To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed: Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.

When I was growing up, I had a few “shepherds” who really watched over me. Some of these people are family, like my parents or my older sister and her husband, or my older brothers. Others were people who were called to be mentors to me. One was a lady named Margaret, who was single and probably in her 60s at the time. She was a “bush” missionary in Romania. This means she lived in the bush areas, the remote areas where subsistence living was normal. And she was a serious prayer warrior. My dad asked her to mentor me in prayer, and for a couple of months I would go to her house every week and learn to pray. She taught me to pray scripture back to God, to claim the promises in prayer, to pray with confidence and to be specific in what I asked for. She taught me to seek out the will of God and claim his will in prayer as it applied to my life.

Another mentor was a Korean man named Andrew Chu. He came to our youth group and got to know me. One day he challenged me, he said, “I am going to teach you to memorize a book.” I said, “sure, I can memorize a few verses with you, from which book?” (He had an English accent and was a little hard to understand.) He said, “No, not a few verses from a book, a whole book.” I thought he was kidding. I said, “That sounds really impossible.” He said, “I have done it and I will teach you how. What book do you want to memorize?” I said, “Philippians.” And so we started and he taught me how. About halfway through, he had to leave, and I found someone else to help me finish it. My dad had agreed to pay me a dollar a verse, so I think he ended up paying me over $200 for memorizing Phillipians.

I appreciate these mentors to this day. There have been many benefits from their initial investment in me.

Peter talks to elders in the church about being good shepherds (or mentors) for those under their care. Mentors instruct, guide, model and teach the truth of the Bible to those under their care. They do not mentor out of compulsion but out of a cheerful heart, because God has enabled them to fulfill this spiritually noble role. They serve eagerly. They are not greedy, but humble and generous, as they act as models of Jesus to the flock they care for.

My friends, we need more mentors in our Christian churches. We need Margarets to teach kids how to pray. We need Adams to train others how to memorize. We need you. If you love Jesus, are humble and seeking after him, but imperfect, you qualify. And as we mentor, we will be richly rewarded. Some focus the bulk of their lives on making money or staying healthy or gaining power or position. But God rewards those most who shepherd his flock and invest in the eternal currency of serving people and helping them grow in the Lord.

Lord, thank you for the mentors you provided to me early in life and others today. Help me to seek after you with such a passion that I joyfully mentor those who you call me to care for.