Watch the video above and talk about it with a friend or mentor.

If you’ve never conducted meetings, it can be quite intimidating to know how to spend the time. This plan is a simple structure you can follow.

Conducting a meeting is new skill for many mentors. It can be threatening and confusing to know how to spend the time available to you in your mentoring relationships. The “Three-Thirds” plan is a simple structure you can follow. Whether or not you already have a way of structuring meeting times, consider this format and give it a try. It has three simple elements.

Look Back

Looking back involves spending some time to catch up with each others’ lives, follow up on things you talked about last time, and just generally care for one another before you jump into a lesson. This is also the time in the meeting where you bring up the goals you made in the last meeting, so you can encourage each other and hold each other accountable for how you’ve done on those goals.

Look Up

In this segment, you are consciously looking to God and what he has to say to you. This begins with prayer. Spend some time praising God for the successes he has given you. Pray for each other’s needs and goals. Looking up also includes the new lesson for the week. This is where you will discuss a topic or video, or study the Bible together.

[Related: The FLEX Method of Mentoring]

Look Forward

During the final segment of the meeting, you will set some goals. We suggest two categories of goals: ones that connect you to Jesus, and ones that express your obedience to him. These ideally spring forth out of the lesson, as well as continue the life-issues raised previously. They can include any personal goals God is leading you toward.

Then wrap up the meeting in prayer. Ask God to help you both grow in truth, grow closer to him, and accomplish your goals.

[Related: The Mechanics of Prayer: The P-R-A-Y Method]

These three elements don’t have to be equal in time. Sometimes a given segment will be longer, sometimes shorter, depending on the situation in your mentoree’s life.

Read more
Read less

Key Points:

  • Looking back.
  • Looking up.
  • Looking forward.

See Also: Mentoring Basics

Talk About It
  1. What’s your initial reaction to this topic?
  2. What is involved in “Looking Back?”
  3. Why is this first part of the meeting important?
  4. How does “Looking Back” move us toward the four goals of mentoring (see “Introduction to the Mentoring Process” above)?
  5. What is involved in “Looking Up?”
  6. Why is this part of the meeting important?
  7. How does “Looking Up” move us toward the four goals of mentoring?
  8. What is involved in “Looking Forward”?
  9. Why is this final part of the meeting important?
  10. How does “Looking Forward” move us toward the four goals of mentoring?
  11. Write a personal action step based on this conversation.