Chapter 12
What Professional Tutors
of Godly Breakthrough Methods
Should Teach
What purpose then does the law serve?
It was added because of transgressions,
till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made;
and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.
Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is
one.
Is
the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not!
For if there had been a law given which could have given life,
truly righteousness would have been by the law.
But the Scripture has confined all under sin,
that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ
might be given to those who believe.
But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law,
kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed.
Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ,
that we might be justified by faith.
But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free,
there is neither male nor female;
for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed,
and heirs according to the promise.
— Galatians 3:19-29 (NKJV)
Some people are called by God to serve as full-time tutors
who help others to make Godly breakthroughs. Other people simply find it
appealing to serve as such tutors. For some retired people, breakthrough
tutoring for Godly purposes may present a heartwarming opportunity to stay
mentally active. For others, breakthrough tutoring may be an appealing career
alternative.
Working to help others make
breakthroughs for Godly purposes has been for me a wonderful way to experience
more of God’s supernatural power and wisdom. Perhaps it will for you, as well.
How should someone begin? First,
create a Godly breakthrough by drawing on The
2,000 Percent Solution and The 2,000
Percent Solution Workbook, or by
also working with a certified tutor. Then, proceed to tutor a few people to
make their own breakthroughs. If the experiences go well, tutor more people.
Once your intent to continue is firm, decide on a tutoring focus and become
more expert in helping others with it. This chapter briefly describes some
important steps for how to do so:
• Select a specialty.
• Gain knowledge needed to tutor
effectively in the selected specialty.
• Attract enough learners.
• Continually improve tutoring
effectiveness.
Let’s first consider selecting a
specialty.
Select a Tutoring Specialty
But you are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
His own special people, that you may
proclaim the praises of Him
who called you out of darkness into His
marvelous light;
who once were not a people
but are now the
people of God,
who had not obtained mercy but now have
obtained mercy.
— 1 Peter 2:9-10 (NKJV)
Why should a breakthrough tutor choose a specialty? Why not
just start tutoring anyone who is interested? Selecting a specialty offers
advantages, including:
• More initial credibility with
potential learners
• Attracting more learners as
clients
• Less knowledge to acquire
• Increased engagement with
interesting subjects
• Greater effectiveness
Certified breakthrough tutors are scarce now, and
specialization will speed the preparation of more effective tutors. If you
doubt any of these premises, pray about your reactions and be led by what the
Holy Spirit indicates. I suggest seeking Divine direction in part because I
don’t mean to rule out the possibility that some people will be called by God to
become breakthrough tutoring generalists.
For your specialty, be sure to
select an area of high demand for breakthrough tutoring. It’s also good to pick
a specialty where there aren’t yet very many highly regarded experts. In such a
less-established, but large, field, it’s easier to develop a good reputation
that will help attract interest from potential learners.
You may be tempted to simply
specialize in an aspect of what you already know. For instance, a cost
accountant might decide to work with Christian organizations that have
inadequate cost systems but want build better ones much more rapidly and
inexpensively than usual. If you decide to help in such a related way, your
specialty selection will probably work out well.
But don’t assume such a specialty
is the most fruitful and gratifying one for you. The cost accountant might
accomplish more for God by tutoring about something else such as how to better
allocate some scarce resource other than money (for instance, the time of
uniquely capable people — writers, music composers, and inventors). In terms of
advancing His purposes, evaluate how many people will be helped, how much
improvement they will experience, and the lasting capabilities that will be
developed for those who will be assisted.
If you still aren’t sure which of
a few specialties you are considering is best, test the waters by creating some
breakthroughs and helping others to do the same in each of the various
specialties that attract you. I promise that one specialty will eventually grab
your attention and interest more than any of the others. Naturally, praying for
guidance will help you the most to make the right choice.
After selecting a specialty, it’s
time to add any knowledge required to help learners most successfully make such
Godly breakthroughs. Let’s look at some of the better ways for tutors to gain
such knowledge.
Gain Any Knowledge Needed to Tutor Effectively
in a Selected Specialty
Then some of the itinerant Jewish
exorcists took it upon themselves
to call the name of the Lord Jesus over
those who had evil spirits, saying,
“We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul
preaches.”
Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a
Jewish chief priest, who did so.
And the evil spirit answered and said,
“Jesus I know, and Paul I know;
but who are you?”
— Acts 19:13-15 (NKJV)
You need to be credible before you can have influence. If
you work in your same or a related field, you will probably have some idea
about what, if any, knowledge to acquire for assisting others to make Godly
breakthroughs.
However, what should you learn if
your tutoring specialty is relatively new to you? Start by reading some recent,
basic books to acquire vocabulary.
If there’s not enough time
available to do that, simply admit ignorance to your learner and ask all the
questions you can. Here’s an example “I don’t understand what you are teaching
me here: [insert words here in quotes].
Can you explain in another way, please?” Also ask learners to share
photographs, drawings, diagrams, and any similar evidence concerning what is
being described.
Each discipline has its own ways
of raising issues, measuring performance, evaluating improvements, and reaching
agreement. Such perspectives reveal the ways people think about a given field,
often indicating what isn’t being considered for making improvements. Adding
what’s valuable that’s missing from the traditional perspectives allows you to
help a learner find better solutions.
Many breakthrough learners are
woefully ignorant about the current and future best practices in their own and
related fields. Become familiar with the most helpful methods for locating what
the future best practice will be and check that your learners have rigorously
applied these methods.
You may be introduced to new
research tools and methods. Rather than try to master such resources on your
own, ask learners either to teach you or to direct you to a great learning
source.
For identifying ideal best
practices, applying the principles in Appendix B of 2,000 Percent Living allows conceptualizing such practices better
than most specialists can.
For step seven (identify the
right people and provide the right encouragement) of the 2,000 percent solution
process, ask learners to tell you about projects and programs that have had
outstanding results in that field. Read about other successful efforts, as
well. Mentally compare the methods you learn about with those that you have
seen work well for other specialties to decide what other suggestions, if any,
to make to your learner.
For increasing the likelihood of
a learner rapidly repeating the first seven steps (the eighth step of the 2,000
percent solution process), encourage learners to involve in this step
information technology experts who are used to thinking in terms of systems and
creating new processes. Such people are often able to see additional
breakthroughs that build on the one that has just been identified.
Having chosen a specialty and
acquired the necessary knowledge to be highly effective to tutor in it, let’s
look at ways to attract enough learners.
Attract Enough Learners
And he went into the synagogue and spoke
boldly for three months,
reasoning and persuading concerning the
things of the kingdom
of God.
But when some were hardened and did not
believe,
but spoke evil of the Way before the multitude,
he departed from them and withdrew the
disciples,
reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus.
And this continued for two years,
so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus,
both Jews and Greeks.
— Acts 19:8-10 (NKJV)
Those who want to learn how to make Godly breakthroughs will
be more highly concentrated in some places than in others and in certain kinds
of learning programs and personal and professional activities. My own tutoring
progress might have been near zero if I hadn’t joined Rushmore University’s
faculty. Rushmore’s teaching methods were ideal for gaining experience with
helping highly motivated, intelligent, mid-career professionals and
entrepreneurs to develop and to apply breakthroughs in many different
specialties and cultures. Because many students were actively witnessing,
born-again Christians who wanted to make faith-based, humanitarian-oriented
breakthroughs, the Lord provided me with many great opportunities to see how
working on His purposes could encourage and enable learners to do more. Aside
from Rushmore students, entrepreneurs have been more likely to engage me to
tutor than people from any other background, interest, or activity. Test the
interest level for all kinds of backgrounds and then concentrate on just the
learner types that usually have the most interest in your services.
Many more people will want help
with learning how to deal with just a few specific aspects of creating
breakthroughs than will want to engage you to tutor them on every aspect of
making a breakthrough. Break your service offerings into subsets of the various
breakthrough-creating activities, potentially down even to just helping with
limited aspects of stall identification, stallbusting, and the various steps in
the 2,000 percent solution process.
Many of your prospective learners
will focus on your client list, either for personal reassurance or to make the
decision to work with you less controversial with their colleagues. If many
prospective learners are sensitive in this way, you can increase your marketing
success by focusing first on attracting learners who will impress others.
Writing practical books that
describe how to create breakthroughs in your specialty will help you to build a
reputation as an expert. If your learners will let you include bits and pieces
of their experiences with you in such a book, you will also enjoy the benefit
of gaining credibility due to their successes.
Online audio and video recordings
can be powerful ways to share information about your tutoring. You can also
chop up your book into sections that address narrow topics (usually in short
articles) and use online article-publishing services to distribute the texts.
Finally, encourage learners to
tell others about their experiences with you and then to introduce you to
anyone who seems interested. Such referrals will eventually become your biggest
source of new learners.
Ultimately, how effectively your
tutoring affects learners to make breakthroughs will determine how many
learners you attract. Continually allocate and focus time and attention on
improving your effectiveness. Let’s consider some ways to do so.
Continually Improve Tutoring Effectiveness
But there is a spirit in
man,
And the
breath of the Almighty gives him understanding.
Great men are
not always wise,
Nor do the
aged always understand
justice.
Therefore I
say, “Listen to me,
I also will
declare my opinion.”
— Job 32:8-10 (NKJV)
While becoming more experienced, you may also become
overconfident and complacent. To avoid that, spend lots of time and attention
listening to and asking questions of learners to develop a full understanding
for how each learner thinks. Also ask learners during every interaction how
else you can be of help.
Ask your learners to keep a daily
journal of how much time they spend on their breakthrough-related activities
and what they do. By regularly reviewing the journals, you can point out where
learners should reduce their efforts, change to better methods, and spend more
time.
Before sending any directions to
a new learner, consider what problems your last five learners had, evaluate how
changes in the directions might have avoided such problems, and revise the
directions accordingly.
If you ask learners, they will
also tell you how you did in helping them. The best time to ask for feedback is
while you are tutoring. Be sure to ask for feedback, as well, at the end of a
tutoring assignment. I also find it helpful to check in with learners at
subsequent six month intervals after completion.
My learners usually retain about
25 percent of what I share with them. If I’m not careful, what they grasp can
turn out to be just what’s less important. As a result, I often repeat the most
important points and ask questions to test retention and understanding. In a given
tutoring assignment, I will also keep the number of key points as few as
possible.
I help learners save time by
asking them to share with me the details of their research and work plans
before they begin implementation. Such plans often reveal misunderstandings
about what needs to be done and lack of knowledge about how to organize the
tasks. By posing a few questions and observations about such research and work
plans, learners can often correct the errors without further guidance from me.
I also ask to see the revised plans until such time as they seem to be
appropriate.
I encourage all tutors to have a
more experienced tutor oversee their initial tutoring activities. It’s also
helpful to ask other tutors to review your methods routinely from time to time
and to do the same for other tutors.
Finally, new knowledge is always
developing. It’s easy to fall behind in being aware of and able to apply the
knowledge to creating breakthroughs. I recommend that specialist tutors
continually invest ten hours a week to seeking, checking out, and becoming
familiar with relevant new knowledge that their learners should be applying.
When there are enough tutors in a given specialty, they may also find it to be
helpful to band together to share notes in this regard.
While I could share other
tutoring lessons, I don’t want to limit your creativity. However, you can find
some more details concerning this chapter’s lessons in Chapter Twelve and the
Epilogue of Help Wanted.
Let’s move on now to Chapter 13,
which addresses what a nation’s visitors should do to help increase national
fruitfulness for God.
Copyright
© 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012 by Donald W. Mitchell.
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Scripture
quotations marked (NKJV)
are taken
from the New King James Version.
Copyright
© 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
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