Mentoring and flourishing. Two words that can easily be synonymous with one another. There is a beauty to relationship and a commitment to life-on-life with others that can ultimately lead to lives that will experience expansion, purpose, and growth. The Word tells us to not neglect meeting together. It’s in the meeting together moments that we are able to spur one another on, encourage each other, and bring accountability to this concept of a flourishing life. And how sweet that one of the ways God specifically encourages this idea of connecting to be through mentoring (Titus 2)! It is with that heartbeat that we continue to pursue and live out FLOURISH: A Mentoring Journey.
For several years now the women at Passion City Church have had the opportunity to be on this journey together. We are more than excited to now partner with Lifeway Christian Publishing to extend the FLOURISH curriculum beyond Passion City Church, and get it into the hands and hearts of thousands of women all around the world. We have watched God knit the hearts of women together in our church in such an amazing way, resulting in growth, a stronger sense of connection throughout our whole church, and the simple yet powerful presence of having someone a few years ahead of you walking alongside you for a season.
God has worked miracles, from small to large, in the women at Passion City Church and we are beyond excited to be able to invite all of you to be a part of it!
FLOURISH is a mentoring journey calling women to a higher standard of living by seeing and living their entire lives through the lens of Scripture. With the matching of older women with younger women, the FLOURISH curriculum guides these relationships—rooted in the Word of God—creating the platform for women to process practical life together based on the truth of God’s Scripture. The FLOURISH curriculum provides content for a twelve-month relationship, leading the conversations among women in practical topics such as the Word, Prayer, Identity, Calling, Relationships, and Gratitude.
We would love to encourage you and give you some basic guidelines on how you can launch a FLOURISH journey of your own. FLOURISH is not just meant for a large church experience. It can also be used one-on-one, within smaller groups like a Bible study group format, and within large scale for multiple groups of any size.
In order to successfully launch the program at your church for the 2020 year, it’s important to follow some key steps. These steps of diligence and wisdom might require a little bit of work, but they have proven to be essential for the success of the journey among the groups. Since the lead time between now and January is not very long, we recommend that you offer the program to a small group of people as a first step. Trying the program with a small group will also allow you to learn about your church and see how your church responds to the program, adjusting to meet your specific ministry needs. That pilot experience will prove invaluable as you work toward a larger launch down the road. For the following program year we recommend that you to allow longer time for preparation and training, allowing your church to include a wider group of women (mentor and mentees). Below we have listed some of the key steps to follow when considering launching your FLOURISH journey this coming January:
- Handpick 10-15 mentors to start. (These should be women who are already faithful and consistent in serving your church, trusted women who provide experience both in their walks with Jesus and life in general. Age alone doesn’t determine a good fit, but at Passion City Church we recommend women who are 30 years old or older to serve in the role of mentor.)
- Provide an application for mentors to complete.
- Create promotion opportunities to reach out to potential mentees and provide information on how to apply as a mentee. You can find sample applications here.
- Select mentors by November 15th, 2019.
- Run mentee applications for a few weeks. We suggest November 1st-22nd, aiming to have all mentee applications in before Thanksgiving.
- Work on matching mentors and mentees by December 15th. We suggest matching 3-4 mentees to each mentor.
- Notify the mentors of their matches and have them reach out to their mentees via email, text, or phone call.
- Schedule regular emails to mentors and mentees for check-ins and feedback (once or twice per session).
- Set up a same-day mentor training and FLOURISH launch for the first of January. Here are some details for the event:
- Allow for 2-3 hours to cover both training and kickoff.
- Train mentors for the first hour/hour and a half (use training material included in the Mentor FLOURISH journal).
- Invite mentees to be a part of the second half of the day for a launch.
- Use your launch time to cast vision, explain expectations, and build momentum and excitement for the year.
- Encourage time for mentors and mentees to go through the Lifemap timeline found here.
- At kick-off, walk through Session One/Week One of the FLOURISH journal to teach mentors/mentees how to utilize the curriculum.
- Talk through group meetings and individual meetings, explaining what those each should look like using the curriculum first, followed by more practical life-on-life moments.
Should you plan to have a larger group in the future, we suggest you plan 5-6 months in advance for a FLOURISH: a mentoring journey launch. For more information and detailed tips for your program please visit our website and select the “Begin a FLOURISH journey at my church” option.
In addition, remember that FLOURISH also works well one-on-one in small group journeys for people who purchase the curriculum individually. You can still find resources for this option at our website. For example, below please find a general timeline that we at Passion City Church follow to launch the program for around 200 groups (around 700 total participants including mentors and mentees):
- Begin to promote and advertise 5-6 months in advance.
- Open applications at least 4-5 months in advance.
- Set timeline for start date and end date for applications.
- Allow for 3 weeks to have applications open.
- Set up interviews for new mentors.
- Put a date on the calendar to match mentors and mentees.
- Put a date on the calendar for a mentor training.
- Use the mentor edition/training material included in the FLOURISH journal.
- Put a date on the calendar for a kick-off.
- Schedule regular emails to mentors and mentees for check-ins and feedback (once or twice per session).
We’re grateful to be on the FLOURISH journey together with you. FlourishMentor.com includes some of our most often used resources to help you along the way. We’re praying God would bring much joy to all who say YES to being a part of the FLOURISH journey, and that He would root our lives deeply in His living Word!
The FLOURISH team at Passion City Church is passionate about pointing women to Jesus through the power of His Word. A labor of love, this ministry has been shepherded by Daniele Flickinger, Susan Marks, and Shelley Giglio.
