my mentors

On Friday night we had dinner with two couples. While their wives are pretty cool, the male halves of these couples have played a significant role in my life over the last four years. They have been my friends, encouragers, correctors, trainers, and supporters.

I had class with Jerram my second semester at Covenant and it was like someone breathing life and hope into my view of the possibilities for Christian life and service. Every class I've had with him since has been pure delight and I have grown from his instruction in innumerable ways. I worked with Jerram for one year at the Francis Schaeffer Institute and for the past three years as his teaching assistant. He has taught me what it looks like to truly love people and to demonstrate the grace of God in a tangible way. The thing about Jerram is that everything he teaches with his words is completely backed up by his life.

While I have never had a class with Donald Guthrie (a.k.a. "Big D", a.k.a. "the Don", a.k.a. “the Guth-meister”), he has still taught me much. I have had the privilege of co-teaching several Sunday School classes with him over the last several years and have learned through osmosis about teaching well ("coverage is the enemy of understanding" or something like that). The Don has taught me how to better look at the "Big Picture" when it comes to life's ups and downs and to take the long-view approach. In doing this he has tempered some of my impetuous nature.

While we didn’t have dinner with them on Friday there are two more people that I have to include on this list of mentors: Denis & Margie Haack. If you haven’t read their publications (Critique & Notes from Toad Hall) you are missing out. There’s a link to their website (Ransom Fellowship) somewhere on this blog, go check it out. They have shared their lives with us and have constantly demonstrated to us what proper authenticity looks like. When Brooke and I look at them we see a picture what we want to be like as a couple striving to love and serve Jesus.

Well, this post is now longer than I intended but I wanted to share with you some of the people who have been examples of grace, love, and mercy in my life. These are my mentors.