WEBVTT 00:00:00.760 --> 00:00:05.860 Hey, great. We got the beta show here once again with the Church Digital Podcast. Jeff 00:00:05.860 --> 00:00:12.400 here, joined once again with Ray DeArmas, digital pastor over at Christ Fellowship Miami. 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:18.140 Ray, thanks for joining us once again. By the way, we've got, if you're noticing, usually 00:00:18.140 --> 00:00:22.960 the beta show, it's just Ray and I, and we're talking and vamping about whatever. But for 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:28.360 this one, we decided, hey, let's open it up and let's bring some people on because I'll 00:00:28.360 --> 00:00:32.540 just tell you, I don't know a lot about this topic. And so the topic we're talking about 00:00:32.540 --> 00:00:38.980 today is, hey, you know what? Facebook groups are a thing. Arguably, I would say it's probably 00:00:38.980 --> 00:00:43.980 one of the more effective tools available for creating community in context of church. And 00:00:43.980 --> 00:00:48.740 I don't know that we, the church, I don't know that we're using them well. And so I asked 00:00:48.740 --> 00:00:54.100 my friend here, Jeanette Yates, who I've had the honor of meeting with once, Tom Pounder, 00:00:54.100 --> 00:00:59.920 still haven't met you just saying that publicly. But I asked Jeanette here, hey, I want to have 00:00:59.920 --> 00:01:03.560 this conversation about Facebook groups because I don't think we churches are doing it well. 00:01:04.160 --> 00:01:08.760 And who do we need to talk to? Who can I talk to that can help us figure out Facebook groups? 00:01:08.920 --> 00:01:16.980 And Jeanette, who's over with Text in Church, as the social media manager at Text in Church, 00:01:16.980 --> 00:01:21.320 says to me, hey, Jeff, you need to talk to Katie. You need to talk to Julianne. And so 00:01:21.320 --> 00:01:30.160 Katie is a professor of marketing over at University of Mobile, and is also a great follow on social 00:01:30.160 --> 00:01:36.500 media as well, as she's the founder of Church, the Church Communication Group, and just phenomenal 00:01:36.500 --> 00:01:43.400 resources coming out of there, as well as Julianne here, who is with Customer Care and a whole bunch 00:01:43.400 --> 00:01:50.300 of other titles and things that she does in context of Church Marketing University. And so we've got three 00:01:50.300 --> 00:01:56.000 ladies here in this conversation that know a lot more about Facebook and Facebook groups, social media 00:01:56.000 --> 00:02:01.440 marketing. They live in this world. And so I actually, I want to learn something from this conversation 00:02:01.440 --> 00:02:07.780 and things to experiment and to kind of try out here in context of how to make our Facebook groups 00:02:07.780 --> 00:02:13.980 better, how to make church Facebook groups better. And I know Ray as well. Ray, as we're walking into 00:02:13.980 --> 00:02:18.100 this thing, do you, any thoughts here? What are you hoping to learn from this situation? 00:02:18.600 --> 00:02:22.680 You know, it's funny, Jeff, about like a year and a half ago, we started our Facebook group for our 00:02:22.680 --> 00:02:26.200 church. And I remember Nona Jones was talking about how this was going to be part of the future. 00:02:26.400 --> 00:02:31.480 And I really wanted to put emphasis on this, even over our page, because I see the potential for it. 00:02:31.520 --> 00:02:36.400 But the hard thing is, is that it's still so new and so fresh that a lot of us don't know what to post 00:02:36.400 --> 00:02:39.880 that's different from our page. A lot of us don't know how to get people to interact. 00:02:39.980 --> 00:02:43.700 And so that could be a bit of a struggle. And so I'm really looking forward to learning from these 00:02:43.700 --> 00:02:47.960 ladies here today, because, you know, especially for what we do at Christ Fellowship, hey, we got a 00:02:47.960 --> 00:02:51.540 lot of people watching, but we want that engagement piece to tick up a whole lot too. And I think the 00:02:51.540 --> 00:02:58.440 group can definitely help. Awesome. So, hey, we're setting up high praise here. We're looking to learn 00:02:58.440 --> 00:03:02.840 something. And so I'm going to put some pressure, by the way, before I put pressure on Jeanette, 00:03:02.940 --> 00:03:09.540 I'm always forgetting things. If you've got questions or comments, throw it here in the chat where 00:03:09.540 --> 00:03:15.360 you're watching. We're seeing that in the live broadcast and we'll throw it up here through 00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:21.060 StreamYard and give access to that. So feel free to comment in and engage with us. But Jeanette, 00:03:21.400 --> 00:03:26.700 I stalled enough for you here. We're going to let you start off. Give me something. Practical advice, 00:03:27.300 --> 00:03:31.320 best practices, Facebook groups. How do we make this stuff better? 00:03:32.100 --> 00:03:41.380 So, first of all, I just want to say there's a lot you can do as a church with Facebook groups. I am 00:03:41.380 --> 00:03:47.800 going to share one way to take it. And I think Katie's probably going to go in a completely different 00:03:47.800 --> 00:03:53.400 direction, but that's okay. That's why I have her on here. But, you know, with the churches that I've 00:03:53.400 --> 00:04:00.560 worked with personally, like I have been on staff with them, they were really wanting to dive into 00:04:00.560 --> 00:04:08.220 Facebook groups, but not really knowing how to start. And so if, you know, and churches, there's 00:04:08.220 --> 00:04:17.700 all different sizes, all different types. And so what I suggested for these churches, the churches I was 00:04:17.700 --> 00:04:23.480 working with is start with the audience that you already have, which for most of the churches I 00:04:23.480 --> 00:04:27.940 was working with, basically their Facebook audience was their members. Like there wasn't too much 00:04:27.940 --> 00:04:34.200 engagement beyond that. And so I said, okay, so you're still not having a conversation with your 00:04:34.200 --> 00:04:41.260 members online. So let's start with people we already know want to talk to us because they come to 00:04:41.260 --> 00:04:46.980 church on Sundays and they're, you know, emailing with us and things like that and texting. Let's 00:04:46.980 --> 00:04:52.980 start with them. And so there's a couple of different things you can do. I know a couple of churches that 00:04:52.980 --> 00:05:00.260 have a Facebook group for their members. And this would be where you would share not the stuff that 00:05:00.260 --> 00:05:05.180 you're sharing on your page necessarily, although you might sometimes, but this is more of like that 00:05:05.180 --> 00:05:12.620 personal information. Can you pray for this person? Don't forget where we need volunteers for this 00:05:12.620 --> 00:05:18.500 thing, or just engaging with them. Like, what did you think about, you know, today's sermon, you know, 00:05:18.500 --> 00:05:23.840 things like that, just having a group for all of your members. And then another church I know that does 00:05:23.840 --> 00:05:30.280 something really well is they have a really big women's ministry that does a lot of work in the 00:05:30.280 --> 00:05:37.960 community. So they've started, they have a really active women's ministry church group, you know, 00:05:38.060 --> 00:05:43.060 Facebook group that's for their church. And of course, that way, one of the things that's really 00:05:43.060 --> 00:05:46.740 needed there, I mean, they talk about devotion, they share devotionals in there, they go live in there, 00:05:46.840 --> 00:05:55.920 they share recipes, they do childcare, discussion of childcare, things like that. But they also are able 00:05:55.920 --> 00:06:01.520 to then, you don't necessarily have to be a member of the church to be invited into that group. Because 00:06:01.520 --> 00:06:06.000 if women are chitchatting and having fun, you might be like, Oh, you've got to come in this group, 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:10.060 we're having this great conversation this week about this. And that's an easy on ramp for someone 00:06:10.060 --> 00:06:14.180 who might not actually be a member of the whole church, but they, you know, have several friends 00:06:14.180 --> 00:06:21.080 that are in this group that are talking. So that is what I suggest for someone who's like, we want to get 00:06:21.080 --> 00:06:26.420 started, but we just don't know where and we don't, we don't know how to create a group for the whole 00:06:26.420 --> 00:06:32.460 community, necessarily, just start with your members and create a place for them to gather 00:06:32.460 --> 00:06:41.640 and have conversation. And of course, as we have said many times this year, this is even more important 00:06:41.640 --> 00:06:46.720 in these days and times than it was before. But it's been important for a while. And it's even more 00:06:46.720 --> 00:06:51.740 important now. That was said so mellow. This is, it's, it's so important. It's, it's like the, 00:06:51.740 --> 00:06:55.620 the church lady from Saturday Night Live, totally serious saying that right now. I totally want to 00:06:55.620 --> 00:07:00.480 get into why Julianne has a completely different perspective. I will get there in a second. Let 00:07:00.480 --> 00:07:08.000 me ask a follow-up. I'm curious. Is, is it better to do like an, I'm starting out, I'm fresh. Is it 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:13.160 better to do like an all member for the entire church that's broad scope? Or is it better to do like 00:07:13.160 --> 00:07:18.700 a specific, like a women's ministry or a young adult, like to, to really drill into more of, 00:07:18.760 --> 00:07:24.760 of a tighter demographic? If, if I'm starting out, I'm kind of new at this thing. Give me some advice. 00:07:24.840 --> 00:07:26.340 How, what does that first group look like? 00:07:27.180 --> 00:07:31.360 So I would ask you, or I would ask the church that's asking this question, 00:07:31.720 --> 00:07:38.640 who's already engaging with you online on your Facebook page? What demographic is that? 00:07:39.360 --> 00:07:45.120 And start that group. Okay. Uh, that's what I did with one of the churches I worked with. 00:07:45.220 --> 00:07:52.120 And the demographic was actually the older people of the church. Um, the ones that spend a lot of time 00:07:52.120 --> 00:07:58.960 at home online and they were ready to chit chat. I mean, they commented on every Bible verse I posted 00:07:58.960 --> 00:08:04.880 every, any, any random thing they were on it. They were the first comment, the first likes. 00:08:05.040 --> 00:08:11.040 I knew they were ready to talk. They want to talk. So I made sure that they had a place to talk 00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:16.180 from the very beginning. So that would be my suggestion is like, look, who's already wanting 00:08:16.180 --> 00:08:21.820 to communicate with you and go, go reach them, create something specifically for them. And I think 00:08:21.820 --> 00:08:24.500 it's Katie that I said might have a different. 00:08:24.840 --> 00:08:30.700 Oh, I'm sorry. We're completely fine with, with, we're completely fine with Julianne. No issues 00:08:30.700 --> 00:08:34.900 with Julianne. Katie, Katie's got a completely different perspective. So I love that. 00:08:34.900 --> 00:08:39.400 I mean, I just, I know, I just know that like she has all, you know, there's like lots of ideas in 00:08:39.400 --> 00:08:47.300 there as with Julianne, I'm sure. But lots of random ideas. Uh, yeah. So I actually just recently 00:08:47.300 --> 00:08:52.140 became a certified community manager through Facebook. So, uh, that's really exciting. 00:08:52.280 --> 00:08:56.560 That's a brand new certification. They just launched and I got to be one of the first people 00:08:56.560 --> 00:09:02.040 to become one. I think I'm in like the first, I don't know, 100 or 200. There's not more than, 00:09:02.160 --> 00:09:06.720 I don't think 200 people certified to do this yet. So that's pretty cool. Um, so I feel like 00:09:06.720 --> 00:09:13.280 I've studied a ton about groups recently, like, uh, just an enormous amount. And first I think 00:09:13.280 --> 00:09:18.280 I, Jeanette, I completely agree with what Jeanette says. So I don't really have like an opposing 00:09:18.280 --> 00:09:25.280 opinion. Right. But she had another, uh, another, you could take things we can do. Like this is 00:09:25.280 --> 00:09:31.160 good. I like to call it Jeanette calls like an internal strategy. Right. Um, and an internal 00:09:31.160 --> 00:09:36.500 strategy is good. It works. And that's important. Um, it's something I wanted to establish 00:09:36.500 --> 00:09:43.540 before I go into an external, like an outreach strategy is, um, there are many different types 00:09:43.540 --> 00:09:49.060 of groups. And so I think when you start a group, you'd be overwhelmed by the, uh, options or the 00:09:49.060 --> 00:09:53.040 different possibilities. And so I just think it's really important that we talk about maybe the 00:09:53.040 --> 00:09:58.520 different options there are. So there is a public group, which is very much like a page. Uh, I don't 00:09:58.520 --> 00:10:03.360 really know why you would ever want to use a public group. Uh, uh, you could, when you can do the 00:10:03.360 --> 00:10:09.000 page, I, you know, I, there are some reasons. So the public groups can be monetized. Uh, they've 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:12.840 launched brand partnerships and stuff with public groups. I mean, yeah, that's a great reason 00:10:12.840 --> 00:10:17.340 right there making money. Um, but, but for a church, a public group doesn't make a lot of 00:10:17.340 --> 00:10:24.220 sense because a closed group or what we call now a, um, private hidden group, they used to 00:10:24.220 --> 00:10:30.000 be called closed. Uh, it's now called private and then hidden two different options. Um, there's 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:37.820 either public or private hidden or visible. Okay. So a private hidden group, um, actually 00:10:37.820 --> 00:10:42.200 a private visible group, excuse me, you want to create a private visible group. So that 00:10:42.200 --> 00:10:47.560 means that it's still searchable. You can still find it on Facebook, but you can't see what's 00:10:47.560 --> 00:10:52.720 inside of it unless you join. Okay. So that's what the private means. Like you can't really 00:10:52.720 --> 00:10:57.240 see what's going on in there. You can see the members that are in there perhaps. Um, but you 00:10:57.240 --> 00:11:01.060 really can't see what's going on inside the group unless you join it. Uh, I think that 00:11:01.060 --> 00:11:07.780 the reason you want to use a private visible group is the exclusivity of it. Um, it makes 00:11:07.780 --> 00:11:12.560 people want to join it other than just look at it like a page. You don't necessarily have 00:11:12.560 --> 00:11:17.360 to like it to see what's going on in there. Uh, like a public group, you can see what's 00:11:17.360 --> 00:11:22.340 going on in the public group without joining it. So, okay. So we've got a private visible 00:11:22.340 --> 00:11:26.720 group. And then, so we've talked about an internal strategy. I think internal strategies 00:11:26.720 --> 00:11:31.660 are great. I had several when I was working at mega church, you could create, like we created 00:11:31.660 --> 00:11:36.500 one for the choir. So the choir had 200 numbers in it, which is basically a small church in 00:11:36.500 --> 00:11:40.980 and of itself. Um, and they would always talk about like, what are we wearing this Sunday? 00:11:41.160 --> 00:11:45.520 Or like, what songs are we singing again? You know, that kind of stuff. Um, and then we 00:11:45.520 --> 00:11:50.200 also did like repeating. I think it's really important to do, uh, repeating topics when, when 00:11:50.200 --> 00:11:54.080 possible, when it makes sense, when there's enough conversation around something to do 00:11:54.080 --> 00:11:58.100 something that's repeating. So for us, uh, we found that like, what can we be praying 00:11:58.100 --> 00:12:03.200 for you? Um, asking that every single week inside of our internal communities was really 00:12:03.200 --> 00:12:07.600 important. And so it really kept, I think that internal community connected with what was 00:12:07.600 --> 00:12:12.140 going on in their lives. And, uh, then obviously we could pray for each other. And that was 00:12:12.140 --> 00:12:16.300 great. Uh, I think anytime that we can encourage prayer as a primary strategy, that's what we 00:12:16.300 --> 00:12:23.520 should do. So, um, okay. So an external strategy is really, uh, how can we reach people who are 00:12:23.520 --> 00:12:31.280 outside of our church? And so there are already tons of community groups created in your community, 00:12:31.280 --> 00:12:36.600 um, on Facebook and, you know, a community group doesn't necessarily even have to be a Facebook 00:12:36.600 --> 00:12:42.740 group. It could be a page. It could be an Instagram account. Um, but there's already all 00:12:42.740 --> 00:12:48.460 these groups created or you can create a group. So either way, if you create a group, um, you do 00:12:48.460 --> 00:12:52.800 start to start from scratch. I would find 10 friends and basically you're finding these niche 00:12:52.800 --> 00:12:57.720 kind of groups or you're finding neighborhood groups. So there's one here in Sarah land. It's 00:12:57.720 --> 00:13:03.520 like the voice of Sarah land or some voices of Sarah land. Um, and so you can join that and like 00:13:03.520 --> 00:13:08.660 talk about, you know, what's going on in Sarah land. Um, and usually they're full of trash. 00:13:08.660 --> 00:13:14.220 So if you can be a light in the darkness neighborhood group, I think that's what you 00:13:14.220 --> 00:13:19.100 should do. Like if you can encourage community and like a happy capacity, even if it's just 00:13:19.100 --> 00:13:23.400 limited to like, what's your favorite barbecue restaurant in town or something. I think that's 00:13:23.400 --> 00:13:28.060 really good because all we're trying to do in these neighborhood groups is create relationship. 00:13:28.540 --> 00:13:32.180 It's all I want you to do. I don't want you to like put out Bible orders every single day 00:13:32.180 --> 00:13:37.200 into all of these neighborhood groups. Um, because I mean, Jesus didn't go around like 00:13:37.200 --> 00:13:41.240 throwing the Bible at people, right? When he, uh, went to the woman at the well, he just 00:13:41.240 --> 00:13:46.580 asked her, you know, about her life and what she needed. And so I think that we need to just 00:13:46.580 --> 00:13:51.380 go into these, uh, community groups and maybe you create like a hiking group and every week 00:13:51.380 --> 00:13:55.940 you go hiking and you take pictures of your hike and maybe eventually you can invite people 00:13:55.940 --> 00:14:01.580 to go on hikes with you. Um, and it's important that we create relationships because obviously 00:14:01.580 --> 00:14:05.220 I think we're all in these Christian bubbles, right? I think everybody's like in a big church 00:14:05.220 --> 00:14:09.580 bubble. Um, where like, I don't know how I'm supposed to meet other people who aren't Christians. 00:14:09.900 --> 00:14:14.640 Right. I get that question a lot. Like how do I meet people who aren't Christian? Um, well, 00:14:14.700 --> 00:14:19.100 you have to do things outside of your Christian bubble. Walk outside and go next door or across 00:14:19.100 --> 00:14:25.460 the street to your neighbor. Go to your next door neighbor. I don't know. Like there are people 00:14:25.460 --> 00:14:31.100 who are far, far from God. I think that we just like maybe, especially in the South, 00:14:31.100 --> 00:14:36.440 like we assume that everybody knows Jesus and everybody goes to church. Um, and maybe they 00:14:36.440 --> 00:14:40.160 kind of do. I think they're all culturally Christian. Like they all think that they're 00:14:40.160 --> 00:14:46.000 Christian. Um, so, you know, finding these opportunities where we can create real relationships 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:50.980 because we can't create relationships. We can't have life change. Life change happens in 00:14:50.980 --> 00:14:56.560 the context of relationship. So how can I create more meaningful relationships is always my like 00:14:56.560 --> 00:15:00.900 end goal. Right. And I think as a church planter, that's your end goal too, right? Like you just 00:15:00.900 --> 00:15:05.740 want to create these relationships that are very meaningful so that people will eventually 00:15:05.740 --> 00:15:11.500 ask you about your life because obviously it is different and then they will want to come 00:15:11.500 --> 00:15:21.980 to church. Um, and so it's, uh, enjoying your church members, Facebook group, but that will 00:15:21.980 --> 00:15:27.640 be, yeah, that'll be the end goal. Right. I want that group, but I'm in the group that they're 00:15:27.640 --> 00:15:33.480 already in. Right. Got to meet them where they're at. That's really cool. Okay. So you're telling us 00:15:33.480 --> 00:15:38.640 that Christians should kind of take charge in like subcultures that they're already part of 00:15:38.640 --> 00:15:43.140 outside of Christianity and saying, Hey, we want to be involved in these spaces as a way to reach 00:15:43.140 --> 00:15:46.620 other people. Cause when we were going to talk about groups, I was thinking of it mostly as the 00:15:46.620 --> 00:15:51.980 internal strategy part. And you're saying, Hey, Christians have a huge opportunity here to reach out to 00:15:51.980 --> 00:15:57.320 people. Yeah. 100%. It's a very old evangelism strategy. I'm not only teaching some like brand 00:15:57.320 --> 00:16:03.400 new, like new angelism strategy. I think people think like, ah, that sounds so innovative and wild. 00:16:03.400 --> 00:16:07.120 And I'm like, no, it's just like what the church used to do. Like with a basketball league, 00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:11.460 you know, or whatever, except for they put their name on it. I don't want you to put your name on 00:16:11.460 --> 00:16:17.620 anything. We got so caught up in taking credit for everything that we forgot. Like this was an outreach, 00:16:17.820 --> 00:16:24.740 right? You're telling me I can't start like a Royal Ambassadors, uh, Avengers, Marvel group or 00:16:24.740 --> 00:16:29.960 something along those lines. Like I shouldn't do that. Actually, if you started an RA like group, 00:16:30.080 --> 00:16:34.140 I wouldn't hundred percent because like, okay, my brother was an RA. He's a Royal Ambassador. So 00:16:34.140 --> 00:16:38.460 this is very Southern Baptist. I was going to say my line. You're like, you know, I know what 00:16:38.460 --> 00:16:44.600 Royal Ambassadors are. Yeah. It's a title. I know. I know. Ambassador, I will do my best to be a 00:16:44.600 --> 00:16:50.740 well-informed responsible follower of Christ. Do you have concern for all right now? Do you know 00:16:50.740 --> 00:16:58.100 any of this? I know none of it. This is all news. Awana, Awana Julian, is Awana maybe more familiar 00:16:58.100 --> 00:17:04.780 with you? Yes. I wasn't in Awana, but yes. Okay. All right. Well, go on, Katie. Go on. 00:17:05.520 --> 00:17:11.900 Oh yeah. No. Uh, so yeah, the RA, so, uh, it's funny, you know, RAs and GAs, I was actually super 00:17:11.900 --> 00:17:16.620 into Girls in Action. So there's RAs and GAs. Girls in Action was the girls version. My brother 00:17:16.620 --> 00:17:24.200 was in the RA Basketball League. Um, so yes, I am very familiar, um, with this. And so, yeah. So, 00:17:24.200 --> 00:17:29.440 uh, anyway, you should just create, like, you should just go into groups that you're already in 00:17:29.440 --> 00:17:36.500 and, like, figure out how you can, uh, reach out to people. Well, and this brings up a good point. 00:17:36.620 --> 00:17:42.000 I'm sorry, Jeff. I know. I need to shut up. I'm sorry. Y'all talk. I told you it's going to get 00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:47.480 crazy. Y'all go. But this is on point. I'm staying on topic. But I think this is something that we 00:17:47.480 --> 00:17:59.960 really, we really need to be teaching our people members. Yeah. 100%. Because we talk about 00:17:59.960 --> 00:18:07.060 discipleship all the time as churches. Yeah. But we do not do a good job of connecting that to 00:18:07.060 --> 00:18:14.480 their online presence. Right. And I think that that is something, maybe that's the first Facebook 00:18:14.480 --> 00:18:24.080 group you create is like, you know, what it really means to be a, you know, a Christ follower 00:18:24.080 --> 00:18:32.080 in real life and online. Like, how does this translate to, you know, we all know the things 00:18:32.080 --> 00:18:39.460 that we should, you know, how to let, you know, we, we've taken the, we've done the book studies, 00:18:39.460 --> 00:18:46.800 we've done the Bible studies on, you know, how to be a disciple of Jesus in the world, but we don't 00:18:46.800 --> 00:18:51.080 always translate that to our online presence. And I think that is something that is so important. 00:18:51.340 --> 00:18:59.340 And as part of this conversation, like Katie says, this does not have to be about Bible verses and 00:18:59.340 --> 00:19:11.500 gifts that are not helpful. And sometimes don't mean what you think they mean. This, this is, 00:19:11.900 --> 00:19:18.880 this is about real connection and real conversation with people where they already are, where we're all 00:19:18.880 --> 00:19:25.860 entrenched in 37 Facebook groups about all the things that we love. And there's no reason we can't 00:19:25.860 --> 00:19:31.860 connect with people and bring them alongside us and walk alongside them. Yeah. Yeah. And I love that 00:19:31.860 --> 00:19:37.500 because I think a lot of times when churches talk about like your online activity, if it's like in a 00:19:37.500 --> 00:19:43.280 sermon or whatever, it's always like, you need to unplug or you need to be kind to people. And yes, 00:19:43.280 --> 00:19:49.080 like those things are both important, but if we can catch a vision for like, this is actually a place 00:19:49.080 --> 00:19:54.640 to do ministry. It is going to be so much more effective. And, you know, I mean, I think we've 00:19:54.640 --> 00:19:58.340 probably all been in places where people are like, you need to go where the people are. Well, like, 00:19:58.400 --> 00:20:03.240 I'm not the kind of person, you know, just going to say like, I'm a young single woman. I'm not going 00:20:03.240 --> 00:20:08.480 to go to a bar and try and start strike up a conversation with someone to tell them about Jesus. I'm not 00:20:08.480 --> 00:20:13.900 going to do it, but I can join a Facebook group. You know, that is wise. That is helpful. And then 00:20:13.900 --> 00:20:19.840 I can, you know, make relationships that way in a way that is safe. Probably not the way that people 00:20:19.840 --> 00:20:25.620 will expect it this direction to go. Sorry. Every time. And I'm so sorry. Yeah. So I actually did have 00:20:25.620 --> 00:20:31.480 a woman do that. Actually, Julian, I got a great like comment from somebody in a different group 00:20:31.480 --> 00:20:38.100 altogether, not even to mine. Um, and she was like, Katie, I heard about like your idea or whatever. 00:20:38.100 --> 00:20:42.240 And I actually joined our neighborhood group and they go on a walk every week or something. This 00:20:42.240 --> 00:20:47.340 was before Corona. Um, and she was like, they go on a walk every week. And so I went on the walk 00:20:47.340 --> 00:20:51.960 with them and I'm very introverted. And I, you know, I was kind of nervous about it. And she was 00:20:51.960 --> 00:20:55.960 like, I went on the walk with them. We had a great time. Somebody sent me home with some homemade 00:20:55.960 --> 00:21:02.380 pickles. I got to call my dog. She was like, I think this is the best gospel like conversation and 00:21:02.380 --> 00:21:07.940 like possibility that I've had in years. Right. And I was like, yeah, exactly. It's so easy. 00:21:07.940 --> 00:21:16.540 Right. Like, I don't know. Just normal human to just show up to things. I don't know. Um, 00:21:16.540 --> 00:21:21.280 and just like, and you can do that completely online to begin with. Like, so there's really 00:21:21.280 --> 00:21:27.900 no intimidation factor. It's just like being apart and like taking, uh, I don't know, action 00:21:27.900 --> 00:21:33.560 to like actually reach them. And you can create an intentional strategy to do that. You don't 00:21:33.560 --> 00:21:37.740 have to like, you can do it like a little bit by a little bit before like, you know, 00:21:37.960 --> 00:21:42.440 everybody even realizes you're sneaking into all their lives and becoming like really well 00:21:42.440 --> 00:21:48.440 known in the community. Um, and so, I mean, that's kind of what I had with church communications, 00:21:48.440 --> 00:21:54.560 right? Like I didn't, nobody knew who I was like before 2015. I just snuck in there. Um, 00:21:54.560 --> 00:22:04.940 but yeah, I don't know. It's just a great, it's just a different, I think God's really giving me 00:22:04.940 --> 00:22:09.820 a heart for that. And I just, I just, we, we just should figure it out anyway. Sorry. I'm stumbling 00:22:09.820 --> 00:22:17.280 now. I love this. And for the record, Ray, I want to say that we made it 17 minutes into the beta 00:22:17.280 --> 00:22:23.060 show without saying the word discipleship. And then it came up. We, we, we do this. Like 00:22:23.060 --> 00:22:28.080 we talk online discipleship, digital discipleship all the time. Like, and it feels like that's like 00:22:28.080 --> 00:22:33.520 the, the constant theme through the podcast and the other things that we do. And so kind of, kind of 00:22:33.520 --> 00:22:37.600 honest, I'm just going to share a little bit of this idea. It's like, Hey, let's talk about some 00:22:37.600 --> 00:22:42.300 other stuff. Let's try to move away from some of the philosophical discipleship. Talk about more 00:22:42.300 --> 00:22:46.720 practical things. Hey, Jeff, let's, let's get, you know, more detailed stuff. And so, 00:22:46.720 --> 00:22:49.980 hey, let's bring some people together, some women, let's talk about Facebook groups. 00:22:50.420 --> 00:22:55.060 What can be more practical than Facebook groups? And even in Facebook groups, we end up talking 00:22:55.060 --> 00:22:59.820 about discipleship. And, and, and I'll just tell you, Katie, that, that outward facing strategy, 00:22:59.820 --> 00:23:06.100 I talk to digital church planters. I talk digital, Hey guys, let's, let's get involved in, 00:23:06.180 --> 00:23:11.080 in the community Facebook groups, meet people through there. I can tell you churches that have 00:23:11.080 --> 00:23:16.280 launched when the planner's in another state and he's built his core team off of 00:23:16.280 --> 00:23:21.540 Facebook groups in the city that he wants to launch his church into phenomenal strategy. 00:23:21.540 --> 00:23:25.800 We talk about it all the time. Never once have I thought, Hey, church needs to launch an 00:23:25.800 --> 00:23:32.300 unbranded Facebook group community on a topic and, and, and start the conversations there. 00:23:32.540 --> 00:23:38.420 Um, be invite people into the, into that community, completely different approach, honestly, than 00:23:38.420 --> 00:23:44.020 anything that I've, I've ever thought on that. So thank you towards that. That that's awesome. 00:23:44.020 --> 00:23:49.160 Uh, I got, I got time for one more. Um, somebody, somebody give me, go for it. Julianne, you're up. 00:23:49.280 --> 00:23:54.440 I got one super practical tip and it's just this. When you start a church Facebook group, the first 00:23:54.440 --> 00:24:02.080 thing is you need one person or some people who own that Facebook group, preferably not the pastor, 00:24:02.080 --> 00:24:07.840 but if it has to like somebody who owns a Facebook group. And the other thing is this goes with it. 00:24:08.540 --> 00:24:14.340 Turn on post approval because things can get crazy if you don't. And so you have your person or people 00:24:14.340 --> 00:24:21.120 who are in charge, have them check it every day or five days a week or whatever. Um, and make sure 00:24:21.120 --> 00:24:27.300 that you are attending to that community and that those people are, you know, fostering the community, 00:24:27.420 --> 00:24:31.060 starting conversations, responding to people's questions, but you definitely want to have 00:24:31.060 --> 00:24:36.080 somebody that's in charge so that we're not just like approving posts once, once a week, you know, 00:24:36.080 --> 00:24:41.560 when people no longer have their questions or prayer requests or whatever. Um, and that there's 00:24:41.560 --> 00:24:45.200 actual dialogue happening. And I think it goes back to what Jeanette said earlier about like, 00:24:45.260 --> 00:24:50.780 figure out who your top fans are, your people who are already online and already want that conversation, 00:24:50.780 --> 00:24:57.540 try to draw them in. If they need training, that's fine. Um, but you know, if they can take that on 00:24:57.540 --> 00:25:02.600 and kind of help you get the group going and get some momentum, that is key. And that goes for the 00:25:02.600 --> 00:25:07.580 branded or the unbranded, like that's something that will work either way. So love it. Let me, 00:25:07.580 --> 00:25:14.800 let me ask you on it. That, that was a very good, uh, tip there. So I'm, I'm a pastor. Um, maybe, 00:25:14.800 --> 00:25:22.160 maybe I, I feel like I need to overly control this. Um, at what point do I let it go even out of a 00:25:22.160 --> 00:25:29.140 staff member, let it go to a volunteer? What, what, what, at what point should I, could I, or do I need 00:25:29.140 --> 00:25:35.520 to be involved in it every step of the way? Coach me through here, that owning person, is it a staff 00:25:35.520 --> 00:25:41.320 person? Is it a volunteer? What's that transition look like? To quote, just let it go. Yeah. I was 00:25:41.320 --> 00:25:45.500 going to say as the, as the pastor, do you control all the conversations that happen in your Sunday 00:25:45.500 --> 00:25:52.780 school classes? Ooh, like, do you, because that's what this is. It's, it's something that's a little 00:25:52.780 --> 00:25:57.060 more permanent and maybe visible, but that's what this is, is it's the conversations that would happen 00:25:57.060 --> 00:26:02.820 in your Sunday school classes or around the potluck or whatever. So after church lunch, right? Yeah, 00:26:02.900 --> 00:26:07.060 exactly. You don't even know where those people are going, right? Like they, they could be saying 00:26:07.060 --> 00:26:12.240 whatever. So as a pastor, you don't necessarily have to have control over the conversations that 00:26:12.240 --> 00:26:16.300 are happening. Now, there could be specific instances where you want a pastor in charge. 00:26:16.380 --> 00:26:20.540 For example, if this Facebook group, if you're following the Nona Jones model, where your Facebook 00:26:20.540 --> 00:26:24.900 group is your digital campus, you probably want a pastor in charge of that. But if it's just a place 00:26:24.900 --> 00:26:30.500 to connect with people in the community, put people obviously who are wise and whose discernment you 00:26:30.500 --> 00:26:36.500 trust in there. But at the end of the day, you don't have to control the conversations. You should be able 00:26:36.500 --> 00:26:41.980 to participate in them and be available if the people in charge of that have concerns, which will 00:26:41.980 --> 00:26:48.680 probably not happen as often as you think it's going to. But otherwise, like, just think about it as 00:26:48.680 --> 00:26:52.620 like, you can't be in every Sunday school room at once. You don't have to be in the Facebook group and 00:26:52.620 --> 00:26:58.260 seeing all those conversations at once either. So. Well said. I'm totally going to use the Sunday 00:26:58.260 --> 00:27:03.260 school line on a regular basis. Now, I'll give you credit for at least the first two and then I'm 00:27:03.260 --> 00:27:07.420 probably just going to end up stealing. Perfect. Perfect. At least this is a public record that 00:27:07.420 --> 00:27:14.460 Julianne came up with that. Who'd you borrow it from? No, I'm kidding. Hey, this has been a great 00:27:14.460 --> 00:27:21.060 time. I've loved it. I've learned a lot. I know from now on that if I'm going to invite three ladies 00:27:21.060 --> 00:27:26.380 on a show, I'm just going to leave my mic muted and let you all run because this has been definite. 00:27:26.380 --> 00:27:34.000 Somebody just tweeted this. I'll throw it in Facebook tweet. Sorry. Definitely go where people 00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:40.960 are. And I think that's really one of the takeaways. Love this idea of external. Love the focus of 00:27:40.960 --> 00:27:46.160 internal. Releasing and empowering others that understand the Facebook culture to run with. It's 00:27:46.160 --> 00:27:51.280 good stuff. Hey, Ray, any closing thoughts here as we're landing the plane? 00:27:51.380 --> 00:27:57.340 Yeah. I loved all the points brought up and especially Julianne, what you talked about with 00:27:57.340 --> 00:28:02.860 having the right moderator in place, especially coming out of a very contested election season, 00:28:03.060 --> 00:28:06.720 a lot of difficulties where a lot of people want to get very vocal in church or just about different 00:28:06.720 --> 00:28:10.760 perspectives that are going on, especially in an era of misinformation where stuff's being spread. 00:28:11.000 --> 00:28:16.000 It's important to have somebody who's a moderator and to make sure and confirm with that moderator 00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:21.680 what is and what is not allowed. Be very, very clear and flag stuff as soon as you see it and make 00:28:21.680 --> 00:28:26.180 sure and kind of walk them through that because it can be very hard. Everybody especially can have 00:28:26.180 --> 00:28:29.520 like a different filter on that kind of thing. So make sure you're taking care on that end. 00:28:30.220 --> 00:28:30.540 Yeah. 00:28:31.480 --> 00:28:32.480 Julianne, were you going to make sure? 00:28:32.660 --> 00:28:35.580 I was going to say for sure, like one of the things that we do at work, and I think that this is 00:28:35.580 --> 00:28:40.100 actually a good thing for churches too, because we're very intentional at CMU about like developing 00:28:40.100 --> 00:28:45.960 community. And so sometimes I'm like, you know, the head and I have other moderators that help me and 00:28:45.960 --> 00:28:50.380 we all know like this is a drama free zone. So someone says something that, you know, we have 00:28:50.380 --> 00:28:54.600 people of all kinds of theological persuasions in there as far as like they're all Christians, but 00:28:54.600 --> 00:29:00.700 Calvinists, Armenians, whatever. If someone says something that could be considered insulting 00:29:00.700 --> 00:29:07.500 to another belief, we just decline it and we say, hey, I'm really sorry, but we know that this 00:29:07.500 --> 00:29:10.920 conversation is going to go out of control. So we're not going to. So if you just say like, 00:29:10.960 --> 00:29:14.940 hey, this is a no drama zone. It's a, it's a place for us to love each other because we are 00:29:14.940 --> 00:29:19.360 brothers and sisters in Christ. That works better for your church groups, but you can still be polite 00:29:19.360 --> 00:29:23.580 about it. And like another one is like, hey, this isn't for debate. This is for discussing whatever. 00:29:25.060 --> 00:29:29.140 So that's right. And, and even on top of that, like things that we've had to deal with in our 00:29:29.140 --> 00:29:35.920 groups is folks even trying to like spam us with other internet pastors or, you know, churches or 00:29:35.920 --> 00:29:40.380 different things. And so that's where you have to be very clear on what the group is about. And that's 00:29:40.380 --> 00:29:44.860 where those group rules are super important at the beginning. And that's where a lot of that 00:29:44.860 --> 00:29:46.700 beginning of the group can be very, very crucial. 00:29:47.560 --> 00:29:51.880 Yeah. Well, well, well said there. Hey, so, so we're going to land the plane. By the way, 00:29:51.960 --> 00:29:57.520 I, I feel like we need to do this more often. Like Ray, I think we need to get like these ladies 00:29:57.520 --> 00:30:02.400 together. By the way, if you're not doing the three of you should consider doing like a podcast, 00:30:02.400 --> 00:30:07.200 the video stream, something separately. Like it's, it's hilarious. It's fun. It's entertaining. 00:30:07.860 --> 00:30:12.680 But we, we need to come up. Like, I want you to become like the, the, the, my communications go 00:30:12.680 --> 00:30:18.040 to people. Like I need some more communications love in my life. So we're, we'll have to do this 00:30:18.040 --> 00:30:23.300 again. If y'all are willing, of course, let's do this because I'm sorry. What? 00:30:23.680 --> 00:30:28.340 You just went to marry Martha to communicate resurrection. So I'm just saying like, clearly. 00:30:28.340 --> 00:30:33.500 Okay. I was going to say Katie has a podcast. I mean, 00:30:33.800 --> 00:30:33.980 Yeah. 00:30:34.220 --> 00:30:38.480 Well, that's actually where I wanted to go because you're great followers. So, so tell the audience 00:30:38.480 --> 00:30:44.540 here a little bit here, uh, like how we can find you on online. Jeanette, why don't, why don't 00:30:44.540 --> 00:30:49.060 you go first? Where, where can people find you and track, you know, what, what you're doing online? 00:30:49.580 --> 00:30:56.200 Okay. So Twitter is my jam. Uh, I do love some Twitter. So feel free to hop over there and follow 00:30:56.200 --> 00:31:06.880 me at Jane Iates. I also on Instagram am starting to talk about really what it means to, to be 00:31:06.880 --> 00:31:14.180 purposeful with your social media, um, profiles. Um, and I'm not necessarily sharing like, you know, 00:31:14.180 --> 00:31:17.720 how to be a good Christian, you know, but just talking about like how to be a person, 00:31:17.720 --> 00:31:23.100 like be a real person. And so I'm doing a lot of that on Instagram, which is another place 00:31:23.100 --> 00:31:28.460 that you can check, uh, check out that content. Um, giving social media tips just for average 00:31:28.460 --> 00:31:33.180 people. Like, you know, think about these things before you post things like that today. I did 00:31:33.180 --> 00:31:39.920 one that was like, Hey, remember behind every profile is a person be kind. Um, so I'm also 00:31:39.920 --> 00:31:48.180 at Jane Iates over there. Um, so anyway, those are my two. I love that Katie next up. So obviously 00:31:48.180 --> 00:31:52.580 podcast, number of things talk, talk about the church communications group. How can people 00:31:52.580 --> 00:31:58.640 find all the resources that you're providing online? Yeah, you can go to churchcommunications.com 00:31:58.640 --> 00:32:03.060 and find pretty much everything churchcommunications.com slash group. If you're enjoying the group, 00:32:03.600 --> 00:32:08.080 uh, we'd love to have you. We have about, I don't know, almost 28,000 church communicators 00:32:08.080 --> 00:32:13.080 in there and, uh, just having the ball. Uh, you can also go to katieallred.com. Uh, we've 00:32:13.080 --> 00:32:17.940 got an Instagram book out, Instagram posts that worked, uh, just examples across the country. 00:32:17.940 --> 00:32:23.320 If you would like to see just some more stuff, uh, about communications, these are actual practical 00:32:23.320 --> 00:32:30.060 examples from communicators, just like you. And so, uh, I would love to let you see a copy 00:32:30.060 --> 00:32:35.960 of this on Amazon. Uh, you can go to churchcommunications.com slash Insta book. If you would like to pick 00:32:35.960 --> 00:32:42.100 up a copy of that. Awesome. Like, like I said, one, one of, one of the great resources for churches 00:32:42.100 --> 00:32:47.300 in the communications realm, right over there at churchcommunications.com. Julianne, church 00:32:47.300 --> 00:32:52.160 marketing university, nothing to sneeze at either. Tell me a little bit about what you're doing 00:32:52.160 --> 00:32:56.200 and how people can follow what's going on there. Yeah. So, um, I, and the, I was joking 00:32:56.200 --> 00:33:01.360 earlier on the CCCO, no one knows what that stands for, but I help the team over at CMU with 00:33:01.360 --> 00:33:05.880 social and customers and whatever, probably the best place to connect with me and kind 00:33:05.880 --> 00:33:10.820 of see what we're practicing in action is, um, the church marketer space group. It's different 00:33:10.820 --> 00:33:15.800 than Katie's group. It's smaller. Um, but you can kind of, that's a great place to connect 00:33:15.800 --> 00:33:21.440 with me. I spend 90% of my money. I said it's smaller, but mighty. 00:33:22.500 --> 00:33:24.220 Well, thank you. 00:33:25.560 --> 00:33:30.000 That's, that's awesome. Well, well said. Well, ladies, thank you very much for joining us for, 00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.920 uh, for, for the stream here, here at the beta show, uh, questions. If you've got them in the 00:33:34.920 --> 00:33:39.860 audience, feel free to throw them in. We'll be engaging with the comments later on. If you've 00:33:39.860 --> 00:33:48.340 got questions for the church digital to cover here on the beta show, text us at 484-324-8724. 00:33:48.340 --> 00:33:53.520 484-324-8724. I've got a lower third in there somewhere and I forgot to click it. It's been 00:33:53.520 --> 00:33:58.700 that kind of week. Hey, so for everybody that's on the screen right now, Ray, Jeanette, Katie, 00:33:59.160 --> 00:34:03.720 uh, Julianne, my name is Jeff with the church digital and Stadia church planting. Thanks for 00:34:03.720 --> 00:34:07.800 joining us today and we'll see you next time here at the beta show. Spider-Man really? All right. 00:34:07.800 --> 00:34:08.640 Y'all have a good day. Bye.