A couple of years ago I picked up an app which really helped make a difference to me, Lift. Lift was a habit creating app that used a few psychological tricks to help you develop a new habit. The two main aspects were a community to encourage and praise each other and a “streak” factor to encourage you to compete against yourself and others.
It worked great for me for a while and it helped me start studying Spanish everyday, read the Bible everyday and write 1000+ words a day, too. After I picked up these habits I stopped using the app as much, but it continued to develop.
The biggest change was adding in professional coaches to create plans, encourage participants and enhance the social and accountability aspect. The name of lift also changed to Coach.me. That all happened over this year and I watched intently. It made me wonder. Maybe there is something we could learn about discipleship from Coach.me.
It’s Dangerous to Go Alone
One of the key lessons of both Lift and now Coach.me is that you shouldn’t go alone. Sure, you may do okay, but you’re missing out. Having a team of supporters, friends and mentors help challenge you to do better, encourage you when you feel down and can even help take the strain when it’s too much. The mentor aspect of Coach.me is central to its success and it is for your discipleship program too.
Mentors Are Hard to Find
Why do people use an app to find a meditation, productivity or fitness mentor? Why not just have a contact face to face? We’ll they are either hard to find or expensive. The same can be true of a mentor at church. Either they are all taken, always busy or cost (yup, it happens). Coach.me offers a great service of mentors and helps connect mentors and mentees. How can your church do the same?
A Personalised Plan is More Effective
Many fitness apps offer you very limited personalisation. They ask for your weight, your target and then set you a goal. That’s it. A proper coach can really personalise a plan for activities you like and will want to do as well as the activities you really need to do.
Coach.me has real people that can make a personalised plan for you, so we too should help make personalise plans for our mentees rather than just provide a stock formula or workbook to go through.
How Can You Apply This in Your Church?
The ideas above are just a couple of thoughts about how you could (and I’m sure many of you already do) apply in your church. I’d love to know any ideas that you have for implementing mentorship and coaching in your church.
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