WEBVTT 00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:06.260 Beta Show, episode 23 here. You got Jeff with the Church Digital Podcast once again, and this is my favorite part. 00:00:06.320 --> 00:00:11.080 Once again, it's powered by Stadia Church Planting. This is a hard question. 00:00:11.340 --> 00:00:19.780 It's funny, when I talk with digital pastors, when I talk with online pastors, when I talk with executive pastors, lead pastors, I ask this question a lot. 00:00:20.240 --> 00:00:25.660 Honestly, and it didn't even, this question didn't come from me. This came from Greg Nettle, president of Stadia. 00:00:25.660 --> 00:00:34.300 He asked me early on in the COVID season, hey, Jeff, where are you seeing the tangible presence of God move in our churches online? 00:00:35.040 --> 00:00:39.420 And, you know, it's funny, the first time he asked me that, and he's asked me that actually multiple times. 00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:41.840 It's not like that's an intimidating question or anything. 00:00:42.060 --> 00:00:50.640 But when he asks me, you know, the first time I was like hemming and hawing and talking about, you know, reach, talking about numbers of viewers online. 00:00:50.640 --> 00:00:55.640 And, you know, is that, are we really seeing God move? Do we know enough about these people at that point? 00:00:56.240 --> 00:01:02.180 To even acknowledge and to see that God's moving. We don't even know who those people are when we're watching the online services. 00:01:02.280 --> 00:01:08.380 And maybe I'm talking about small groups, and maybe, I don't, look, I don't want to judge how God is moving in your churches. 00:01:08.880 --> 00:01:14.720 But what I do want to say is, is early on in this COVID season, and even now that we're maybe possibly coming out of this thing, 00:01:15.620 --> 00:01:22.040 there's still, the question rises, what does it look like to see God move digitally? 00:01:22.300 --> 00:01:24.880 To see God move in our churches online. 00:01:24.880 --> 00:01:29.480 To see God move in our digital-only expressions of church. 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:31.420 And so I wanted to do a clubhouse. 00:01:31.520 --> 00:01:42.360 I wanted to bring some guys together, because I started hearing some echoes of some major movements of God that were based partially or entirely in a digital space. 00:01:42.780 --> 00:01:51.420 And so I wanted to ask, listen, I heard a lead pastor literally say the words, digital revival, coupled together in the same sentence. 00:01:51.600 --> 00:01:53.880 Like, that's how serious they were. 00:01:54.040 --> 00:02:04.220 It's, man, God is doing something in our digital space, and we should just step back and watch and continue to join him where he's moving. 00:02:04.760 --> 00:02:06.400 And so here's what I wanted to do. 00:02:06.460 --> 00:02:12.160 I brought three digital pastors, three pastors, different roles, different expressions into the conversation here. 00:02:12.220 --> 00:02:16.420 I brought Andrew Bolton, who's from Long Hollow Church in Nashville. 00:02:16.420 --> 00:02:23.380 And they actually were the ones that utilized this word, digital revival, and coupled those together in the same sentence. 00:02:23.480 --> 00:02:24.980 And so we'll talk more about that in a little bit. 00:02:25.400 --> 00:02:35.300 Tyler Volkers, who's on staff with the Ridge Church up in Wisconsin, as well as Tyler Sansom from First Capital Christian, excuse me, from Church Anywhere, 00:02:35.380 --> 00:02:40.260 which is a digital-only church that's coupled with First Capital Christian in Cordon, Indiana. 00:02:40.780 --> 00:02:45.260 Tyler's no, excuse me, Tyler Sansom's no stranger to the podcast, been on a lot. 00:02:45.620 --> 00:02:53.460 Tyler Volkers and Andrew are new, but are solid in some of the stuff they're doing in ministry, solid in their digital approach. 00:02:53.480 --> 00:03:00.840 Now, what's interesting is this digital revival, how we're seeing God move, you know, it's not only in the digital space. 00:03:01.040 --> 00:03:05.660 It carries over into physical, or physical kind of carries over into digital. 00:03:05.780 --> 00:03:08.220 And so you're starting to see this fidgetal approach. 00:03:08.740 --> 00:03:09.880 Yes, I did say fidgetal. 00:03:10.260 --> 00:03:15.740 And seeing God move in fidgetal spaces, physical and digital. 00:03:16.560 --> 00:03:21.320 So here for the conversation, I'm bringing in Andrew, Tyler, and Tyler, that's Tyler squared. 00:03:21.460 --> 00:03:24.680 And myself, Jeff, with the Church Digital and Stadia Church Planting. 00:03:24.860 --> 00:03:30.040 In a conversation that I'm simply calling digital revival, or seeing God move fidgetally. 00:03:30.460 --> 00:03:31.760 Okay, everybody, here you go. 00:03:32.640 --> 00:03:33.520 Yeah, man, for sure. 00:03:33.520 --> 00:03:40.760 So Long Hollow, we're a church just outside of Nashville, Tennessee, in a city called Hendersonville. 00:03:41.220 --> 00:03:42.860 We're a multi-campus church. 00:03:42.940 --> 00:03:43.660 We have two campuses. 00:03:44.620 --> 00:03:55.580 Then, like everybody else, you know, COVID happened, and we had to go from streaming a service to building a digital strategy in the air while flying the plane at the same time. 00:03:56.060 --> 00:04:00.920 So I stepped into this role in July from being one of our student pastors for over a decade. 00:04:01.640 --> 00:04:12.720 And, man, I'll tell you what, it has been so exciting, you know, just since July to do this and see how God is moving in spite of myself and not having a clue what I'm doing. 00:04:13.020 --> 00:04:15.200 So, man, God is good, and it's been a fun ride. 00:04:15.860 --> 00:04:16.840 That's awesome. 00:04:16.840 --> 00:04:30.880 And really, the spark for this whole conversation, I was listening to a podcast that was sponsored by the church, Long Hollow, and they literally use digital revival in the title. 00:04:31.340 --> 00:04:35.120 And that, you know, oh, my gosh, what's going on over at Long Hollow? 00:04:35.280 --> 00:04:39.980 And so interested, and we'll get to some of that here with the conversation. 00:04:40.380 --> 00:04:41.800 Let's do Tyler Volkers next. 00:04:41.960 --> 00:04:49.260 Tyler, you're at Ridge Community Church and have been part of what you guys have been doing in this COVID season and love what I'm seeing. 00:04:49.400 --> 00:04:56.380 So maybe share a little bit about what ministries look like for you guys here mid-post-COVID over at Ridge Community. 00:04:56.940 --> 00:04:58.000 Yeah, thanks, Jeff. 00:04:58.500 --> 00:05:11.460 Yeah, name's Tyler Volkers, been on staff at the Ridge Community Church for about 11 years now, started as our student pastor, was serving as our next-gen director and kind of the Oak Creek executive pastor. 00:05:11.680 --> 00:05:13.240 Oak Creek is our smaller, newer campus. 00:05:14.160 --> 00:05:23.520 The Ridge before COVID, and then COVID happened during 2020, I was asked to shift my role to be our, we call it the online campus pastor, 00:05:23.520 --> 00:05:30.220 to learn, hey, how do we put more leadership resources and strategy to doing digital ministry? 00:05:30.420 --> 00:05:32.980 And so connected with Jeff through Stadia. 00:05:33.860 --> 00:05:34.700 It's been awesome. 00:05:34.820 --> 00:05:35.680 It's been a wild ride. 00:05:36.640 --> 00:05:43.640 We now currently, we have one physical location that is meeting, and as well as our online campus. 00:05:44.120 --> 00:05:48.500 And I'm currently serving as our executive director of ministries, as well as the online campus pastor. 00:05:48.500 --> 00:05:58.600 And it's still a wild ride now to see both working in tandem together has been really, really fun to watch that start to unfold now. 00:05:59.860 --> 00:06:05.180 Yeah, fun is just the beginning of maybe describing what that looks like. 00:06:05.400 --> 00:06:20.800 And seeing a church like Ridge Community here adjust, they were doing some digital before, but as a result of COVID, you know, have really amped up some intentionality and getting to this place of multiplying and exploring different options. 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:24.620 It's been awesome to see a church evolve through that. 00:06:24.740 --> 00:06:37.660 Also, another awesome church to kind of look at from afar and learn lessons, Tyler Sansom, church anywhere lead pastor on executive leadership, a first capital Christian. 00:06:38.460 --> 00:06:41.840 In the season, recently went, and I think this is safe to say, right? 00:06:41.840 --> 00:06:56.420 Like, you were a church online pastor, but as a result of COVID and seeing maybe some expansion in ministry, you guys have launched like a separate digital-only church through First Capital Christian. 00:06:56.580 --> 00:06:58.360 Tyler, you want to maybe share a little bit about that? 00:06:59.500 --> 00:06:59.780 Sure. 00:06:59.780 --> 00:07:19.840 Yeah, so I have been the engagement pastor, which was our way of calling me an online pastor, for about four years, and then COVID hit, and it gave us an opportunity to do something that we wanted to do for a while of kind of fully staffing a digital church and going all in on that. 00:07:19.840 --> 00:07:33.720 So for the last year and a few months, or a year and a month or so, I have been the lead pastor of a fully digital church that's staffed for just digital and micro sites. 00:07:35.800 --> 00:07:50.040 Yeah, so this is going to be great because, Tyler, in your literal environment where you're preaching the gospel and where you're seeing growth is in digital space or digital space that's feeding into micro locations. 00:07:50.400 --> 00:07:57.020 And so I think this will be an interesting conversation as we're stepping back and really looking and seeing, hey, how's God moving digitally? 00:07:57.180 --> 00:07:59.040 How is God moving fidgetally? 00:07:59.180 --> 00:08:00.240 What does that look like? 00:08:00.300 --> 00:08:04.360 Well, let me start with Andrew, maybe describing a little bit here. 00:08:04.900 --> 00:08:11.380 Andrew, you used the phrase, or not you, your senior pastor, Robbie Gallaty, in a podcast, Making Disciples. 00:08:12.580 --> 00:08:16.160 We'll throw it in the show notes if you're watching this on podcast or listening later. 00:08:16.600 --> 00:08:23.980 But he used the phrase digital revival, talking about what's happening at Long Hollow. 00:08:23.980 --> 00:08:37.100 And what I know of Robbie and some of the seriousness of how he treats church, the gospel, even the phrase revival, I know that's not a light phrase or a phrase that he throws around. 00:08:37.100 --> 00:08:45.680 As a matter of fact, pre-COVID, I know that he wasn't necessarily even a fan of digital ministry in context of being physical only. 00:08:46.320 --> 00:08:54.160 So tell me a little bit here, like, what are you seeing coming out of, why is he using this phrase digital revival? 00:08:54.300 --> 00:08:57.380 What's happening at Long Hollow that makes him use that? 00:08:58.180 --> 00:08:58.540 Yeah, man. 00:08:58.640 --> 00:09:07.960 So, man, I think just in general, right now in the season of our church for the past 16 weeks or so, God's just been doing something really special. 00:09:09.060 --> 00:09:18.060 Not only, you know, church wide, but in my heart personally, you know, in the leadership's hearts personally, and this revival kind of broke out in our own lives. 00:09:18.060 --> 00:09:23.300 And then God has just done something that is, man, pastor said it best this way. 00:09:23.360 --> 00:09:27.340 He said, there's nothing, nothing more exciting than telling a story you don't fully understand. 00:09:28.120 --> 00:09:42.080 And when it comes to, like, I can't explain the revival going on physically right now, but then the reason he started talking about this digital revival is we started seeing people all of a sudden start flying in from Montana, North Carolina. 00:09:42.080 --> 00:09:46.400 I could go on and on and on, 12 different states so far to be baptized. 00:09:47.860 --> 00:09:53.400 And they were surrendering their life to Christ and just all these unbelievable stories that were coming out of that. 00:09:53.760 --> 00:09:57.940 And then we started having people reach out, hey, I'm here and I'd like to be baptized. 00:09:58.120 --> 00:10:01.780 And, you know, people truly surrender their lives to the Lord from all over the country. 00:10:01.980 --> 00:10:05.400 So all of a sudden we saw this revival break out in our church. 00:10:05.400 --> 00:10:14.840 And then the story started rolling in of people who don't live anywhere close to us, who God was just doing something unbelievable in their life through salvation. 00:10:15.300 --> 00:10:22.060 Or maybe they already had a relationship with Jesus and they just wanted to follow through in obedience and how that was playing out into their life as a whole. 00:10:23.420 --> 00:10:32.280 Is that something that, like, you guys were preaching revival in the physical space and it just trickled over to digital environments? 00:10:32.280 --> 00:10:34.200 Oh, no, no, no, dude. 00:10:34.460 --> 00:10:35.360 That's the thing. 00:10:35.700 --> 00:10:40.000 Like, we, you know, I stepped into this role in July. 00:10:40.520 --> 00:10:41.880 So, you know, not very long. 00:10:42.560 --> 00:10:45.660 And sure, we're trying to come up with strategy and all this stuff. 00:10:45.900 --> 00:10:51.520 But, I mean, God's just doing something in spite of our strategy or lack thereof. 00:10:51.760 --> 00:10:55.360 You know, he is just, he's calling people to himself. 00:10:55.860 --> 00:10:58.520 And we weren't preaching it. 00:10:58.640 --> 00:11:02.240 Man, so it started, it was kind of a twofold thing. 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:07.380 So, we had this guy named Dylan who actually grew up in our student ministry. 00:11:07.980 --> 00:11:16.620 He turned away from the church and turned to being a full-fledged Satan worshiper because of these students at our church. 00:11:16.760 --> 00:11:19.240 He said that, which that's hard to say. 00:11:19.340 --> 00:11:20.940 You know, you really got to humble yourself to say that. 00:11:21.020 --> 00:11:30.620 But he said he would come to church on a Wednesday night, then he would go to school, and he would see how students, you know, would get all amped up for Jesus on a Wednesday night. 00:11:30.620 --> 00:11:35.920 And they'd go live like he did and everybody else who doesn't know Jesus at school all the time. 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:38.000 And he would see the parents allow them to do that. 00:11:38.080 --> 00:11:41.140 He said, if that's what Christianity is, I don't want anything to do with that. 00:11:41.680 --> 00:11:45.400 So, he full-fledged worshipped Satan for years. 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:53.620 And then God started working on his life, and he found himself back at Long Hollow as an adult now, and he surrendered his life to the Lord. 00:11:54.180 --> 00:11:56.940 And then he followed through in believers' baptism. 00:11:57.580 --> 00:12:04.460 And then a couple weeks later, he brought another girl with him who was also a Satan worshiper. 00:12:04.900 --> 00:12:06.380 She surrendered her life to the Lord. 00:12:07.080 --> 00:12:08.660 She followed through in baptism. 00:12:09.080 --> 00:12:14.100 And then it was that same day this tragedy happened in our community. 00:12:14.800 --> 00:12:22.540 And this family that goes to our church, somebody had actually murdered the wife and nine-year-old son. 00:12:23.260 --> 00:12:29.700 And through that process, the dad, who's a friend of mine now, he gave his life to the Lord. 00:12:30.120 --> 00:12:34.680 And the same day that that second girl got baptized, he got baptized as well. 00:12:35.180 --> 00:12:41.780 And the Lord just put on Pastor Robbie's heart, I need to call for spontaneous baptism, which freaks us out. 00:12:41.940 --> 00:12:42.480 You know what I'm saying? 00:12:42.640 --> 00:12:45.580 Like, how can we prepare for this? 00:12:46.140 --> 00:12:49.560 And that day, I mean, it was like 100 people got baptized. 00:12:50.120 --> 00:12:54.260 And God just exploded this movement ever since then. 00:12:54.320 --> 00:12:56.400 And we've seen just people come to the Lord. 00:12:56.640 --> 00:13:01.740 And then out of that, it started rolling in these stories from God doing the same thing from all over the country. 00:13:02.600 --> 00:13:05.900 So the physical, I'm just trying to unpack here. 00:13:05.960 --> 00:13:12.700 The physical baptized at one point, 100 people spontaneous in one service. 00:13:13.260 --> 00:13:17.400 You know, I'm not going to get into, like, social distancing and all that. 00:13:17.520 --> 00:13:19.480 I don't want to die on that hill today. 00:13:19.880 --> 00:13:23.640 But so you're seeing 100 people get baptized in physical space. 00:13:24.280 --> 00:13:32.000 And it's almost like that remunerated on even past the physical in the weeks and months to follow. 00:13:32.100 --> 00:13:34.200 You mentioned, like, this is four months coming? 00:13:35.140 --> 00:13:35.500 Right. 00:13:36.220 --> 00:13:38.320 Wow, that's exciting. 00:13:38.760 --> 00:13:43.900 So people are, is it, are people connecting with you through physical services? 00:13:44.360 --> 00:13:46.660 Is it more like small groups? 00:13:46.840 --> 00:13:49.780 Is it friends on friends sharing some of that story? 00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:52.900 Like, how are you seeing it actually spread? 00:13:52.960 --> 00:13:56.600 And how are you connecting with some of these people like you're talking about across the country? 00:13:57.200 --> 00:13:57.580 Yeah, man. 00:13:57.620 --> 00:14:03.440 So, you know, obviously, we are trying to be very intentional with our digital community. 00:14:03.440 --> 00:14:07.660 So they see me on Sundays before and after service. 00:14:07.860 --> 00:14:12.380 And then I'm also the person on the phone when they make a decision and they want to take their next step. 00:14:12.440 --> 00:14:15.500 So they have a pastor that they've connected with. 00:14:16.140 --> 00:14:18.660 And what really, one of the stories, I'll tell you about this guy named Keaton. 00:14:18.800 --> 00:14:27.500 So Keaton actually came to the funeral of the mom and the son that I just told you about. 00:14:28.160 --> 00:14:30.600 And that was his first time ever at Long Hollow. 00:14:30.780 --> 00:14:36.360 He lives in Indiana and he came to the funeral and, you know, listened to our pastor preach the funeral. 00:14:36.800 --> 00:14:39.240 And then when he went home, he said, man, I'm going to tune into that church again. 00:14:39.780 --> 00:14:48.860 And when I was talking to him the other day, he said that something about just watching Long Hollow online, they hadn't really been in church for a while. 00:14:48.860 --> 00:14:52.940 And God just really rekindled he and his wife's relationship with Jesus. 00:14:52.940 --> 00:15:04.520 He said that the Lord just lit a fire in him, he said he took that excitement and he took it to his workplace where and he's the owner of one of the largest mining companies in America. 00:15:04.520 --> 00:15:09.000 So, I mean, he's like, it's a big deal to go there and then talk to your employees about Jesus. 00:15:09.540 --> 00:15:13.300 So he just started talking to one of his employees about Jesus and what God was doing in his own life. 00:15:13.340 --> 00:15:15.800 Personally, this guy surrendered his life to the Lord. 00:15:16.200 --> 00:15:21.480 And then a couple of weeks later, they drove five hours in to he got to baptize his employee. 00:15:21.640 --> 00:15:23.560 I mean, it was just it was incredible. 00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:27.820 There's a friend of mine named Daniel who lives in Montana. 00:15:28.600 --> 00:15:31.000 He started watching Long Hollow online. 00:15:31.420 --> 00:15:35.460 He sent a service to his brother, Dakota, in North Carolina. 00:15:36.120 --> 00:15:37.760 Dakota surrendered his life to the Lord. 00:15:38.320 --> 00:15:43.920 Daniel, who had been a believer but never followed through in baptism, he worked it out with his brother where they actually flew in, 00:15:43.920 --> 00:15:48.100 one from Montana, one from North Carolina, to be baptized together one day. 00:15:48.820 --> 00:15:53.160 And since then, I mean, Dakota, I mean, Daniel has become just a great friend of mine. 00:15:53.260 --> 00:15:55.820 And he's joined the church as a member that live in Montana. 00:15:56.080 --> 00:16:00.340 He serves with me every single week as a chat host. 00:16:00.420 --> 00:16:02.900 He's serving with me tonight to pray with people online. 00:16:03.920 --> 00:16:09.000 Guy's just doing something super special there, even though he doesn't physically attend this campus. 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:10.440 Wow. 00:16:11.120 --> 00:16:13.720 It's incredible to see some of these stories come about. 00:16:13.880 --> 00:16:17.780 And I could literally just ask question on question to explore this more. 00:16:17.880 --> 00:16:21.040 I want to talk with some of the others we've got here at the panel. 00:16:21.200 --> 00:16:26.960 Love seeing, love hearing the words digital revival and Long Hollow in the same sentence there. 00:16:27.400 --> 00:16:29.020 What's what God's starting to do there. 00:16:29.280 --> 00:16:31.620 Hey, let's let's swing over to Ridge Community next. 00:16:31.840 --> 00:16:39.280 Tyler Volkers, part of executive leadership, senior leadership over there with the church man. 00:16:39.980 --> 00:16:45.760 You told me, was it something like you've seen 50 baptisms this year or in this season. 00:16:46.140 --> 00:16:49.940 What's what's God doing there out of Ridge Church? 00:16:50.120 --> 00:16:52.820 And what does that look like digitally and physically? 00:16:53.360 --> 00:16:54.920 Yeah, we've been blessed. 00:16:55.240 --> 00:16:57.160 We saw 50 baptisms on Easter. 00:16:58.120 --> 00:16:59.280 Oh, it's just Easter. 00:16:59.540 --> 00:16:59.660 OK. 00:16:59.800 --> 00:17:00.120 Easter. 00:17:00.320 --> 00:17:04.860 And we've had more, a few more kind of leading into the year before that. 00:17:04.940 --> 00:17:10.080 The first ones before were some digital Zoom baptism events, which are just fun, too. 00:17:10.320 --> 00:17:13.740 We had a couple of different locations sending baptism team members. 00:17:13.840 --> 00:17:21.420 I got to go to one location and people are wanting to get baptized and we're doing it through Zoom and people are logging in, cheering, seeing them in. 00:17:21.520 --> 00:17:26.700 So I got to baptize a guy named Joe, who actually serves in our online broadcast team. 00:17:26.820 --> 00:17:28.700 And so I've been watching him and serving with him. 00:17:28.880 --> 00:17:30.400 He's been producing our services. 00:17:30.720 --> 00:17:38.020 And so we actually featured a story in our digital Easter service of just like seeing him take his steps. 00:17:38.060 --> 00:17:39.660 He was tricked by his wife to come to the Ridge. 00:17:39.840 --> 00:17:44.180 And so he's been kind of coming back and forth between in person and digital. 00:17:44.180 --> 00:17:50.840 But, Jeff, I think the way that I would describe what we saw on Easter, when we saw 50 in that moment, 00:17:50.940 --> 00:18:02.520 I think we saw God just kind of show us some fruit from the hard work and the hard labor that all of us have done in physical environments as well as digital environments over the last year. 00:18:02.600 --> 00:18:05.920 Just trying to figure out, OK, what are we doing? 00:18:06.460 --> 00:18:12.020 And baptisms, at least how we view baptisms, I mean, it's awesome when you see people take those steps. 00:18:12.520 --> 00:18:19.420 But it's also a cup filling experience, too, where you're seeing, oh, man, you're seeing the lives change and celebrating the moments there. 00:18:20.360 --> 00:18:37.580 And so when you saw parents baptizing their kids and then husbands baptizing their wives and small group leaders baptizing small group leaders and they've connected with us digitally or they've been staying with us digitally over the year and then were able to come back. 00:18:37.660 --> 00:18:42.360 I think it was just kind of like this unleashing of people ready to take this step. 00:18:42.420 --> 00:18:45.620 And we were able to see that happen in just one moment, which was really cool. 00:18:46.260 --> 00:18:52.320 We made it a goal at Easter to say, let's make it baptism the step for people. 00:18:52.560 --> 00:19:04.840 And like Andrew, remove any barrier that could cause someone to say, hey, if I know that this is my next step, we're going to do everything we can to let it be their next step, meaning we'll program it in services. 00:19:05.080 --> 00:19:09.440 We'll have spontaneous ones available in our hallway, in our physical space. 00:19:09.440 --> 00:19:23.080 And then we'll make it available online as well through, you know, different ways to we've even recorded a video of us how to do it in 10 degree weather and put that online with Google Forms. 00:19:23.080 --> 00:19:28.260 So just have people submit that and we can celebrate with them that step to take there. 00:19:28.420 --> 00:19:32.320 So it was a really, really cool, really cool day. 00:19:33.500 --> 00:19:34.160 That's great. 00:19:34.520 --> 00:19:45.960 You know, and Andrew saw 100 in physical that kind of echoed over into the into the digital space where they're seeing the kind of the reverb, the echo of that continuing on. 00:19:46.780 --> 00:19:51.080 You know, I guess I don't know what, two weeks away from Easter, you know, at least when we're recording this. 00:19:51.080 --> 00:19:56.580 It's not been major time, but how are you seeing what was it celebrated online? 00:19:56.900 --> 00:20:00.260 Are you seeing some of that echo carry over into online? 00:20:00.380 --> 00:20:01.700 What's what's been the response digitally? 00:20:02.200 --> 00:20:02.380 Yeah. 00:20:02.460 --> 00:20:07.060 So we are we celebrated online with the next service and celebrating those steps. 00:20:07.060 --> 00:20:15.140 And then what we're what we've been doing and what we're continuing to do is, OK, if you took that step or even if you haven't taken that step, there's another step after that. 00:20:15.140 --> 00:20:20.400 And so we're really hard on hitting really hard on our discipleship pathway. 00:20:20.920 --> 00:20:26.920 And so immediately out of that, hey, your next step is to go into rooted. 00:20:27.100 --> 00:20:36.400 And so we're celebrating that, whether that's in person, we're offering that in person for the first time again in a year, but also having it available online for those who are joining us digitally. 00:20:36.820 --> 00:20:43.200 And then same thing, hey, if you are kind of curious about all of this, get you an alpha right away. 00:20:43.280 --> 00:20:52.920 So that's we're using that as a way to celebrate those steps, but then also continue to go, hey, you know, for those of you who aren't there yet, there's a next step for you to take right now. 00:20:52.960 --> 00:20:53.800 And here's what it is. 00:20:53.800 --> 00:20:59.880 And every step that we want available, we're committed to making it in person as well as digital. 00:21:00.640 --> 00:21:01.840 Very, very, very cool. 00:21:02.460 --> 00:21:04.680 Next up, we'll swing over to Tyler Sansom. 00:21:04.680 --> 00:21:10.520 Tyler is lead pastor, digital pastor at a business. 00:21:13.280 --> 00:21:19.420 I love to, it's funny, never get a phone call when you're on Clubhouse. 00:21:19.500 --> 00:21:20.480 That literally just happened. 00:21:20.640 --> 00:21:22.580 So I'll have to call that guy back later. 00:21:22.680 --> 00:21:23.780 Anyway, Tyler Sansom. 00:21:24.340 --> 00:21:40.080 Man, let's come on here, talk a little bit about what, how you're seeing God move through your digital only expression of church, how that's tied into what's happening over at First Capital Christian at the physical church. 00:21:40.260 --> 00:21:43.780 Like, you've got some nuance because you're operating as a digital only. 00:21:43.780 --> 00:21:51.880 So maybe talk both sides of that, what it's looking like digitally, and maybe how that's being influenced or affected by what's happening physically. 00:21:52.560 --> 00:21:53.040 Sure. 00:21:54.480 --> 00:22:06.520 Yeah, we've seen God continue to kind of just knock our socks off with the way that he's working through basically just everyday people wanting to tell people about Jesus. 00:22:07.400 --> 00:22:13.040 Our whole thing is empowering people to go out and share the gospel, both physically and digitally. 00:22:13.700 --> 00:22:23.460 And so far this year, we've been able to baptize around 30 people through online only connections or at a micro site, that kind of thing. 00:22:24.360 --> 00:22:27.520 I will share a really cool story, though, that happened on Easter. 00:22:28.960 --> 00:22:38.000 At the beginning of COVID, we had to re-figure out ways to continue our micro sites that met in prisons, because obviously we couldn't get inside of a prison. 00:22:39.120 --> 00:22:48.500 So we worked out a deal with the state of Indiana, where we could put all of our digital content on every inmate in the state of Indiana's tablets. 00:22:49.280 --> 00:22:56.340 So that opened up a wealth of possibilities for what we could do to reach people within the prison system. 00:22:57.100 --> 00:23:02.680 And I think we averaged somewhere around like 2,000 prisoners a week that had been watching. 00:23:02.680 --> 00:23:15.580 And we started a letter writing team made up of a lot of senior citizens here at the church that are literally writing letters back and forth to these prisoners every single week after they watch our service. 00:23:15.580 --> 00:23:26.360 So that's kind of a cool, the oldest form of technology and handwritten letters meshed with a new form of technology and online services meeting. 00:23:26.800 --> 00:23:32.200 But we met a guy named Bubba via letter, and he had been in prison since 1986. 00:23:32.700 --> 00:23:34.400 He got out March 21st. 00:23:34.720 --> 00:23:43.840 And one of the first things that he did was reach out to us and we got to baptize him on Easter, which was like probably the coolest experience I've ever had in my life. 00:23:45.220 --> 00:23:46.240 That's awesome. 00:23:46.240 --> 00:24:02.480 So, I mean, it literally started, okay, you normally do prison ministry and, you know, what I think I remember, like something like 600, 700 people would come on the big service to the physical space, to whatever the room is at the prison. 00:24:02.940 --> 00:24:13.360 But because of COVID, you actually reached more people by getting content on a tablet, you know, not an iPad, but some sort of a digital device. 00:24:13.360 --> 00:24:13.800 Correct. 00:24:13.800 --> 00:24:15.120 So you're reaching more people. 00:24:15.740 --> 00:24:22.500 And then the first thing this guy does when he's out of prison, he comes and gets baptized at your church. 00:24:22.960 --> 00:24:24.040 Like that's crazy. 00:24:24.580 --> 00:24:24.700 Yeah. 00:24:24.780 --> 00:24:40.260 It's awesome, too, because one of our microsite leaders drove like two and a half hours that morning to go pick him up because he was nowhere near where we were just so he could make sure he could come to the physical building because he'd been writing letters back and forth to him for like a year. 00:24:41.060 --> 00:24:45.700 So that's the first time they got to meet him in person, first time all of us got to meet him in person, and he got baptized. 00:24:45.920 --> 00:24:46.680 It was phenomenal. 00:24:47.840 --> 00:24:57.560 Yeah, and just, and that's, it's funny, we push so much community in doing digital ministry, and what this guy necessarily didn't have access to the community. 00:24:57.560 --> 00:25:06.260 He had access to the content on his tablet, and as a result of engaging with that, accepts Christ and gets to the place where he's ready to get baptized. 00:25:06.600 --> 00:25:07.160 Like that's phenomenal. 00:25:07.160 --> 00:25:09.320 He had a little bit of community. 00:25:09.500 --> 00:25:10.580 We had to get creative with that. 00:25:10.700 --> 00:25:12.320 That was where the handwritten letters came in. 00:25:12.560 --> 00:25:12.800 Okay. 00:25:13.200 --> 00:25:22.060 Like we, essentially, our online chat team, like on our normal weekend service, we created a second one of those only to write letters back and forth to these people. 00:25:23.180 --> 00:25:24.880 You're talking snail mail here. 00:25:25.020 --> 00:25:26.600 That's like way retro. 00:25:27.120 --> 00:25:29.320 I'm talking like handwritten. 00:25:29.540 --> 00:25:32.200 We put them in an envelope and send it, but like it's insane. 00:25:32.200 --> 00:25:38.160 And these guys and girls in prisons are now giving, they've started small groups within their pods. 00:25:38.800 --> 00:25:43.920 We're doing this big discipleship challenge, and they're like writing how they're participating in it. 00:25:44.020 --> 00:25:44.700 It's really cool. 00:25:45.640 --> 00:25:46.160 Awesome. 00:25:46.400 --> 00:25:46.980 Love that. 00:25:47.060 --> 00:25:54.860 And so here's some phenomenal stories, different stories of how God's moving tangibly in digital and in physical space. 00:25:54.860 --> 00:26:08.580 You're seeing through Andrew and through Tyler Volkers a physical expression that echoes, that kind of reverberates through digital space across time and is still being affected. 00:26:08.740 --> 00:26:11.120 You're still seeing some of those people come in. 00:26:11.620 --> 00:26:19.840 I love the, you know, Andrew, your line of, you know, dozens of people are coming in from a dozen states or whatever to get baptized. 00:26:19.840 --> 00:26:25.420 You're literally traveling in this season, trying to get to a place for baptism. 00:26:26.100 --> 00:26:37.740 Tyler Volkers, you're training people to baptize in the hot tubs and, you know, 10 degree weather in Wisconsin. 00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:38.660 God bless you. 00:26:39.360 --> 00:26:41.220 You're welcome down here in Miami whenever you want. 00:26:41.760 --> 00:26:56.740 Tyler, like in Tyler Sansom, you're cheating the system a little bit, kind of doing things differently by doing the tablets, not giving up on the ministry in this COVID season, but instead finding ways to maybe even reach more people. 00:26:57.160 --> 00:27:04.880 And by doing that, you're connecting with somebody who probably wasn't getting connected before. 00:27:05.020 --> 00:27:09.000 And either way, it's definitely somebody who's not coming to the building. 00:27:09.480 --> 00:27:16.720 So I've got a question and would love to, let's raise hands if anybody else in the room's got questions and wants to dialogue through this. 00:27:17.320 --> 00:27:29.340 But my question at this point that I wouldn't ask is, are what we're seeing and reaching digitally, I have a theory, and I would love for you to either tell me I'm crazy or tell me I'm exactly right. 00:27:29.660 --> 00:27:39.800 The type of people that we're reaching in digital space, oftentimes are not the type of person that comes into a physical building. 00:27:40.020 --> 00:27:48.060 I had a church planner just tell me recently the story of a guy who accepted Christ over Easter weekend. 00:27:48.420 --> 00:28:01.060 And he was celebrating the fact that this person was that his digital service that he attended was the first church service this guy's attended in 10 years. 00:28:01.260 --> 00:28:15.680 And so I'm curious, do you see examples of that where the digital is connecting maybe with a type of person that isn't coming to a physical church building, a physical church service? 00:28:15.900 --> 00:28:20.420 Or is it, you know, the fear is that we're stealing from somebody to do something else digital? 00:28:20.840 --> 00:28:23.680 What are you guys seeing in that context? 00:28:24.140 --> 00:28:26.040 I tell you what, Tyler Volkers, why don't you go first? 00:28:28.540 --> 00:28:31.000 Jeff, I think the answer to your question is yes. 00:28:31.120 --> 00:28:41.840 The most prominent one that's coming to my mind right now are those who maybe have walked away or stayed away from Jesus for any length of time and are very hesitant in coming into a building. 00:28:42.540 --> 00:28:46.100 Those are the ones that we celebrate when we connect with them online. 00:28:46.180 --> 00:28:53.680 A story that I got from one of my, she's one of our chat team members and she serves in our YouTube chat. 00:28:53.880 --> 00:29:02.680 And she got a text message from one of her best friends that said, hey, I've been secretly watching your services online that you've been posting about. 00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:06.140 And I kind of want to go in on this Jesus thing. 00:29:06.240 --> 00:29:07.240 How do I do that? 00:29:07.580 --> 00:29:11.560 And this chat team member led her through a decision to make a decision to follow Jesus. 00:29:11.720 --> 00:29:21.880 And she screenshotted the whole text message conversation and sent to me and said, this friend has always called themselves an atheist or an agnostic for years and has shown no interest. 00:29:21.880 --> 00:29:29.760 But because what she was sharing and putting out there digitally, this friend was able to check it out at her time. 00:29:30.460 --> 00:29:31.980 And those are the stories that we're celebrating. 00:29:32.100 --> 00:29:39.080 We want to connect with as many unchurched people as possible and hopefully spark their curiosity to want to follow Jesus. 00:29:39.320 --> 00:29:48.660 Which right now, what we're seeing and what stats are telling us, those are the people that are not going to come to an in-person service anytime soon. 00:29:49.420 --> 00:29:50.300 That's awesome. 00:29:50.440 --> 00:29:57.580 If our churches, digital or physical, could only reach more agnostic stalkers, that would be a huge win. 00:29:57.580 --> 00:30:00.760 We had one, Jeff, where we were doing a mental health message. 00:30:01.200 --> 00:30:05.860 And for whatever, I was just trying to, you know, live tweet throughout the service or whatnot. 00:30:06.020 --> 00:30:07.840 And I used the hashtag mental health. 00:30:09.020 --> 00:30:12.220 And for whatever reason, there's a Twitter handle that says, like, at mental health. 00:30:12.300 --> 00:30:15.360 They retweeted it with the YouTube link to our service. 00:30:16.460 --> 00:30:24.880 And we got, you know, I think about 2,000 views on that time, which is just significantly more than what we see in our first day of any sudden. 00:30:25.300 --> 00:30:28.220 But there was one guy that even commented in our chat. 00:30:28.280 --> 00:30:31.440 He's like, I'm agnostic and I don't even know why I'm here. 00:30:31.520 --> 00:30:32.660 Why am I here right now? 00:30:32.720 --> 00:30:40.040 And just the ability to, I don't know what he was, I don't know the story, you know, about how they ended up and started engaging there. 00:30:40.040 --> 00:30:45.540 But, I mean, that's just, that accidental stuff just doesn't happen in the building. 00:30:46.040 --> 00:30:51.200 So how we can serve them there online is just, it's just a really cool opportunity we get. 00:30:51.600 --> 00:30:55.240 You know, once again, that reinforces the power of those hashtags. 00:30:56.500 --> 00:30:59.660 You know, it amplifies your voice. 00:30:59.940 --> 00:31:02.800 And honestly, it allows God to do things. 00:31:02.800 --> 00:31:10.720 I don't know what part that's going to play in the kingdom with this guy who stumbles in on that hashtag. 00:31:11.060 --> 00:31:13.860 But God's going to do something with it long term. 00:31:14.060 --> 00:31:14.680 So love that. 00:31:14.900 --> 00:31:19.160 Tyler, Tyler Sansom, what does this look like for you? 00:31:21.400 --> 00:31:26.260 We've been really pushing this digital missionary piece super hard for the last year. 00:31:27.780 --> 00:31:30.100 Jeff, you've got a couple of podcasts about that. 00:31:30.200 --> 00:31:33.980 So if anybody's interested, you can head over to Church Digital and learn more about it. 00:31:34.040 --> 00:31:45.340 But basically we're trying to empower people to use like a social media influencer kind of style of using the internet and use that for the kingdom. 00:31:45.660 --> 00:31:52.800 So we've been able to really infiltrate niche groups of people that we would have never seen in the building. 00:31:53.980 --> 00:31:58.560 Specifically, like groups of atheists that struggle with mental health issues. 00:31:58.560 --> 00:32:04.180 We've had a lot of good conversations and led people towards Jesus in that area. 00:32:04.600 --> 00:32:09.020 Same thing with like the LGBTQ group of people. 00:32:09.520 --> 00:32:22.260 So lots of people that the church typically doesn't specifically target have been able to be reached through digital platforms in new ways, 00:32:22.600 --> 00:32:25.360 specifically through this digital missionary piece that we've been doing. 00:32:26.620 --> 00:32:27.220 Yeah. 00:32:27.320 --> 00:32:31.100 I mean, it's one of the things I love about that influencer approach. 00:32:31.100 --> 00:32:41.140 Tyler, I was actually interviewed today by somebody who's working on a research project multiple universities were on. 00:32:41.520 --> 00:32:49.520 And they were talking about the questions they were asking is how should the church use influencers, social media influencers? 00:32:50.400 --> 00:32:58.200 And I think as I started talking about this digital missionary, honestly, I think I brought them a perspective. 00:32:58.480 --> 00:33:01.980 I was talking about you a lot, but they just they hadn't thought about it. 00:33:02.360 --> 00:33:09.620 Like, so wait, it's not about the influencer trying to drive an event or something that's happening at the church. 00:33:09.800 --> 00:33:19.660 It's about letting the influencer reach their audience for Christ and then through the relationship, almost as a second part, pointing people to the church. 00:33:19.800 --> 00:33:21.440 Like that was that was a foreign concept. 00:33:21.900 --> 00:33:31.640 She said to me, she said to me just real quick, she's like, you realize, Jeff, everything you just described goes against the challenges everything that like the social media institutions say. 00:33:31.880 --> 00:33:37.560 And I was like, well, maybe I'm wrong, but we've got people like Tyler that are seeing a result. 00:33:37.840 --> 00:33:42.760 And so how do I how do I challenge what he's seeing coming out of out of his church? 00:33:42.920 --> 00:33:45.580 And she's like, no, I think that you're right, Jeff. 00:33:45.640 --> 00:33:48.880 I think that everybody else is going on outdated information. 00:33:48.880 --> 00:33:57.260 So it's a phenomenal conversation, even today, talking about this idea of influence and how God can move in digital space. 00:33:57.260 --> 00:33:59.340 So you were saying I'm sorry, but that's super cool. 00:33:59.340 --> 00:34:05.420 Yeah, the the thing that it's really hit us hard and that we're trying to pursue right now. 00:34:05.420 --> 00:34:16.300 We saw a stat last week and I can't remember the exact publication that we saw it in, but it was something along the lines of like 46 percent of kids under the age of 18. 00:34:16.500 --> 00:34:18.880 Their dream job is to become a YouTube creator. 00:34:19.740 --> 00:34:36.880 And so we're right now trying to figure out if we can like use this digital missionary platform and teach students how to use influencer type social media to reach people for the kingdom because they already want to become influencers. 00:34:36.880 --> 00:34:47.000 So if we can take them right now and teach them how to share their faith through that influence, we're like using their passion for a purpose, which is what we're all about here at Church Anywhere. 00:34:47.180 --> 00:34:56.260 So right now, our big like push towards the second half of the year is trying to start like three or four team leaders under this digital missionary track. 00:34:57.960 --> 00:35:14.440 Yeah, I love this idea of training people and I don't want to get stuck on the influencer, but training volunteers and through those relationships, empowering others to use their influence large, large or small to reach this different type of person. 00:35:14.440 --> 00:35:20.660 So good. And once again, I could have a conversation all day just talking about this idea of a digital missionary. 00:35:21.100 --> 00:35:26.000 I see Angela Craig in the audience. I know she spent a lot of time talking digital missionary as well. 00:35:26.080 --> 00:35:28.260 No, Angela, I'm not going to put you on the spot and bring up right now. 00:35:28.760 --> 00:35:42.000 Hey, Andrew, talk to me a little bit like and you're you're the church and I don't want to downplay overplay, but, you know, over the years, you guys have wrestled with digital doing it, not doing it. 00:35:42.000 --> 00:35:45.560 I've had a lot of friends that have worked in Long Hollow. 00:35:46.220 --> 00:35:52.960 So this idea of of reaching a different person digitally than you are in the physical space. 00:35:53.060 --> 00:36:01.580 I mean, at some level, you've got to see that, right, because you're seeing multiple people travel the nation to come in to visit at Long Hollow. 00:36:01.820 --> 00:36:07.840 Are you guys seeing where you're reaching a different type of person than what's happening from the Long Hollow campuses? 00:36:07.840 --> 00:36:14.080 How are you kind of I don't know what the word is, justifying that, seeing how that's working? 00:36:14.680 --> 00:36:18.620 Yeah, yeah. Well, before I get into that, let me just say I've been on mute and I've been over here just getting fired up. 00:36:18.760 --> 00:36:23.180 Listen to what God is doing with you guys and through your churches. 00:36:23.400 --> 00:36:31.560 So it's just so awesome to hear. But, man, I'll be honest, like Long Hollow is a bit of I don't know. 00:36:31.620 --> 00:36:40.560 It's just maybe a different place with if you know Pastor Robbie and you know his testimony and you know his story and his history with with drugs and alcohol and, you know, 00:36:40.560 --> 00:36:45.500 the heroin and all this stuff. Right. And then his radical conversion. 00:36:46.460 --> 00:36:51.540 So Long Hollow has become a place where you are welcome just as you are. 00:36:51.540 --> 00:36:59.980 And like our Celebrate Recovery ministry is popping like it is like it is just one of the most fruitful ministries that we have. 00:36:59.980 --> 00:37:11.040 So we just kind of have this healthy environment of everybody's welcome here, just like the revival, you know, kind of started with with with two Satan worshipers who had given their life to Christ. 00:37:11.040 --> 00:37:19.740 You know, so as far as like who we're engaging with online, man, I'm seeing this beautiful mix that I did not expect. 00:37:20.380 --> 00:37:26.660 You know, I had a conversation with the guy the other day who were he just he just let us know he was new here. 00:37:26.660 --> 00:37:31.960 Right. He wasn't even making a decision or next step. And just in our conversation, I asked him, hey, man, how can I pray for you? 00:37:32.220 --> 00:37:36.200 In our first conversation, he said, man, I'm I'm addicted to porn. 00:37:36.380 --> 00:37:39.460 I'm struggling with same sex attraction, but I just want more of God. 00:37:40.100 --> 00:37:50.460 And so we're seeing people like that engage online who who and being online, they're able to just be open and honest, maybe like they wouldn't be looking at somebody face to face. 00:37:50.800 --> 00:37:56.960 But then on the flip side, we have my friend Alex, who is in his late 60s. 00:37:57.000 --> 00:38:01.320 He lives about two hours away. He's been in church his whole life. 00:38:01.740 --> 00:38:09.160 And he told me the other day, he said, Andrew, even though, you know, I worship in my pajamas, I feel more connected to a church than I've ever felt. 00:38:09.160 --> 00:38:20.420 In my life. So he doesn't only watch online, he leads a life group, he's leading a discipleship group, he's he's volunteering with me as a prayer host. 00:38:20.420 --> 00:38:33.360 And I guarantee you, he doesn't know, I guarantee you, he doesn't know this yet, but I guarantee you he'll be my first digital deacon like so I'm just seeing I'm just seeing people from all ages, all walks of life engage in church online. 00:38:33.360 --> 00:38:44.620 And I just I did not perceive that, you know, I if you would have asked me before I stepped in this, I thought it'd be, you know, guys my age, you know, mid 30s and below the younger generation. 00:38:44.620 --> 00:38:54.760 And they are, but it's also this older generation who loves Facebook and they just absolutely love engaging with people in the chat on Facebook and etc. 00:38:54.760 --> 00:38:59.620 So, I mean, we're just seeing a really sweet mix of people from all walks of life and all. 00:38:59.620 --> 00:39:07.240 Yeah, that may be, I think Andrew dropped out or at least he dropped out on my feed. 00:39:07.300 --> 00:39:08.300 Sorry if I'm cutting you off. 00:39:08.940 --> 00:39:16.400 That may be the first time that I've ever heard the word digital deacon uttered in a sentence together, like putting those two words together. 00:39:17.280 --> 00:39:20.100 Sorry, Andrew, you dropped off tech wise. 00:39:20.500 --> 00:39:22.660 I love I love that digital deacon, man. 00:39:22.800 --> 00:39:23.300 I'm just kidding. 00:39:23.600 --> 00:39:26.260 Yeah, if you can remember it, feel free to or we can move on. 00:39:26.920 --> 00:39:28.260 I don't know where I dropped off at. 00:39:28.920 --> 00:39:29.580 That's awesome. 00:39:29.680 --> 00:39:30.220 Sorry, man. 00:39:30.920 --> 00:39:31.860 Tech happens. 00:39:32.200 --> 00:39:36.400 We've had some explosions on Clubhouse, but life goes on with that. 00:39:36.880 --> 00:39:38.880 Hey, I do want to open it up for questions. 00:39:39.540 --> 00:39:42.300 So, or thoughts, audience out there. 00:39:42.380 --> 00:39:47.780 How are you seeing God move digitally, physically, fidgetally? 00:39:47.980 --> 00:39:54.580 So often, you know, there's lots of doom and gloom in context with some of the stats coming out. 00:39:54.640 --> 00:39:55.820 And I don't want to beat it up. 00:39:56.200 --> 00:39:58.360 I beat it up in plenty of other opportunities. 00:39:58.360 --> 00:40:05.420 But really, the Holy Spirit moves irregardless of what Barna tells us in some of these things. 00:40:05.420 --> 00:40:14.740 So I would love to hear maybe from some others in the room, or I can keep asking questions, but would love to hear how is God moving in your churches? 00:40:14.900 --> 00:40:15.780 What are you seeing? 00:40:15.840 --> 00:40:20.720 What are some of the challenges and the obstacles that you're facing in your church? 00:40:20.860 --> 00:40:26.340 Long Hollow Andrew here has been talking about digital revival and some of the things that's happening there. 00:40:26.340 --> 00:40:33.340 Tyler and Tyler, respectively, with their churches, Ridge, as well as Church Anywhere, have been celebrating lots of testimonies. 00:40:34.040 --> 00:40:39.360 So if you've got questions, want a dialogue, we'd love you to raise that hand, and we'll go ahead. 00:40:39.400 --> 00:40:45.380 Hey, some of you are listening out there in the interwebs through the Church Digital social media channels or YouTube. 00:40:45.580 --> 00:40:48.860 Feel free to jump on over in the clubhouse, be part of this conversation. 00:40:48.860 --> 00:40:52.780 We'll probably go for about another 20 minutes maybe and cut at 6 Eastern. 00:40:53.320 --> 00:40:56.940 Well, let me ask this while we're waiting for some other questions to come up. 00:40:57.280 --> 00:40:58.980 So how does God move? 00:40:59.080 --> 00:41:01.260 We default to this world of baptism. 00:41:01.440 --> 00:41:04.780 Life change, baptism, like I'm okay saying that. 00:41:04.900 --> 00:41:09.840 There are other ways that maybe we're seeing God move in this season. 00:41:10.160 --> 00:41:15.560 And so I would maybe ask, like, what—Andrew, I mean, let's start with you. 00:41:15.640 --> 00:41:23.880 Like, you just mentioned a very strong—you know, Robbie Gallaty, his testimony, drug use is very open about that, 00:41:24.300 --> 00:41:32.100 defines who he is as a pastor, actually makes him very accessible to allowing people to kind of connect to his message. 00:41:32.600 --> 00:41:36.180 This is a very kind of disciple-centric church that you guys have. 00:41:37.020 --> 00:41:42.440 What has—I mean, pre-COVID, I don't even think you could do Celebrate Recovery digitally. 00:41:42.640 --> 00:41:45.680 I think, like, Alpha was forced to go digital in this season. 00:41:45.820 --> 00:41:49.540 Celebrate Recovery, you know, I think was in that same kind of boat. 00:41:49.540 --> 00:41:54.040 So even in context of Celebrate Recovery, maybe, just add a story here. 00:41:54.500 --> 00:42:01.820 What are you seeing kind of in that space where God's moving, even through things like Celebrate Recovery and digital methods? 00:42:02.520 --> 00:42:02.940 Yeah, man. 00:42:03.000 --> 00:42:09.600 So like you said, a lot of times we, in church world, you know, kind of put revival and baptism, life change and baptism, whatever. 00:42:10.520 --> 00:42:15.980 Pastor has been very clear that there are kind of different expressions to revivals at times. 00:42:16.180 --> 00:42:19.640 And this just so happens to be how the Lord is moving in our church right now. 00:42:20.440 --> 00:42:24.400 And there's plenty of other ways that the guy can move, obviously. 00:42:25.020 --> 00:42:30.220 And as far as, like, CR goes, dude, that was hard in the midst of COVID. 00:42:31.800 --> 00:42:34.800 I mean, we have our pastor who oversees Celebrate Recovery. 00:42:34.940 --> 00:42:47.200 He was very sensitive to this silent pandemic that was happening with isolation and drug use and just all the things that were happening in his world. 00:42:47.400 --> 00:42:51.520 So they had to fight really hard to find, you know, to keep those people in communities. 00:42:52.000 --> 00:42:56.180 You know, obviously, like, if you know anything about CR, they have the big worship gathering, just like a church does. 00:42:56.200 --> 00:42:57.300 But then they have step studies. 00:42:58.100 --> 00:42:59.900 And some of those step studies were able to continue. 00:43:00.140 --> 00:43:03.620 You know, they moved to Zoom, obviously, but that community was still there. 00:43:04.480 --> 00:43:06.120 And life change was still happening. 00:43:06.760 --> 00:43:12.960 You know, we still saw people finding freedom in Christ, even though they couldn't physically step, you know, step foot in the building. 00:43:13.580 --> 00:43:16.760 I may have forgotten what you asked me and just started talking. 00:43:17.260 --> 00:43:17.840 No, that's fine. 00:43:17.920 --> 00:43:18.440 That's awesome. 00:43:18.540 --> 00:43:19.300 Love that totally. 00:43:19.400 --> 00:43:20.460 It's what Clubhouse is all about. 00:43:20.560 --> 00:43:23.700 Just talk about whatever you want, and we'll tie it together. 00:43:24.160 --> 00:43:26.120 How are you seeing God move through Celebrate Recovery? 00:43:26.360 --> 00:43:27.220 Tell me a story. 00:43:27.280 --> 00:43:29.000 I mean, obviously, I can't get a name. 00:43:29.940 --> 00:43:39.800 But how's God using that particular ministry to maybe connect people, restore people towards more of a kingdom mindset? 00:43:40.140 --> 00:43:40.780 Yeah, man. 00:43:40.880 --> 00:43:51.000 So what I love about Celebrate Recovery, if you don't know anything about it, you know, people sometimes just assume it's for drugs and alcohol, and that's like all it's for. 00:43:51.080 --> 00:43:53.760 But it's really for any hurt, habit, or hang up, they say. 00:43:54.500 --> 00:43:56.840 And, I mean, it could be sexual addictions. 00:43:57.080 --> 00:43:58.520 It could be just hurt. 00:43:58.620 --> 00:43:59.360 It could be depression. 00:44:00.120 --> 00:44:01.500 I mean, on and on and on. 00:44:01.620 --> 00:44:03.140 The sky is the limit. 00:44:03.140 --> 00:44:15.440 But what I love about Celebrate Recovery is that so often church people, you know, we put a mask on and we save face at church, and we're just not real about what's going on in our lives and the struggles that we have. 00:44:15.920 --> 00:44:21.800 And Celebrate Recovery is one of those places where they're like no mask, and people are open and honest and vulnerable. 00:44:22.580 --> 00:44:28.160 And when you step into an environment like that, the Lord just works and moves in a really special way. 00:44:29.400 --> 00:44:39.440 And, you know, I mean, just full transparency, Celebrate Recovery at our church was started by my father-in-law who fell in ministry. 00:44:39.800 --> 00:44:41.700 And that was before he was my father-in-law. 00:44:42.160 --> 00:44:44.200 I mean, that was 15 years ago or so. 00:44:44.300 --> 00:44:47.180 So the guy at our church who started the ministry fell. 00:44:48.680 --> 00:44:58.100 And but a God story this past week, my mother-in-law, who, you know, his right-hand woman starting the ministry, she never stopped serving in Celebrate Recovery. 00:44:58.300 --> 00:44:59.600 And she was so faithful. 00:45:00.040 --> 00:45:04.060 And that community, you know, she could have very easily been embarrassed and walked away from it. 00:45:04.060 --> 00:45:10.400 But because it's such a real place, you're able to be yourself, she was able to stay there, and people loved her through it. 00:45:10.460 --> 00:45:18.660 And she was actually honored this past week just for the impact she has made in Celebrate Recovery over the past, you know, 12 or 15 years because she stayed in it. 00:45:18.800 --> 00:45:21.180 And so God's just moving in a really special way there. 00:45:21.280 --> 00:45:22.960 And it doesn't have to be Celebrate Recovery. 00:45:23.180 --> 00:45:28.500 If we're just open and honest in any environment in the church, you know, God moves in a special way. 00:45:29.060 --> 00:45:30.020 That's beautiful. 00:45:31.420 --> 00:45:40.360 Great story involving your dad who fell in ministry and used CR to grow back, to get restored. 00:45:40.520 --> 00:45:44.780 I mean, that's what the hope dealers that CR is all about. 00:45:45.400 --> 00:45:52.360 Tyler and Tyler, both you guys at some point have used Rooted as your disciple-making vehicle. 00:45:53.000 --> 00:46:04.720 Tyler Sansom, I want to say that in this COVID season, you guys have evolved and started creating maybe some of your own, like a new process towards that. 00:46:05.460 --> 00:46:07.420 Well, I tell you what, let's start with Tyler Volkers. 00:46:07.960 --> 00:46:09.360 Talk to me a little bit, Tyler. 00:46:10.200 --> 00:46:11.640 Rooted, how is Rooted? 00:46:12.340 --> 00:46:13.720 How are you connecting? 00:46:13.880 --> 00:46:22.820 How are you seeing lives change, maybe not at a salvation or with salvation, but how are you seeing discipleship kind of evolve in your church? 00:46:23.000 --> 00:46:24.960 How are you seeing God move through Rooted? 00:46:26.040 --> 00:46:26.960 Great question, Jeff. 00:46:26.960 --> 00:46:35.900 I think the biggest thing that COVID taught us was that our discipleship process was really mostly focused on programs 00:46:35.900 --> 00:46:48.500 and mostly focused on getting people in an in-person environment, which not all of that is a bad thing, but when it's dependent upon that, you're going to run into problems real quick, 00:46:48.580 --> 00:46:51.320 which we did when we had to go digital only. 00:46:52.000 --> 00:47:00.280 And so we decided we needed to flip our process and our pathway to be more spiritual stage focused. 00:47:00.280 --> 00:47:08.480 And so rather than trying to get people into an event or an after party, their first step, I mean, I almost feel somewhat embarrassed saying this out loud. 00:47:09.660 --> 00:47:14.720 Our first step for people really should be leading them to follow Jesus and make a decision to follow Jesus. 00:47:14.940 --> 00:47:22.400 And so when we really streamline that to point to making that the North Star, then pointing them to Rooted, 00:47:22.680 --> 00:47:30.180 which for us is the perfect way to begin to get them into our discipleship process for what we would want for anyone. 00:47:30.280 --> 00:47:34.320 And going through that, going through the Ridge. 00:47:34.940 --> 00:47:36.740 And so that's our goal. 00:47:36.880 --> 00:47:42.700 And so we're seeing stories of people, I mean, they're going through it and doing exactly what you would hope for them. 00:47:42.800 --> 00:47:49.760 They're connecting with lifelong, you know, faith building friends, either online or in person. 00:47:50.400 --> 00:47:51.640 They're joining serving teams. 00:47:51.640 --> 00:47:58.460 But the thing about Rooted that just makes it really special is just the deep soul work that you almost do, 00:47:58.500 --> 00:48:07.040 where you're identifying strongholds and you're identifying lies that the enemies put in you and you're replacing them with God's truth. 00:48:07.220 --> 00:48:09.740 And you see the life transformation that way. 00:48:09.800 --> 00:48:15.420 I'm thinking of an individual in my group right now who's going through Rooted, but he's also in part of my Ridge group. 00:48:15.760 --> 00:48:23.380 And I don't want to share his name out loud, but I know he was in rehab about two months ago dealing with some dependencies. 00:48:23.380 --> 00:48:34.040 And now we're watching him go through Rooted and taking steps, knowing Jesus, following Jesus, and is so committed and so faithful. 00:48:34.780 --> 00:48:36.780 And you almost see it in his face. 00:48:36.960 --> 00:48:42.220 And even through Zoom right now, you're seeing it like the life changes happening in this man. 00:48:42.300 --> 00:48:43.200 And it's just awesome. 00:48:44.260 --> 00:48:45.160 That's beautiful. 00:48:46.060 --> 00:48:46.800 It's funny. 00:48:47.000 --> 00:48:48.640 We're hearing stories. 00:48:49.140 --> 00:48:52.820 We're not wanting to say names publicly, which I completely respect, but there's names. 00:48:53.320 --> 00:48:53.880 There's stories. 00:48:54.060 --> 00:49:01.540 There's people that are attached to this, where it's not just numbers that are watching a three-second Facebook feed, 00:49:01.540 --> 00:49:10.300 but it's really you're starting to get towards a relational approach and getting and seeing the life change as a result of it. 00:49:10.400 --> 00:49:13.480 Tyler Sansom, you used to be Rooted. 00:49:13.780 --> 00:49:15.420 I'm not crazy, right? 00:49:15.580 --> 00:49:17.060 You moved away from Rooted. 00:49:17.320 --> 00:49:23.780 You started developing maybe a more intentional custom design discipleship process. 00:49:24.140 --> 00:49:26.460 What does that look like for your church? 00:49:26.600 --> 00:49:28.220 That was in this COVID season, right? 00:49:28.260 --> 00:49:29.360 I don't want to make stuff up here. 00:49:30.720 --> 00:49:31.820 Yeah, yeah, that was. 00:49:31.820 --> 00:49:33.580 So, yeah, we used to do Rooted. 00:49:34.180 --> 00:49:34.820 Love it. 00:49:34.960 --> 00:49:35.960 It was really, really good. 00:49:37.760 --> 00:49:47.480 But we have kind of moved away from that to more of a kind of go along with our sermon series approach. 00:49:48.260 --> 00:49:58.540 We hired a fidgetal pastor back in probably January, and his main goal is to fidgetally disciple people. 00:49:58.540 --> 00:50:12.260 So, taking current sermon series topics, things like that, and figuring out ways to online and in person help people take one step closer to Jesus every day with that topic. 00:50:12.760 --> 00:50:15.700 Right now, we're in the process of developing an app. 00:50:15.700 --> 00:50:17.900 It's going to be called One Step Closer app. 00:50:18.300 --> 00:50:30.680 And it's literally just a way that we can send reminders and have content available for people to engage with and interact with on their app one step closer to Jesus every day. 00:50:30.780 --> 00:50:32.540 It'll have a communal aspect to it as well. 00:50:32.620 --> 00:50:34.700 So, we're going to do all of our small groups through that app. 00:50:35.660 --> 00:50:37.380 And I'm really excited about it. 00:50:37.460 --> 00:50:42.860 I think it's like a really, really good next step for discipleship in a modern age. 00:50:44.580 --> 00:50:47.060 I got to tell you, we're going to have a side conversation. 00:50:47.060 --> 00:51:00.400 I've had more interest in the past two weeks with people asking, like, what the church mobile app should be, or is the church mobile app necessary? 00:51:00.680 --> 00:51:04.260 And I described to them essentially what you just talked about. 00:51:04.620 --> 00:51:05.900 And they're like, oh, that's it. 00:51:05.940 --> 00:51:06.800 That's what we got to do. 00:51:06.960 --> 00:51:12.600 So, once again, Tyler, you're ahead of the curve, even developing some of this stuff out. 00:51:12.600 --> 00:51:19.360 And it's through things, even like the community aspects within that mobile app, where you're starting to get names. 00:51:19.480 --> 00:51:23.640 You're starting to get connected in relationship with people. 00:51:24.580 --> 00:51:47.660 And I want to suggest, like, even as our churches that are listening here in the audience or are listening on podcasts or streams or whatever, if we're wanting to see God move at some level, I think there's a context where we got to know the people that we're reaching, that we're trying to connect with, that we're trying to share. 00:51:47.920 --> 00:51:55.160 We recently did a podcast conversation here with the beta show, man, maybe a couple months ago, sometime in 21. 00:51:55.740 --> 00:52:02.180 But the heart of the conversation was, how do we, as a church, how do we define success mid-post-COVID? 00:52:02.680 --> 00:52:12.280 And we brought in church planners, lead pastors, everything from a church plant all the way up to a giga church, you know, in the Bible Belt, all different levels. 00:52:12.440 --> 00:52:13.880 It was three or four individuals. 00:52:14.460 --> 00:52:15.780 And it was fascinating. 00:52:16.060 --> 00:52:18.340 All of them agreed on one thing. 00:52:18.720 --> 00:52:26.340 For a church to be successful, they need to get to one-on-one or as close to one-on-one as quick as possible. 00:52:26.680 --> 00:52:39.920 And as we're doing things in digital space, as we're doing things in physical space, as we're existing fidgetally, trying to operate in both hemispheres, I really think that's the heart of this. 00:52:40.400 --> 00:52:47.460 The more that we can relationally connect to people, I think the more that we can see God move. 00:52:47.600 --> 00:52:50.900 Now, I think God may be moving as a result of it. 00:52:51.200 --> 00:53:09.800 And I've had situations, and I don't know about you, but I joke even with my own church in this COVID season, where they get really excited because all these people accept Christ on Sunday through the church online platform by clicking on the hand-raised icon at the appropriate time. 00:53:09.800 --> 00:53:18.600 And I have to tell my church, hey, like four or five of those times, to be honest, it's my daughter who's just really excited clicking the link. 00:53:19.020 --> 00:53:26.960 So sometimes God's moving, and we don't know the people to know the situation or if it's legit or if it's not. 00:53:27.340 --> 00:53:35.720 But the more that we can build these relationships, meet these people, and be part of their lives to see God moving, to celebrate as they're doing these steps, 00:53:35.720 --> 00:53:47.840 whether it's salvation, whether it's a restoration in ministry, whether it's discipling and releasing someone on personal mission beyond what they themselves could have gotten to on their own. 00:53:48.360 --> 00:53:57.860 We, the church, we have a vital part in helping people find this revival in digital and in physical space. 00:53:58.000 --> 00:54:00.180 So this has been a phenomenal conversation. 00:54:00.320 --> 00:54:03.900 I want to thank all the guests for being on here. 00:54:04.560 --> 00:54:14.140 Andrew Bolton from Long Hollow, Tyler Volkers from Bridge Community, Tyler Sansom, First Capital Christian, Church Anywhere, to be more accurate. 00:54:14.340 --> 00:54:21.100 Like, this has been a solid conversation, talking about the idea of what a digital revival can look like, 00:54:21.140 --> 00:54:27.280 what revival looks like in digital environments and how we're seeing God move digitally and physically. 00:54:27.280 --> 00:54:32.720 Just real quick, I'm doing another one of these Clubhouse Conversations tomorrow, 5 p.m. 00:54:32.720 --> 00:54:43.920 We're bringing in Greg Atkinson, probably one of the top guys in first impressions for church, one of the early guys who was doing church online. 00:54:44.140 --> 00:54:49.460 And so hugely influential in physical and digital church services. 00:54:49.460 --> 00:54:53.940 We're doing a conversation with him on Clubhouse Tomorrow, talking about Secret Shopper. 00:54:54.180 --> 00:54:55.520 What are guests? 00:54:55.660 --> 00:54:56.640 What are first-time visitors? 00:54:57.260 --> 00:55:00.660 What are they looking for in a church online service? 00:55:01.100 --> 00:55:05.540 And how can we utilize the digital to connect with some of these first-time people? 00:55:05.880 --> 00:55:08.320 It's hard to really connect with them. 00:55:08.620 --> 00:55:10.300 It's easy to get them to watch something. 00:55:10.400 --> 00:55:13.260 But that connection, that engagement, that's hard to get to. 00:55:13.320 --> 00:55:15.180 It's maybe the most difficult thing in church online. 00:55:15.640 --> 00:55:23.360 So tomorrow, we're going to be talking with Greg Atkinson, telling some secrets about how your church can be more effective, connecting, even in those digital environments. 00:55:23.360 --> 00:55:30.720 So, hey, Tyler, Tyler, Andrew, thanks for jumping on this Clubhouse, and we're going to wrap. 00:55:31.420 --> 00:55:34.080 I tell you what, 30 seconds from each of you. 00:55:34.160 --> 00:55:35.240 Any closing thoughts? 00:55:35.380 --> 00:55:36.380 Andrew, you can go first. 00:55:37.020 --> 00:55:45.220 Yeah, man, I'd just say if you're a pastor, minister, volunteer listening to this, if revival's happening, don't miss it for yourself. 00:55:45.320 --> 00:55:50.680 Sometimes we do the work of the ministry, and we miss what God wants to do in our own heart in the midst of that. 00:55:51.380 --> 00:55:51.740 Beautiful. 00:55:52.880 --> 00:55:54.620 Tyler Volkers, what do you got? 00:55:55.180 --> 00:55:59.160 I'm thinking, hey, look for the fruit of the work that you've done this past year. 00:55:59.160 --> 00:56:01.460 You may be tired, but it's been effective. 00:56:01.960 --> 00:56:02.560 Celebrate it. 00:56:02.880 --> 00:56:09.180 And we're hitting a fun season where physical and digital are going to work really beautiful together, so don't give up on digital. 00:56:09.880 --> 00:56:11.860 Amen on all accords there. 00:56:12.000 --> 00:56:13.480 Tyler Sansom, 30 seconds. 00:56:14.740 --> 00:56:17.000 Man, I just echo what they just said. 00:56:17.160 --> 00:56:20.240 I don't have a whole lot of great wisdom to add to that. 00:56:20.340 --> 00:56:25.420 I'm just excited about what God has been doing and is continuing to do here at Church Anywhere, 00:56:25.420 --> 00:56:29.680 and I love hearing stories about how he's using digital other places as well. 00:56:30.220 --> 00:56:30.740 That's beautiful. 00:56:31.220 --> 00:56:32.560 Tyler Sansom's out of gas. 00:56:32.720 --> 00:56:35.060 So we're going to wrap on that note. 00:56:35.580 --> 00:56:40.320 For Tyler, for Tyler, for Andrew, this is Jeff with The Church Digital and with Stadia Church Planning. 00:56:40.460 --> 00:56:44.880 Thanks for joining us here on this Clubhouse, and we'll see you next time. 00:56:45.340 --> 00:56:45.840 Y'all have a good day.