My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I found this book to be extremely helpful in thinking through the concept of mentoring. Most people have kind of a narrow concept of mentoring. This book broadens the per spective, describing seven different kinds of mentoring that range from the more deliberate and intensive (such as what he refers to as discipler, spiritual guide or coach) to the more passive and less deliberate, such as someone who is simply a good model.

For each type he gives lots of examples, specifies when they are most helpful, and describes both how to be that kind of mentor and how to respond to that kind of mentor.

A few weaknesses of the book are:

* questionable theology in the section on discipleship. He seems to think that not all Christians are disciples – an error of the “anti-lordship” movement.

* Most of the examples in the book have to do with mentoring outside the Church. It would have been more helpful to have more material on spiritual mentoring within the Church.

* The authors seem to be more influenced by psychology than by biblical counseling.