Middle East/North Africa (MNN) — According to studies done of Fortune 500 companies over the years, the majority of the most successful US businesses have mentorship programs. Mentorship is baked into God’s success plan for the Church, too.
Fadi Sharaiha serves with the MENA Leadership Center. This fall, their Emerging Leaders Program has made strong mentor-mentee pairings for Christians from the Middle East and North Africa seeking to grow.
“[A] mentor is someone who has been in the field for some time with a track record of spiritual maturity, achievement, and professional conduct,” Sharaiha said.
One such match is for an Arabic-speaking church plant in Europe.
(Photo courtesy of MENA Leadership Center)
“They are trying to figure out what to do, what’s next for them, how to conduct the ministry in different levels,” Sharaiha said. “For them, we have someone who has been a pastor [and] who took care of pastors in Europe as well.”
Mentorship isn’t just for leaders. Jesus modeled personal discipleship in His earthly ministry, choosing twelve men and then three even more personally. That means investing spiritually in others is a call for every Christian, in big or small ways.
“It’s an open invitation from God Himself to us as people of the Church to be more aligned with His purposes and to be more aligned with His heart,” said Sharaiha.
Sharaiha invites you to dive into both giving and receiving mentorship as part of the Body of Christ!
“How are you using your time, gifts, and the history, the experience that you have? Are you using it for the glory of God — through mentorship as an example?” Sharaiha said. “The reason I think that the Lord created the whole Church as one body is that we help each other. We are there for each other.”
Interested to take discipleship a step further? Reach out to the MENA Leadership Center if you might be able to offer mentorship to a leader in the Middle East and North Africa. Or consider partnering with this ministry financially to sponsor a life-giving mentorship already taking place.
Header photo courtesy of HIVAN ARVIZU @soyhivan/Unsplash.
