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 Hey, we're going to get you to that podcast in one second, but before we get there, I, Jeff Reed, the Church Digital, Stadia Church Planning, I wanted to have a conversation with you, churches that are out there.

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 One of the greatest things I arguably think that I've done in my life, other than married and kids, okay, that aside, one of the greatest ministry things I've ever done is this idea of the fidgetal learning communities that we are offering through Stadia Church Planning.

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 We want to help you, we want to help your church learn to thrive, grow, and multiply fidgetally, physically, as well as digitally.

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 We've seen about 200 churches go through this already, and it's been a phenomenal result of it.

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 Culture is changing within these churches.

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 They're understanding what it is to thrive.

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 They're understanding how to grow people, how to grow their church, even in the midst of this COVID, not COVID, wherever we are in the season.

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 And they're even starting to understand what it means to multiply in fidgetal space.

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 There's no secret sauce to doing a digital strategy.

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 There's no secret sauce to doing a fidgetal strategy.

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 There's no secret sauce to making your church thrive, grow, and multiply.

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 It takes work.

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 I'm not going to lie.

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 But through the framework, through the questions, through the learning communities, we connect you with churches.

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 We give you some content.

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 We coach you along the way to help you make the decisions that you need to make so that your church's strategy can thrive, grow, and multiply your church along the way.

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 This is a great opportunity for your church.

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 We would love to have you be a part of it.

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 For more information, check out stadiacchurchplanning.org slash fidgetal.

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 Stadiachurchplanning.org slash fidgetal.

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 P-H-Y-G-I-T-A-L.

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 All right.

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 Hey, that's it.

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 We're going to get you back to that episode right now.

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 I'm excited about this conversation.

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 We're digging into what the church can learn from WandaVision, and we'll probably end up spoiling some WandaVision along the way.

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 So, spoiler alert, we're not responsible for anything that's said afterwards.

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 If you get upset because something's said, you're spoiling episode nine.

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 Like I said, I think I've watched episode nine six times since it's come out.

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 I just basically watch it every day at lunch, just turn it on and have it be noise in the background while I'm having breakfast in the morning.

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 Anytime I'm alone, basically, that's become my office, honestly, WandaVision has, at least for the season.

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 So, kind of have loved, at least at a personal level, binging it over and over again.

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 Yeah, maybe I am a bigger nerd than you, Ray, now that I hear myself say that.

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 So, hey, we've got a fun panel, and so we'll get to them in a little bit.

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 But we are going to take questions and conversations towards the end because, you know, that's the joy of Clubhouse is letting other people dialogue into this conversation and not just let you all watch from the outside.

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 So, be thinking about some things, and at some point later in this conversation, we'll open it up.

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 This is recording, and so Clubhouse, make sure that I have to say, hey, please acknowledge that this is recording.

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 So, hey, guys, this is recording.

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 Be aware of that, and yeah, it's going to be great.

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 We'll turn it into a podcast or something later on down the road.

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 So, hey, for the conversation, it was funny.

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 Ben Stapley is a weekend experience director at Christ Fellowship Miami.

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 I actually live in Miami as well.

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 And so, Ben was – I used to be on staff at Christ Fellowship.

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 Ben's a good friend and honestly love anytime I get to share some space with him in online talking about stuff.

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 And so excited to dialogue with him on this.

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 He just beat me to the punch a little bit and published a blog.

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 I'm not saying he stole the topic from me, but positive.

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 I said to him first, why don't we do something on what the church can learn from WandaVision?

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 As a matter of fact, I remember him making fun of the idea.

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 And then all of a sudden I see Tuesday night that he's published a blog, eight or nine things that the church can learn from WandaVision.

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 So I'm not saying he stole the idea from me, but next time I'll definitely put a copyright on that idea before I share anything with Ben, evidently.

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 Lies.

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 Lies?

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 You're going to call lies?

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 Okay, we'll let you call lies.

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 Ray DeArmis is on as well, digital pastor at Christ Fellowship Miami, Ben's employee.

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 And so Ray, of course, will side with Ben Stapley because he's, well, employed to do so.

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 So excited to see that conversation.

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 We're bringing in a newcomer as well, Garrett Silji, who's also at Christ Fellowship Miami, a production director over there, who is going to be very quiet in this.

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 Garrett is nervous about having conversations publicly, a phenomenal production director, and he needs to have more confidence in himself to talk through.

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 And so, Garrett, I want to give the floor to you, even to just open up.

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 Anything you have to say?

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 Anything you want to share about yourself in this moment?

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 I knew that was coming.

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 I knew somehow you were going to throw to me first.

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 And I just want to say, Ray may be the one to side with Ben, but I think you brought me in because you know that even though Ben is my boss, I have no problem shaking the table.

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 A little bit.

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 Nervous is an understatement, probably.

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 However, if there was a, I don't think you could have chosen a nerdier topic to bring me in for the first talk on.

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 And so I'm excited.

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 Definitely have to say some of the ideas are my wife's.

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 She may be a bigger nerd than I am.

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 Surprisingly, I didn't read any comic books growing up.

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 I got into like the whole nerd fandom from the first Iron Man movie.

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 And then I started doing all the research into the comic books and stuff like that afterwards.

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 But my wife read the comic books.

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 And so she brought her nerd wisdom from the comic books into this.

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 Wow, you married up then, man.

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 What way to like, you know, get the wife to kind of own the nerd piece and bring you along.

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 I got a lot of respect for Ileana up front in that.

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 That just increased.

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 By the way, Garrett is sometimes or is always the mastermind behind the Church Digital Podcast doing editing and things like that.

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 So you guys have definitely heard and seen the effects of his wisdom in that in the past.

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 So I'm looking forward to this conversation.

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 We'll do some questions and audience thoughts maybe towards the end.

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 And I think we've got a hard stop at six.

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 So let's let's pack it in and kind of roll through it here.

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 Hey, so let's open this up.

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 I don't know that I have a format as much as, hey, let's just open floor here.

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 WandaVision, no spoilers.

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 This is Disney's, Marvel's, MCU's first fray into an episodic format.

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 And even just sitting here, I wrote down five or six things that was like, man, I was really surprised how this went.

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 I was really excited to see how this was received.

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 Conceptually, there were some things that I thought was a challenge.

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 Kevin Feige and the writing and directing team, of course, they did a phenomenal job with it.

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 We're all pro people here, it sounds like.

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 But let's open it up.

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 What when you're looking at the church, what were some implications?

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 What were some thoughts?

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 What were some ideas that maybe the church that we can learn in this season from WandaVision?

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 Man, to be honest, I know the others are going to be the ones to talk more.

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 So I'm definitely going to steal this before they can steal one of my biggest takeaways from this.

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 And I'm just going to say, Ben, this may be in your blog.

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 I read the title of your blog.

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 I haven't read your blog yet.

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 So this is an actual claim.

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 You cannot claim copyright.

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 Haven't read it.

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 But one of the things that both Ileana and I, talking about it afterwards, were saying was that as WandaVision progressed, and slight spoilers, is that as it progressed, you saw a change in time.

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 You saw that Wanda told her story in different time periods.

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 However, the underlying story of what caused her to tell the story, the underlying scene of everything stayed the same.

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 And it was the root and the foundation across the five or six different decades that we saw featured every episode.

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 And I think, I mean, I don't know if there's a more important day as than, like, right now or even last year during COVID, where that's true to the church.

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 I mean, the message, the underlying story of what the church is supposed to be in our societies is going to stay the same as it was 100 years ago, 1,000 years ago.

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 But what's changing, and especially today, what needs to change, is how we tell that story or how we reach people with that story.

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 And so we're used to this model of we have to talk to someone in person.

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 And now we're going to start having the conversations more and more of, well, can you reach someone with that same story through different platforms?

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 And, Jeff, this is something I know you talk about all the time on the podcast, but having that digital reach to people is technically a new version of a story for a lot of churches.

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 They haven't told the story through a screen before.

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 They're used to only being able to do it person to person.

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 And even some people that I talk to that aren't even in ministry, the concept of digital church is lost.

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 And they're like, but what about the social aspect?

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 And so I think that, to me, was one of the biggest things that the church is going to have to really, looking at WandaVision, be able to see, hey, her story of hurt was the same from episode one to episode nine.

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 But how she told that and how she portrayed the scene throughout is what changed.

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 Wow.

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 Garrett goes deep right off the bat.

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 I'm surprised by that.

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 Well said, sir.

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 Ben Ray, what do you think of that?

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 I love it.

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 Anything Garrett says has been approved.

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 But yeah, the mission doesn't change, but the methods do.

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 Completely affirm that and hear that.

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 And actually, even zooming out, I love this conversation, Jeff, just because it helps us.

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 It helps the church learn from other great innovators.

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 Sometimes it can be a cliche, right?

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 What my organization can learn from this new fad.

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 Like, you know, we're going to see this again next month, the month after that.

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 And I will probably be writing an article on it next month as well.

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 But that being said, it's because there are there are innovations that we can learn and hopefully we will continue to learn.

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 So the fact that we are pushing into this and saying, how do we look outside our walls?

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 And from my vantage point, I was thinking through it in terms of the content and the delivery.

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 But what can I learn from them?

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 Because they're master storytellers.

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 And the fact that they're dropping it at 3 a.m. in Eastern time, what in the world?

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 I have no idea what's going on there.

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 But I'm sure there's something I should push into and think about because apparently they think there's a value of that, which I hadn't seen anyone else ever do prior to them.

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 Yeah, you know, and picking up off that, Ben, and we discussed this a little bit after I read your blog, my thought process was the reason for dropping it so early was because they didn't want to crash their servers initially, like right off the get go.

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 I mean, when you know that you've got this kind of a base, and they did during one of the episodes, even at 3 a.m., they generated so much excitement for the next episode, so much FOMO for the fact that people didn't want to have the episode spoiled for them,

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 that they ran to it, you know, Thursday night, Friday morning, 3 a.m., running to the servers, crashing Disney Plus at 3 a.m.

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 Like I wake up in the morning, I look at Twitter, and I see people, well, we did it, folks.

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 We crashed Disney Plus.

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 I couldn't block the episode.

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 And so they accomplished it.

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 But this is everything that Disney tried to do to make sure that they were providing an enjoyable experience for their people so that they had a great, stable platform.

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 And there is something for us to learn from that in that the user experience does matter because, as they just said in their shareholder meeting yesterday, they just crossed 100 million subscribers.

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 In a year and a half, they accomplished what it took Netflix years to do.

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 So that user experience coming first and foremost for them was huge.

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 And it should be something that we learn from as well in terms of, hey, our platform is like, how are we keeping our users in mind?

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 We might not crash our servers, but we do need to recognize that when we release and how the expected release and are we releasing in a timely fashion when our people are ready for it, that does matter.

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 And making sure that we're consistent with that.

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 Picking up on Garrett's piece, though.

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 I'm sorry, Ben.

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 What were you going to say to that?

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 No, keep going.

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 You're on the roll.

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 Oh, I was going to pick up on Garrett's piece on grief because that honestly was one of the biggest underlying things for me was they took something that is just very culturally, I think it's tough for us to deal with in grief.

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 And they put it in a candy wrapper like Marvel and they made us eat it and they made us eat it willingly.

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 I thought that was some of the magic of the series in that they were able to give us something that's very difficult to discuss from a cultural standpoint, yet we all endure it.

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 And to even deal with the mental health aspects of it, but in a way that was so palpable that even my kids wanted to watch it.

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 It was pretty powerful from that perspective.

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 Yeah, just piggybacking off what you're saying in terms of Disney doing, considering the guest or their end user, their client, whatever you want to call them, the person they're interacting with and making the product for, they do a phenomenal job at it, right?

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 And you talk about crashing servers.

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 So that happened, you know, if anybody's familiar with CHOP, the church online platform, when a lot of churches back a year ago jumped on them.

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 I know there were a couple of weekends where the whole thing crashed because everyone, every church was trying to use it at 9 a.m. in the morning.

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 And there was even talk of, hey, can some churches do this in the afternoon instead so that we don't crash this platform?

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 And obviously they're considering their guests well.

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 If you've ever been to a Disney theme park and a Universal theme park, I have the privilege of being able to get to both because I'm close to Orlando.

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 So that customer service, that guest experience is complete, it's night and day because Disney has mastered that ability to think to the guests and meet their needs where they're at.

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 And I think the church can continue to learn from that as well.

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 I think tagging off of what Ray was saying, just one thing that Disney did well in this was they made the content something people wanted to watch and people could relate with.

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 So it's one thing when we as church and ministry make content that we would enjoy.

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 But it doesn't do anybody any good if our target audience isn't also interested in watching.

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 And so even to the point of making people empathetic and being able to feel the same emotions.

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 I mean, at the beginning, once you first learn what Westview really was, you start to see Wanda as the bad guy.

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 But then even as my wife and I were talking through it, it's if we were in the same situation, what would you choose?

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 If you were in her position, would you have done what she did if you had the same powers?

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 And I think that's something as the church that we can create content.

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 But if you don't create content that your viewership can see themselves a part of, you may not get that same engagement.

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 And so the lesson going forward is make sure that as we're creating content, as we're reaching people, that we're making the content along the lines of what people actually want to be involved with and what they can see themselves involved with.

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 Yeah, I think there's an opportunity.

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 I was shocked really at how divisive.

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 Some people loved the I Love Lucy, the Bewitched, the Black and White, the Brady Bunch, some of those kind of thematic episodes at the beginning.

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 Where it's like, there was, I kind of, I was surprised they included no MCU value, what, until like the end of episode three or episode four.

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 Like it was a stretch kind of to get to that point.

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 You know, somebody like me who, that was, I'm recognizing the homage, I'm recognizing the retro feel towards that.

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 Like I love the fact that we're going back into those worlds and we're reliving some of those jokes and we're feeling the tension of the guy choking and kind of the cheesiness of the breakfast for dinner and hearing the lady from the 70s show like laughing awkwardly because she can't do anything else.

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 And while feeling the tension of vision, is he going to save it or save the day or not?

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 Like from a MCU world, I love that.

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 From a, man, I remember watching I Love Lucy or Bewitched and feeling that kind of feelings, not of the guy dying, obviously, but of the kind of the joke of the black and white of the sitcom and that feel.

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 I loved it.

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 Like, and I was surprised that a lot of people did love it.

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 Now, the majority of people that I've seen in real life have had positive vibes off that and had a good feeling off it all the way through.

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 You know, I don't know Twitter being, you know, Twitter that it is, but in social media, I've really felt some people kind of like, man, I stopped watching the show.

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 I gave up because it was pointless.

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 All they wanted to do was some of this other stuff.

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 I think the majority of people, though, and I would open it even up to you guys, did you vibe well with that?

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 Did you recognize homage for homage and kind of what they were trying to do?

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 Or was the lack of storyline, was that really impactful for you in the beginning?

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 This is an interesting question, Jeff, because, you know, if they would have released the first three, like, in week one, I think they would have kept a lot more people engaged in the conversation.

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 Because week one was pretty hard for people who really came in unprepped as to what this was going to be in terms of different type of storytelling.

00:18:09.940 --> 00:18:18.420
 So they came in, like, for instance, there are people that are outside of MCU circles that I talked to who gave the show a shot, who are familiar with the movies.

00:18:18.700 --> 00:18:23.980
 But those first two episodes kind of knocked them for a loop because they did not understand what the show was going to be about.

00:18:24.600 --> 00:18:29.660
 And so they're walking into the first two thinking, oh, this is supposed to be a comedy or this is supposed to be a sitcom.

00:18:30.240 --> 00:18:32.420
 And so they went in with bad expectations.

00:18:32.660 --> 00:18:36.200
 And so this is where expectations can kind of play into everything, right?

00:18:36.240 --> 00:18:40.440
 Because what they thought that they were going to get, they gave up after episode one and two.

00:18:40.600 --> 00:18:44.380
 And it wasn't until some people after episode four said, oh, no, you're missing out.

00:18:44.920 --> 00:18:48.020
 If you haven't watched chapter three and four yet, you don't understand.

00:18:48.100 --> 00:18:51.420
 Because they walked in there expecting a typical sitcom.

00:18:52.020 --> 00:19:00.220
 A typical sitcom of expecting, oh, here are characters that I'm familiar with putting in, you know, given weird situations that we're kind of familiar with.

00:19:00.220 --> 00:19:03.180
 And then, oh, but they're superheroes and this is how they deal with it.

00:19:03.500 --> 00:19:04.820
 No, that's not what this is at all.

00:19:04.900 --> 00:19:08.660
 They didn't understand that they were getting a puzzle and that every piece was supposed to connect.

00:19:08.920 --> 00:19:14.060
 And that, I think, isolated some viewers from the onset that made it hard for them to kind of jump in.

00:19:14.760 --> 00:19:17.100
 Ray, I haven't looked at the numbers.

00:19:17.620 --> 00:19:24.480
 And so I'd love to know if you were able to track the numbers in terms of their viewership and how it manifested over the weeks.

00:19:24.480 --> 00:19:29.980
 And did they lose people or did it grow as the word of mouth spread that, no, this is a really good show.

00:19:30.220 --> 00:19:32.840
 And the reason I'm asking is I loved it.

00:19:32.940 --> 00:19:34.400
 I loved that I was intrigued.

00:19:34.620 --> 00:19:36.900
 I loved that I wasn't spoon-fed things.

00:19:37.280 --> 00:19:38.640
 I loved that I had to think.

00:19:39.040 --> 00:19:44.800
 I loved that this wasn't some middle America sitcom where it was paint by the numbers.

00:19:45.180 --> 00:19:50.540
 But it was actually refreshing that it was in the dark and I needed to, like, activate my mind.

00:19:50.760 --> 00:20:00.460
 And for me, that's a takeaway for the church where I've sat through a fair share of messages where I feel talked down to.

00:20:00.980 --> 00:20:05.620
 And as a follower of Christ, maybe that's some of my pride or my hubris I need to wrestle through.

00:20:05.860 --> 00:20:08.800
 But I'm always thinking about the guests that I've invited with me.

00:20:09.340 --> 00:20:17.100
 And if I have to hear a communicator say a point and reiterate their point and then say, do you know what I'm saying?

00:20:17.220 --> 00:20:17.820
 Are you with me?

00:20:17.900 --> 00:20:18.540
 Can I get an amen?

00:20:19.060 --> 00:20:22.820
 And throw in a lot of, frankly speaking, verbal fluff and filler.

00:20:22.900 --> 00:20:28.740
 Because they don't have the content to fill the 30, 35, 45 minutes of actual content.

00:20:29.180 --> 00:20:34.200
 I don't, I feel, again, I feel slightly talked down to.

00:20:34.460 --> 00:20:37.260
 And again, it's not me, but I'm thinking through that guest.

00:20:37.620 --> 00:20:39.540
 Is that the best experience for them?

00:20:39.620 --> 00:20:44.420
 Or do we respect them and think that you're going to hang with me and I'm going to give you some content.

00:20:44.620 --> 00:20:50.400
 And assuming that you're going to be able to process it and even intrigue and mystery, you're going to be able to hang with that.

00:20:50.400 --> 00:20:54.560
 Because there's going to be a payoff on the back end of this that's worth it for you to be a part of this journey.

00:20:54.820 --> 00:20:56.420
 I thought that was a learning for the church.

00:21:00.440 --> 00:21:02.340
 Communicating expectations right off the bat, right?

00:21:02.380 --> 00:21:11.560
 Because as I interacted with people who weren't familiar with the content, it's almost as if for a lot of people, it unlocks something in them.

00:21:12.480 --> 00:21:19.360
 Because a lot of people who weren't familiar with this kind of storytelling came up to me and they said, well, you know, I watched it, but it's just not funny.

00:21:19.960 --> 00:21:23.780
 And as soon as I told them that it's not supposed to be, it's about grief.

00:21:24.180 --> 00:21:26.900
 All of a sudden, it's like I unlocked the door for them.

00:21:28.020 --> 00:21:30.560
 And oh, so wait a minute.

00:21:30.640 --> 00:21:31.360
 So she's in pain?

00:21:32.020 --> 00:21:32.400
 Yes.

00:21:32.960 --> 00:21:33.640
 Don't forget.

00:21:34.180 --> 00:21:36.680
 You watch these movies, this movie, this movie, this movie?

00:21:36.940 --> 00:21:37.320
 Yes.

00:21:38.020 --> 00:21:38.280
 Okay.

00:21:38.400 --> 00:21:39.940
 So her guy died.

00:21:40.080 --> 00:21:41.280
 Yeah, that's what's confusing me.

00:21:41.660 --> 00:21:42.020
 Exactly.

00:21:42.980 --> 00:21:43.940
 He's not there.

00:21:45.200 --> 00:21:46.840
 So something's going on.

00:21:47.640 --> 00:21:48.680
 Oh, oh, man.

00:21:48.980 --> 00:21:49.700
 That's crazy.

00:21:49.920 --> 00:21:53.900
 And so all of a sudden, and it was more than one person that I engaged with that, that I had this conversation with.

00:21:54.080 --> 00:22:00.960
 People who are familiar with this kind of medium or people who are familiar with the MCU and kind of diehards, locked in, they weren't going to go anywhere no matter what.

00:22:01.480 --> 00:22:16.380
 They were digging it the same way that you were, Ben and Jeff, but for some others, for some that I would consider maybe outsiders, it was very difficult at first for them to engage with until after episode four, that halfway point where some of that starts to get unlocked for them.

00:22:16.540 --> 00:22:17.840
 Then they started to really engage.

00:22:17.980 --> 00:22:19.320
 Aha, now we see the grander scheme.

00:22:20.140 --> 00:22:25.440
 Actually, so actually, Ray, so Ileana and I are diehard Marvel fans.

00:22:26.840 --> 00:22:30.840
 We've watched every single movie probably at least five times, minimum.

00:22:32.220 --> 00:22:37.240
 And yet we still had the conversation after episode one of do we want to keep watching this?

00:22:38.020 --> 00:22:40.840
 We both were excited about WandaVision.

00:22:41.020 --> 00:22:51.780
 We were holding our breath for WandaVision, but when the first one came out, we had the expectations of Marvel, of everything Marvel we've experienced, of everything great Marvel's created.

00:22:51.940 --> 00:23:00.940
 And so we still went in to the TV show with the expectation of what the movies have been.

00:23:01.840 --> 00:23:07.600
 And so it wasn't, I think episode three is, we still, we watched it and we watched it faithfully.

00:23:07.700 --> 00:23:10.500
 However, episode two kind of still had us on the fence.

00:23:11.040 --> 00:23:14.720
 Episode three is what got us to say, okay, now I can't wait for the next episode to come out.

00:23:15.500 --> 00:23:23.580
 But there was just something, like the, there's the, the way that it was, it was phrased was to, to Ben's point was intriguing.

00:23:24.560 --> 00:23:30.160
 But it, at the first one to me, it, at least to me, it didn't paint a picture for us.

00:23:30.420 --> 00:23:39.140
 And it had just so many questions or left with, with so many questions that we were debating whether we wanted to keep going in the journey.

00:23:39.900 --> 00:23:45.780
 And, and I guess that, you know, part of what Ben was saying was that, that can be a downside of, of a church, right?

00:23:45.820 --> 00:23:53.080
 Like you don't want to ask so many questions or leave so much ambiguity in, in a, in content, just trying to create a story.

00:23:53.440 --> 00:23:58.220
 And now they, they, they wrapped it up well, they followed it up and they brought the engagement back in.

00:23:58.800 --> 00:24:03.840
 But even as a Marvel fan, I almost got last, lost after that first episode.

00:24:06.380 --> 00:24:14.980
 Is there anything of value here versus, you know, I mean, they're used to like a two hour format, packing in as much as possible, beginning to end story.

00:24:16.440 --> 00:24:20.940
 What, what's the, what's the challenge, the difficulties in turning that more into an episodic format?

00:24:21.360 --> 00:24:24.680
 I've got to have what, eight or nine beginning and ends.

00:24:24.680 --> 00:24:31.000
 We're going to have to tell the story over time, keep people engaged over the long run versus, versus packing that in.

00:24:31.060 --> 00:24:32.660
 What, what are we seeing, seeing or feeling there?

00:24:33.180 --> 00:24:37.000
 Are you advocating that we have, please stand by, come up towards the end of a message?

00:24:37.180 --> 00:24:38.600
 Cause that would be, that would be amazing.

00:24:38.660 --> 00:24:38.860
 Yeah.

00:24:38.880 --> 00:24:44.080
 Like I'm not even going to get started in the eight minute credit roll that happens every week.

00:24:44.140 --> 00:24:46.240
 Like I don't, I don't, I don't want to discuss that.

00:24:46.300 --> 00:24:51.420
 Cause I don't, I don't think there's a lesson towards the eight minute credit roll, but, but more of kind of breaking this up, right?

00:24:51.420 --> 00:24:57.940
 Like you, you have to, um, intentional, like, I don't know, is, is it better to have the cliffhangers?

00:24:58.120 --> 00:24:59.040
 Is it better to get it?

00:24:59.100 --> 00:25:00.640
 I'm honestly, I'm asking a question.

00:25:00.640 --> 00:25:02.180
 Like what's, is there a takeaway there?

00:25:02.600 --> 00:25:13.340
 Well, Ben, I'd love your opinion on that because, uh, you know, I thought through like, you know, old things that the church had produced in his past, like NUMA, where it was like a one-off, right?

00:25:13.340 --> 00:25:25.080
 Like a Rob Bell and I forgot what Francis Chan's version of it was when he worked with the same production company and they did these really like well done, well orchestrated, you know, like small group lessons, but it didn't connect to anything else.

00:25:25.080 --> 00:25:26.000
 It was just a one-off.

00:25:26.180 --> 00:25:36.360
 But with this, if you could do a series of something that's well-connected, that really creates that kind of FOMO where you want to go down a journey with people and kind of guide them in that direction.

00:25:36.360 --> 00:25:43.440
 I mean, that would be pretty amazing if, uh, the church could pull off that kind of gospel presentation or storytelling that keeps people engaged in that kind of way.

00:25:44.940 --> 00:25:48.040
 And churches wrestled with this when COVID first hit, right?

00:25:48.040 --> 00:25:53.920
 So that 45 minute message content, is that the best way to deliver it all at once in one sitting?

00:25:54.440 --> 00:26:07.880
 Or would it maybe take those three points and break them up in 15 minute segments and give it to people over the course of the week so that they could chew on it and they could wrestle with that content and think about it for time.

00:26:07.880 --> 00:26:13.420
 So for me, the thing I loved about this, where it wasn't like you're saying, Jeff, it wasn't a three-hour movie.

00:26:14.040 --> 00:26:20.540
 It was, it was told over weeks, I wrestled with that grief factor that Garrett was alluding to earlier on.

00:26:20.660 --> 00:26:21.980
 I wrestled with the emotions here.

00:26:22.360 --> 00:26:23.780
 What would I do in this place?

00:26:23.900 --> 00:26:28.400
 Would I fabricate a complete world to bring back a loved one?

00:26:28.500 --> 00:26:29.160
 I probably would.

00:26:29.440 --> 00:26:30.100
 I probably would.

00:26:30.440 --> 00:26:38.180
 Now, if I were watching that in a three-hour movie block, I probably wouldn't, I would not have time to wrestle through the implications, the moral implications of power.

00:26:38.340 --> 00:26:42.720
 And to be frank, you don't have to be superhero to have power.

00:26:43.040 --> 00:26:43.920
 We all have power.

00:26:44.680 --> 00:26:45.660
 How do we wield it?

00:26:46.020 --> 00:26:50.840
 I was wrestling with that on Saturday, on Sunday, looking for the next show.

00:26:51.140 --> 00:27:02.800
 Again, if I were sitting in a dark movie theater for three hours and you just, you know, shotgun face me with all this content, I would not have the downtime to process in-depth emotions over a duration.

00:27:02.940 --> 00:27:06.060
 I think sometimes our messages are framed in that same way.

00:27:06.600 --> 00:27:17.760
 It's 50 minutes of content at your go and my ability to wrestle with it, it might be helpful to break that up at times based upon the content.

00:27:17.900 --> 00:27:20.960
 I'm not saying the model of the 45-minute message is dead.

00:27:21.220 --> 00:27:25.060
 I'm just saying, I think we can also leverage smaller bite-sized informations.

00:27:25.660 --> 00:27:26.760
 That's one of my takeaways.

00:27:27.300 --> 00:27:30.220
 There's something said to leaving the audience wanting more, right?

00:27:30.340 --> 00:27:33.320
 Like, oh my gosh, I can't believe they ended it there.

00:27:33.540 --> 00:27:36.540
 I want to hear more of what's next and the wanting of that.

00:27:36.980 --> 00:27:41.960
 Not to mention giving ideas room to breathe, room to feel.

00:27:41.960 --> 00:27:48.860
 I was much more connected in pain to Wanda's story than I would have been in context of a movie.

00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:50.260
 I truly do believe that.

00:27:50.680 --> 00:28:00.580
 And I think the emotional value of what you're seeing, kind of feeling her pain, honestly, I think that resonates at a human level.

00:28:00.580 --> 00:28:06.580
 Maybe more than, and no disrespect, than what we're going to see with the Falcon and Winter Soldier.

00:28:06.800 --> 00:28:15.360
 Like, I think that that pain carries with people and speaks volumes where, you know, I'm looking forward to seeing the buddy-buddy of the two of them.

00:28:15.380 --> 00:28:25.120
 But I don't think I'm going to be, like, obsessed at, like, office level watching it over and over again like I am right now with the Wanda vision piece.

00:28:25.620 --> 00:28:28.620
 Even shifting to some more, like, practical ideas.

00:28:29.260 --> 00:28:40.060
 Hey, Paul Bettany, try not to overpromise what's going to happen in the finale by saying that you're going to act with the best actor ever, a guy that you've dreamed with.

00:28:40.060 --> 00:28:47.960
 Getting the entire world obsessed with dreaming of who this person could be, only to find out it's yourself.

00:28:48.300 --> 00:28:51.040
 You were cracking a joke about acting with yourself.

00:28:51.500 --> 00:28:59.860
 And instead, all those dreams of who is Mephisto, who's this guy coming in at the last minute, it all was just a big joke.

00:28:59.920 --> 00:29:00.780
 And he was punking us.

00:29:01.040 --> 00:29:03.700
 So, maybe there's some lessons there for the church.

00:29:03.760 --> 00:29:04.200
 What do you think?

00:29:04.660 --> 00:29:05.540
 Well, isn't that funny?

00:29:05.620 --> 00:29:12.840
 Because on the other side, the show's creator was saying early on that he felt like a lot of people might be disappointed with the finale.

00:29:13.060 --> 00:29:20.720
 And so, once again, in terms of setting the right expectation and kind of balancing those expectations out, I think is a huge lesson for all of us.

00:29:21.180 --> 00:29:21.740
 Not, right?

00:29:21.860 --> 00:29:23.860
 So, we have to watch our language.

00:29:24.040 --> 00:29:26.540
 Everything is not awesome, as the Lego movie taught us, right?

00:29:26.920 --> 00:29:30.680
 So, we have to be careful by setting the expectation of every weekend is amazing.

00:29:30.940 --> 00:29:31.680
 Everything's epic.

00:29:31.900 --> 00:29:32.680
 Everything's awesome.

00:29:33.320 --> 00:29:40.400
 It's not that we want to downplay things, but we can't – people will stop believing us after a while if we continue to set expectations and not live up to them.

00:29:41.200 --> 00:29:46.340
 You know, and to tag off of what Ray was saying, it's not quite on what you're asking, Jeff, about expectations.

00:29:46.580 --> 00:29:58.020
 But I think there's this hesitation for churches in creating content to be afraid to touch some of the tougher subjects, to be able to give those feelings of what Ben was talking about, about grief.

00:29:58.300 --> 00:30:04.280
 I mean, Ben was highlighting how the whole series hinges around grief, and they made a whole TV series.

00:30:04.380 --> 00:30:07.400
 They made nine weeks of content about it that made people watch.

00:30:07.680 --> 00:30:18.700
 But yet, if we were to think about creating even one service on a weekend around grief, it would be something that just naturally as ministry leaders that we would think, okay, this is bad.

00:30:18.780 --> 00:30:20.740
 We're going to leave a negative taste in people's mouth.

00:30:21.360 --> 00:30:43.940
 And so I think the lesson there for churches is if done properly, you can create content around those real tough feelings that people are experiencing and not being afraid of those topics, not being afraid of grief, not being afraid of anxiety, not being afraid of depression, not being afraid of these hard subjects that you can still engage people with.

00:30:44.320 --> 00:30:49.520
 Because if our society's feeling them, they're going to engage with what you're talking about.

00:30:49.680 --> 00:31:06.400
 And so I think that WandaVision proved that, you know, in contrast to Winter Soldier and Falcon, which is going to be a more lighthearted series, you can have a series around superheroes, but that's not painted in the everything is perfect light, what Ray was alluding to.

00:31:06.960 --> 00:31:10.420
 And you can still create content and you can still create content and a good story around it.

00:31:13.820 --> 00:31:14.900
 Well said, Garrett.

00:31:15.060 --> 00:31:16.180
 Love that.

00:31:16.300 --> 00:31:19.100
 The idea of creating stories in this context.

00:31:19.300 --> 00:31:27.120
 One of the things that stood out for me in addition to the stories, honestly, and once again, this is something that I wasn't expecting walking into it.

00:31:27.920 --> 00:31:40.940
 All the quotes, the stuff coming from vision, what is grief but love persevering, the whole, what was the theosis?

00:31:41.160 --> 00:31:41.920
 What was the guy's name?

00:31:42.060 --> 00:31:42.280
 The ship of theses.

00:31:42.840 --> 00:31:43.960
 The ship of theses.

00:31:44.520 --> 00:32:03.220
 My gosh, like it was, it was rich at this very heady level, but at the same time was, was, was catchable, was repeatable, was shareable, and moving to really express some of the deepness of what the episode, of what the show was really trying to communicate.

00:32:04.260 --> 00:32:07.960
 And isn't that great that, that they trusted us to kind of get it?

00:32:08.160 --> 00:32:20.100
 And, and I think that's so wonderful as we talk about difficult subjects and, and, you know, hard storytelling and everything else done in, in, in such a pop forum like Marvel, that they trusted the audience to understand it.

00:32:20.160 --> 00:32:31.820
 You know, like what Ben talked about, that they didn't dumb it down for us, that instead that they went the other way and said, no, we know that vision's been a philosopher in the past, you know, and he's got, man, he's got some bangers of lines.

00:32:31.820 --> 00:32:35.560
 If you go back to Age of Ultron, a thing's not beautiful because it lasts.

00:32:36.780 --> 00:32:43.420
 And then he comes back in with some even harder hitting lines in, in these episodes, kind of like what you went, what you went through, Jeff.

00:32:43.860 --> 00:32:51.020
 It's very, very powerful just to see how they would do that and how they would do that in such a way in a storyline.

00:32:51.300 --> 00:33:01.160
 What was tough for me along that in terms of trusting us as viewers is they took us down the journey of Wanda's trauma and they took us down like her psychological path.

00:33:01.160 --> 00:33:06.920
 As we talk about the grief that she went through and man, what a hard journey, even as a viewer was that to go through.

00:33:07.460 --> 00:33:13.200
 And I'm glad that they trusted us with it, but man, did they trust us big time with going down that hard, dark journey with her.

00:33:16.400 --> 00:33:19.160
 Yeah, I think there's a lot of power in that darkness.

00:33:19.160 --> 00:33:27.400
 And once again, I just I think that resonates at an emotional level deeper with people like we want in 2021.

00:33:27.400 --> 00:33:38.700
 We want to admit we're broken, like like having people who are broken, having people like the authenticity of that message, I think speaks volumes.

00:33:38.700 --> 00:33:48.480
 I think having people work through their brokenness as opposed to telling stories where people have their act together and everything's perfect.

00:33:48.980 --> 00:33:53.340
 I think people live in the brokenness in those in those stories.

00:33:53.340 --> 00:33:56.700
 I think that resonates at a much deeper level.

00:33:57.040 --> 00:33:58.000
 Ben, what do you think about that?

00:33:59.000 --> 00:34:06.180
 Yeah, I don't want to beat a dead horse, but oftentimes we can focus our content and our messages on the warm and fuzzy and the positive stuff.

00:34:06.180 --> 00:34:08.500
 And I think there's there's a need for that.

00:34:08.840 --> 00:34:15.080
 I think if all your messages are doom and gloom, then it's it's going to repel a lot of people.

00:34:15.140 --> 00:34:26.360
 But you can look you can look at the canon of scripture and see the emotions that were penned down there, that the prophets had freedom to express to their creator, the God of the universe.

00:34:26.360 --> 00:34:28.120
 And they were not hit with lightning.

00:34:28.680 --> 00:34:30.040
 I think we can bring it up.

00:34:30.300 --> 00:34:34.200
 So so if they can bring up those emotions to God and saying, why was I ever born?

00:34:34.300 --> 00:34:35.140
 Why did you ever make me?

00:34:35.580 --> 00:34:38.500
 I regret the day I was brought into this.

00:34:38.860 --> 00:34:47.080
 If I could, if a prophet can say that to God, then a preacher can say that to the congregation and wrestle through those emotions and not be hit by lightning.

00:34:47.320 --> 00:34:52.500
 And more importantly, not getting permission, but addressing the people in the room who are wrestling with through that.

00:34:52.500 --> 00:35:04.740
 So we had that need pre-COVID this past year of the pandemic has only accelerated our need to open up the hood and address some of the negative emotions.

00:35:04.980 --> 00:35:08.500
 That we all feel in our human experience.

00:35:08.500 --> 00:35:10.500
 So that's from that.

00:35:10.660 --> 00:35:14.160
 The other thing I think is a helpful takeaway for me for the church.

00:35:14.380 --> 00:35:18.440
 It's just reminding me that everybody, everybody craves spiritual disciplines.

00:35:18.440 --> 00:35:22.300
 So this, again, show, not on demand, right?

00:35:22.680 --> 00:35:23.900
 This was scheduled.

00:35:24.060 --> 00:35:25.940
 Viewing is back, everybody.

00:35:26.340 --> 00:35:27.320
 It's just like the QR code.

00:35:27.380 --> 00:35:27.760
 It's back.

00:35:28.260 --> 00:35:32.020
 And to me, people hung in it and they watched it.

00:35:32.540 --> 00:35:38.540
 So a lot of people woke up at three o'clock in the morning to watch this or, you know, 12 if they were on the West Coast.

00:35:39.560 --> 00:35:52.700
 But beyond like when they're watching, the fact that they will tune in each week and come back to something that's dropping at a particular time, it reinforces the fact that people want to be engaged with disciplines.

00:35:52.700 --> 00:35:58.800
 And they don't want everything in their life just served at them when they want it and on their time and on their schedule.

00:35:59.300 --> 00:36:06.000
 So as a church leader, how can we continue to engage or re-engage our people with some of those disciplines?

00:36:06.320 --> 00:36:07.720
 And saying that you want guardrails.

00:36:07.900 --> 00:36:09.060
 You were built for that.

00:36:09.200 --> 00:36:10.720
 You were designed for that.

00:36:11.100 --> 00:36:12.900
 You thrive off of that.

00:36:13.240 --> 00:36:17.000
 And we as a church are going to go through a 21-day Daniel fast.

00:36:17.080 --> 00:36:20.200
 Or we as a church are going to go through a year-long Bible reading plan.

00:36:20.620 --> 00:36:22.300
 Can it be a slog getting through Leviticus?

00:36:22.520 --> 00:36:23.240
 Heck yes.

00:36:23.240 --> 00:36:28.620
 But at the end of the day, we think you're going to be better for it by pushing yourself to this discipline.

00:36:30.020 --> 00:36:30.460
 Awesome.

00:36:30.640 --> 00:36:32.800
 Well said, Daniel fast.

00:36:33.220 --> 00:36:34.640
 I'll probably do one of those.

00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:35.700
 COVID's been wrong.

00:36:36.320 --> 00:36:38.340
 Hey, I've got some stats here.

00:36:38.700 --> 00:36:39.140
 I'm looking.

00:36:39.440 --> 00:36:42.260
 I've been Googling WandaVision ratings.

00:36:42.740 --> 00:36:48.460
 By the way, before we get there, in a minute, I want to open it up for questions and thoughts and comments from the audience.

00:36:48.560 --> 00:36:50.600
 I like hearing other people talk.

00:36:50.600 --> 00:36:58.060
 So if you guys want to come up to the speaker level, go ahead and hit the hand-raise icon, and I'll get you up here in a little bit.

00:36:58.600 --> 00:37:01.940
 So here I'm reading from Observer.com.

00:37:02.400 --> 00:37:02.760
 All right.

00:37:03.260 --> 00:37:09.800
 So on their respective launches, WandaVision, by the way, this is comparing WandaVision to The Mandalorian.

00:37:10.360 --> 00:37:18.220
 Two Disney Plus properties, both Marvel versus Star Wars, both high-trafficated, one would assume.

00:37:18.320 --> 00:37:31.180
 On their respective launches, WandaVision versus Mandalorian, WandaVision was actually 25% more in demand in the U.S. on the opening day than The Mandalorian was.

00:37:32.920 --> 00:37:42.220
 So the Mandalorian grew significantly more day over day after the release of Episode I.

00:37:42.780 --> 00:37:53.340
 So right off the bat, I don't know the tie-ins to this, open to thought, but WandaVision was 25% more popular than The Mandalorian was at launch.

00:37:53.760 --> 00:38:01.300
 But The Mandalorian had more legs in context of after day one of Episode I.

00:38:02.300 --> 00:38:10.280
 WandaVision flatline, so far, I think this article is dated mid, yeah, WandaVision flatline.

00:38:10.360 --> 00:38:11.640
 Basically, this is all just Episode I.

00:38:11.700 --> 00:38:13.660
 They don't have stats after January 15th.

00:38:13.840 --> 00:38:15.680
 WandaVision Episode I flattened out.

00:38:15.820 --> 00:38:28.400
 It didn't have the legs necessarily because of maybe some of the I Love Lucy or Bewitched, whatever that episode was, hype that wasn't necessarily there compared to Mandalorian's kind of accelerated growth.

00:38:28.400 --> 00:38:34.540
 So any thoughts on that or maybe any closing thoughts before we segue and bring some other audience in?

00:38:35.220 --> 00:38:45.200
 Yeah, The Mandalorian, the first episode, ended with a big cliffhanger in, you know, our Mandalorian friend meeting young Grogu.

00:38:45.560 --> 00:38:50.000
 And so that kind of a cliffhanger automatically gave you FOMO for Episode II.

00:38:50.600 --> 00:39:01.700
 Kind of like I told you guys, and this isn't proof positive of it because obviously there's a lot more stats, but for a lot of folks, those first two episodes, and even Garrett alluded to this, some folks were kind of left on, you know,

00:39:01.700 --> 00:39:11.500
 man, I don't know if I want to keep going because they weren't – those first two pieces of the puzzle that they got together didn't exactly leave them with that cliffhanger of, oh, there's something greater going on beyond the scenes.

00:39:12.260 --> 00:39:15.440
 And so I think that's where some of it's a bit incomplete.

00:39:15.900 --> 00:39:22.860
 But this is the issue when you choose this style of release of going week to week as opposed to releasing the whole bunch at once.

00:39:23.740 --> 00:39:28.260
 So I think that's kind of where some of our takeaway kind of comes from.

00:39:31.560 --> 00:39:34.820
 Garrett, Ray, or Garrett, Ben, anything from you guys before we transition?

00:39:38.360 --> 00:39:44.100
 The last thing I've said, and I'll say it again, is not everything needs to explode.

00:39:44.420 --> 00:39:47.240
 Like, I like watching Ant-Man get 40 feet tall.

00:39:47.380 --> 00:39:47.620
 Yay!

00:39:48.120 --> 00:39:55.640
 And I like the obligatory sky beam that it seems like all the Marvel movies seem to incorporate at some point.

00:39:55.740 --> 00:39:57.200
 Some beam shoots into the sky.

00:39:57.660 --> 00:39:58.480
 Usually it's blue.

00:39:58.880 --> 00:39:59.940
 This time it was red.

00:39:59.940 --> 00:40:09.540
 But we didn't see any of those explosions or head lasers or any of that, those action tropes until the season finale, right?

00:40:09.960 --> 00:40:14.160
 We saw a residential life in the 50s, 60s, and 70s.

00:40:14.240 --> 00:40:17.600
 We saw boring domesticated chores.

00:40:18.220 --> 00:40:28.100
 But I was still intrigued because it was pulling me into a deeper narrative of rich emotions that tapped into an arc that had me compelled because I wanted to see where we go.

00:40:28.460 --> 00:40:34.980
 So to the same way, from a church leader standpoint, everything doesn't need to end on a bang.

00:40:35.580 --> 00:40:39.640
 So, you know, salvation altar calls, they're great.

00:40:40.260 --> 00:40:42.220
 They aren't needed every message.

00:40:42.560 --> 00:40:46.280
 Don't shoehorn them in if that's not where the message is naturally going.

00:40:46.640 --> 00:40:49.800
 Not every worship set needs to end in a crash out.

00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:52.280
 And, you know, energy.

00:40:52.840 --> 00:40:54.960
 Sometimes they can end reflectively.

00:40:55.320 --> 00:40:56.320
 That is good as well.

00:40:56.320 --> 00:40:58.000
 So I think there's a lesson learned there.

00:40:58.680 --> 00:41:04.880
 From a storytelling vantage point, from an experiential vantage point, that the church can pick up on as well.

00:41:06.100 --> 00:41:10.620
 Please make sure that your church members are not looking for Mephisto in all of your church services.

00:41:10.960 --> 00:41:13.000
 That will definitely be an issue.

00:41:14.560 --> 00:41:19.220
 Literally, which one on stage is the devil pretending to be someone else?

00:41:19.300 --> 00:41:21.420
 Who is the devil in sheep's clothing?

00:41:22.120 --> 00:41:24.200
 Let's literally have that conversation.

00:41:24.700 --> 00:41:25.420
 That's funny.

00:41:26.960 --> 00:41:28.100
 Garrett, anything from you?

00:41:29.020 --> 00:41:29.400
 Yeah.

00:41:29.500 --> 00:41:31.500
 I mean, it's a small thing.

00:41:31.640 --> 00:41:33.860
 And Ray and Ben both kind of alluded to it.

00:41:33.940 --> 00:41:43.360
 But I guess one of the things that I'd tag on just as we wrap up is, you know, WandaVision was the first of its kind for Marvel.

00:41:44.040 --> 00:41:54.100
 And it would be easy to look at the numbers and compare it to the Mandalorian and say that it may have had bigger onset numbers, but didn't last as long.

00:41:54.760 --> 00:41:59.260
 And so, you know, there's going to be the comparison of, all right, so which one is the more impactful?

00:41:59.720 --> 00:42:01.660
 Was it the Mandalorian or was it WandaVision?

00:42:02.020 --> 00:42:08.160
 And then transferring that to churches, is it more impactful to get the numbers on day one?

00:42:08.420 --> 00:42:12.100
 Or is it more impactful to get the consistent numbers regularly?

00:42:13.100 --> 00:42:21.380
 And so I'd say just don't get so wrapped up in the numbers, but more in the impact that comes off of the experience as a whole.

00:42:21.900 --> 00:42:32.320
 As you're crafting experiences, as you're thinking through how you engage the newcomers in your church, don't just get so wrapped up in just the one occurrence or just the one interaction.

00:42:32.780 --> 00:42:36.040
 But look at the church's interaction with the congregation as a whole.

00:42:36.660 --> 00:42:37.920
 Yeah, well said.

00:42:38.340 --> 00:42:39.780
 You know, there's a lot said to be simple.

00:42:40.440 --> 00:42:42.520
 You know, Mephisto was not in the show.

00:42:43.100 --> 00:42:47.620
 The storylines, I mean, in the grand scheme of things, was not that complicated.

00:42:47.800 --> 00:42:57.600
 It had the four main actors, Wanda, Vision, the two kids, throwing the nosy next door neighbor, ended up being the husband.

00:42:57.960 --> 00:43:02.780
 I mean, maybe two or three bit actors kind of cast in from the outside.

00:43:02.780 --> 00:43:12.040
 In the grand scheme of storylines, the MCU fans were looking for far more twists and turns and controversy and wanted to over-create it.

00:43:12.080 --> 00:43:16.840
 At the end of the day, it was a very simple story of a woman's grief.

00:43:16.960 --> 00:43:23.820
 Maybe wrapped in a whole bunch of other things like, oh my gosh, that's really Quicksilver from the other universe.

00:43:24.000 --> 00:43:24.620
 This is crazy.

00:43:24.720 --> 00:43:25.340
 I don't know.

00:43:25.460 --> 00:43:26.600
 That's all just a joke.

00:43:27.420 --> 00:43:28.400
 It's just a play.

00:43:28.500 --> 00:43:29.700
 Once again, Marvel's tricking.

00:43:29.780 --> 00:43:33.520
 It really was just a simple story towards it.

00:43:33.520 --> 00:43:34.580
 So, love that.

00:43:34.660 --> 00:43:35.560
 Hey, let's open it up.

00:43:35.820 --> 00:43:36.980
 We'll get to Addison in a second.

00:43:37.140 --> 00:43:43.180
 But if there's other people that have thoughts they want to share or speak to this in the audience, would love to have you use the hand-raised feature.

00:43:43.280 --> 00:43:43.800
 We'll bring you up.

00:43:43.920 --> 00:43:45.760
 But Addison, what do you think?

00:43:45.800 --> 00:43:46.820
 And what are some thoughts on this?

00:43:47.820 --> 00:43:48.880
 Thanks for getting me right up.

00:43:48.960 --> 00:43:50.620
 I'm trying to squeeze in before youth group.

00:43:51.660 --> 00:43:53.820
 So, we're right up against it here.

00:43:54.900 --> 00:44:01.700
 Anyway, I just feel like there was so much about this show that I think we could learn from, especially in post-COVID church.

00:44:01.700 --> 00:44:07.760
 And that's because of the relational capital Marvel has built with its audience.

00:44:08.000 --> 00:44:11.820
 They were able to tell this story however they wanted to tell this story.

00:44:12.380 --> 00:44:22.020
 So, when we talk about episodes one and two and the way they told it and choosing to just be kind of weirdly boring and not lead with stuff.

00:44:22.020 --> 00:44:31.640
 They were under none of the pressures of a typical TV schedule where you have to do numbers quick or you risk not getting renewed or anything like that.

00:44:32.180 --> 00:44:36.940
 And it's interesting, somebody just talked about, do you focus on the numbers or whatever?

00:44:37.400 --> 00:44:42.980
 And it's interesting because the structure was basically they allowed professionals to be professionals.

00:44:43.180 --> 00:44:45.240
 The writers of the show wrote the show they wanted to write.

00:44:45.480 --> 00:44:49.780
 The Kevin Feige's of the world laid out the show they wanted to lay out.

00:44:49.780 --> 00:44:53.620
 And they just did it as really just an art form.

00:44:54.160 --> 00:44:59.440
 And I think it's interesting because when we talk about COVID, a lot of us lost touch with people.

00:44:59.560 --> 00:45:07.540
 But if we really audited that, we would say, I was losing touch with them before but COVID accelerated it.

00:45:07.780 --> 00:45:15.680
 And I think when we talk about relational capital and the value of it, Marvel was able to tell the story they wanted to tell and do the things they wanted to do.

00:45:15.680 --> 00:45:23.140
 And trust that the audience would go through them with it because they've spent 13 movies investing in our creative relationship, if you will.

00:45:23.740 --> 00:45:32.980
 And I think there's definitely something to learn there in the church of the time to, I don't know, the time to lean on your relationships isn't when you're going to stretch them.

00:45:33.120 --> 00:45:36.300
 It's when in the good seasons, if you will.

00:45:36.940 --> 00:45:45.700
 And we all want the opportunity to maybe tell a story a different way or go a different direction or something.

00:45:45.880 --> 00:45:49.540
 But I think it requires us to put the work in.

00:45:49.980 --> 00:45:54.340
 And the one thing I just loved about the show is how much it was artists being artists.

00:45:54.340 --> 00:46:01.180
 But they were able to do it because they were Marvel and because they've churned out 13, you know, 415.

00:46:01.320 --> 00:46:02.260
 I'm not sure the exact number.

00:46:02.360 --> 00:46:04.800
 But they, you know, they built it up over time.

00:46:05.060 --> 00:46:09.680
 And we were there with them, even though we got to the end of episode two and went like, hey, did anything happen?

00:46:09.960 --> 00:46:11.500
 Like, you know.

00:46:12.980 --> 00:46:16.460
 Yeah, I think it's more like 26 or 28 movies at this point.

00:46:16.800 --> 00:46:18.540
 It's in the high 20s.

00:46:18.920 --> 00:46:19.640
 But you're right.

00:46:20.640 --> 00:46:21.820
 And it was funny.

00:46:21.920 --> 00:46:28.140
 I said to Ray, I love the fact that the origin story for Wanda rolled out this way.

00:46:28.540 --> 00:46:32.160
 It means, because we really didn't know that much about her previous of this.

00:46:32.160 --> 00:46:41.900
 And if we told this story when we weren't emotionally connected to Wanda like we were in this format, I don't think it would have had the leverage.

00:46:42.520 --> 00:46:45.300
 I don't think the pain would have meant this much.

00:46:45.420 --> 00:46:55.840
 And so part of trusting, of creating that story is having a creative idea and expressing it in a way, trusting your teams, trusting your writers.

00:46:56.780 --> 00:47:01.220
 You know, and even in the early days of MCU, there was not that trust.

00:47:01.220 --> 00:47:08.000
 There was some organizational interference that really was kind of separating Feige from the vision that he had.

00:47:08.280 --> 00:47:13.640
 And so there was an organizational restructure that allowed Feige to run with it.

00:47:14.000 --> 00:47:26.560
 And it's at that point where, I mean, just like you have individual trust where you lead by title and then position and you work your way up in building that trust organizationally.

00:47:26.560 --> 00:47:37.120
 I think we're seeing an organization in Marvel that has built that trust within their lead creatives, within their writers, within their actors, within their people.

00:47:37.720 --> 00:47:41.440
 And so they have that culture of trust that goes a long way in expressing it.

00:47:41.820 --> 00:47:44.120
 As a church, I know that's a hard thing to do.

00:47:44.200 --> 00:47:46.860
 It's hard to create that level of trust.

00:47:47.100 --> 00:47:55.960
 It's hard to have a down week when there's, you know, every service is 167 hours away or less from the last service.

00:47:56.060 --> 00:48:00.460
 And so there's always that tension of what's coming in that next Sunday.

00:48:00.840 --> 00:48:07.840
 And sometimes it's more of, I've got to just get this done instead of thinking what the long game could be.

00:48:07.840 --> 00:48:12.260
 And so there's, obviously, there's got to be tensions in working that through a church, I would imagine.

00:48:12.720 --> 00:48:19.840
 How do you guys at CF, how do you deal with that tension of, man, there's always another one coming up in that 167 hours.

00:48:20.520 --> 00:48:26.720
 It's right around the corner versus trying to think long term and some of the long play with the weekend.

00:48:27.440 --> 00:48:28.620
 I think it's hard to.

00:48:28.720 --> 00:48:31.080
 And I'll let Ben kind of tackle that a little bit more.

00:48:31.080 --> 00:48:40.920
 But one of the things that I wanted to address, because I thought Addison brought this up, you know, great in terms of the buildup is it what WandaVision also did was add value to old content.

00:48:41.140 --> 00:48:50.220
 You know how many people I know that went back and watched Age of Ultron again, just because of this show, because they were like, man, I need to go back and refresh.

00:48:50.580 --> 00:49:09.900
 And so, you know, our message archives, you know, that all that content that we spent, that we spend so many hours in creating in terms of how we can point back to that and refer back to that and kind of encourage people to somewhat binge watch, but also kind of connect the dots between where we're going as a church is huge.

00:49:09.900 --> 00:49:26.200
 You know, and I think if we could find ways to leverage weekend content to even leverage past content too, that would be something that's pretty powerful and also point to the fact that, look, we've got established relational and even storytelling or even preaching capital here that we want you to go back and refer to as well.

00:49:26.400 --> 00:49:28.000
 And that's why we keep that there for you.

00:49:29.440 --> 00:49:39.420
 Another way to avoid that, just the redundancy and the death by repetition is I like to, you know, coming back to the comparison.

00:49:39.580 --> 00:49:43.340
 I know my audio is wonky, so if it is wonky, just cut me off, guys, and I'll stop.

00:49:43.440 --> 00:49:44.520
 But if it's good, I'll keep going.

00:49:44.860 --> 00:49:48.440
 But looking again at Disney and how they tentpole things, right?

00:49:48.440 --> 00:49:56.500
 And so they'll have major movies in their story arc with phase one, two, three, and four.

00:49:56.680 --> 00:50:05.380
 But then they'll have other ones that are like this, that it doesn't need to be the epic endgame finale that we've been waiting for for 10 years.

00:50:05.800 --> 00:50:14.700
 And so for the same way in terms of service planning or event planning, I look at it the same way there with, okay, you got your Easter, Christmas, Mother's Day, and fall kickoff.

00:50:14.700 --> 00:50:18.720
 Those are your tentpoles, and let's put a lot of effort into those experiences.

00:50:19.300 --> 00:50:26.420
 And let's not try to compete against ourselves in the one-upmanship of every weekend.

00:50:26.600 --> 00:50:29.540
 If so, that's a recipe for burnout and fatigue.

00:50:30.080 --> 00:50:32.760
 But let's keep those big tent poles ahead of us.

00:50:33.100 --> 00:50:42.520
 Another big one for us is our At The Movies series, which is happening in August, and we already started planning for that because we want that to be a spectacular experience on-site and online.

00:50:42.740 --> 00:50:44.500
 So we will plan for it accordingly.

00:50:46.560 --> 00:50:47.000
 Awesome.

00:50:47.480 --> 00:50:49.300
 Hey, we've just got a couple more minutes.

00:50:49.640 --> 00:50:51.680
 I do have a hard stop at 6 Eastern.

00:50:51.780 --> 00:50:52.700
 I apologize for that.

00:50:52.800 --> 00:50:54.920
 Chesley, you wanted to say something.

00:50:55.000 --> 00:50:55.460
 What are you thinking?

00:50:55.980 --> 00:50:59.100
 Yeah, I know you guys hit on this a little while ago.

00:50:59.100 --> 00:51:08.140
 But there's some real power in storytelling, and I don't think a lot of churches harness that well.

00:51:08.940 --> 00:51:23.900
 I think we're so concerned about biblical accuracy that we sometimes lose the richness of the humanity of the people that we're teaching about in Scripture and the people we're teaching to out in the audience.

00:51:23.900 --> 00:51:31.340
 And so story kind of bridges the gap for everyone beyond generations and even beyond eras.

00:51:31.680 --> 00:51:44.420
 And I think there's something to be said about what Disney has done with the MCU and with WandaVision, of being able to harness story to be able to tell some real intricate and sometimes difficult truths.

00:51:45.420 --> 00:51:45.980
 Amen.

00:51:46.260 --> 00:51:47.260
 I'm going to affirm that.

00:51:47.460 --> 00:51:55.880
 And not only the stories, they did a phenomenal job of, I'll say this, we love telling coming to salvation stories, right?

00:51:56.140 --> 00:51:57.460
 Jesus saved me.

00:51:57.560 --> 00:51:59.640
 So like oftentimes we'll share that at our baptisms.

00:51:59.840 --> 00:52:06.360
 But it's harder for us to share the sanctification stories that he's continuing to save me because that's a little messy.

00:52:06.840 --> 00:52:11.260
 It's easy to say, oh yeah, in the past that was bad, but Jesus did something, now I'm good.

00:52:11.480 --> 00:52:15.440
 It's harder to say, I still have anger issues that I'm working on right now.

00:52:15.840 --> 00:52:18.740
 And he worked on me this past week and I did not yell at my wife.

00:52:19.620 --> 00:52:20.380
 And that was a good thing.

00:52:20.720 --> 00:52:21.940
 That's a little more embarrassing.

00:52:22.540 --> 00:52:27.940
 But it gives God the glory because he didn't just save us, he is continuing to save us.

00:52:28.340 --> 00:52:33.420
 And then bringing this back full circle in relationship to WandaVision, right?

00:52:33.540 --> 00:52:40.560
 We didn't just see this story of her becoming a superhero, but we saw the story of her wrestling with her powers while she is a superhero.

00:52:41.020 --> 00:52:47.560
 And so what does it mean for her to continue to push towards the good even after she has established herself as a superhero?

00:52:47.920 --> 00:52:50.820
 I love that aspect of the story and you pointing that out.

00:52:52.360 --> 00:53:06.520
 And just to follow up and affirm that really quickly, I know we're running out of time, but I mean, even from past experience, personally, at our Church Christ Fellowship, we didn't have someone to do exactly what you were saying, Chesley, to harness those stories.

00:53:06.740 --> 00:53:12.180
 And so our stories were good, but we weren't really emphasizing the heart of people's stories.

00:53:12.280 --> 00:53:17.300
 We weren't getting their true heart out of when we would tell them to share something or ask them to share something.

00:53:17.820 --> 00:53:26.320
 And so we hired someone just for that, for helping find a story, then talking to that person and helping that person tell their own story.

00:53:26.780 --> 00:53:36.200
 And we saw the impact that it had on the stories that were coming out of our own people, not our staff, not of our engaged volunteers, but just even out of the congregation.

00:53:36.740 --> 00:53:49.820
 That person that was sat there, heard, hey, this was a cool thing that happened, talked to that person and got more in-depth, was able to help that person tell their story, tell their testimony, and talk about the impact that came out of it.

00:53:52.340 --> 00:53:53.120
 That's awesome.

00:53:54.040 --> 00:53:58.200
 Yeah, excited to see how Christ Fellowship is leveraging some of these things.

00:53:58.480 --> 00:54:05.820
 And as a team, how you're creating this content on the weekend, pre-production, what goes into it, focusing more on the story.

00:54:06.000 --> 00:54:18.780
 I know there's always the tension of, you know, always the high energy rolling in from the worship set into the message, the message always having the invitation at the end.

00:54:19.000 --> 00:54:23.380
 You know, that tension exists in every church, physical and digital.

00:54:23.560 --> 00:54:26.360
 And there's so many voices speaking into it.

00:54:26.360 --> 00:54:40.980
 And there's always going to be that tension, right, of how to keep everybody happy, how to succeed, but at the same time, not just live week to week, but look long-term at the endgame, at the long playout.

00:54:41.280 --> 00:54:45.600
 Honestly, for me, that's the win in a Marvel context.

00:54:45.940 --> 00:54:50.220
 We've had all sorts of little conversations here and big conversations here.

00:54:50.600 --> 00:55:03.180
 But this idea of having it roll out long-term, where there's intentional plans and developments of stories and focusing on this, focusing on that, seeing how they work together.

00:55:04.080 --> 00:55:09.460
 And a lot of that does come with, and this gets even back to some of the stuff that Addison was talking about.

00:55:09.600 --> 00:55:10.620
 There's trust.

00:55:11.060 --> 00:55:12.420
 There's trust among the team.

00:55:13.680 --> 00:55:21.280
 You know, even wrestling with things like COVID and this, they've figured out ways to create the things they needed to create with excellence.

00:55:22.160 --> 00:55:31.200
 Barring, once again, Paul Bettany making some joke about this excellent actor that ended up trolling us and just being him, that'll never die down, Paul Bettany.

00:55:31.480 --> 00:55:34.140
 You will be cursed with that for life, as far as I can tell.

00:55:34.760 --> 00:55:38.740
 Not to mention, let's be honest, aside from MCU, he really hasn't done that much stuff.

00:55:38.800 --> 00:55:42.440
 Except maybe Knight's Tale, but that's a whole other conversation.

00:55:42.820 --> 00:55:43.540
 So, hey.

00:55:43.800 --> 00:55:45.640
 Do not besmirch his good name, Jeff.

00:55:45.860 --> 00:55:46.320
 Do not.

00:55:47.120 --> 00:55:47.520
 Really?

00:55:48.240 --> 00:55:50.200
 I mean, we're all Paul Bettany fans in here.

00:55:50.200 --> 00:55:53.320
 We can't say, dude, you've really not done that much with your career?

00:55:53.800 --> 00:55:54.520
 Just a little bit.

00:55:54.660 --> 00:55:56.580
 I mean, Paul Bettany's a really good actor.

00:55:57.100 --> 00:55:58.080
 But just, yeah.

00:55:58.720 --> 00:55:59.460
 He's a good actor.

00:55:59.540 --> 00:56:00.560
 He's an incredible actor.

00:56:01.120 --> 00:56:02.300
 Tell me something he's done.

00:56:02.660 --> 00:56:04.100
 Like, just give me some acknowledgement.

00:56:04.560 --> 00:56:07.200
 His resume is lacking.

00:56:07.380 --> 00:56:08.200
 Let's just say it that way.

00:56:08.240 --> 00:56:11.180
 Let's quote from Knight's Tale to Wrap.

00:56:11.480 --> 00:56:13.800
 His resume, well, it's just lacking.

00:56:14.660 --> 00:56:15.680
 Well, I mean, come on.

00:56:15.720 --> 00:56:17.360
 Let's not start the Paul Bettany hate show.

00:56:17.480 --> 00:56:17.780
 Come on.

00:56:17.900 --> 00:56:19.580
 But let's keep it positive here.

00:56:19.580 --> 00:56:24.900
 Because I enjoyed Knight's Tale, and I enjoyed Wimbledon, which is probably the only other movie that I know him from.

00:56:24.900 --> 00:56:30.220
 And then every bit of Jarvis to Vision, to White Vision, to whatever it is that he's become.

00:56:30.920 --> 00:56:32.980
 Well, he's in the Da Vinci Code, too, guys.

00:56:33.080 --> 00:56:33.580
 Come on.

00:56:34.940 --> 00:56:35.620
 Oh, but come on.

00:56:35.680 --> 00:56:37.540
 Tom Hanks' hair killed the Da Vinci Code.

00:56:37.600 --> 00:56:38.260
 Let's be honest.

00:56:40.040 --> 00:56:54.940
 Alright, so for the man who has been a voice with no body, a body but not human, a memory and walking, and who knows what version for, and the White Knight or whatever that is.

00:56:54.940 --> 00:57:00.960
 The antithesis of Batman, Paul Bettany, I apologize for mocking you on the show.

00:57:01.760 --> 00:57:04.100
 Hey, Ray, I'll give you 10 seconds.

00:57:04.200 --> 00:57:04.680
 I've got to wrap.

00:57:04.740 --> 00:57:05.120
 What are you thinking?

00:57:06.780 --> 00:57:14.160
 As far as WandaVision is concerned, listen, I can't wait to see what kind of other storytelling methods that they're going to pursue.

00:57:14.160 --> 00:57:22.040
 I know we're thinking that the next one is going to be more action-packed than Falcon and Winter Soldier, but Loki's right around the corner coming up in June.

00:57:22.240 --> 00:57:29.520
 And so I can't wait to see how they're going to explore different types of storytelling utilizing Loki because of the credibility that they built up in WandaVision.

00:57:30.600 --> 00:57:41.240
 Churches, I don't know how we're going to integrate this into this Sunday or this Easter, but long-term, let's consider to how we can change it up and trust our audience and continue to build up credibility, as Addison had told us earlier.

00:57:42.260 --> 00:57:42.660
 Awesome.

00:57:42.800 --> 00:57:45.420
 Hey, we're going to be doing a conversation tomorrow.

00:57:46.060 --> 00:57:48.720
 What happens if we blow up small groups and start from scratch?

00:57:49.120 --> 00:57:50.440
 What could our small groups look like?

00:57:50.580 --> 00:57:54.520
 And so for more information on that, check out thechurch.digital.clubhouse.

00:57:54.560 --> 00:57:57.300
 There's links and information at that point.

00:57:57.840 --> 00:58:00.940
 And we do this regularly on Thursdays at 5 Eastern.

00:58:01.140 --> 00:58:03.040
 So, hey, thanks for joining this.

00:58:03.320 --> 00:58:04.260
 This was fun.

00:58:04.820 --> 00:58:09.720
 For Ben, for Ray, for Garrett, Chesley, and Addison, thanks for jumping on here as well.

00:58:09.820 --> 00:58:11.220
 This is Jeff with the Church Digital.

00:58:11.440 --> 00:58:13.040
 And Stadia Church Planning.

00:58:13.100 --> 00:58:13.640
 We're going to wrap.

00:58:13.740 --> 00:58:14.260
 I got to go.

00:58:14.380 --> 00:58:16.820
 And we're going to see you next time here on Clubhouse.

00:58:16.900 --> 00:58:17.380
 Y'all have a good day.

