Our Mission 

To present Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord to business and professional men and to develop Christian business and professional men to carry out the Great Commission. 

1 Corinthians 2.12 observes, now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God. 

God wants us to know Him. That makes sense if there really is a God. Why would God want us ignorant of Who He is or what He requires of us? Of course He doesn't! It behooves us then to know God so we can know His will. God has given us the two things we need for accomplishing this objective. 

First, He gives us His Word, the Scriptures. The purpose of the Scriptures is to teach us who God is and what He requires from us. In telling us Who God is, the Scriptures tell us what He has done for us, and why He has done the things He has done. This information is for our transformation from people who have ignored God, to people who obey God. 

The Scriptures alone however are insufficient. The Scriptures are made increasingly clearer to us as the Spirit of God opens our eyes, ears and hearts to the things of God. God Himself, in Spirit, is the second means by which we are able to come to know God so that we can obey God.  As we earnestly seek God we find God because the Spirit of God reveals Him to us. 

Everyone would love God if they knew Who He really is, but so few, spend so little time with God in His Word by His Spirit that they end up making up their own version of god, which is really no god at all. The One True God is not far from any of us and desires for each of us to reach up to Him and cry, Father. 

Yet He is a holy God and a righteous God which means the seeking and the knowing of Him, along with the doing of His will, must come from Him, as prescribed by Him, and not something we manufacture. God’s prescription for men is found in His Word imparted to us by His Spirit.

His Opportunities

1. The next CBMC special luncheon, your best opportunity for obeying the Great Commission, is scheduled for March 21st. Our speaker will be O’Leary Paint CEO John O’Leary. We will be meeting at The View from 11.45am-1:00pm. Register HERE
   
   
2. CBMC Men’s Conference April 4-7. Be encouraged in your faith and in your faith at work with hundreds of Christian business and professional men from all over the eastern United States.  Register and get more information here. Let me know you are going so we can carpool together in CBMC 1!
   
   

CBMC Central Michigan 6011 W. St. Joseph Ste. 401 Lansing 48917  / 517 481 5996 www.lansing.cbmc.com 

MONDAY MANNA

A service to the business community

A Publication of CBMC International

February 18, 2019 

Making Your Mark Through Mentoring – Part I

by Robert J. Tamasy 

“I want to make a difference.” Have you ever made this statement? It is a thought many of us have expressed, whether in public or at least to ourselves. Whether you are a Baby Boom generation member on the back end of your career, or a Millennial just getting a start in the workplace, this is a desire many of us share.

The question is, how do we make that difference? How can we succeed in making a mark that will endure long after our working days have ended? 

There are many possible suggestions, but there is one I would highly recommend: Mentoring. I know, you might have an objection, saying something like, “I had a mentor once – a terrible experience!” That is not the kind of mentoring I’m talking about. Many of us have had a bad experience in which a mentor was assigned to us, had no genuine interest in us, and viewed being a mentor as an imposed assignment. 

No, the kind of mentoring I mean involves a mutually beneficial relationship, two people on a journey together seeking to grow and build into one another’s lives. When David A. Stoddard and I co-authored The Heart of Mentoring: Ten Proven Principles for Developing People to Their Fullest Potential, we were drawing from Dave’s experience of having two wonderful mentors who invested much of themselves into him, listening and teaching and modeling what it meant to be successful in business – and in life. 

Dave went on to replicate that mentoring process in the lives of dozens of other men for more than 30 years. He passed away five years ago this month, but his impact – the mark he made through mentoring others – continues to this day through many of those individuals. 

What does that kind of mentoring look like? Here are a few of the principles we cited in our book, along with biblical precepts that undergird those principles: 

Living is about giving. Too often, mentoring is viewed through a “what’s in it for me” lens. The most effective mentoring is done focused on the best interests of the person being mentored, whom we termed the “mentoring partner.” We want to help him or her become all they can possibly be. “…remembering the words of the Lord Jesus Himself: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’” (Acts 20:35). 

Mentoring is a process that requires perseverance. Spending time with someone who needs our help at times can be frustrating or discouraging, especially when we fail to see the progress we had hoped for. That is why perseverance is necessary, pressing on and remaining committed to the mentor even when expectations are not met. “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up”(Galatians 6:9). 

Effective mentors open their world to their mentoring partners. Nothing builds trust more than being transparent, even totally vulnerable, to the other person. As we are open to others, honest with our own struggles, that gives them confidence to become open with us. “We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well” (1 Thessalonians 2:8). 

I will take a look at some of the other principles from The Heart of Mentoring in the next “Monday Manna.” 

© 2019. Robert J. Tamasy has written Business at Its Best: Timeless Wisdom from Proverbs for Today’s Workplace; Tufting Legacies;coauthored with David A. Stoddard, The Heart of Mentoring, and edited numerous other books, including Advancing Through Adversityby Mike Landry. Bob’s biweekly blog is: www.bobtamasy.blogspot.com. 

CBMC Central Michigan 6011 W. St. Joseph Ste. 401 Lansing 48917  / 517 481 5996  lansing.cbmc.com

 MONDAY MANNA

A service to the business community

A Publication of CBMC International

February 18, 2019 

Reflection/Discussion Questions 

1. Do you have a desire to make a difference in the world, at least in the world around you, your unique sphere of influence? If so, how well are you succeeding at doing that? 
2. When you hear the term “mentoring,” what comes to your mind? 
3. How might your thinking about mentoring change if it were presented not as a task, or an required assignment, but as a voluntary, “mutually beneficial relationship”? 
4. In what ways can you envision the process of mentoring being one that emphasizes giving rather than receiving? 

NOTE: If you have a Bible and would like to read more about principles it presents, consider the following passages:  Isaiah 43:4; Philippians 2:3-4; 1 Thessalonians 2:6-9, 11-12

CBMC Central Michigan 6011 W. St. Joseph Ste. 401 Lansing 48917  / 517 481 5996  lansing.cbmc.com