Distance Shepherding
It is possible you have never heard of the term distance shepherding.
Even if it is not a prevalent term in church language today, it is what we have had to embrace at some level over the past eighteen months. We are not only learning how to shepherd our flock via digital connections, we are also learning that the internet may well be the new “on ramp” for people far from God who are looking for spiritual stability in a chaotic environment. As we shepherd our on-campus congregation, we have the online congregation and a greater connection to the lost wherever they may be. We are learning that this online portal could become a training ground for raising up game changers as they move from computer screen to missional disciples who are impacting their local environment.
Two Questions
I recently had a conversation with a pastor (shepherd) who is genuinely concerned about how his church, and others, can seize the digital moment. In the hours following that meeting, I continually thought about what he had asked. Properly answering these two questions is paramount to properly responding to the opportunity to engage the cyber culture we minister in today. Here are the pastor’s questions:
I will give a general response to the two questions. We will be providing a more detailed response by providing a training opportunity that will address the questions in more detail.
Digital First Responders
We are quite familiar with the term “first responder” in our culture. First responders can be defined as “highly-trained individuals who are the first to arrive on the scene of an emergency to render assistance.” Those who are tasked with responding to our digital audience become the church’s digital first responders. These trained first responders are the first to connect with online inquirers and begin the process of rendering assistance. The same basic four actions of a medical first responder is easily applied to spiritual first responders. Here is what they do:
Five Key Questions in the Distance Shepherding Process
Churches desiring to implement the digital first responder component of distance shepherding should consider these five questions.
Would you like to know more about how we can answer the two questions proposed by the pastor in paragraph two? The JBA will be hosting a Digital Shepherding Lab on Thursday, November 11th from 10am-12pm. More details and registration link coming soon.
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