I AM THRILLED TO HAVE MY FRIEND, AUTHOR, AND HEART’WINGS’ SISTER, JANET THOMPSON, WITH US TODAY. WELCOME JANET! AND GUESS WHAT, LADIES, JANET WILL BE GIVING AWAY A COPY OF “MENTORING FOR ALL SEASONS” TO ONE BLESSED PERSON, WHO VISITS US AND LEAVES A COMMENT! WOOT!
Now let’s jump right in. Tell us about your newly released book…
Mentoring for All Seasons: Sharing Life Experiences and God’s Faithfulness encourages women to be intentional in seeking a mentoring relationship. We’re always going into a new life season where we need a mentor, while we can mentor others from the season we’ve just experienced.
Mentoring for All Seasons is a celebration of what I’ve learned over the past twenty years since founding Woman to Woman Mentoring and helps answer questions like:
- What is mentoring?
- How do I find a mentor? How can I become a mentor?
- Why does God want us to mentor one another?
- What are the blessings of mentoring?
CAN YOU GIVE US A QUICK BREAKDOWN OF “MENTORING FOR ALL SEASONS?”
Section One: Mentoring 101 discusses the mentoring concept, why we need mentoring, God’s plan for us to mentor each other, the biblical timeless foundation for mentoring, and stages of mentoring. Section Two “Life Seasons of Mentors and Mentees” covers life seasons from tweens to twilight years. Mentoring for All Seasons is a practical “how-to” book for both mentors and mentees (M&Ms). Each season has an opening discussion, Mentor and Mentee Tips, God’s Perspective with Scriptures to discuss, a mentor and mentee story, a biblical mentoring story, and discussion questions. The Appendix includes answers to commonly asked questions about mentoring and Resources For Specific Seasons and Life Experiences.
WHAT LED YOU TO START THE WOMAN TO WOMAN MENTORING MINISTRY?
I was just an ordinary woman who said “Yes” to the Lord, and as they say, the rest has been HIStory. While attending Fuller Theological Seminary getting a Masters of Arts in Christian Leadership, I prayerfully attended a Women in Ministry Leadership Conference, hoping the Lord would reveal where He wanted to use me when I completed seminary. While waiting for the evening’s worship and teaching to begin with Jill Briscoe, I heard a voice . . . “Go, and feed My sheep.” I thought, “What sheep? Where? And what would I feed them if I found them?” Again, “Feed My sheep.” I muttered, “OK.” The next morning, the workshop instructor taught from John 21:15-17 where Jesus tells Peter, feed My sheep. Her topic was “Shepherding Women in Your Church.”
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
Soon after returning home from the conference, two women asked me to mentor them. I was beginning to see that maybe the sheep were women and feeding might be mentoring. Then through a series of God-incidences, I started a Woman to Woman Mentoring Ministry at my church, Saddleback.
The Lord blessed our mentoring ministry and other churches wanted to know how they could start one. So I wrote the DVD Leader’s Kit, Woman to Woman Mentoring How to Start, Grow, and Maintain a Mentoring Ministry. I continue to have the opportunity to share Woman to Woman Mentoring through my speaking and writing ministry, About His Work Ministries. I had no idea “feeding sheep” would go beyond Saddleback Church—even to international sheep.
WHAT IS THE BIBLICAL FOUNDATION FOR MENTORING?
Throughout the Bible, in the Old and New Testament, God tells us to mentor when He says that one generation is to teach and train the Christian life to the next generation. Psalm 145:4 is just one of many verses: “One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts.” Not simply to pass down how to do church, but the purpose of church: worshipping God. To share with the next generation the wonders of God and how to live the Christian life in an ever-changing world.
Titus 2:3-5, typically referred to as the “mentoring verses,” describe the first women’s ministry, where spiritually older women are to invest in the spiritually younger women, not necessarily chronological age. Mentoring is such an important aspect of the Christian life: It’s the job description for every Christian woman and should be the focus of women’s ministry.
Mentors don’t have all the answers, but God does.
WHAT DO YOU HOPE READERS WILL TAKE AWAY FROM “MENTORING FOR ALL SEASONS?”
Over the twenty years I’ve led the Woman to Woman Mentoring Ministry, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting women in all seasons of life. I noticed so many haven’t realized how beneficial a mentor would be in a changing or difficult life season or how they could bless other women with mentoring them through the wisdom they gleaned from a life season they’ve experienced.
Mentoring is a two-way relationship where both grow in their faith. It can be as simple as mentor sharing how God helped her through experiences, and He will be there for the mentee too, and so will the mentor. Together they pray and search the Scriptures for answers to the mentees life issues. Mentors aren’t experts in the Bible. They’re simply women who love the Lord and want to help a spiritually younger woman, or someone going through a life season they’ve experienced.
I pray readers will see that mentoring is timeless and brings together the generations. Generation gaps were never part of God’s plan for Christians; the exact opposite. Mentoring is simply being a caring, praying friend to someone God puts into our path or looking for someone to be that spiritual friend to us. That’s mentoring. It’s as easy as the subtitle to the book says and sometimes we make it too hard. Amazing things happen when two women walk side by side with Christ in the center. Of course, we can also mentor women in a season we haven’t experienced because the basis for any mentoring relationship is always helping your mentee to depend on God and His Word, not on you. Together M&M’s pray and search the Scriptures for answers to the mentees life issues. Mentees need to seek out women they admire to pour into their life and someday . . . the mentee becomes the mentor.
My prayer for the book is what one endorser said: Janet takes the scary out of mentoring. She gives step-by-step simple ways to reach out to the next generation with godly wisdom, practical life lessons, day-to-day applications. No matter what season of life a woman is in, from teens to twilight, Janet’s book helps mentors understand typical tender places and common empty spaces. This is one of the most comprehensive books on mentoring I’ve ever read. Readers will turn the last page and think, I can do this! Sharon Jaynes, author of 21 books including The Power of a Woman’s Words and Take Hold of the Faith You Long for
TELL US ABOUT YOUR OTHER BOOKS
Mentoring for All Seasons is my 19th book.
Forsaken God?: Remembering the Goodness of God Our Culture Has Forgotten
The Team That Jesus Built: How to Develop, Equip, and Commission a Women’s Ministry Team
Dear God, Why Can’t I Have a Baby?: A Companion Guide for Couples on the Infertility Journey
Dear God, They Say It’s Cancer: A Companion Guide for Women on the Breast Cancer Journey
Dear God, He’s Home!: A Woman’s Guide to Her Stay-At-Home Man
Praying for Your Prodigal Daughter: Hope, Help & Encouragement for Hurting Parents
Face-to-Face Bible Study Series (7 Books in the series)
Woman to Woman Mentoring Ministry Resources (4 Books and a DVD Leader’s Kit)
What are you working on now?
My next book is Get Your Brave On: Women of the Bible Encourage Women of Today to Be Brave
I’m still receiving stories of times when God provided the strength to do things you never thought you could do. So if anyone has a “brave” story you would like to share, please contact me at ahw@sbcglobal.net.
Author Bio
Janet Thompson is an international speaker, freelance editor, and award-winning author of 19 books. She is the founder of Woman to Woman Mentoring and About His Work Ministries. Her latest book Mentoring for All Seasons: Sharing Life Experiences and God’s Faithfulness is available at Christian bookstores, online bookstores, Amazon ,and signed by the author.
Visit Janet and sign up for her Monday Morning Blog and online newsletter at womantowomanmentoring.com
Instagram: JanetAHW
DiAne thank you for the interview about my new book Mentoring for All Seasons. I pray it will start a revival of mentoring in churches and Christian lives per God’s command: One generation will teach and train the next.
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And my prayer, Janet, is that the older women will step up to the plate and realize the word retirement is never mentioned in the Bible. I see far too many ladies who believe we’ve served our time…raised our kids and helped raise grandkiddos and now we can stroll the beaches and sit back, satisfied. Scripture is clear, “…the older women are to teach the younger women…” Nope, not a word about retirement after grandkids. Could it be the problem isn’t just with the younger generation–perhaps we’ve failed in our job to teach our daughters and granddaughters to love their children and respect their husbands. No better time than this moment to get back into real life. And the first task I’m going to complete is purchasing and reading your book! And, of course, giving a review from a grandmother’s viewpoint. ❤
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Absolutely. I always say as Christians we only “retire” to heaven. Until then there is work for us to do for the kingdom no matter what our age. I like to say you retire with purpose! Retirement from work gives you more time to work for the Lord, About His Work! Can’t wait to hear your thoughts after reading Mentoring for All Seasons and thank you for a review to help others consider how the book will apply to their Christian life from tweens to twilight years, in all seasons of life.
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Janet, this sounds like a great book. My younger sister is a very active mentor, She mentors primarily to older high school students and college students. I enjoy hearing her sweet stories (when she has permission to share). These young ladies have so much to overcome!
Diane, thank you for sharing and posting the information and interview!
Blessings to you both~
Robbie
(aka RobbyeFaye, aka Robbye)
robbyefaye (at) gmail. (com)
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Hi Robbie,
I love to hear about women mentoring tweens, teens, and college age women. Those are the first seasons I write about in Mentoring for All Seasons and so often these young girls and women are overlooked in the church. It’s so important that they learn how to live the Christian life before the world teaches them not to. Blessings to you and your sister, Janet
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I so agree.
There were many times when I was a young wife and mother (19) and far, far from home, new to the military environment, that I would have loved to have a mentor. Our church had nothing of the sort.
Blessings!
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I got my book! I can’t wait to read it, though it will not be for a little while as I need to get caught up on some others first.
Thank you so very much!
Blessings~
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RobbyeFaye, I have had the blessing of having had several women who took me under their wings after I came to the Lord and nurtured me, did not condemn me but showed me what the love of Jesus looked like. I’m so thankful for Janet’s ministry. At some point in our lives, we all need mentoring.
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DiAne, I feel that is so very important, too. I also agree, we can use mentoring at any and all ages.
Blessings~
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