twenty-three

It’s time for me to get back into the blogging world again, and what better way to start off a new stint than to get me out traveling. I like to blog about going places. So, as I sit alone in my room at a conference center in Canby, OR, preparing for a week long conference, I thought it would be only fitting to share a bit about what I’m up to.

This week I’ll be taking part in "The Mentoring Experience", a conference in 3 parts (2 parts now, 1 in June May), put on by the Murdock Trust, a group based in Washington that works with ministry and educational non-profits in the Northwest. One of their specific focuses is mentoring, or the mentoring experience, and the conference I’m at right now, with Jim and Lindsay (other INN staffers), is all about just that: mentoring, being mentored, and the importance of mentoring relationships in development in ministry and career.

I find the topic of mentoring pretty interesting, as I’ve had the chance to think about it a bit in the last couple of weeks of preparing for the conference. The concept is that of an intentional, purposeful relationships with people who will either coach you in a career path, provide spiritual direction and discipline help, or simply be a friend or support partner who will walk through life with you. The mentor relationship seems rather important if we’re going to get anywhere without alienating ourselves or becoming a stress case. By becoming accountable and responsible to someone, we open ourselves to critique, but also to insight that will could help us develop and grow in ways we would have otherwise not been aware we could.

I’m excited to spend some time doing more focused work in this area over the course of this "experience". I’m also excited to simply be at a conference, actually spending focused time on growing in my vocation/career. I often find it hard to believe that people in ministry can actually go off for weekend conferences or week long meetings as much as they seem to. It’s hard enough for me to keep on top of my day-to-day stuff when I’m around the office for 40+ hours a week. I sometimes like to laugh when I get a flyer in the mail about another conference or get a mass email from this ministry or that Emergent group that’s having another conference ("didn’t you just have one about that topic last month?" I say). So, with that cynicism aside, I look forward to actually stopping from the day-to-day and spending this week really learning and looking forward into how I can be mentored and how I can be a mentor in my work.

Finally, in case you didn’t pick it up from my roster mentioned above, yes, we did leave Lisa and the interns behind. And don’t worry, she’s given us plenty of grief about that.

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