The Mentoring Relationship

Course Syllabus

Course Description

This course teaches you how to build, keep, and lovingly end a healthy Christian mentoring relationship between women. You will study biblical models of mentoring, learn how a mentor differs from a counselor, coach, or sponsor, and examine a mentor's character (1 Timothy 4:12). You will practice starting well with a written mentoring covenant, listening, asking good questions, and speaking the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). You will learn healthy boundaries, how to mentor across differences and through re-entry while pointing women to official sources, and how to handle problems and end a relationship with grace. Throughout, you will apply the certificate's framework from CMD 271, The Timothy Pattern: Be With, Build Up, Send Out. You will finish with a mentoring covenant template, a six-meeting mentoring plan for a composite mentee, and one role-played mentoring conversation with a self-evaluation. A mentor is a fellow follower of Jesus, not a counselor, a lawyer, or a case manager. This certificate is not ordination or a counseling credential. Every activity can be completed on paper.

Faith Integration

Second Timothy 2:2 pictures faith passed hand to hand, from one faithful person to another who will teach others also. Mentoring is one of the most personal ways this happens. Paul did not only send Timothy letters; he shared his life with him. We were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls (1 Thessalonians 2:8). In this course we learn to do the same thing wisely. We walk with a sister, we build her up in Christ, and we send her out to stand on her own feet and serve others. A godly mentor is a servant, not a boss. She never controls, shames, or creates dependence on herself; she points to Jesus (John 15:5), keeps healthy boundaries, and brings in pastors, chaplains, case managers, and professionals when a need is bigger than friendship, Scripture, and prayer.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

1. Describe biblical models of mentoring (Naomi and Ruth, Elisabeth and Mary, Titus 2:3–5, and Paul and Timothy) and connect them to The Timothy Pattern: Be With, Build Up, Send Out.
2. Distinguish a mentor from a counselor, a coach, a sponsor, a case manager, and a lawyer, and know when and how to refer.
3. Describe the character of a trustworthy mentor from 1 Timothy 4:12 and Titus 2, and recognize the difference between healthy spiritual influence and control or shame.
4. Start a mentoring relationship well: matching, a first meeting, clear expectations, and a simple written mentoring covenant that covers frequency, confidentiality and its limits, length, and how to end.
5. Practice listening, asking good questions, encouraging, and speaking the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15).
6. Set and keep healthy boundaries around time, money, housing, romance and family, phones and social media, and availability.
7. Mentor with humility across differences of age, background, culture, and literacy, and support a woman in re-entry by pointing her to official sources, her case manager, and her supervising officer rather than advising on legal matters.
8. Respond wisely when things go wrong (dependency, manipulation, relapse, disagreement), and end or transition a mentoring relationship with grace.

Course Materials

• This student workbook
• A Bible (King James Version)
• A notebook or lined paper and a folder
• Pen or pencil (no devices are required; every activity has a paper version)
• Your When to Get Help card from CMD 271 (a new copy is provided in Module 2)

Weekly Schedule

How You Will Be Graded

To pass this course: earn 70% or higher overall and attend at least 80% of sessions.

Classroom Covenant

• We begin and end each session in prayer. Participation in prayer is always welcome, never required.
• What is shared in class stays in class. We protect one another's stories.
• We speak with respect, listen without interrupting, and disagree with grace.
• We come prepared, do our own work, and ask for help when we need it.
• We follow all facility rules. Safety and security come first.
• We believe the best about one another and about what God can do.

Support & Accommodations

If reading, writing, vision, hearing, or any other need makes a part of this course harder, tell your instructor privately. Materials can be read aloud, enlarged, or completed orally. Missed sessions can be made up using the module pages. If you are transferred or released, your completed work stays on record and you can finish online.

Welcome

Welcome to The Mentoring Relationship. This companion walks beside you with a weekly reading, five devotions for the days between sessions, and a Quick Guide of mentoring tools and safety steps to keep with you. Keep The Timothy Pattern from CMD 271 in front of you: Be With, Build Up, Send Out. Remember: a mentor is a sister in Christ, not a counselor, a lawyer, or a case manager. You will learn to walk with another woman wisely, keep healthy boundaries, and bring in help when a need is bigger than you.

How to Use This Companion

• Read the weekly reading after each class session. It takes about 10 minutes.
• Reflect on the questions. These are for you; you do not have to turn them in.
• Meet with God through the five daily devotions between sessions.
• Keep the Quick Guide at the end to carry home after release.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.— Psalm 119:105 (KJV)