Discovering Successful Pastoral Mentors Based on their Spiritual Gifts Cluster and Engaging Them in Mentorship in the Wisconsin Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church

Problem Many pastors are placed into pastoral ministry with passion and education but lack sufficient mentoring to help them succeed in ministry. These pastors would benefit from a mentor who could support them and/or grow them through intentional mentorship in specific agreed upon areas. The concept of mentoring is biblical, Jesus being a prime example, and one that is in line with the principles of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. There is no conflict with the concept of mentoring, but nothing practical has been put into place in the Wisconsin Conference to discover good pastoral mentors and then engage them in the mentoring of other pastors. A pastor’s ministry is greatly enhanced by mentoring. Method Research was done to identify an appropriate spiritual gifts survey. The identified survey was used to discover whether or not pastors, who are good mentors, have a consistent spiritual gifts cluster. This was achieved by interviewing over sixty pastors in the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists who were considered by their peers to be good pastoral mentors. The interview, combined with the results from their spiritual gifts survey, gave the necessary data for this project. Following this research, pastors in the Wisconsin Conference with the identified spiritual gifts cluster were sought out and engaged in the mentoring of other pastors within the conference. Results The study of pastoral mentors in the North American Division showed that there is indeed a common spiritual gifts cluster in pastors who are considered by their peers to be good mentors. This data was used as a baseline to identify other pastors who might be good mentors. The pastors in the Wisconsin Conference of Seventh-day Adventists were used as the test group. A spiritual gifts survey was administered to the pastors who were willing to participate, and their data was compared to the baseline information. Four pastors were identified as having the spiritual gifts cluster of a good pastoral mentor. These pastors were then trained and engaged in mentoring other pastors over a period of six months. The feedback from the mentors and the mentees at the end of the process validated that it was indeed possible to identify good pastoral mentors based on their spiritual gifts. Conclusion Based on the data retrieved from the mentees and the pastors identified as potential mentors, it is apparent that there is a consistent spiritual gifts cluster among pastors who are good mentors. Our specific test was to see if pastor mentors who are not currently involved in mentoring could be identified based on their spiritual gifts, trained, and successfully engaged in mentoring. Of the four pastors in the Wisconsin Conference who fit the mentor profile, all four agreed to enter into a mentoring relationship. The results of their mentoring relationships indicate that each one of them proved themselves to be a competent and successful mentor. Based on this project, it has been found that using the spiritual gifts survey is a valid tool to discover pastors who can successfully mentor other pastor