Can we help our mentees with the transition to maturity by giving them helpful tools to process and measure their progress and reassure them they are on the right track?
Here’s a tool you could explore with them, which they can use as often as they need to.
STARS
Ask your mentee to draw a five-point star and jot down notes on their personal progress and spiritual health around each of the five points:
Strengths
Are you growing in your abilities? What about your spiritual gifts? What examples can you give to demonstrate growth in your abilities and improvement in your weaknesses? Are you more resilient, or less susceptible to hurt or discouragement?
Transformation
How different are you compared with last month or last year? Are you still making the same mistakes? Are your relationships healthier than they used to be? Do you feel more mature? How would your friends say you have changed? Have your parents, carers or significant adults in your life noticed a difference in you?
Achievement
Have you achieved certain goals or passed important milestones? Are you where you specified you wanted to be by now? What stories have you got to tell of how God has used you and of what he has done in your life?
Revelations
Has your theology changed or developed? What has become clearer? What have you grasped more fully than before? What has God said to you in the past? What do you think he would say to you now? Are you more aware of God’s presence in certain times and places? Are you acting on what God has said to you?
Spiritual fruit
Are you demonstrating the fruit of the Sprit increasingly? How? In what ways have you served your church, ‘neighbours’ and community? Are you changing the world around you in any tiny or big ways? Are you spending more or less time in prayer, in reading the Bible and in other ways of investing in your relationship with God? In what ways have you joined in with God’s mission, including evangelism, demonstrating God’s love and challenging injustice?
