Generation to Generation
Mark Driscoll
April 1, 2000
I'm a 29-year-old church planter in Seattle. A couple years ago I met David Nicholas, who lives in Boca Raton, Florida. He pastors a large church, Spanish River Presbyterian, that he planted 35 years ago, and he still has a heart for church planting. We developed a close mentoring friendship.
I fly down to see David about four times a year, and he visits me each summer. We talk on the phone a couple times a week. He has walked me through some major issues in my life and ministry.
I am now mentoring other church planters who have launched three daughter congregations out of our church. One is Ron Wheeler, a 23-year-old church planter with a congregation of 200 that already has had a daughter church—our granddaughter, as it were. That daughter church is led by a young man being mentored by Ron.
David has interacted with all of these young planters. We've put together an entire network of church planters—from Omaha, Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle, and other places. Each March, we gather with David in Florida for training and friendship.
David and I are now partnering to launch a mentoring organization for young church planters called the Acts 29 Network. We began with 11 churches in the U.S., some overseas, and we're getting about 20 requests a week from young pastors wanting to join. David and I invest in them theologically, financially, and personally.
All of this came out of a friendship between an older man and a younger man who share a love for church planting.
It's a natural process
I've never proposed myself as a mentor to anyone. The best way to become a mentor is for a friendship to develop naturally, and then to act as a servant to your friend. If you have attained a degree of maturity and knowledge, then the ...
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