ABOUT THE MINISTRY
For more information download our November 2023 Impact Report.
BACKGROUND & VISION
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The vision of this ministry is not new. Many pastors in gospel partnerships and training networks are seeking to support young pastors, however, there is a greater need than these present resources are able to meet.
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This ministry offers proactive mentoring and coaching for those who need it. Requests regularly come in to mentor and coach new pastors through various networks in Scotland. We now mentor about 30 pastors all over the country.
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It is my prayer that a network of like-minded experienced pastors would be formed to further support pastors in their first ten years of ministry throughout Scotland.
HOW MENTORING WORKS
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Mentoring takes place every two months, depending on the need. In general pastors are offered six mentoring sessions per year, with four additional informal catch-ups in between.
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Each session lasts up to two hours, plus preparation and debrief time, following a formal or informal approach depending on the requirements. A typical session includes a catch-up on 'life' followed by a review of the previous meeting. Here we review the action points, objectives and strategies. This is all rounded off with time in the word of God and prayer.
On the back of each meeting the mentees receive detailed notes of the meeting laying out the discussions and providing action points for the next meeting.
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PARTNERSHIPS
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I am grateful for the support given by FIEC UK, Bonar Trust, the Free Church of Scotland and Gospel Partnerships across the country. These organisations and trusted colleagues within them recognise the need and share the vision.
I grew up in the Baptist Church in Glasgow first and then in early teenage years in Sheffield. My student and early married years and then ordination were in an FIEC church in Glasgow before we moved to an assistant pastorate in an independent church in Luton where we served for 3 years. From there we moved back to Scotland to a pastorate of a small independent church for 9 years before a move to an associate pastorate in Carrubbers , a large church in Edinburgh where I served for 20 years.
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With 30 years of lessons learnt at the coal face in local church experience, and a passion for discipleship and pastoral care, I desire to see more proactive mentoring, coaching and discipling for pastors in their first ten years, and most especially for their long- term growth, development, encouragement and fruitfulness.
Reminiscing is an excellent way for me to share with you the early seed thoughts that I began to have in 2016 during my sabbatical.
I continued to meet up with some younger pastors during my sabbatical for a coffee now and then, and it became apparent from some of the discussions that a need existed, and I seemed to bring some much-needed help into their lives.
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Some were looking for guidance about next steps. Some had mentors for specific aspects of ministry, but needed someone to meet regularly with them to talk, listen and seek advice from, in the challenges they faced. Some, like me, were particularly passionate about growing healthy churches through good grassroots discipleship.
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Some in church plants needed support as they developed new, young elders. Some faced lonely struggles in small congregations and faced disappointments which could derail them.
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David Anderson
Pastor & Founder