Phil Strout is the new national director of Vineyard USA. He told me he met with a mentor for two hours every month for 15 years, and never once did the guy ask him how his church was going. The mentor’s first question was always, “How is your soul?” Then about half an hour in, he would ask, “Are you lying to me?” just as a standard ‘coming clean’ question.

Are you mentoring someone? What kinds of questions are you asking them? What do those questions communicate about priorities, about relationships, about the nature of faith? We all need someone to ask us the deeper questions and the harder questions. Only then do we end up with people who truly have the ability to speak into our lives. That can’t be done from a safe distance.