e-Mentoring in Discipleship: A Study Exploring Mentoring Relationships Purposed for Discipleship Utilizing Computer-Mediated Communication

摘要

Despite Christ's enduring command to make disciples, both researchers and church leaders express the beliefs that churches could be doing a better job of fulfilling this mission and that disciple-making is not a priority for many people who claim to be followers of Jesus. At a time when church leaders are lamenting the state of discipleship in the church, the world is experiencing an exponential expansion of mentoring, specifically in the phenomenon of e-mentoring through the innovation, development, and expansion of information communication technology (ICT). This descriptive study surveyed a nationwide discipleship ministry to explore discipleship relationships that meet in either a fully virtual environment or a hybrid virtual and face-to-face environment for the existence of known characteristics of e-mentoring present in non-discipleship-oriented relationships. Data from this study show a statistically significant positive correlation between the percent of e-interaction in the discipleship relationship and participants' learning new methods and processes to mentor others. E-mentoring and the virtual environment seem to present positive opportunities to develop disciple-making efforts, specifically in the area of promoting reproducibility among mentors and proteges alike. This study begins to bridge the gap between what is known about e-mentoring and the occurrence of the e-mentoring phenomenon in discipleship relationships.