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  • Metaphors, Models and Mentors

    Today I've been doing my homework for my mentoring course and reading part of the set text, The Potter's Rib, Brian A Williams, pub. Routledge, 2005.  The set chapter, one of the longest in the book (of course!) at around sixty pages, talks about the pastor as mentor - a key theme of the course.  We were asked to identify and consider the images offered by the writer and to come prepared to discuss these on Monday.

    I guess there are two dominant images, the titular 'potter's rib' (a device used by potters to assist them in forming the clay) and the midwife.  It seemed to me there were a whole host of other metaphors and models, some explicit, some implicit, including, roughly in the order they arise...

    • friend
    • host
    • companion
    • accompanier
    • eyes
    • liberator
    • encourager
    • ears
    • creator of space
    • confessor
    • mouth/voice
    • conversation partner
    • poet
    • helper
    • midwife
    • paraclete/advocate
    • model/pattern/example/'type'
    • artist
    • dance partner
    • bearer of gladness

    Obviously each of these embraces aspects of the dominant metaphors, but they seem to add other ideas too.  As I was mulling them over, and finding myself once more recollecting the 1 Corinthinns 12 body image and the need for diversity in unity, I doodled a 'mini-mentor' based on some of these ideas.  (Just before anyone assumes she's standing in a missionary-sized cooking pot, she isn't, it's a clay pot being formed... obviously)

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    She is a she because most midwives are women.  She has enormous eyes, ears, mouth, hands, feet to reflect the attributes, not because she's a wolf in grandma's clothing.   She's smiling because she's glad.  Hopefully the dove, pencil and music notes are self evident.

    But what of the dominant metaphors/images employed in the book?

    The potter's rib seems to be defined very much in terms of God as first person of the trinity, or as first 'function' as creator.  The mentor is a tool employed by the potter to shape the pot.  Whilst it is a good image in some ways, the inherent passivity of the tool is a weakness - our own personalities inevitably play a part helping or hindering what God is doing.  It is also very much a one-way image - God uses us to shape the mentee - whereas the reality is more reciprocal (at least if it works well) more an 'iron sharpens iron' approach or that of two rough stones smoothing each other through friction as they rub together.  I guess it becomes a very hierarchical image if pushed too far - God controls me as I press the mentee into the desired shape.

    By contrast the midwife seems to be more of a third person of the trinity (Holy Spirit) image, centred on 'birthing' and is a feminine image.  Again, it has its good features, not just recognising the feminine in the divine.  It is an image of accompaniment and encouragement as a person does what only he/she can do in 'giving birth' to themself as pastor.  One of its limitations is perhaps that the midwife may not be a mother so may not have experienced first hand that which she tells another to do (it is apparently amazing how many midwives are shocked by their own experiences of childbirth and vow never to be the same afterwards...).  Another is the necessarily brief role of the midwife; the mentor is perhaps more health visitor/district nurse as she/he may support the mentee for extended periods (up to four years in an English Baptist context; not sure in Scotland)

    What seems to be missing is any explicit image allied to the second person of the trinity (Christ) and I wonder why this might be?  Is it a reformed theology reluctance to see a priest as an icon of Christ?  Is it a fear of implying a redemptive role to the mentor if any sort incarnational understanding is expressed?  Or is it a reluctance to confuse mentor with 'teacher' or 'rabbi'?  To be fair to Williams, he does speak of model/pattern in the role of the mentor, but not as a dominant image.  Whilst I would be very reluctant to see a mentor as a 'teacher' (i.e. somehow superior) there is something about the 'companion on the way' about the 'living example' that hints more at Jesus of Nazareth than either God the Father or the Holy Spirit.

    Of course, none of these images is exclusive or complete, it is only as they are allowed to intertwine and inform each other, as the 'like' and 'not like' of metaphor does its work and the merry dance of perichoresis continues that glimpses of what might be emerge.

    As to what kind of mentor I am... well hospitality, encouragement, appropriate vulnerability, honesty and accompaniment seem like a good beginning.  My group of NAMs at last year's NAM conference reckoned I was OK so I'm happy!

  • A Lot of Air

    This morning I took my foot pump to church, as one does, to inflate the giant Fairtrade banana and giant cup of Fairtrade coffee that will be visual aids for tomorrow's service.  I am fairly sure the sizes of the two are on pretty much the same scale, which is fine until it comes to blowing them up!  It is fair to say that my legs got a good work-out this morning as it took around half an hour's work to get the two done.  A moment's panic when the size of the inflated cup was remarkably similar to the size of the vestry door, but it will go through - just.  Maybe next year they could make a Fairtrade grape, just one, not a whole bunch, that could be inflated in seconds...  As it is I am trying to think where I can safely store these items inflated as the thought of deflating them and doing it all again next year lacks appeal.

    Another visual aid I have is a whole selection of fairtrade chocolate bars - Divine, Maya Gold, Supermarket own, Cadbury Dairy Milk, four finger Kitkat (for some reason the two finger and chunky ones aren't).  As well as the 'big swap' we now seem to have the big choice - do we buy Divine or do we buy Cadbury?  Do we buy Dubble or opt for Green and Blacks?  Is it possible that Fairtrade is becoming a victim of its own success and a new competitive market is opening up among the Fairtrade brands?  Intuitively it seems good that more and more products are more ethically produced (including animal and planet welfare considerations) but what happens if the goal of it all being this way is reached?  Would the ethical production prove sustainable or would 'market forces' (consumer power) actually tip it back to the old ways, as brands sought to undercut one another to keep market share?  I would hope not, it would be amazing to have a world where justice for all was achieved.  Maybe the Jewish folk lore philosophy that one day like this would trigger Messiah's arrival, or the occasionally voiced Christian view that we can hasten Christ's return by our actions mean that were it done then it could never be undone.  In the meantime, I find it a pleasant, of bizarre, situation that when I go to my local supermarket instead of my choice being 'Fairtrade or not' I can choose among the own label products such as tea, coffee, sugar, bananas etc . knwoing they are all fairly traded.