Welcome Stephanie Ziebarth

Today I’d like to welcome Stephanie Ziebarth. Not only is it her birthday today, but also it’s ‘Thank Your Mentor Day’ which is appropriate since Stephanie has a new book out about mentoring. It’s great to have you here today, Stephanie. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

My husband and I are rapidly approaching the empty nest stage! Our older daughter is married, living in Minnesota and providing us with our first grandchild in April—about which my husband and I are thrilled! My son married his lovely bride on December 21 and relocated to South Carolina. My younger daughter is a senior at our local high school.

My husband, Aaron, and I have a call on our life for full-time ministry and have lived in south-central Pennsylvania for 20 years, serving at Joy El Generation/Camps & Retreats. There, I have coordinated the mentoring aspect of our 4.12 Leadership Training Program for teens for the past 17 years. I absolutely love my role! I get to see and hear about God changing and working through the lives of teens and their mentors every day.

I love being outdoors, connecting with the Lord in His creation and also just enjoying the sights, sounds, time to reflect or enjoy others, etc. I also love reading.

I can hardly believe your youngest is a senior already. How did you get interested in writing?

I was such a voracious reader as a child that it was natural for me to want to become a writer. In fact, I decided in third grade that that was my goal. In eighth grade, I realized that journalism was a more practical writing career path and so followed that route until marrying Aaron and joining him in vocational ministry.

It’s funny that I’ve known you for years and never knew you wanted to be a writer. 🙂 Please share a little bit about your new book.

Invest Yourself is a ministry tool I created several years ago for the mentoring program I lead. The version for our ministry was frequently requested by churches, ministries and individuals through the years, so—long story short—I finally connected with a publisher to create a version for a broader audience. In many ways it is a result of my discipleship training with the Navigators. It is certainly all about expanding and strengthening God’s Kingdom. I kept it as concise and practical as possible, hoping that it would perhaps appeal to people who do not normally love books (as well as those who, like me, love them!). After all, we want all believers carrying out the Great Commission (see Matthew 28:18-20).

I am encouraged that I’m regularly hearing from readers about how much it is helping them in their own personal growth, as well as in their ministry. I’m also excited about the opportunities I’m having to help churches work through the material in Sunday School classes and small groups, because it will be powerful to see those churches start discipling other believers as Jesus exhorted us to do.

After reading the book, I can highly recommend it to those who wish to mentor. Do you plan to write another book?

I actually have other projects underway, but they are for very specific, small audiences. I currently don’t have any plans for a broader-audience book unless, like this one, it happens very organically.

What’s the takeaway you’d like readers to have after finishing your book?

Each reader should be ready to begin a mentoring relationship after working through this guidebook, so hopefully they will do just that! Readers should also have grown in their own spiritual formation, not only from the main content of the book, but also because of the many resources available at the back of the book.

That’s great. Where can readers learn more about you?

I keep my Goodreads author profile current: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22487838.Stephanie_Ziebarth. People may also follow me on Twitter or reach out via investyourselfbook@gmail.com.

I do have a free small group guide for those who might want to go through the guidebook with others. I will send that to anyone who requests it via email or Twitter. I also offer 10% off for bulk orders placed directly through me.

That’s wonderful. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Birthday!