Stephane (‘Steven’ for you Americans.) asks,
How can we help people to become real followers of Jesus through the internet in your opinion? Through e-coaching?
Great question! I hope I can input enough to at least begin the conversation. This question raises several critical points.
Lost and Found
Every strategy begins with, “Who?” Who are you trying to reach? When we talk about reaching people through the internet, are we talking about lost people, people who are lost and come from a Christian culture, or Christians?
“Who” is really important. It becomes a litmus test for everything we do. If we decide to focus on the lost, we do things to reach the lost. If we intend to focus on the lost and start reaching Christians, then something is wrong with our strategy. Some people are happy if they reach anyone and everyone. In their excitement they forget to evaluate their strategy. If you are reaching people other than your focused people group, you need to change your focus or change your approach.
I’m focused on reaching lost people who find community online. I don’t do a lot of things because of my focus. On the other hand, there are a lot of things I do because of my focus. If I wanted to plant offline churches, I would do different things. If I wanted to gather online Christians into online brick and morter churches, I would take a completely different approach.
Bottom line: If you want to reach the LOST people of the ONLINE GENERATION, you have to do things to reach them. For me, this makes things simple: If something isn’t going reach the lost of the online generation, I don’t want to do it. That doesn’t make other things bad, they just aren’t where I am called by God to spend my time.
The Real Deal
“[R]eal followers of Jesus” – If we don’t know what we mean by ‘real,’ then we are going to create bad strategy. Identifying the behaviors we want to see in ‘real followers of Jesus’ establishes the DNA of our discipling activities. These behaviors also identify our rubric to measure success. If we don’t see these behaviors, then we aren’t being successful. It doesn’t matter how many people we reach or how busy we are, these behaviors have to be apparent or we haven’t completed our mission.
I want to disciple lost communities of the Online Generation into obedient relationships with Christ and teach others to do the same as a natural part of being a follower of Christ. If I’m not reaching the lost, I’m not doing my job. If I’m not reaching entire communities, I’m not doing my job. It they aren’t part of the Online Generation, I’m not doing my job. If they don’t become obedient followers of Christ – read His Word and obey all His commands – then I’m not doing my job. If they don’t teach others to do the same as a part of being a follower of Christ, then I’m not doing my job. All these things have to come together for me to be ‘successful’ and feel like I’m doing what God created me to do.
Natural Community
“…Through the internet…” Since my focus is ‘Reaching the lost people of the Online Generation,’ I look for communities of lost people online. I use a lot of social networking and media tools to do this. When I find a community, I look for the Person of Peace. When you find the Person of Peace, you engage them and their community in Discovery Bible Studies. These studies are Scripture-only and go through the Bible from Creation to Christ. I focus on obedience obeying God’s Word from the beginning. Since I’m working with lost people, I ask, “If you believed this was true, how would your life be different? What would you need to change?” and, “Who do you know who needs to hear this story?” When they become followers of Christ, the questions change: “Since God’s Word is true, what must you do to obey what you read today? What do you need to do differently?” and, “Who are you going to share this story with today?”
As you can see, we establish all element of our DNA from the beginning, even as we work with the lost. It seems like a slow process, but the DNA is right from the beginning. This cuts out a lot of time correcting bad habits later.
Discovering God
I want new Believers to depend on God and His Word rather than depend on me. My ‘coaching’ consists of guiding the lost and new believers through Scripture and asking questions. I cannot contextualize the Gospel for someone else, they have to decide how they are going to obey the Truth. Sometimes I fall into the trap of exposition. If it wasn’t absolutely necessary – and it rarely is – I feel like I’ve failed. I always examine my actions to make sure I’m not stunting someone’s spiritual growth and dependence upon God because I felt like teaching that day.
Stephane, I hope this starts a discussion about your question. Sorry if my answer is messy. Don’t hesitate to ask follow-up questions.
To all others: Don’t hesitate to jump in. What do you think?
