Online discipleship in a time of isolation

Life as normal might come to a grinding halt from time to time, but ministry never does. Now, amid COVID-19 self-isolation, event cancellations, school closures, work from home etc., is our opportunity to practice long-distance ministry skills and remind the young people in our churches of our ongoing love and care. I want to give you some suggestions for online discipleship in the coming week(s).

Some benefits to online discipleship in this season…
1. No one has schedules at the moment! No school, sport, parties, performances - everyone has time to (virtually) meet with you.
2. The COVID-19 shutdown is a great excuse to follow up and re-connect with some young people who have not been attending youth group/Bible study regularly.
3. You can bring calm and peace at a time of anxiety. It is pretty obvious that all the adults are panicking (just take a look at the grocery aisles) Help your young people who are experiencing anxiety during this time and give them someone to talk with.
4. Be reminded of what youth ministry is all about – passing on the faith (Psalm 78:1-7) – with no need of all the bells and whistles.

Long-distance discipleship is not new. The Apostle Paul managed to maintain long distance relationships with churches and individuals at time there were no cell phones, no email, no airlines…just the humble letter – and even then, a personal courier was needed. For six years I worked as a Diocesan Youth Missioner in a rural Province in Canada where churches I supported were several hours drive away. Many of the youth existed in isolation in their small churches so long-distance discipleship was more the norm for me than the exception. I hope I can offer some practical ideas for you in light of my experience.

Long-distance Discipleship Plan
Discipling is teaching someone to follow Jesus. Think of it as teaching someone else how to follow Jesus the same way you do. Here is my suggested plan for online discipleship with your young people in the coming week(s)…

STEP 1: Take your list of youth (be sure to check that you have contact information those on the fringes too) and allocate up to an hour per student. If you have 15 youth you can meet with three a day, Monday-Friday. However, this is where you will want to utilize your youth volunteers to help share the load – some of them are also unscheduled this week. The employed youth leader can spend several hours on this but your volunteers might only be able to do one or two hours.
STEP 2: Once you have allocated leaders to youth, message everyone that this week is online discipleship time. Be sure to help everyone link up. If your volunteers are helping you, ask them to notify you when they have set up their time with the young person (don’t let one or two get forgotten.) Encourage people to do this weekly until the quarantine period is over.
STEP 3: Contact your young person and explain that for now youth ministry is online discipleship. Explain that you want to set a time to meet with them to do three things: talk, study the Bible and pray.
STEP 4: Set a time and be committed to meeting weekly as though it was your regular youth group time.

What to do in your online meeting
For those of you that have participated in the Young Anglicans “Engage” training you already know what to do. (If your church or Diocese has not done the Engage training get in touch with us and we will make it happen!)
1. Talk
Spend plenty of time talking. Find out how they are doing, what is going on for them and just catch up. You can also talk about how they are doing in their faith. Discipleship is relational, not just the transferring of Biblical teaching.
2. Study the Bible
You don’t have to make this too complicated. For now you might want to just set a book of the Bible and read a chapter each meeting. Ask them questions like: what stood out to you in the reading? What did you like? What do you need some help to understand? You can also find or write a Bible study that you can email to the youth ahead of time so they can have their own print out. Whatever you decide just make sure the Bible is a central part of your time together.
3. Pray
Spend some time making a list of things to thank God for and things to ask God to help with. Ask them to choose at least one prayer point from the list of “thanks” and one from “ask” and then each of you pray aloud. If they are not comfortable praying aloud let them know you will pray for everything on this list today and next week you will ask them to have a go. Teaching someone to pray is an important part of discipleship so make sure you equip them to pray.
NOTE: As Anglicans we have this extra little resource that we can enjoy together called the Prayer Book. I encourage you to think about how you can use it in your time together. You can access a pdf of the new Prayer Book online at: http://bcp2019.anglicanchurch.net/index.php/downloads/
You can: go through the daily office (pp. 11-79) using the relevant one (example compline in the evening); say the Psalm responsively (p. 270f); or my favourite, ask them to choose one of the occasional prayers (p. 642ff) and have them read it in the prayer time – there are 125 to choose from!
4. Set a day and time for next week (you will likely need to send a reminder the day before.)

A couple last thoughts
You can do online discipleship with the individual or a group – just depends on the features of your chosen platform (Skype, Zoom etc)
Don’t stop doing it when this is all over! Let this be something that kickstarts intentional discipleship in your youth ministry.
Start today! These quarantine days will not last forever (and let’s hope and pray that it is only a matter of weeks) so don’t miss this unique ministry opportunity.

As an extrovert, COVID-19 precautions are sending me a little crazy. So feel free to be in touch with me about the topic of online discipleship!

I hope you are all safe, well and trusting the Lord during these strange days.

Julie Moser has been involved in youth ministry for over 30 years as a youth minister and youth trainer in Australia and Canada. She is the author of Studies 2 Go and More Studies 2 Go and other youth Bible studies. She currently works as an Anglican Youth Missioner in Saskatchewan, Canada.