- Identifying the main idea of the text

- Moving from the textual idea to the preaching idea

- Outlining the sermon

- Illustrations -- where to find them, how to use them with the greatest effectiveness

- Introductions that get attention, raise a need and orient the listener to the passage

- Relevant applications that stay true to the intent of the text

Regardless of the caliber of formal training, many young pastors desire more guidance with preparing and presenting relevant, biblical sermons. Young preachers need mentors. They need someone to come alongside them and give encouragement and feedback specific to their needs.

The Return of Mentoring and Coaching

Prior to the 19th century, mentoring in the form of informal apprenticeships and internships was a way of life between generations. Young boys and girls worked alongside a member of the family and / or community to learn life and work skills. With the advent of the industrial revolution, centralized education arose to meet the needs of the changing culture. With many people working in factories rather than farms, education had to occur another way. As a result, formal, classroom instruction has dominated since that time as the accepted form of education.

As Gordon Mac-Donald writes in a forward to The Fine Art of Mentoring (Engstrom, 1989): "Today, what passes for people development happens in a classroom, and the certification of a person is by diploma from an institution rather than a stamp of approval from an overseer, a mentor. The criteria for the judgment of people usually rests upon knowledge rather than wisdom, achievement rather than character, profit rather than creativity. And as long as that is true, mentoring will likely be a second class matter in our value system" (p. x).

However, within the last 25 years, non-formal training in the form of mentoring and coaching has returned to fill the need of keeping up with today's fast changing culture. Robert Clinton, assistant professor of Leadership and Extension at the School of World Missions, Fuller Seminary argues that "mentoring, a personalized, need-centered training, will most likely dominate the informal training models" of the future.

Clinton has also observed that most people who make it in ministry can point to several persons who came alongside and personally helped them through crisis times in mentoring kinds of relationships. His research indicates that there is a substantial dropout rate in the first five years of ministry after formal training and again after 10 years. However, he went on to state that four out of five who make it through the first five years say they did so as the result of some important and timely mentoring help. One out of two who made it past ten years report that mentoring relationships made the difference. Clinton concludes that all leaders need mentors throughout their lives.

Long Distance Coaching

But what if a mentor is not available in a pastor's immediate ministry context? Then distance mentoring and coaching can help meet the need. In fact, in secular circles a whole new mentoring career has opened up that primarily relies on using modern communication technology to coach people from a distance, in life and work skills.