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Do you blog? Do you post in the discussion forum? I want to challenge youth workers with this because I think it is a “force multiplier” when it comes to discipling students.

Ever have a student in your group that doesn’t say two words all night long, hard to talk to, you struggle to even find topics to talk to the kid about? Of course you have.

And the question that it raises is - what will it take to reach that student? I think we have the tool to reach that kid - at least some of them. Blogging/Discussion Forums.

Check out this post:

I’ve been pondering this over the past few weeks. What in the stinkin’ heck does it mean to be in spirit and in truth or to worship in spirit and in truth. That’s just one of those little sayings that I’ve never gotten.

That was written by a student. Now what would you do if that question hit the floor in the middle of your life group or D-group? You’d do cartwheels! That is a gigantic door to dig deeper, to challenge a student to read and meditate more. That is a great discussion with other students who might have the same question. Can you imagine praying through that request - to worship in spirit and truth?

Except for one problem. It DIDN’T happen in your group - it happened online. Why online? Because that is where students run. That is their hang-out place to think through things.

Which brings me to the point. I want to challenge you to do a couple of things.

1. Post replies in the discussion forums at www.stumin.net. And do it often.
2. Start a blog and start writing a little every day online about your journey and let students read it.

Let me go ahead and deal with some of the obstacles:

1. “I don’t have time to play on the internet all day.”
Okay - that’s ridiculous. If we are supposed to be discipling students that means having face to face meetings once a week or at the least once every other week. With blogging and posting - you’ve just increased your ‘face time’ by 100. You could communicate every single day of the week. That’s lifewalking.

Secondly - when you do meet face to face, how many of us spend the first 30 minutes trying to find something to talk about or walk through. Blogging and posting gives you instant access to what God is doing in the student’s life and allows you to go deeper faster. If every time you meet each of you brought one blog or post that you want to talk deeper about, well, you get the picture. You’ve doubled the effective time of a meeting. Then whatever questions you don’t get to - that’s right - blog away about it. It’s going to multiply the force and impact of your time with students.

Thirdly (is that a word - it is now), we want to reach as many students as we can but we also want to be good dads, moms, husbands, wifes, workers, fantasy football players. This allows “our” students to take other students to our sites and say - “hey, this is a friend of mine who is challenging me spiritually. Check it out. I’d love for you to meet him.”

2. “I don’t like/not comfortable with all the technology.”
I would kindly and lovingly say to you in the name of Jesus - get over yourself. If you are called to work with students - you are called to swim where they swim. So take some risks and try it.

3. “I don’t know how.”
I am here to help you with that. What do ya’ll think about a Sunday morning, we grab coffee, some food, and I hook up the internet and we sit around and learn how to post and blog? I’m open the 30th of January if you are.

ENDING THIS NOVEL
I think this is too awesome of a tool to not use. I think as a Coach you are missing out on some deeper, more vulnerable conversations with your students if you’re not using it. Because let’s face it - we are all busy, students included. I don’t think it replaces face to face time. I do think it enhances it and channels it to go deeper.

Now, you can get started by reply to this! Happy Blogging.