Digital Discipleship: Making Disciples in a Digital World

Digital discipleship is helping someone grow spiritually through an online platform. This online discipleship method offers the tools for spiritual growth anywhere there is an internet connection, such as through an email series, a website, a smartphone app, or even video conferencing, all of which The Navigators offers.

Use this page as a practical guide for The Navigators top digital resources for disciplemaking. Discover how to embrace these digital tools as a way to disciple others and stay connected to a new generation of disciplemakers.

Why Digital Discipleship Matters

Expanding the Reach of Discipleship

The digital age has changed so much about your life, especially how you gather information and connect with friends. Today, disciplemakers are using digital tools as a means of growing spiritually. This is why it’s important for discipleship to move with the digital age.

While in-person, Life-to-Life^Ⓡ discipleship is best and most effective, digital discipleship through various technologies can enhance and expand a disciplemaker’s reach from their local community to across the world. It also allows anyone with an internet connection to stay connected to a community of Christians regardless of their location.

Challenges in Online Discipleship

While online discipleship offers many possibilities, there are also challenges to seeking spiritual growth through online platforms. Here are four questions to keep in mind that will help you face these challenges and instead benefit from this new method of disciplemaking:

1. How do you build deep, authentic relationships in a digital space? While it can be easy to mask behind an online platform, even a small step of vulnerability on your part will give others you’re discipling or spiritually journeying with the permission to be vulnerable, too. Be willing to ask and answer heart-level questions like: How would you describe your relationship with God these days?

2. How do you stay engaged through digital discipleship? Staying engaged through digital discipleship could be a reality when a disciplemaking community is actively seeking to know each other. Try to make it a new rhythm to discover more about the disciplemakers you’re journeying with. Most people appreciate when someone sends a simple text to ask how their week has been.

3. How can you encourage intentionality for applying key discipleship principles in online discipleship? As you get to know other digital disciplemakers, take the next courageous step and give someone you’re journeying with permission to ask you the tough questions. Be someone who promotes accountability. Share the ways having someone ask you the tough questions has led to growing in your relationship with God and spiritual maturity.

4. What does it look like to avoid the distractions that naturally come from using digital platforms for discipleship? As you continue your spiritual growth journey, name ways you want to benefit from digital discipleship. Then name ways online platforms could distract you from those benefits. Consider inviting someone else into this conversation for accountability. Together you can brainstorm ideas for how to shut down the distractions, so digital discipleship draws you closer to Jesus.

Tools for Online Discipleship

• Navigators Discipleship App: The Navigators Discipleship App is a digital space for discipleship that makes discipling others even easier. With a personalized journey for spiritual growth and a vast library of free resources, you and those you’re discipling can stay connected and continue to grow spiritually and help others do the same all in one app.
• Digital Discipleship Journeys^Ⓡ: Digital Discipleship Journeys are a series of 8-13 weekly emails designed to help you grow spiritually, curated based on your answers to some brief questions about your walk with God. They provide access to our most popular online discipleship resources and offer practical advice on how to use these easy-to-use resources to help friends become gripped by the gospel and begin their own adventure with God.

Getting Started with Digital Discipleship

If you’re excited about digital discipleship and wonder where to start, then the Navigators Discipleship App is for you. Discover disciplemaking at your fingertips with this app, making discipleship a whole lot easier.

In the Navigators Discipleship App! You’ll enjoy features like:

• A personalized journey highlighting your next step for spiritual growth
• Easy access to an ever-growing digital library of free Navigators disciplemaking resources
• A platform to connect with and encourage other disciplemakers

Download the Navigators Discipleship App to get started with your next step in digital discipleship!