Mentors Behind Great Leaders

In a thought-provoking article in Christianity Today, historian Bruce Shelley pointed out that we would not have some of our greatest heroes of church history had there not been mentors who loved and discipled them. Behind the great leaders of the church stood others who, through their lives and teaching, provided instruction. He gives five examples: • Behind Augustine, there was Monica, his mother, a devout Christian and a tireless prayer warrior who prayed for her wandering prodigal until he was at last converted. Augustine later called Monica his mother both in the flesh and in the Lord. • Behind Martin Luther was Johann Von Staupitz, professor of Bible at the university in Wittenberg.

When Luther became an Augustinian monk, Staupitz became his spiritual director and counselor. “If it had not been for Dr. Staupitz,” Luther later said, “I should have sunk in hell.” It was Staupitz who taught Luther about grace and who directed him into the study of theology. • Behind John Calvin was William Farel, who spurred Calvin on to courage and devotion, and who, when Calvin was dying, left his own sickbed to come from afar to encourage him. • Behind John Wesley was Peter Boehler, who belonged to the Moravians, a group of German Christians who seemed to possess what Wesley seemed to lack-a personal, restful trust in God.

It was by following Boehler’s counsel that Wesley eventually found his heart “strangely warmed” at a midweek meeting on Aldersgate Street. • Behind William Carey was Andrew Fuller, who had broken with the hyperCalvinistic Baptists of his day and was appealing for people to be converted to Christ. Spurred on by Fuller’s evangelistic zeal, Carey asked the logical question, “What about the people beyond our shores? Don’t they, too, need the gospel?” The two men became soul-mates in missions, Carey in India, and Fuller, his mentor and supporter, cheering from the stands back home.