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Mentoring Chains in Scripture In the Bible, some mentors coached only one, others mentored several at once. The group was always small enough to listen to, and deal with, each trainee. Jesus mentored twelve, sometimes three and, on rare occasions, one. Biblical mentoring results in 'chains' with several generations of mentors, whose apprentices mentor others, and so on: Jethro mentored Moses, Moses mentored Joshua and the elders of Joshua mentored the other army leaders. [God gave the Ten Commandments originally for the newly named leaders of 1,000, of 100 and 10. These elder in charge of groups of ten used the Ten Commandments to shepherd their flocks. (Exodus, chapters 18 – 20).] Deborah mentored Barak. Eli mentored Samuel Samuel mentored Saul and David who became David mentored his army commanders and government officials, to
establish the united nation of Solomon mentored the Queen of Sheba, who returned to her people with his wisdom in the form of Proverbs that applied God's laws. Elijah mentored Elisha. Elisha mentored king Jehoash and others. Daniel mentored Nebuchadnezzar, who humbled himself before God. Mordecai mentored Esther Esther mentored King Artaxerxes, which resulted in liberating God's people. Jesus mentored the twelve apostles who established the Christian church. The twelve mentored hundreds of other leaders, including Paul. Paul mentored Titus, Timothy and many others. Timothy mentored "faithful men" such as Epaphras. Epaphras and the other faithful men mentored "others also"
(2
Timothy 2:2) which led to a chain reaction
that resulted in dozens of new churches in Philip mentored the Ethiopian official who received Christ and was baptized in the desert. Priscilla and Aquila mentored Apollos, for a much improved ministry. The Paul-Timothy Leadership Training
Chain “The things which you have
heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful
men who will be able to teach others also.” 2
Tim. 2:2 One
small part of this chain reached the following people and places: 1 Barnabas began the chain; he mentored Paul and
brought him to 2 Paul was sent by the Antioch church and
mentored Timothy whom Paul left in Ephesus to train “faithful men,” Acts 13:1-3;
1 Tim. 1:3; 2 Tim. 2:2. 3 Timothy helped train Epaphras who worked in 4 Epaphras trained “others also” in
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