Articles
Wanted: Companions of the Soul
Michele Rickett with Daniel Rickett
With all the books and seminars on spiritual growth these days, it's easy to think that people can grow up in Christ fairly well on their own. Bookstores and websites are crammed full of videos and books by popular speakers. Christians pack stadiums in search of fresh insight from the latest guru. Popular speakers love it–it keeps them employed. But the irony is the number-one need of churches is a bevy of disciple-makers and spiritual mentors.
We first discovered this at the time Michele was becoming a popular speaker. For years Michele enjoyed speaking to women's groups, sharing her story of the transforming power of Christ in her life. Then she began to realize her story didn't end well. She was haunted by the unanswered questions in the minds of hurting women, questions like, "Do you mean to say the moment you were saved you were completely transformed?" "How did God heal your damaged emotions and self image?" "Why should you enjoy such victory?" "Why not me?"
Questions like these set Michele on a quest to understand the process that God had used and was still using to transform her life. The search uncovered the usual elements of prayer, Bible study, and a willingness to do whatever Jesus asks. It also revealed a companion, an ordinary woman who accompanied Michele in learning to walk with Christ.
Michele's early spiritual growth came largely from Anna's kitchen-table discipleship. Anna was a widow raising a teenage daughter. Though her life was challenging enough, Anna took on the task of mentoring a confused 19-year-old woman. Once a week Michele and Anna would sit at the kitchen table with open Bibles and open hearts. Anna shared frankly of her life, struggles, faith, and hope. Michele was invited to do the same. Anna had a way of drawing out Michele's questions and then together searching the Word of God for guidance. Life's questions were the curriculum and the Bible was the textbook.
Not only was Anna responsive to Michele's questions, she was deliberate about what a young Christian woman needed to know and become. Michele learned the basics about her relationship with God, the work finished by Christ and started by the Holy Spirit, the place of prayer, the power of the Word of God, and living wholeheartedly for God.
Though their time together was brief, only two years, the foundation Anna laid, and the tools she offered, equipped Michele to continue to build her own house of faith on a solid foundation. But that's not all. Anna had modeled spiritual mentoring. She was, for Michele, the godly older woman of Titus 2.
Michele had her answer. Spiritual growth is a continuous learning process, a personal journey that cannot be made alone. If women are going to learn to hear from God, they need a spiritual mentor, a companion of the soul.
Unfortunately this message is not always met with ready acceptance. Women often feel ill-equipped to mentor others. As one woman put it, "A friendship is one thing, but I couldn't possibly disciple another woman; I'm just not there yet!"
The best news about spiritual mentoring is that you don't have to be an expert. Anna was not a trained Bible teacher, or even a leader in the church. She was a godly woman who knew how to get her questions answered through prayer, Bible study, and the fellowship of other Christians. She consciously walked with Christ and invited Michele to travel the same road. Good mentoring isn't about parachuting in and giving speeches. It's about being available, sharing stories, praying together, exploring the Scriptures. It's about real involvement in the lives of others.
Discipleship has been described as learning to live your way into a new kind of thinking rather than think your way into a new kind of living. That's what mentors help us do. They are not self-acclaimed Bible teachers with all the right answers. They are co-learners and fellow sojourners in Christ. They have eyes to see our needs and a willingness to accompany us on the way.
After years of mentoring women in this way, Michele's friends convinced her to put her experience in writing. It is now available in a workbook designed to equip women to mentor women, Ordinary Women: Developing a Faithwalk Worth Passing On.
Now when Michele tells her story she can finish well. She offers the building blocks that God is using to do the recreating, refashioning work in her. She emphasizes that, whatever one's knowledge and maturity, spiritual mentoring is traveling the same road of learning with another.