Spiritual mentoring is a particular kind of friendship in which, according to Keith R. Anderson, "two or more people walk together in heightened awareness of the presence of yet Another"—the Holy Spirit. "Spiritual mentoring is not a complicated process that requires technical training and complex protocol," Anderson continues. "It is essential, authentic, and maybe even natural human speech that is focused, disciplined and nurtured by training for one of the hardest natural things we do: listening reflectively to another. It is sacred companionship as life is lived and story told. Available to almost all, it requires deliberate recruitment, preparation and practice."These pages unfold a vision for mentoring that invites us to read our own lives as narrative and to learn how to enter the narrative of another life. The book covers the scope of the mentoring relationship through various seasons, offering helpful and inspiring metaphors for mentoring. All are invited to enter the mentoring story.



Keith R. Anderson (DMin, George Fox Evangelical Seminary) is president of The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. He is the author of A Spirituality of Listening, Spiritual Mentoring: A Guide for Those Giving and Receiving Direction, Friendships That Run Deep, Is This The One? and What They Don't Always Teach You at a Christian College. Anderson previously served as dean of spiritual formation and vocation at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, and as dean of spiritual formation/campus pastor at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was director of Vocare, a program for theological exploration of vocation funded by a $2 million grant from the Lilly Endowment, and has beenthe Senior Fellow for Spiritual Formation for the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities since 2000. His parish ministry experience includes serving urban parishes in Washington State, Michigan and Minnesota.



Introduction: Mentoring Matters



Part I: Uncovering Your Life Story

1. Reading with a Consecrated Purpose

Spiritual Mentoring as Hospitality

2. God as Author

Spiritual Mentoring as Farming

3. Life as Text

Core Curriculum

4. The Mentor as Coreader

Styles of Mentoring

5. Imperfect People as Mentors

Spiritual Mentoring as Cura Animarum



Part II: Uncovering the Movements of Spiritual Mentoring

6. Starting Well

Spiritual Mentoring as Disillusionment

7. What Does a Mentoring Session Look Like?

Asking Great Questions

8. Wisdom for the Long Walk of Faith

Spiritual Mentoring as Ecology

9. Creating thePace

Spiritual Mentoring as Prayer

10. Sustaining Momentum Through Accountability

Spiritual Mentoring as Geography

11. Ending Well

Ten Essentials for the Mentor's Library



Acknowledgments

Appendix 1: Lectio Divina

Appendix 2: Transference and Countertransference

Appendix 3: Discernment Questions for Choosing a Mentor

Appendix 4: What About Differences That Might Exist Between Mentor and Mentee?

Notes