“[Jesus said], ‘You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you speak correctly, because I am.’” (John 13:13, CEB translation)
The last in the series of bonus material that didn’t make the book, I celebrate the things I love about us Johannines!
Mentoring in Isolation
“I feel like I need to write something. I pulled my paper from seminary that I wrote on the history of the sacraments. I feel like I need to blog about what we are deciding about communion. Enter the fight,” she said.
“Also, I have been reading all these books. The one I showed you is on the history of evangelism in the United States. But you know, the author just skipped over the Methodist movement. Well, not altogether, but it was just a few paragraphs. I mean, we spread the Gospel all throughout the frontier. We were the circuit riders! But, then, I guess that wasn’t his frame of reference either. So it was good. I learned some things,” she continued.
“What are you doing?” I asked, a bit exasperated.
We both laughed, and then said in unison, “Johannine!”
Whenever I work with Johannines on their plan for discipleship, it is spelled out very simply: get a mentor, be a mentor. See?!?! Easy enough! Except not for Johannines. Johannines don’t just seek the wisdom of any old person. That person must be carefully chosen. And then the Johannine has to get up the nerve to ask to be mentored, at the risk of being rejected by someone they admire, which is more painful to them than it would be to a Markan, for example. And when it comes to mentoring someone themselves, well, they will only do that when they feel like they are expert enough to lead someone, and they have such high standards for leadership that often they don’t start mentoring until they are vastly overqualified.
But what do Johannines do when they are confined to their home? How does mentoring happen then? Well, it turns out that they can do the thing that I recommend to Johannines when I am face-to-face and helping them walk through their plan: books and writing/speaking can count as mentoring. Of course I tell them to find at least one flesh and blood person to mentor them and for them to mentor, but also to recognize that such learning takes place in all kinds of ways.
So I was heartened to listen to my Johannine friend as she recounted what she was doing with her quarantine. She is willing to mentor in this space through her writing, and she is willing to be mentored by reading what others have written. But also, in good Johannine fashion, she does not swallow anything whole, but tests it up against other wisdom and knowledge she has gained. She continues to grow in the discipleship she is called into, even when she can’t put her feet outside the door.
Toe to Toe
I worked with her church on three separate occasions, and any time I was there, I could count on Mrs. F to be in the front row. The first time I came, she had questions. She wanted to know all about me. Where did I go to school? What was my position in the Conference? What was my purpose in visiting with them that day? If they shared something with me, what exactly was I going to do with that information?
The second time I visited, I had the results of their Gospel Discipleship assessments. So now, Mrs. F. had questions. How exactly did I come up with this test? Why do I have the results and not other people in the congregation? (Other people did have the results; they just hadn’t been shared with her.) How exactly was this supposed to help them learn about Jesus?
She came up to me after that session, and demanded to know what her type was. I didn’t even need to look, but I did just to make sure. “Oh!” I exclaimed, “You are primarily Johannine, secondarily Markan. But really very strongly Johannine.” She looked sideways at me.
The third time I came, there she was on the front row. There she was as I explained how important it is to live into our discipleship. There she was as I honestly explained the tensions of that church, because they were a Matthean-Markan tie. There she was as I navigated the dynamics of unpacking how complicated it would be to balance those two approaches out. But there she was as I placed a hybrid discipleship system before them.
There she was. Not to question me this time. There she was to cheer me on.
I had finally earned my place. She had seen me at work enough to know I knew what I was talking about, and that I had listened intently to them. I had cleared her Johannine hurdles. I knew moving forward I would have an ally for the work ahead.
I love the questions Johannines bring. I love the standards they have, particularly when it comes to working with Scripture. I love the challenges they have, because they have made this whole approach stronger.
But I also love to remind them that as they come forward with their questions, remember that they are going toe to toe with a Markan-Johannine. Get ready for someone who has those standards too, but who also brings the fire….
Want to know who you are called to be? Take the assessment at www.ministrymatters.com/gospeldiscipleship.
Want to hear some more stories? Download the video content that goes with the books here at Cokesbury.com
Photo by Seven Shooter on Unsplash