The close relationships among Covenant clergy have been a traditional Covenant distinctive. This mentoring relationship is designed to connect you with a veteran pastor form your area willing to listen to your experiences, answer your questions, lend advice, and help you become more firmly rooted in your local Covenant context. All CEOP students are required to chose his or her own mentor. Once received, the Department of the Ministry will approve the mentor choice. Mentors must be active, ordained or commissioned Covenant ministers with at least five years of service in a local Covenant Church.
Retired pastors are suitable mentors.
The mentoring relationship officially begins with the mentor's approval by the Department of the Ministry. This relationship, as a CEOP requirement, should last one year and include at least three evenly spaced meetings, i.e., one meeting every three or four months. Three meetings held during a two-week period would not fulfill completion of this requirement. The guidelines sent to mentors by the CEOP will include a brief suggestion for each meeting. These suggestions are not meant to control the course of the mentoring, but rather to provide a starting point for discussion.