Customer Reviews

Authentic Spiritual Mentoring: Nurturing Believers Toward Spiritual Maturity

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This book was released a few years ago, titled "The Cry For Spiritual Fathers and Mothers." I recommend it to every pastor I meet in my work as a small group/cell group ministry leader and consultant. What Kreider writes about in this book is what the American church must return to if it wants to effectively pursue the great commission. Our churches are woefully non-relational and we do not assume responsibility for others in our mega church infotainment-based congregational worship services.

Developing and expanding a culture of spiritual parenting within a holistic small group structure is a powerful one-two punch to win the fight over isolationism. In fact, I tell pastors that without spiritual parenting, their holistic small groups/cell groups will fail miserably. No one has proven me wrong yet.

Buy this book and adopt the values Kreider outlines. It's a matter of spiritual life and death for your church!

With this book Larry is presenting a basic understanding of a common need today. The insight from his experiences as well as the thoughts on how to see change in the area of spiritual mentoring really open up the way to understanding in this subject. We all have had need of a mentor in our lives, on many levels. The need for authentic spiritual mentors is so desperate in our culture and we need to face this need and address it with love and determination. We need to understand the sacrifice and joy of living as true followers of Christ in His example of mentoring and Larry really touches on a lot of how to ideas to open the conversation on this topic. I think this is a great book to read to be stirred up in life giving service and everyday Christianity! Well written, and a great read!

I thought it was a good book had some good points, but still thought there are better books out there, but still worth the read.

Authentic Spiritual Mentoring is a call for every Christian to open up and share their lives with others with the goal of helping one another grow. The key metaphor used throughout the book is 'Spiritual Parent'. It's natural for every new believer to start as a spiritual child, needing the milk of basic teaching and someone to help them to grow in the faith. Most will progress to a spiritual young man/woman. These spiritual young adults have learned to feed themselves, to discern good from evil, and have started to serve in some ministry. However it's far too common for the believer to get stuck in this stage for many years, never fully maturing. There really is one key to becoming a parent - spiritually or otherwise. That is, to have children! The spiritual parent takes responsibility for helping spiritual children and others in the faith to grow into maturity, to become fully devoted followers of Christ. Kreider spends much time in this book describing the call to become a spiritual parent, what it looks like, the importance of building authentic relationships, how Jesus mentored others, as well as the pitfalls involved in spiritual mentoring. His definition of a spiritual parent is pretty straightforward: "A spiritual father or mother helps a spiritual son or daughter reach his or her God-given potential." These important concepts are covered in the three parts of the book: the importance of spiritual mentoring; finding a spiritual mentor; being a spiritual mentor.

The authors recommend looking at how Jesus mentored people. It was a very relational approach, in which He initiated contact, build the relationship and saw potential in the other, building them up over time by modeling, teaching, and caring, ultimately releasing the person to go and do likewise. A key chapter talks about the role of a spiritual parent and lists these fundamentals of spiritual mentoring: praying, hearing from God, accountability, servanthood, and vulnerability. It's also important that the spiritual parents themselves have a vital and growing relationship with God. Overall, the book is well-written, easy to read, and a very practical handbook on the why and how of spiritual mentoring in an informal relational way. Recommended for all looking for, or looking to be, spiritual friends to walk with on the journey.

Outstanding resource and toolkit for engaging mature Christian men in the vital work of developing younger Christian men to think and act like Jesus as God's men and to be the husbands their wives need and the fathers their children need.

I really enjoyed this book. The need to be authentic is something we all need to practice more in our lives. There are some very practical aspects that you can use with any relationship in this book. I would suggest you get it if you are considering or find yourself in the position of mentoring.