Cultivating Mentors:

Sharing Wisdom in Christian Higher Education 

Edited by: Todd C. Ream, Jerry Pattengale, and Christopher J. Devers

Foreword by Mark R. Schwehn
Publisher
Amazon
Goodreads

Publisher ‏ : ‎ IVP Academic
(October 11, 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1514002523
ISBN-13 : 978-1514002520

Cultivating Mentors illustrates multiple ways to establish a healthy ecosystem for relational mentoring in an increasingly diverse academic landscape. With a focus on faculty flourishing and student success in the contexts of rapidly changing academic and professional environments, this timely volume directs educators to practical tools for cultivating faith and vocational discernment in tandem with fostering a powerful sense of faith-based community on their university campuses.

—Karen A. Lee
Provost and Professor of English, Wheaton College

Many colleges and universities informally highlight the value of mentoring among academic professionals. Yet scholars often lack clear definitions, goals, practices, and commitments that help them actually reap the benefits mentoring offers. As new faculty members from younger generations continue to face evolving challenges while also reshaping institutions, their ability to connect with more experienced mentors is critical to their vocations―and to the future of higher education.

In Cultivating Mentors, a distinguished group of contributors explores the practice of mentoring in Christian higher education. Drawing on traditional theological understandings of the mentee-mentor relationship, they consider what goals should define such relationships and what practices make their cultivation possible among educators. With special attention to generational dynamics, they discuss how mentoring can help institutions navigate generational faculty transitions and cultivate rising leaders. Contributors include:

  • David Kinnaman
  • Tim Clydesdale
  • Margaret Diddams
  • Edgardo Colón-Emeric
  • Rebecca C. Hong
  • Tim Elmore
  • Beck A. Taylor
  • Stacy A. Hammons

This book offers valuable insights and practical recommendations for faculty members, administrators, and policy makers. Whether pursuing their vocation in Christian or secular institutions, Christian scholars will benefit from the sharing of wisdom mapped out in Cultivating Mentors.

Editors

Todd C. Ream serves at Indiana Wesleyan University as Professor of Humanities, Executive Director of Faculty Research and Scholarship, and as Senior Fellow for Programming for the Lumen Research Institute.

Jerry Pattengale was one of the two founding scholars behind the Museum of the Bible (DC), where he served as Exec. Dir. of Education until “retiring” in Dec. 2018, but returned in spring of 2020 as Senior Advisor to the President. On Feb.14, 2020, he also spoke at the United Nations on “How to Protect Religious Spaces.” He served as interim president of the Religious News Service (and CEO) in 2019/2020, and in 2022 spoke on Capitol Hill on his book, “Public Intellectuals and the Common Good.” He is a pioneer in Purpose-Guided Education and has made various contributions to history or biblical resources, including co-authoring the 2020 TV documentary series, “Inexplicable: How Christianity Spread to the Ends of the Earth” (winner of three Telly Awards), and a book by the same title.

Christopher Devers received a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, as well as a MS in educational administration and a BS in engineering and technology education from Purdue University. He is an Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins University in the School of Education. Overall, Dr. Devers is interested in applied metacognitive processes and how people learn. Specifically, he explores learning using videos, mobile devices, and in online environments. He is also interested in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and student success.

Endorsements

This book is aimed especially at leaders of Christian higher education, who in an age of digitization and diversity are recruiting the next generation of teacher-scholars for their schools. The contributors ground their assessment in a theology of vocation, they are alert to the changing culture of contemporary young adults, and they offer hard-won wisdom concerning the institutional dynamics of colleges and universities. Careful attention to theory seasoned by numerous specific examples make for unusually compelling reading.

—Mark A. Noll
Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History Emeritus, University of Notre Dame

The editors of Cultivating Mentors have enlisted an outstanding group of experienced Christian educators who highlight the challenges of the younger generation of Christians, in particular Millennials and Gen Z, as revealed in thousands of interviews conducted by the Barna Group. The authors provide specific proposals to administrators for providing helpful mentoring for junior faculty at Christian colleges.

—Edwin M. Yamauchi
Professor of History Emeritus, Miami University

The context for mentoring has changed enormously in recent years, and the roles of mentor and mentee now frequently oscillate. Cultivating Mentors explores this new terrain where generational differences and cultural diversities are taken seriously and where personal flourishing receives intensified attention. With insights from a multitude of organizational and generational perspectives, this volume will encourage fresh thinking across the full spectrum of institutional roles in Christian higher education.

—Douglas Jacobsen and Rhonda Hustedt Jacobsen
Authors of Scholarship and Christian Faith

The lasting impact and endurance of our Christian universities relies squarely on the strength and vitality of each generation of leaders―from student to professor to president―to sustain the mission through challenging times. Who among us in academia can imagine succeeding without forerunners who mentor us by making “a way in the wilderness”? Cultivating Mentors: Sharing Wisdom in Christian Higher Education is a volume that places a call on each of us to cultivate collegial relationships at every age and stage to produce flourishing careers for flourishing institutions. With an impressive cadre of contributors that spans various roles within higher education, this book offers valuable insight and encouragement for all on the journey.

—Steven D. Mason
President, LeTourneau University

Scripture is replete with commands of cherishing ancient wisdom, living under truth, and teaching it to the next generations. Mentoring colleagues and students in higher education is one way to obey these commands in our vocation. The voices in this volume helps us be faithful in the good work of mentoring, from generation to generation. May the words herein provide instruction and inspiration to be faithful stewards of such a trust.

—Edee Schulze
Vice President for Student Life, Westmont College

This outstanding book brings together desperately needed fresh thinking on mentorship from scholars who are real-life beneficiaries and practitioners of mentoring. These essays offer a kaleidoscopic look at the beauty of theologically informed mentorship and show us why it is so necessary. We can all be thankful that such a thoughtful guidebook is now available at this kairos moment in Christian higher education.

—Todd L. Lake
Vice President for Spiritual Development, Belmont University

Good mentorship is one of the most powerful and sacred relationships we can offer to the future generation of leaders. This book is an invaluable resource for helping us think about how to establish and sustain these relationships.

—Nancy Brickhouse
Provost and Professor of Education, Baylor University

Scroll to Top