[The Great Gazoo Smith]

Dave. I was excited but nervous to have the responsibility of being Johnny’s mentor. I feel like I’m having a hard time engaging him when we meet after church on Sundays. I’m not sure if his difficulty in paying attention is just his age, the fact that I am green, or something else.

[Dave Gregg]

I understand how you are feeling. I don’t think your green-ness has anything to do with it. Boys respond to people who show a genuine interest in them, but even when WE do a good job, boys still have a hard time paying attention. How long are your meetings going on Sundays?

[The Great Gazoo Smith]

We are meeting immediately after the service and we are meeting for an hour. He seems to do fine for the first half, but after 30 minutes he looses attention.

[Dave Gregg]

I think the biggest [problem is probably just your expectations of yourself. You think you have to entertain him for an hour. You don’t have to entertain him, and certainly not for an hour. He’s only 8 years old. Remember what it was like to be 8?

Limit your meetings to 30 minutes, and have a few simple goals such as:

• how his week went
• one thing he’s interested in
• one thing to pray for
• A simple goal (i.e. memorize half of John 3:16, or complete 3 questions in his Trailbook before next meeting etc)

If he’s still having trouble paying attention, you might want to wait until he’s had a chance to run around a bit after the church service before asking him to sit for 30 more minutes. In fact, don’t sit. Walk around the lawn in front of the church while you talk. Boys like to move, and you could use some more movement old man! 😛

[Mr. John Slate]

I had a great conversation with Seth at our last meeting. I think I’d like to begin mentoring him, since he hasn’t been assigned to anyone yet. I don’t know how to begin though, and I’m concerned I’m too old and un-cool to do a good job mentoring an 11 year old.

[Fred Flintstone]

I know how you feel @MrJohnSlate. I remember when I first became a Stockade Ranger that the idea of mentoring was pretty overwhelming. But then I told @barneyrubble how I was feeling and he told me to try to remember how I felt when i was 11. I Thought about it and i didn’t know what I wanted except that I did want to hear from older men. I knew that I was entering a hard time of life and needed help.

Barney reminded me that i didn’t need to be cool. i just needed to be willing to listen, invest, and point boys to Jesus and His word.  i took the step and have been really happy I did!

[BammBamm Rubble]

Yeah @MrJohnSlate, I’m younger than you all and can remember well what it was like to be 11. I didn’t want “cool.” I wanted men who were real to help me. You have a lot of life experience and you are a good listener. You also love God. That’s a great start!

[Dave Gregg]

The first step would be to reach out to his parents. They know that mentoring is a part of our ministry but we want to come alongside the parents to help them. That starts with communicating to them. Do you want to do that or i can do that for you?

They just need to know:

1. You will be using Johnny’s trailbook to help guide the content of the mentoring
2. When and where you will be meeting
3. That you will be following our church’s child safety guidelines