CHURCH MENTORING PROGRAM

Church Mentoring Outreach Ministry

Outreach
The Need for outreach mentoring: 
In the U.S. today, there are 24 million children living in single parent homes representing 34% of the youth in our country. There are 2.7 million children with a parent in prison.  These children are more likely to drop out of school, utilize drugs and/ or alcohol, enter into gang activity or find themselves in prison or dead by the age of 21. Through inadequate or no role modeling, these children are destined to repeat the errors of the people within their environment. All boys desperately need a positive role model to help them grow into manhood and to become productive adults. Due to single mothers working long hours trying to meet the financial responsibilities of the family, a high percentage of young boys raised by these mothers are being raised by the streets of their neighborhoods. These young men need positive male role models to help them make better choices and to give them ideas to help them set goals for their lives. Mentors help young men and women develop quality characteristics to help them maneuver through the mainstream of society.

The Solution:
A mentor from a local church meeting with these boys in a one-on-one or group relationship can and will make a difference in the life of that child. As their friendship grows the mentor and protégé will learn about each other and learn to trust each other. They will begin to talk about life and the future. They will, in time, talk about spiritual things and give that mentor the opportunity to discuss God’s love for that child. Many of these families will have no desire to step into the local church, but the local church can go to them, reaching out and showing love to their child first will model the love of Jesus to the entire family. Mentoring a child can and will bring whole families into the church.

Discipleship
Intentionality:
Most likely every church professes to have a discipleship program, but many churches cannot properly define what the program is, nor its focus. When the correct principles of mentoring are utilized in the discipleship area of ministry, the results are intentional and focused. Without this intentionality many of our church people, especially young people, fall through the cracks.  This can have devastating consequences for the youth, their family, and their faith. Today, fewer and fewer youth are making the transition from childhood to adult ministry. This is primarily due to the lack of connection and relationship between the two.  Just because a parent(s) attends services on a weekly basis does not insure that a child will make the transition. Unless there is purpose and meaning, the child may not make the connection and simply drop out and not come back. Discipleship and mentoring are the most effective way to bridge the gap.

Through the PKL ministry, we help train and support churches to implement a solid Christian-based mentoring program in order for you to provide Christian mentors to the kids within your congregation & community. When an adult other than a parent connects with a youth at a friendship level they are more likely to stay in church and successfully make the transition from the youth group to the “adult church”.

Whether it is within your church or the outreach aspect of the mentoring ministry, all kids can benefit from this well respected and proven program. For the Kingdom of God, this is an effective avenue through which salvation and discipleship can happen!

Volunteerism
Activating Your Laypeople:
We have all discovered that in most churches 20% of the people do 100% of the work, leaving 80% of the people to sit back and receive ministry. PKL ministries have found that mentoring is a great way to engage the 80% who have been sitting in the pews. These folks may simply feel unqualified to do ministry within the church. Suddenly, when someone comes along and tells them they can make a difference in a life by simply being a friend, a light comes on and they respond (perhaps for the first time) with, “I can do that!” The wonderful thing about this is, once they volunteer and become a mentor they are more likely to get involved elsewhere in the church! Thus, your volunteer base grows and people are showing the love of God and helping a neighbor come closer to God. Not only are the 80% of those now ready for ministry, but also the young people they are mentoring will join that volunteer base as they grow in their faith. And this process can bring the family of the mentee closer to the church body. And this method can grow the church and bring the congregation closer together. In turn, the finances of the church grows and the church can do more for the Kingdom of God.

This is the only way to heal the community that the church abides in and to ensure the safety of all God’s children that come under his protection through Christ Jesus.