Online Mentoring
Do you have questions and challenges in your ministry?
Would you benefit from a mentoring session(s) from an experienced senior leader not just at the annual Forum but during the year?
Online Mentoring seeks to unite, equip, and resource evangelical leaders personally, professionally, and spiritually throughout the year by connecting them one-on-one with experienced mentors and leaders who can mentor them and speak into their lives and ministries. Online mentoring expands support to leaders and facilitates mentoring connections throughout the year by:
- Recruiting trusted ELF leaders as mentors with extensive experience in their field and a heart to serve
- Providing a platform for leaders to find suitable mentors in their field or issue area and request an online meeting time.
Since leaders have such a wide variety of needs, the Forum will offer many different types of mentoring in areas ranging from Leadership and Management to Academic to Personal Counselling.
Who Can Sign Up?
The Online Mentoring will first be available to evangelical leaders who attended the European Leadership Forum.
See a list of the mentoring types here:
Apologetics and Evangelism
Apologetics
Apologetics Mentoring focuses specifically on how to think strategically about apologetics, how to identify and connect with important points of contact in a culture, and how to remove roadblocks to the Gospel.
Mentors
John Kirkpatrick served as a minister in the Presbyterian Church for the past 40 years. He’s recently retired but is still very active across several ministries. He chairs the management board at Union Theological College and has some teaching and mentoring responsibilities there. John also serves as part of the preaching team in First Ballymena Presbyterian Church participating in monthly preaching opportunities. This year will mark the 30th year John has served the Motorcycle racing world in Ireland as Chaplain to the Motorcycle Union of Ireland. He gives help and oversight to the church plant Trinity Church Central London. Additionally, at the European Leadership Forum, John has led the Apologetics (Foundational) Network for many years and is now offering more general help across all Networks.
Scientific Apologetics
Scientific Apologetics Mentoring helps those who want to be involved in scientific apologetics to think strategically about questions of how to respond to the challenges posed by scientific naturalism to the Gospel.
Mentors
Alexander Fink is Director of the Institute for Faith and Science (Institut für Glaube und Wissenschaft) in Marburg, Germany (www.iguw.de). He studied physics at Bayreuth and St. Andrews (UK) universities and received his PhD at the Institute for Biophysics at the University of Regensburg. After working as an industrial product manager, he became the director of the SMD graduates' ministry (Akademiker-SMD, the German branch of IFES) until 2014. Since 2008, he has been a member of the ELF Steering Committee and has co-led the Scientists Network. He is the editor of the "Begründet-glauben-Podcast" (www.begruendet-glauben.org) and has produced three documentary movies, "Fascinating Universe", "More than My Brain", and “Is There Meaning in Suffering?” which were officially recommended for use in secular public schools. Together with his wife, Alexander enjoys raising his two children, preaching and leading a house group in his local church, and being a youth soccer trainer in his local sports club.
Church Leadership and Ministry
Church Leadership
Church Leadership Mentoring aims to support, equip, and mentor the leaders and aspiring leaders of churches, networks, denominations, and Christian organizations to face the complexity of leading growing ministries
Mentors
Jonathan Bond was brought up near Bakewell in Derbyshire. Jonathan was a management accountant before his call to full-time Christian ministry. He undertook 2 ½ years on the job training at the church he attended in Leeds before, on his 40th birthday, becoming pastor of Jennyfield Evangelical Church, a smaller church in Harrogate. After nearly 18 years, he left to become FIEC’s Director for Smaller Churches. This role involves supporting, encouraging and seeking to be a blessing to some 300 churches within the FIEC (35 members or less) through offering advice, being the conduit for partnerships and supporting churches through revitalisation programs. Jonathan is still keen on sport, he is married to Sarah - they have 4 grown-up daughters and 5 grandchildren (2 girls and 3 boys).
Jym Gregory is Lead Pastor of LifePoint Church Indy in Indianapolis, Indiana. He also serves as adjunct professor of Christian Apologetics and Christian Leadership at The Indianapolis Theological Seminary. He has served in local church ministry for 25 years. Along with his wife and children, he served as an international missionary in Costa Rica and Spain. Additional missionary work has taken him to a dozen countries. He holds degrees from Eastern Illinois University (B.S., M.S.), and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div., D.Min). He has pursued additional studies in history and higher education at The University of Florida and missions studies at The Instituto de Lenqua Espanola in San Jose, Costa Rica. Married for 36 years to his wife Dedra, they share two grown daughters and six grandchildren.
Church Revitalisation
Church Revitalisation Mentoring provides an opportunity for participants to discuss the common obstacles and available tools to bring revitalization to an existing church.
Mentors
David Brown planted three churches before revitalising a church in central Paris. For many years he was involved with GBU (Groupes Bibliques Universitaires), the French student movement affiliated with IFES. More recently he has been promoting church revitalisation through his chairmanship of the Evangelism Commission of the French “National Council of Evangelicals” and through his teaching and mentoring at the Bible Institutes in Geneva and Paris and by leading a range of seminars and workshops in France and across Europe.
Disciple-Making Leadership
Disciple-Making Leadership Mentoring helps participants consider how to nurture God's people toward biblical maturity through a recovery of the biblical foundation for leadership, spiritual formation, pastoral care and personal discipleship.
Mentors
Dafydd Job served as a pastor for over 40 years in Wales, including 37 years in the Bangor Welsh Evangelical Church. He has been active in a number of organisations, including UCCF and The Evangelical Movement of Wales, and is the coordinator of the Barnabas Project for UFM Worldwide - a project for encouraging churches, pastors and Christian leaders. He visits Eastern Europe regularly to speak, and to mentor pastors. He has recently been appointed as an associate of Living Leadership, which means he is available to mentor and advise pastors, Christian leaders, and help churches through difficult times.
Financial Stewardship
Financial Stewardship Mentoring provides a guidance to leaders in learn, apply and multiply Gods financial principles in their personal life or ministry or church.
Mentors
Pavel Pavlov is the CEO of Compass Europe, a financial discipleship movement. He previously worked with the Forum of Christian Leaders (FOCL), organizing and developing year-round training and mentoring initiatives for Christian leaders across Europe. Before that, he served as an administrator for a church actively engaged in community outreach and organized several Forum National Conferences. Pavel also gained managerial experience working for international corporations. He serves on the board of trustees for European Christian Mission International (ECMI) and is the chair of its finance and audit committee. His passion lies in life and executive coaching. Pavel is married, has three children, and lives in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria.
LGBT and Church Politics
LGBT and Church Politics Mentoring focuses on equipping church leaders on how to respond to LGBT questions and arguments against traditional marriage in a pastorally sensitive way and on how to contend for biblical orthodoxy on issues of marriage, sex and gender in our churches and denominations.
Mentors
Christopher Townsend chairs the editorial group of Cambridge Papers, a quarterly publication with the strapline ‘Towards a Biblical Mind’, which aims to help Christians engage with a complex and changing world (www.cambridgepapers.org). He wrote ‘Gender: Where Next? Personal journeys, radical agendas and perplexing dilemmas’ (Cambridge Paper: December 2016) and since then has engaged with this topic, in conversation with medical professionals, and has spoken at churches and conferences on the ‘gender revolution'. Following his retirement as a lawyer, he completed an MPhil in New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of Cambridge, and he is a trustee of The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion.
Pastors
Pastors Mentoring provides pastors with the chance to discuss questions and concerns about their ministry with a more experienced mentor and to receive encouragement, prayer, and refreshment.
Mentors
John Kirkpatrick served as a minister in the Presbyterian Church for the past 40 years. He’s recently retired but is still very active across several ministries. He chairs the management board at Union Theological College and has some teaching and mentoring responsibilities there. John also serves as part of the preaching team in First Ballymena Presbyterian Church participating in monthly preaching opportunities. This year will mark the 30th year John has served the Motorcycle racing world in Ireland as Chaplain to the Motorcycle Union of Ireland. He gives help and oversight to the church plant Trinity Church Central London. Additionally, at the European Leadership Forum, John has led the Apologetics (Foundational) Network for many years and is now offering more general help across all Networks.
Jay Mosser has served in pastoral roles for 43 years – about 20 years in various assistant pastor capacities and the rest as senior pastor. Through those years he has served in three churches ranging from smaller (less than 50) to larger (about 1,000). Along the way he has worked with children, teens, worship ministry, pastoral care, preaching, and leadership. Jay has an M.Div. from Western (Conservative Baptist) Seminary and a D.Min. from Corban University in Oregon, where his doctoral thesis was titled How a Pastor’s Theology of Shepherding Affects the Health & Growth of a Church. He is married to Kathy and has three daughters and five grandchildren. In his spare time, he loves to read, hike, travel, watch sports, and spend time with his family.
Youth Ministry
Youth Ministry Mentoring is designed to encourage youth ministers while offering them an opportunity to talk through difficult issues and to give them some of the tools they need to impact the church of tomorrow.
Mentors
Paul Bowman has 30 years of experience in full-time youth ministry in the local church. He now serves as the national director for Josiah Venture UK. He is committed to training and equipping the next generation of youth leaders, and mobilizing people, prayer and resources for ministry to youth in Central and Eastern Europe. He lives with his wife Val and their three children in Saintfield, Northern Ireland. He holds a BSc Hons in Community Youth Work and a Master’s in Transformational Leadership.
Organisational Leadership
AI
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Mentoring provides guidance and support for leaders seeking to learn more on how to effectively use the benefits of the artificial intelligence in their churches, ministries and Christian organizations.
Mentors
Charlie Catlett is a senior computer scientist at Argonne National Laboratory and The University of Chicago who has focused his research for 40 years in the development of the Internet and WorldWideWeb, computer security, and high-performance computing, holding scientific leadership positions at multiple universities and national laboratories. During the past decade his research has focused on the use of computational modeling and artificial intelligence (AI) embedded with sensors to create new classes of environmental measurements and urban planning capabilities. Recently he has also used AI-based data analysis to assess community vulnerability to factors ranging from communicable disease to impacts of climate change, such as flooding and extreme temperatures. He has received numerous awards for his research and leadership, including being named to Crain’s “Tech 50” leaders in Chicago in 2014, GovTech magazine’s national “25 Doers, Dreamers & Drivers” of 2016, as a Distinguished Performer in 2019 by the Board of Trustees of Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago, and was named one of the "High Performance Computing People to Watch in 2025" by HPCWire magazine. Charlie is a Computer Engineering graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Entrepreneurial Leadership
Starting a new organisation and moving it through the early stages of growth can be a daunting task for anyone, even those with leadership experience. Some have great ideas but lack the confidence to move them beyond the vision. What key issues should be considered before getting started in order to avoid failure? What skill sets are needed to get a new organisation off the ground? Are you the right person to lead the organisation? What aspects of business best practice can be used in a Christian organisation, and how do you ensure that the organisation is run by Christian principles? Forum Entrepreneurial Leadership Mentoring provides an opportunity to discuss these issues and other personal concerns that you may have with an experienced entrepreneur.
Mentors
Nick Davis is a retired Managing Director of a group of international medical products companies and is a member of a large diverse church in South Wales. Nick is a qualified accountant who now sits on the boards of several charities and non-profit companies (covering areas such as the Christian response to poverty alleviation in the UK and Africa, human trafficking and slavery), advising particularly on strategic planning, business development, financial, and regulatory issues. Nick and his wife Ruth have spent much of the last year living in Uganda working with Christian businesses and NGOs.
Leadership and Management
Leadership and Management Mentoring provides organisation leaders an opportunity to talk over a specific management problem(s) with an experienced leader who is willing to listen, ask relevant questions, and offer opinions about the problem, based on their experience.
Mentors
Nola Leach is a co-leader of the European Politics and Society Network and served as the Chief Executive of CARE (Christian Action Research & Education), one of Europe’s leading Christian charities, which provides resources and helps bring Christian insight and experience to matters of public policy and practical caring initiatives. CARE undertakes a variety of social caring and educational programmes and research and is represented in the UK Parliaments and Assemblies. As Head of the Public Affairs team, Nola led campaigns on topics such as human trafficking, Internet pornography, and the value of human life from its beginning to natural end. She oversaw the publication of Living Free, a sequel to the CARE book Searching for Intimacy – a resource designed to help those trapped in the net of Internet pornography. She has a passion for developing Christian leaders and headed up CARE’s unique Leadership Programme. She is increasingly in demand as both a writer and a public speaker, has penned numerous articles, and regularly appears in the media. She now spends her time mentoring leaders, speaking, and writing.
John Stevens is the National Director of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, a family of over 500 Bible-centred churches in the UK, a position that he has held since 2010. Prior to this he was one of the founding pastors of City Evangelical Church Birmingham, which was planted in the centre of the UK’s 2nd largest city in 1999. He was instrumental in starting the Midlands Gospel Partnership, was the course Director of the Midlands Ministry Training Course and is a visiting lecturer at Oak Hill Theological College. John is also one of the pastors of Christchurch Market Harborough, a church he helped to plant when he took up his current role. He was converted whilst studying law at Cambridge University, and after taking a post-graduate degree at the University of Oxford worked for 16 years as a University Lecturer, ending his career as Deputy Head of the Law School at the University of Birmingham. John is married to Ursula and they have four children aged between 12 and 7. He blogs at www.john-stevens.com on theology, church life and ministry, culture and politics.
Zsolt Szalai, following his studies on Hungarian and English universities and completion of a university doctor’s degree in finance, has spent the last three decades in mid and upper management roles in banking, private equity, not-for-profit organizations, and Christian churches. Currently, he is self-employed as a business consultant. Besides that, he is Head of the Board of Elders of Szentendre Reformed Church, Chairman of Christian Businessmen Association, Board Member of Compass Europe, and leader of the Leadership Workshop of the Hungarian Evangelical Forum. During his career, Zsolt gained a wide range of experience in corporate finance, capital markets, project finance, innovation management, and business development areas. Zsolt is also an adjunct professor at Károli Gáspár Reformed University, Pentecostal Theological College, and Bakke Graduate University. He is also an active speaker and lecturer on conferences and leadership courses and workshops.
Personal
Family
Family Mentoring aims to provide biblically sound advice for building strong families to parents, grandparents, or lay and professional counselors who deal frequently with family-related issues.
Mentors
Jay Mosser has served in pastoral roles for 43 years – about 20 years in various assistant pastor capacities and the rest as senior pastor. Through those years he has served in three churches ranging from smaller (less than 50) to larger (about 1,000). Along the way he has worked with children, teens, worship ministry, pastoral care, preaching, and leadership. Jay has an M.Div. from Western (Conservative Baptist) Seminary and a D.Min. from Corban University in Oregon, where his doctoral thesis was titled How a Pastor’s Theology of Shepherding Affects the Health & Growth of a Church. He is married to Kathy and has three daughters and five grandchildren. In his spare time, he loves to read, hike, travel, watch sports, and spend time with his family.
Dawn Patterson has worked with para-church ministries for about 45 years — in the US, Germany and Russia. She is married (36 years) and has 4 adult children and 3 granddaughters. Her ministry focus is leading and mentoring women of various ages and cultures through encouragement and study of the Scriptures. Currently, she lives in Minnesota.
Marriage and Family
Marriage and Family Mentoring aims to help married couples strengthen their relationships, provide effective resources for couples in distress, and encourage individuals to develop a comprehensive approach to marriage-focused ministry.
Mentors
Jay Mosser has served in pastoral roles for 43 years – about 20 years in various assistant pastor capacities and the rest as senior pastor. Through those years he has served in three churches ranging from smaller (less than 50) to larger (about 1,000). Along the way he has worked with children, teens, worship ministry, pastoral care, preaching, and leadership. Jay has an M.Div. from Western (Conservative Baptist) Seminary and a D.Min. from Corban University in Oregon, where his doctoral thesis was titled How a Pastor’s Theology of Shepherding Affects the Health & Growth of a Church. He is married to Kathy and has three daughters and five grandchildren. In his spare time, he loves to read, hike, travel, watch sports, and spend time with his family.
Dawn Patterson has worked with para-church ministries for about 45 years — in the US, Germany and Russia. She is married (36 years) and has 4 adult children and 3 granddaughters. Her ministry focus is leading and mentoring women of various ages and cultures through encouragement and study of the Scriptures. Currently, she lives in Minnesota.
Personal Counselling for Men
Personal Counselling was created in response to a request by many Forum participants over the years for the opportunity to meet with experienced Forum leaders and counsellors to talk and pray about personal issues or struggles.
Mentors
Tim Patterson has been involved in para-church ministry since 1976 - in the USA, Germany and Russia. He and Dawn, his wife of 35 years, are presently staff members with GLINTS (Global Intercultural Services) for whom they oversee Member Care for the small missionary sending agency. Tim and Dawn live in Minnesota, USA.
Personal Counselling for Women
Personal Counselling was created in response to a request by many Forum participants over the years for the opportunity to meet with experienced Forum leaders and counsellors to talk and pray about personal issues or struggles.
Mentors
Jeanette Frahm has been leading women for over 45 years in the church, her community and as a staff member of The Navigators through Bible studies, discipleship groups, conferences, banquets and retreats. She co-founded The Northfield Women's Center and serves as President of the Board of Directors. A certified Narrative Life Coach who listens well and helps women feel inspired and empowered to make long-term changes that will benefit them the rest of their lives.
Women and Leadership
Women and Leadership Mentoring provides a time to seek the perspective that God may have on your circumstances and situations from an experienced mentor.
Mentors
Hannah Donato is the wife of Giovanni and mother of three children: Isabella, Luca and Giorgia. Originally from England, Hannah has been serving the Lord in Italy for the past 19 years amongst university students with the Italian IFES movement, GBU. In the past, Hannah has overseen the development of the student leader’s training and care programme and has recently taken on a similar role with regards to the Staff team. Hannah loves the local church she is a part of in Siena and serves in music, children’s, and women’s ministry there. Hannah loves cooking, music, walks in the Tuscan hills, Italy, discipling and witnessing to those around her.
Nola Leach is a co-leader of the European Politics and Society Network and served as the Chief Executive of CARE (Christian Action Research & Education), one of Europe’s leading Christian charities, which provides resources and helps bring Christian insight and experience to matters of public policy and practical caring initiatives. CARE undertakes a variety of social caring and educational programmes and research and is represented in the UK Parliaments and Assemblies. As Head of the Public Affairs team, Nola led campaigns on topics such as human trafficking, Internet pornography, and the value of human life from its beginning to natural end. She oversaw the publication of Living Free, a sequel to the CARE book Searching for Intimacy – a resource designed to help those trapped in the net of Internet pornography. She has a passion for developing Christian leaders and headed up CARE’s unique Leadership Programme. She is increasingly in demand as both a writer and a public speaker, has penned numerous articles, and regularly appears in the media. She now spends her time mentoring leaders, speaking, and writing.
Vocation
Academic
Academic Mentoring gives young academics an opportunity to discuss a piece of academic work (such as a chapter of a thesis/dissertation or a scholarly article) or a general issue related to their experience in academia with a more experienced academic.
Mentors
Per Ewert is the director of The Clapham Institute, Sweden’s leading Christian think tank and research institute. His PhD describes the political process which shaped Sweden into the world's arguably most secular-individualistic nation. Per is the author of several books on the Bible, apologetics, relations, and the role of faith in society. He currently works on a post-doc study on internal secularization in free protestant denominations. He lives with his wife and four children in southern Sweden.
Alexander Fink is Director of the Institute for Faith and Science (Institut für Glaube und Wissenschaft) in Marburg, Germany (www.iguw.de). He studied physics at Bayreuth and St. Andrews (UK) universities and received his PhD at the Institute for Biophysics at the University of Regensburg. After working as an industrial product manager, he became the director of the SMD graduates' ministry (Akademiker-SMD, the German branch of IFES) until 2014. Since 2008, he has been a member of the ELF Steering Committee and has co-led the Scientists Network. He is the editor of the "Begründet-glauben-Podcast" (www.begruendet-glauben.org) and has produced three documentary movies, "Fascinating Universe", "More than My Brain", and “Is There Meaning in Suffering?” which were officially recommended for use in secular public schools. Together with his wife, Alexander enjoys raising his two children, preaching and leading a house group in his local church, and being a youth soccer trainer in his local sports club.
Media Engagement
Media Engagement Mentoring provides an opportunity for creative personal dialogue with an experienced practitioner relating the individual context and calling to 'media ministries' (the creative use of media technologies in the Church and mission), 'media presence' (being salt and light in mainstream media), and/ or 'media awareness' (media analysis or critique as disciples and witnesses).
Mentors
Margunn Serigstad Dahle, the co-leader of the European Media Communicators Network, is Associate Professor at NLA University College, Kristiansand, Norway, where she has taught in the fields of communication, media, and worldviews since 1991. She was for many years Programme Director for the Communication and Worldviews Bachelor Program, which is designed to equip evangelical communicators and apologists in various fields for the contemporary Western cultural context. Especially connected to her Damaris involvement, she is a regular lecturer, speaker, and writer in various contexts in Norway and beyond. She was a co-editor of "The Lausanne Movement: A Range of Perspectives" (Oxford: Regnum, 2014). Margunn formerly served as Chairman of Lunde Publishing House.