Mentor Week: The Locals
Mar 16, 2010 Print This Post
This week, I am dedicating my blog posts to people who have mentored me in one way or another over the last year or so. Today, I start with The Locals.
Dan Price and Steve Sommerlot
At Riv, we have a team of pastors leading together instead of a Lead Pastor. Currently there are six of us and we don’t all spend a ton of time together because we are all out there doing our thing. However, I work very closely with two of the guys and they have been great mentors for me this year. Steve is the oldest pastor at Riv and Dan is the youngest. Maybe that’s part of what makes them significant for me.
Steve brings years (decades) of pastoral experience and doctrinal study to our conversations. He is quick to point out theological inconsistencies and to pull out “we tried that once and it bombed” anecdotes. In many ways, Steve is the kind of guy I want to be when I am really really old. I want to pour my life into younger leaders and get out of their way so they can do much more than I am able to even dream of doing.
I used to be “the young guy” at Riv, but not anymore. For the time being, that title belongs to Dan. He is an intuitive leader and discipler of not just individuals, but groups of people. He has lots of fresh ideas and is never afraid to tell me when one of my ideas is dumb. He also loves bacon and has helped me to grow in that area of my life.
Grace Heikkinen
Here’s the thing about my amazing wife: she knows me better than anyone else…she sees me for who I am and she doesn’t believe the hype. She is not impressed by me, my role at Riv, my speaking, my writing, or any of that sort of thing. She is my most honest advisor and critic (in a very good way). We talk every day about everything I’m dealing with and she gives me advice from a perspective that is so different than my own. She is a pessimist and I am an optimist. Because of this, her insight is very valuable.
The bottom line is if you tell me something, I am going to tell her and get her thoughts. If you don’t want her to know something, don’t tell me.
Shelley Hrapkiewicz
Shelley is our Operations Director at Riv and she starts most of our conversations with the words, “Couldn’t we…” She has got a great global view of the church and lots of great ideas about how to make things run more smoothly. Now granted, I shoot down most of her ideas but she doesn’t get bugged by that. Instead, she keeps coming at me with more ideas.
Oh, and she is trying to make my teeth fall out from decay because she keeps stocking up on Atomic Fire Balls.
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