Fathering vs Mentoring

Dear family,

Before I go off to shenyang, I thought I would pen off some of my thinking about fathering.

For a start, I prefer fathering to mentoring. Mentoring is more skills and knowledge inclined while fathering is about wholistic development. Also mentoring has a greek history while fathering is biblical.

Fathering is about birthing, building and blessing the charge God gave to us. It involves prayer. Prayer is the foundation / touchstone of fathering. It is not what I do…but what I talk to God about you that really matters.

Col 1:9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,

Col 1:10 that you might walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing, being fruitful in every work and increasing in the knowledge of God,

Col 1:11 being empowered with all power, according to the might of His glory, to all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness,

Col 1:12 giving thanks to the Father, who has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.

I shared with many of you my reflection on the above verses. The key to pleasing God, being fruitful, increasing knowledge of God, being empowered, etc lies in knowing the WILL of God in your life! V 10 – “that” implies v9 is the cause and v10 onwards is the effect.

And the cause - to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

Mark the words “in all wisdom and spiritual understanding”. Knowing God's will is not enough. You need to know with wisdom and understanding. For example, you may know that God called you into fulltime pastoral ministry. But if you go around boasting about your call…that would only turn many off and certainly not in wisdom. I think you get my point.

While the key to such victorious life is knowing the will of God…the role of the father is to PRAY! V 9 Paul mentioned that he did not cease to pray for them to know God’s will. As such, the 1st and most importantly role for the Father is to PRAY for the children.

I will be praying for all of you in my absence during this period. And I do hope that you would start to do likewise for your existing members and the new ones who have yet to join. I will share more about fathering in the subsequent emails.


CSL