Rick Warren On The Difference Between Mentors And Models

Interesting interview last Friday on Hugh Hewitt's radio show, which I finally got around to listening to tonight as a podcast. Pastor Rick Warren, author of "Purpose Driven Life", one of the highest-selling books of all time, and Saddleback Church fame was a guest for the final two hours of the broadcast.

The interview covered a number of worthwhile subjects, but I particularly enjoyed Pastor Warren's concluding remarks, which included this insightful guide on learning from the various types of relationships we can form with others:

“You need four people in you life: mentors, models, partners and friends.

You need a mentor who is alive, who can coach you… by the way, it’s good to have multiple mentors, you can have one mentor who helps you in an area, another that helps you in another. Because no mentor knows everything.

For instance: I’ve had in my life, many many mentors. Billy Graham mentored me in terms of leadership in culture; Peter Drucker mentored me for years and years on leadership and management of an organization. My own father mentored me in how you do relationships and get along with everybody no matter who they are. A man named Harry Williams, who was like a father to me, mentored me in evangelism. How to see each person’s need, and how to show how the Gospel can meet that need.

So different people teach you different things.

Then you need a model. Your model should always be dead. Don’t have a live model. You can have a live mentor, but not a live model. Because you don’t know how they’re going to end up yet. A lot of times you have someone as a model, and they flame out morally, and… you’re goin’: “what.. what happened?” So, have a dead model.

And then you need partners, the guys who’ll work with you.

And then you’re going to need friends, who are going to love you even though you’re
cracked.

Transcripts of the two Friday interviews can be found here.