My cyber-discipling experiment: an interim report

I’ve cleared the following report with my cyber-disciples (so called because we transacted everything by email). So, I’m maintaining the confidentiality that is so important in these relationships.

I took on eight of them, four I knew and four strangers. My commitment was to check in with them weekly, to pray for them and to give advice if they wanted it. In the second month, we were going to go thru my book on listening prayer.

We started off with a flurry. A few of the ones I didn’t know wrote rather detailed summaries of their life situations that was helpful. A few had complicated issues in their lives that needed to be addressed. Everyone struggled to find consistency in their prayer life, so we began there. The biggest single impediment seemed to be how busy everyone was.

A few of the cyber-disciples also talk with me on the phone. After three months, most don’t check in with me weekly anymore (if they do, I always reply back). I’m not sure if this is because the emailing is of limited value to them or if perhaps I’ve not been as intentional as they want me to be in helping them grow. It may be that we’re both just too busy or because this business of growing takes too much energy.

I’m going to start up another group in a week or so with these changes:

• We’ll focus on developing the practice of listening prayer.
• We’ll use a group blog so that the group members can help one another.
• We’ll limit it to two months.

Several people have already put their names in the hat. If you’re interested in joining us, please email me.