I have been thinking a lot about discipleship lately. When I was a part of the Navigators ministry in college, we were very intentional about discipleship. There was someone with more experience that I was following and learning from and there was someone who was following and learning from me. Everyone in leadership with Navs had a Paul and a Timothy. Since that time, I have had a few Timothys in my life, but I have had a hard time finding a Paul to follow.
For the last couple of years, I have really taken advantage of the Internet to follow a lot of different church leaders. This has been beneficial to me because I get to learn from a very diverse group of cool people. I don’t have to carve time out of my schedule to meet with someone because I can read blogs when it is convenient for me. Reading a lot of blogs is not enough though because nobody is intentionally working on me. A blog doesn’t know my daily life, habits, and struggles. There is no accountability at all. Sure, I can comment, but I am just one little voice in the crowd.
I do think that online discipleship could exist if a blog or web service was intentionally setup to do so. I keep pondering the possibilities of online discipleship because it is so hard to find someone who has time to meet with regularly. It seems that everyone is extremely busy, but connecting online is more convenient. Personal meetings could be setup as well, but people can connect online on a daily basis if needed. It doesn’t have to be at the same time. It could be as simple as trading emails, but there are so many more ways to be social online.
I have not had a true Christian mentor in a very long time. Is anyone else experimenting with online discipleship?
