A sincere friendship to a mentor friendship develops NATURALLY through the Special Features presentation. As you and your friend go over these Special Features together, you should give them all the time they need to ask questions, think about those things the Special Features are telling them about, and make up their mind as to whether or not they want to get involved in HELP eMagazine. They shouldn’t try to make this decision until they have completed the entire study.

Going over the Special Features should take as long as is necessary for your friend to feel comfortable with making a decision. There is no rush; you just need to walk them through it at a pace that is best for them. Read short groups of paragraphs and then allow them to tell you what they think. Be willing to answer any questions or objections they may have; but, try to encourage them to get their answers from the Special Features. They need to learn to trust the material; and, they need to learn how to get the answers for themselves.

In most cases, the particular issue or question your mentor friend has will soon be covered. Let them know you have reviewed the material and have seen the answer. Then ask them to be looking for that answer as they go through the information. The more they are willing to get the information through the Special Features, the more they demonstrate hunger for the things of Jesus.

All during the time of going through the Special Features, you will need to keep sharing YOUR STORY with them. In other words, if they run into an issue, question, or objection during the Special Features time, give them examples of how Jesus used HELP eMagazine to help you. The way you learned how to apply these principles, and the way you went from a problem to a solution will help them see how it all works.

You are the living proof that the principles in HELP eMagazine work. The small presentation of YOUR STORY will be customized; it will only tell about those events that are similar to the issues, questions, and objections they present. Try to keep all your help in the realm of your own personal experiences; Share experiences with the relationship and provisions of Jesus. Arguments and conflicts can develop from your personal opinions and concepts; but, no one can argue with your experiences with Jesus.

If after they have learned what HELP eMagazine is all about and they are ready to start doing studies with you, then they are ready to move to the level of a mentor friendship. If they don’t want to do the studies with you but are willing to let you give them advice, then you will need to pray and ask Jesus whether or not He wants you to continue to do that.

You will more than likely find people who want you to do all the work for them. They won’t be willing to read, study, or put out the effort for getting the information for themselves. They will ask or maybe even demand that you “just tell it” to them. They may have excuses, crises, circumstances, and all kinds of other reasons for not having time or the ability to do studies with you.

There is a way for you to keep helping these people without you doing all the work. You can require that they read the material on their own; then you and they can discuss it at the scheduled time. You will need to have “tests” that help prove that they did actually read the material. The more you ask questions that force them to refer to the material, the more they will see that you WILL NOT spoon feed them.

You and Jesus will have to decide whether or not or for how long you will be willing to do their work for them. For some, it may just be a need for you to help them get started and then they will take off and do the studies with you. For others, it may be a problem with laziness or a lack of spiritual desire to “do what it takes” to do the studies in HELP eMagazine. If they are ever going to become a true mentor friend, then they are going to have to start doing the studies on their own under your mentoring.

All these friendships are those where you are DISCOVERING whether or not the person is READY to receive help from Jesus. Your job in all these relationships and friendships is to always be trying to FIND OUT where they are at the moment. Jesus is RESPONSIBLE for getting them ready for any progress in levels of relationship and friendship. If He chooses to, He will use those things in the natural flow of your conversations with them to help them move to the next level. BUT, your conversation didn’t do it; it was Jesus empowering your conversation that produced the results.

By using this system, that Jesus used to find out what people were willing to do, you will be able to take SOME from business relationships all the way to mentor friendships. Some relationships and friendships will stop at some level for a while and then suddenly move to the next level. Jesus will have done something in their heart that helped them get ready for that level. ALL level increases are caused by the person being willing to yield to Jesus as He deals with them personally.

It is vital that you not feel responsible for taking your friends to the next level, BECAUSE you are not able to. Ask Jesus to help you accept responsibility for being a constant friend; ask Jesus to help you accept your job of CHECKING, from time to time, to see what He has gotten them ready to talk about and do. The questions Jesus keeps giving you will help you check and see how they are doing. He will help you see if they have allowed Him to prepare them for moving to the next level of friendship; that part is all dependent on them and Jesus.