Think for a moment: your MP3 player is on the fritz, or maybe you can't get your text message to send. Who do you ask for help? Your teenage daughter? The college intern at work? It may be quite humbling to ask a kid for advice, but who knows better how to work these modern gadgets than the young experts of this new millennium?
We often recall our mentors being the older, wiser professors and parents, who instructed us as youngsters. A new trend, however, has turned this tradition on its head. “Reverse mentoring,” which the Christian Mentoring organization defines as when “the mentoree mentors the mentor,” is becoming a popular method for moving ahead.
CEOs of major corporations, such as General Electric and Proctor & Gamble, have recently asked entry-level employees to educate managers and distinguished officers in popular culture in order to revamp their strategies for the 21st century. The Galt Global Review notes that being considered “hip” would typically be the least important concern to these company big wigs, but in this case, reverse mentoring was a great success, and it's since then been imitated in other arenas—most importantly, the church.
In the Leadership Journal, Angie Ward says, “The new learning curve is from the bottom up.” According to Dr. Earl Creps, a writer for Ministry Today Magazine, reverse mentoring is perhaps the most important, albeit least practiced, form of mentoring in the ministry. Dr. Creps confesses, “Middle-aged leaders like me naturally tend to drift away from the front edge of the culture we want to reach because we are simply citizens of another time.”
Although the young have always endured this disconnect with older folks, we must be honest and recognize that this emerging culture sees things very differently. Even the way they communicate, as well as the content of their communication, is abruptly different from what it was just a decade ago.
The fact is a frightening number of young people are missing from our churches. Creps continues, “A 20-year-old who thinks in the visual terms of YouTube videos may be unimpressed with the sermon outlines that impressed [past] audiences.” It is imperative that an effort be made to reach these generations, and reverse mentoring may be the channel to reconnect. (We can even find examples of reverse mentoring in biblical relationships such as Saul and David or Paul and Barnabas.)
The Leadership Journal encourages older pastors to form focus groups comprised of students and early career persons. There are in addition ministry leaders who are “fluent” in the ways of the emerging culture, and available conferences for pastors who want to understand and learn from younger generations. Congregations could also benefit from reverse mentoring. The “contemporary” worship services, and even church leadership structure alone, may require some critiquing from a younger flock.
How shocking it would seem to a twenty-something when he/she is asked to advise a group of older church leaders. Even more shocking would be if they resisted any impulses to correct or defend. And what if they actually listened? A mutual respect is established, which could lead to potential change and, at the least, a renewed exchange of ideas. Dr. Creps says not to worry: you will not become like them, and they certainly will not become like you.
But is this not what the church is about? In our worship and ministries we must embrace all ages. As Paul wrote to Timothy, “Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example” (I Tim. 4:12a). Our young people are waiting to be asked to teach us about themselves. And through reverse mentoring, you may be rejuvenated, you may be humbled…but you may be transformed.
Roy Smith is director of missions for the Norfolk Area Baptist Association. Dara Powers Parker is a free-lance writer.