Mentoring Boundaries and Expectations

The Mentor Minister program at Christian Leaders, NFP has been launched for the purpose of raising up more revival leaders. Mentor Ministers are ordained graduates of Christian Leaders Institute and ordained through the Christian Leaders Alliance.

For this program to thrive, we need to love and respect each other in these mentor/mentee relationships. We also need to have appropriate boundaries and behavior.

Here are the guidelines. Those mentors or mentees who do not honor these guidelines can be removed from the directory or be dropped from being mentored.

1. Do not provide false personal information about yourself. Both mentors and mentees need to be truthful.
2. Do not use this relationship for seeking donations. Offenders may be expelled.
3. Keep the relationship free from sexual or emotional boundary violations. Any unwanted solicitations or sexually threatening advances should be reported to CLI and will result in expulsion from CLI and CLA.
4. Mentor and mentees are not assigned. As a mentor, you do not have to take on a mentee if you are uncomfortable. As a mentee, you do not have to continue with a mentor if you are uncomfortable. Both mentors and mentees are free to terminate the relationship for any reason. Keep expectations low. We do ask that you give feedback to CLI as to why you believe a mentor or mentee is not appropriate for you.
5. Treat others the way you want to be treated.
6. Do not have organizational expectations for each other. For instance, if a mentor helps a mentee, the mentee does not have to attend their church or participate in their ministry. If there is a connection, that is wonderful, but it is not a requirement for receiving mentoring.
7. Do not use the mentor/mentee relationship for monetary purposes like network marketing or other business connections. Your relationship may include mentoring related to network marketing or other business-related activities for enterprise students, but it is a mentoring relationship, not a monetary one. Your relationship is not for personal monetary gain.
8. Honor confidentiality in these relationships. However, remember that ordained leaders have reporting requirements, such as in instances of child abuse or other types of public health-related issues. Check local requirements for ordained clergy in your geographical location (state, country, etc.).
9. No gossiping about or harassing your mentor or mentee.
10. No uploading, emailing, posting or texting of pornographic or violent images to each other.
11. No unlawful, misleading or discriminatory statements should be made against one another.
12. No uploading or posting or texting of content or comments that will harm minors in any way.
13. No posting or uploading or texting of content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, or racially objectionable, ethnically objectionable, or otherwise objectionable.
14. Do not impersonate any person or entity.
15. Some mentors may require a background check as a requirement to be able/willing to sign an ordination document. This expectation may be indicated in his/her profile if it is one of his/her signing requirements.
16. No asking to pay Mentor Minister for the Mentoring they are giving you! This once again is not a monetary relationship.
17. Practice good listening skills, keeping in mind the passage of James 1:19: “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;” (ESV).
18. In mentor relationships between mentors and mentees of the opposite gender, special care should be taken to avoid the appearance of romantic or inappropriate relational behavior. If at any point in time, a mentor/mentee realizes they are developing inappropriate or romantic feelings for his/her mentor/mentee, that individual has a responsibility to end the mentoring relationship immediately.