesus developed a mentoring relationship with his disciples. Then, as now, effective disciple making through intensive mentoring is a key to building solid churches."
Fast becoming a major movement to help persons grow in their faith, mentoring accelerates the growth rate of Christian leaders for the future. A practical application of mentoring can be seen in the relationship in which young Christian leaders from difficult homes can see healthy models of what it is to be good parents and be helped in the basic transitions of life.
"Mentoring is considered the linchpin that will connect the current generation of Christian leadership to the next one. It can protect Christian leaders from stumbling or help them back onto their feet if they do fall," said Kopp. "It is a relational bonding that bridges denominational, theological, racial, ethnic, socio-economic and generational boundaries."
Calling the Huntington College Graduate School a "pioneer in the effort to establish ministry mentoring tools," Kopp expressed hope that this year's Hoffman Lecture Series will generate interest in mentoring among other academics. Already, a number of participants have registered from colleges and universities outside of Indiana, including Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky, Samford University in Alabama, and Spring Arbor College in Michigan.
Registration for the two-day series, including the Tuesday night banquet, is $30. To register, or for further information, please call Carol Lister at the Graduate School of Christian Ministries at (219)356-6000, extension 1039.
Biographical Sketches
Mark Arnold, D. Phil, is president of Mentoring Today, a ministry founded in 1991 to strengthen the body of Christ worldwide by educating and motivating Christians to find and be mentors. He received a BA from Covenant College and an MTS degree from Chesapeake Theological Seminary. In 1994, he received a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Oxford Graduate School, where he specialized in leadership development. Arnold has trained midshipmen at the US Naval Academy, served as assistant pastor of a large Presbyterian church and is a popular speaker and group facilitator. He served for eight years as the senior vice president of Christian Leadership Concepts, Inc., an equipping program for businessman headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. He is the founder and president of the Charter Resource Group, a Nashville-based personal training and management consulting firm.
Bobb Biehl founded Masterplanning Group in 1976. As its president, he has consulted personally with over 150 clients. In that time he met one-to-one with over 1500 executives (board members, senior executives, and staff members) and spent an estimated 21,000 hours in private sessions with some of the finest leaders of our generation. Based on these thousands of hours of practical, "rubber-meets-the-road" experience, Biehl has authored a wide variety of books, tapes, and other resources in the area of personal and organizational development. Published books include Boardroom Confidence, Leadership Confidence, Memories, On My Own, Stop Setting Goals, Why You Do What You Do, and Wisdom for Men. Soon to be released are Mentoring, The Heart to Heart Series, and Dreaming About the Future in a Practical Way. Biehl is a charter member of the board of directors of Focus on the Family. He also serves as a member of the board of directors of Mentoring Today and Duane Pederson Ministries. Prior to launching Masterplanning Group, Biehl served on the executive staff of World Vision International. As director of volunteers, he designed and developed World Visions' Love Loaf program which has raised over $50,000,000 for world hunger. Biehl earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Michigan State University.
To register, or for further information, please call Carol Lister at the Graduate School of Christian Ministries at (219)356-6000, extension 1039.
