You may have heard about or even studied by distance education. Distance education is a way of providing educational services to remote areas or where distances are too great to travel. In some forms of distance education, the student and the teacher will never meet face to face. In other forms, such as those offered by the Broken Bay Institute, the student can access material provided by the teacher and interact with the teacher using technology without being in the same room.
Perhaps you may not have heard about distance mentoring, or perhaps you are receiving distance mentoring without knowing it. Do you have a favourite writer that you read everything they write? Do you search YouTube just to get another clip of an inspiring or dynamic speaker giving a talk? Are you a Facebook fan of somebody who inspires you? If you answered Yes, then you are receiving distance mentoring.
Mentoring is growing in popularity but it can be difficult to find a mentor who is the perfect fit, especially if you wish to meet them face to face. But if you are prepared to engage a mentor using the new media, you have access to a whole range of material that can teach you new concepts and expand your thinking. The difference with distance mentoring is that just like distance education, you may never meet your mentor and they may not even know who you are. Without having to meet your mentor face to face, this opens up new possibilities to finding a mentor. You could recieve mentoring from someone famous, someone in another country or even someone who died over a century ago.
I encourage you to find a distance mentor who can teach you about life and ministry in your area of interest. Search for someone who expands your thinking, inspires you and develops you as a person. Perhaps you need to find a distance mentor who gives you a vision of something better. Find a media that suits your style, perhaps podcasts are you thing or maybe you prefer to read.
So who are my distance mentors? I will always download the weekly podcast by Matt Chandler because I love the way he breaks open the Scripture. I learn so much from Matt because he is 35 years old with children, just like me. Whilst he is one of my current mentors, because he lives in Dallas Texas we will never meet.
If you are looking for a distance mentor check out websites that host blogs or articles. Start by reading this blog every week to get into the habit of learning from others. The articles from the Catalyst team are a good start www.catalystspace.com/content/articles. You could also read articles posted on Cathnews www.cathnews.com and follow the links to the original writers. Or start your own search for a distance mentor by searching podcasts on Itunes.
If you have a distance mentor, please leave a comment or post it on the discussion board of our Facebook group. I would love to hear from you.
Perhaps you may not have heard about distance mentoring, or perhaps you are receiving distance mentoring without knowing it. Do you have a favourite writer that you read everything they write? Do you search YouTube just to get another clip of an inspiring or dynamic speaker giving a talk? Are you a Facebook fan of somebody who inspires you? If you answered Yes, then you are receiving distance mentoring.
Mentoring is growing in popularity but it can be difficult to find a mentor who is the perfect fit, especially if you wish to meet them face to face. But if you are prepared to engage a mentor using the new media, you have access to a whole range of material that can teach you new concepts and expand your thinking. The difference with distance mentoring is that just like distance education, you may never meet your mentor and they may not even know who you are. Without having to meet your mentor face to face, this opens up new possibilities to finding a mentor. You could recieve mentoring from someone famous, someone in another country or even someone who died over a century ago.
I encourage you to find a distance mentor who can teach you about life and ministry in your area of interest. Search for someone who expands your thinking, inspires you and develops you as a person. Perhaps you need to find a distance mentor who gives you a vision of something better. Find a media that suits your style, perhaps podcasts are you thing or maybe you prefer to read.
So who are my distance mentors? I will always download the weekly podcast by Matt Chandler because I love the way he breaks open the Scripture. I learn so much from Matt because he is 35 years old with children, just like me. Whilst he is one of my current mentors, because he lives in Dallas Texas we will never meet.
If you are looking for a distance mentor check out websites that host blogs or articles. Start by reading this blog every week to get into the habit of learning from others. The articles from the Catalyst team are a good start www.catalystspace.com/content/articles. You could also read articles posted on Cathnews www.cathnews.com and follow the links to the original writers. Or start your own search for a distance mentor by searching podcasts on Itunes.
If you have a distance mentor, please leave a comment or post it on the discussion board of our Facebook group. I would love to hear from you.
If you are looking for a Catholic podcast, try the Homilies of Holy Family Parish in Inverness Chicargo. The homilies are listed with date and topic, they range from 7-12 minutes. Fr Pat Brennan has written many books which are available in the BBI Library if you wish to have him as your distance mentor.
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