Mentoring

Biblical, Theological, and Practical Perspectives

Dean K. Thompson, D, Cameron Murchison, Dean K. Thompson, D, Cameron Murchison

• Editorial: Eerdmans
• Año: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781467450676
• Categoría: Theology & Religion
• Categoría: Christian Ministry

Positive mentoring relationships are held to be essential to the formation of strong Christian leaders—but why? How can theological and biblical insights inform mentoring relationships? And what do these vital relationships look like across a range of Christian experience?

Opening multiple angles of vision on the practice of mentoring, DeanK. Thompson and D.Cameron Murchison here present a group of eminent scholars who explore mentoring from biblical-theological perspectives, within the context of diverse national and international communities, and across generations.

CONTRIBUTORS: David L. Bartlett
Walter Brueggemann
Katie Geneva Cannon
Thomas W. Currie
Cristian De La Rosa
Jill Duffield
Elizabeth Hinson Hasty
Luke Timothy Johnson
Kwok Pui Lan
Thomas G. Long
Melva Lowry
Martin E. Marty
Rebekah Miles
D. Cameron Murchison
Camille Cook Murray
Rodger Nishioka
Douglas Ottati
Alton B. Pollard III
Cynthia L. Rigby
Dean K. Thompson
Theodore J. Wardlaw

PART 1

Biblical Perspectives

CHAPTER 1

Mentoring in the Old Testament

Walter Brueggemann

Mentoring as an idea is a quite modern notion. The practice of mentoring, however, is quite old. It is as old as social relationships in which one person knows things that would help another person flourish with well-being and success. Characteristically (but not always) mentoring is a relationship between someone of an older generation with more experience providing guidance and counsel for someone in a younger generation.

The practice of mentoring, moreover, is an acknowledgment that this social relationship works amid the ambiguity of continuity and discontinuity. On the one hand, there is continuity, as the older person or both persons assume that wisdom and know-how from an earlier experience still pertains and is relevantly operative for the younger person. On the other hand the relationship assumes, when honest, an awareness of discontinuity, for circumstances and possibilities for the younger person are different; one cannot simply replicate or reiterate old wisdom without recognizing that a leap of imagination is required in order that the wisdom of older experience can be recalibrated for new circumstance. Thus the mentoring relationship depends for its effectiveness on both in honoring what has been learned from the past and in recognizing that “new occasions teach new duties.”¹ In what follows I will consider several examples in the Old Testament of that venturesome process and the way in which remembered experience is mobilized as guidance for new circumstances.

Wisdom Tradition

It is appropriate to begin our investigation of mentoring in the Old Testament with reference to the wisdom tradition and most particularly the book of Proverbs. The very term wisdom by which we designate the books of Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes refers to the accumulated learning of the community over time that is passed from generation to generation. This accumulated learning has arisen from actual experience, observation, and discernment about how the world works, even though that empirical data has been variously stylized and reduced to standard (normative) articulation. Its rootage is quite practical.

The practicality of this accumulated tradition over time has two dimensions to it. On the one hand, it is quite pragmatic. The wise know what works and what fails to work toward success, security, wealth, or a good reputation. That is why there is advocacy concerning hard work, avoidance of debt, shunning of bad companions, and danger of wanton speech. On the other hand, the legacy of Proverbs is devoted to identifying modes of life and conduct that are in sync with the will of the Creator. As a result, wisdom teaching is labeled as “creation theology” because it is a reflection on how the world works as it has been ordered by the Creator God. While some interpreters attempt to distinguish between pragmatic, secular learning and theological wisdom, it is not possible in the ancient world to make such a distinction. What “works” is what is in sync with God’s will for creation. That legacy of wisdom, based on experience and observation, is an offer to the younger generation. James Crenshaw observes that this treasury of experience was passed on with great authority to the next generation so that it remained important even when problematized: “This treasury from the past came with certain claims of authority and therefore placed new generations in a context of decision. . . . In a sense, the legacy from the past comprised faith reports, and devotion toward parents complicated matters enormously. The tendency was to accept these faith reports at face value, even when they contradicted the personal experience of later generations.”²

Crenshaw further observes that the receiving voice of the younger generation is “the missing voice” in the tradition:³ “The usual speakers in the Book of Proverbs are parents, both father and mother. They teach their children in the privacy of the home. . . . To shape character in the youth, parents rely on insights accumulated over years of experience by the community at large. These fresh discoveries, stated in succinct form, are presented as statements demanding assent because they represent a consensus. Such sayings need not be argued or defended; they just are.”⁴ Thus it is plausible to think that the mentoring of the wisdom tradition was one-directional; except that the poem of Job bears witness to critical restlessness with such an authoritative tradition so that, as the book of Job has it, a radically different articulation was required in order to resonate with lived experience.

The stylized mentoring in the wisdom tradition is from father to son, so that we get a chorus of “Listen, my son”: “In Proverbs, the father-to-son setting continues through chapters 1–9 and is assumed occasionally elsewhere in the book. . . . Twice, the father associates his teaching with that of the youth’s mother (1:8 and 6:20), but she never speaks directly to the son.”⁵ There is no doubt that this teaching is highly stylized, but surely it reflects the patriarchal setting of the tradition.

An important exception to masculine figures of speech in the book of Proverbs are the words of “King Lemuel,” who repeats “an oracle that his mother taught him” (31:1). This mentoring took place in the royal household, but it might be the admonition that any mother would give to a son, a warning about dangerous sex and the risks of alcohol. Beyond that, the mother summons her royal son to exercise royal authority in a particular direction:

Speak out for those who cannot speak,

for the rights of all the destitute.

Speak out, judge righteously,

defend the rights of the poor and needy. (Prov. 31:8–9)

Christine Roy Yoder comments on this counsel: “The mother implores Lemuel to do his job, to enact and protect just laws and judgments and to advocate for the poor, whose lack of voice and powerlessness she captures with the expressions ‘mute’ and ‘those passing away.’ When people cannot speak—especially when they cannot—the king must speak for them.”⁶ In this wisdom tradition, for the most part there is no comeback from those who are addressed, an indication that the tradition of accumulated wisdom has great authority. It is evident, moreover, that it is all about sons, without reference to daughters, what one would expect in a patriarchal setting. Indeed the reorientation from patriarchy to an inclusive “sons and daughters” is itself an example, in our own time, of the way in which mentoring requires discontinuity and a leap of imagination to new social reality.

Early Narratives

From the early narrative materials of the Old Testament, I review three instances of mentoring, recognizing that the textual evidence is terse; it requires and permits extensive unpacking according to our theme.⁷

Jethro-Moses (Exodus 18)

In the wake of the exodus and the crisis of food and water in the wilderness, Moses was left with the task of consolidating the erstwhile slave community into a sustainable institutional form. Fortunately his father-in-law, Jethro, came to his rescue and mentored Moses on the management of that onerous process. The meeting between Jethro and Moses is highly stylized and couched in phrasings of theological awareness. Moses greets Jethro in solemn deference, and they exchange greetings of mutual concern (Exod. 18:7). Moses bears witness to Jethro concerning the exodus deliverance, and Jethro responds in kind (18:8–12).

Then the narrative moves beyond conventional formula to practical matters. Jethro observes Moses functioning as judge and administrator of the people. Before he mentors Moses, he must be sure he has rightly sized up the situation. The exchange between them radically alters Moses’s assumptions and actions:

–Jethro questions Moses in a way that has a note of reprimand: “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, while all the people stand around you from morning until evening?” (18:14).

–Moses explains that he is acting responsibly (18:15–16a).

–Jethro, in a more extended speech, offers Moses specific advice: “I will give you counsel” (18:19).

Moses had not asked for such counsel and likely would have continued his burdensome task without critical reflection. Jethro intrudes into Moses’s busyness with a series of imperative recommendations:

You should represent the people before God,

and you should bring their cases before God;

teach them the statutes and instructions

and make known to them the way they are to go. . . .

You should also look for able men . . .

set such men over them. (18:19–21)

Jethro concludes: “Let them sit as judges for the people at all times; let them bring every important case to you, but decide every minor case themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If you do this, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people will go to their home in peace” (18:22–23).

Jethro proposes a new judicial structure that will ease Moses’s work and urges Moses to focus on his most important tasks. Moses heeds Jethro’s counsel and undertakes new practices whereby he shares responsibility (18:24–25). Jethro’s uninvited wisdom rescues Moses from his overcommitment to his work and reminds Moses that he needs help and that alternatives are available. Jethro is a model mentor who identifies the crisis, suggests a solution, and permits greater effectiveness by Moses with less personal cost. Well done!

Moses-Joshua (Numbers 27:18–23)

There is no doubt that the tradition intends to exhibit Joshua as the successor to Moses and is at some pains to establish his authority in that role. Joshua functions in the narrative as an aide to Moses, who assists him in his various tasks, notably as military leader (Exod. 17:9–14; 24:13; 33:11; Num. 11:28). It is clear that Joshua, in his role as aide to Moses, is being instructed and groomed to assume leadership.

The most interesting part of their relationship is the way in which Moses takes care to fully authorize Joshua to carry on his work:

–He changes Joshua’s name, thus giving him a new identity in the tradition (Num. 13:16).

–He authorizes him to be shepherd of the sheep by laying hands on him (Num. 27:18–23; see Deut. 34:9). The latter text notes that Joshua is “full of the spirit of wisdom,” surely a result of having been with Moses for so long.

The specificity of mentoring is evident in two accent points. On the one hand, Moses “charges” Joshua with a mission to complete the transition into the new land: “Be strong and bold, for you shall bring the Israelites into the land that I promised them; I will be with you” (Deut. 31:23). On the other hand, when Joshua tries to stop the prophesying in the camp, Moses reprimands him: “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit on them!” (Num. 11:29).

The entire narrative process shows the way in which Joshua is prepared for leadership. By their companionship in which he is the compliant junior partner, Joshua is inculcated into Moses’s vision of what can be done and must be done. Moses is effectively shaping him for the hard work that is to come.

Eli-Samuel (1 Samuel 3:1–18)

This narrative is well known. The young Samuel is “under care” to the decrepit priest Eli. Sleeping in the temple, Samuel is three times addressed by YHWH but, young as he is, he does not know it. It remains for the aged Eli to recognize what is going on, so that he instructs Samuel on how to receive the address from God. In our church reading, we regularly read through only 1 Samuel 3:10, the result being a lovely little romantic tale. The sharp edge of the text, however, is after this verse. Faithful to the advice of Eli, Samuel listens for the divine word that is given as prophetic oracle (3:11–14). It is astonishing that, in the very temple over which Eli presides, God declares that God will terminate the priestly house of Eli: “For I have told him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering forever” (3:13–14). It is no wonder that the young Samuel is “afraid to tell the vision to Eli” (3:15). Eli, however, is not corrupt as are his sons. He is a faithful priest who does not flinch from the divine declaration. When Samuel reports the divine verdict against his house, Eli responds: “It is the LORD; let him do what seems good to him” (3:18).

This narrative has important aspects of mentoring. Samuel would not have received the divine word except for Eli’s guidance. Beyond that, Eli and Samuel enjoy full confidence and trust in each other, so that Samuel can overcome his fear and tell Eli all. Eli, I suggest, is a model mentor. He understands that the child whom he mentors must grow decisively beyond him. He does not try to control or restrain Samuel, but fully accepts that Samuel must move into an aren...