My good friend Mark says, "If you see a turtle on top of a fence post, you should ask how he got there." As I think about leadership and life, I think about those who really make a difference and experience life to the fullest. They almost always have strong positive mentor figures in their lives. All of us have mentors, whether we want them or not. Parents often set the tone of how we view life and how we react to situations. Our peers, teachers, and coaches growing up are types of mentors. Some of these models are positive and some of these move us to unhealthy patterns. Yet, research shows that most teenagers (and I believe adults, also), who stick with their faith, have strong positive mentors in their lives.

The last few issues of YMI have been dealing with key findings, the critical components to students sticking with their faith after high school. Mentoring is a key component. Creating a mentoring culture in your youth ministry where students are being intentionally mentored by older leaders, having peer-to-peer accountability, and also mentoring someone younger than they are, is vitally important. This should also apply to us as leaders. It is critical to find this same design, above (older/wiser), peer-to-peer, and younger.

We often spend a lot of time on programming, but not a lot of time matching up mentors with our students or teaching them how to mentor. Students often won't remember the details about your programs when they leave your ministry, but they will remember someone who cared and poured into them.

Often it is hard to find our own mentors for our lives as youth leaders. Check out www.lead222.com for help on free coaching, and also check out our Houston trip with Lead222 before IYC2016 to get your students trained: www.iyc2016.org/lead-222-missions-experience

Mentoring should be a key focus in your life and your ministry. It makes a difference.

Together raising up a new generation of Christ-centered disciples,

Andy Stephenson, Ph.D., is the associate director of US and Canada Ministries at Church of God Ministries. He can be reached at AStephenson@chog.org

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According to the 2014 STW Annual Report, over $787,000 has been given to Spread the Word since it started in 2002. Recently, a request was granted for the country of Cuba, which brings the total number of countries served to 37. As knowledge about STW continues to grow, more and more local youth ministries and state youth conventions are “adopting” special projects to help fund tools for evangelism around the world. Church of God students are making a difference! Go to www.chogy.org/spread-the-word for more information about Spread the Word.

Tami Byrd is the director of Spread the Word, and also serves as the North American Youth Ministries project coordinator at Church of God Ministries. She can be reached at tbyrd@chog.org.

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It is true that building relationships is a major part of ministering to students. As youth leaders, we pour ourselves into the lives of students each week. We gain their trust. We help give guidance to their lives. We love on them unconditionally. That is all well and good. But it is really important that parents take the lead when it comes to mentoring their children.

My wife and I are privileged to have a couple of youth-aged students in our home. We made the decision a long time ago that when it comes to life lessons, we would rather have our children learn about those experiences from us than from somewhere else. So, we have been intentional about being involved in their lives when it comes to those life issues.

A few months back, I took my son on a "man retreat." The whole idea of this time together was to give us the opportunity to talk to each other about life. We talked about a lot of stuff, but the primary hot-button issue was sex. The truth is that a lot of dads are uncomfortable talking with their child about sex. I would rather address the issue than have my son seek information from other sources. The same is true of other hot-button issues of the day.

As youth pastors and leaders, we need to encourage parents to lead the way in mentoring their children. They really are the first line!

R.W. Moody Jr. is a Youth Ministry Team member and the pastor of student and family ministries at Parkgate Community Church in Pasadena, Texas. He can be reached at rwmoody@parkgate.org.

Check out www.parentministry.net for resources to help parents.

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We all have issues that we know are critically important, and yet they continually slip to the back burner. Mentoring has been one of those issues for me. Deep down I know it is critical to the spiritual growth of our students. But I get so caught up in keeping present programs going to the point that it keeps me from implementing a mentoring ministry. Others are more qualified than I am to write an article on starting a mentoring ministry. But, if you are like me, you desire to bring an element of mentoring into ministries that already exist.

Each person needs to understand that mentoring starts with yourself. Who are you pouring into? Lately I have arranged more one-on-one times with our leaders. We have specific elements of discipleship to focus on; scripture, prayer, witnessing, serving, and relationships. We have conversations and accountability on these topics. I pour into these leaders, and encourage them to do the same with a student. Our small group leaders are challenged to choose one student from their group to mentor. This fall we are also inviting older folks in our church to adopt a discipleship group. The senior adult is given a "baseball card" on each student in their group, and their commitment is to pray for the students and join them once a month. This way, we can tap into our senior adults to offer vital intergenerational mentoring opportunities. I hope you find these ideas helpful!

Chris Spitters is a Youth Ministry Team member and the youth pastor at First Church of God in St. Joseph, Michigan. He can be reached at chris.s@myfirstchurch.com.

Check out www.lead222.com/be-with-resources for some helps on mentoring students.

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Having the right mentor, whether this is someone who is a part of your same local congregation or not, can serve to strengthen your ministry and leadership in an untold number of ways. Here are just a few ways to hopefully convince you that finding a mentor is one of the best decisions you can make for your ministry (and your sanity):

1. A mentor will stretch you on purpose—Ministry is challenging, and most of the time those challenges come in the form of unexpected emergencies that cause us to have to adapt and react on-the-fly. Being purposefully challenged by a mentor can give you the opportunity to grow as a leader on purpose, rather than waiting for the next emergency to pop up.

2. A mentor will help remind you of why you do what you do—It usually doesn't take very long before even the most passionate leader looks in the mirror and asks, "Why am I even doing this?" It's in those times that a mentor can remind you of your calling and of all the positive things about ministry.

3. A mentor will be on your side (even when you aren't)—One of the greatest advantages to having a mentor is that you can trust that he or she is always working for your benefit. Sometimes this happens through encouragement, but other times it might come by providing honest feedback about aspects of your leadership that may have the potential to hurt your ministry in the long run. Remember, the Bible tells us that "iron sharpens iron," but it never promised that this would be a painless process.

Josh Boldman is a Youth Ministry Team member and the student ministries pastor at White Chapel Church of God, and campus pastor at Warner Christian Academy. He can be reached at josh@whitechapelchurch.com.

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Have you ever had moments in your ministry when you have felt all alone? My guess is that the answer to this question for almost (if not all) youth leaders is, "yes". Ministry can be a lonely place, especially youth ministry. We need to remember, however, that we were not created to be alone. I'm not talking about husband and wife; I'm talking about the fact that we were created to be in relationship with others; created to DO life with others.

As we focus on the importance of mentoring, I want to share with you a very simple, yet powerful illustration of how to maintain a balanced and effective mentoring culture within your own life and ministry. In the Leadership Principle of the 5 Principle Training (free downloadable training at www.chogy.org under Featured Resources) there is a great illustration called the "Cross Coaching Tree." The illustration is that just as there are three areas of the cross, there are three areas of leadership and coaching.

The first is having a mentor/coach in your life; that is, someone older and with more wisdom. This is represented by the top of the cross. Second, it is important to have an encourager/partner, someone to cheer you on and support you. This is represented by the horizontal bar of the cross. The third area of leadership is mentoring someone else, having someone that you are intentionally pouring into on a regular basis. This is represented by the lower portion of the cross.

Mentor. Encourager. Mentee. These three relationships are important, biblical, and necessary in order to live out discipleship as Christian leaders. I encourage you to ask yourself the following three questions as you strive to grow as a Christ-centered disciple:

• Who is intentionally pouring into you?
• Who are your encouragers and partners in ministry?
• Who are you intentionally pouring into?

For more information, download the 5 Principle Training, offered for FREE at www.chogy.org/5-principle-training. It has been taught in Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, and North America and is available in four different languages.

Adam Rentas is a Youth Ministry Team member and the youth pastor at First Church of God in Vero Beach, Florida. He can be reached at adamr@fcog.com.

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Calendar of Events

IYC2016, San Antonio, Texas July 2–5, 2016 Watch your mailbox for information coming soon. Also, the IYC website, www.iyc2016.org, is live, and registration begins September 1, 2015. Don't miss this incredible life change experience!

YMT Members
Josh Boldman	R. W. Moody	Chris Spitters	Andy Stephenson	Adam Rentas

Check out www.beboldacademy.org for incredible resources, coaching, and discounts on top conferences as a member. Have your church sign up today!

National Evangelism Week-Life Book

Check out this great opportunity in connection with the Life Book and See You At The Pole:

N.E.W. gives you an opportunity to challenge your students to be intentional about sharing the gospel during one specific week, September 20–26. Honestly, we just made it up to get people to share the gospel and we chose this week specifically because it's the same week as See You At The Pole. Imagine one week intensely focused on evangelism and prayer. For our part at The Life Book, we are challenging youth leaders across the U.S. to get free Life Books for their students to give the gift of the gospel to 1 Million teens during this one week. Go to www.nationalevangelismweek.com for more information, or follow this link to request Life Books right away with a special page and video just for CHOG churches: www.thelifebook.com/dev/requestform.