WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.520 all right hey welcome to the beta show i'm jeff at the church digital podcast once again powered 00:00:06.520 --> 00:00:11.340 by stadia church planning want to give a shout out we're doing this live out through the interwebs 00:00:11.340 --> 00:00:16.120 to everybody watching on facebook youtube the facebook groups a couple people are going to be 00:00:16.120 --> 00:00:19.980 watching on twitch and periscope we've made fun a little bit of periscope in the past but 00:00:19.980 --> 00:00:23.900 for those of you out there are watching and engaging with this live awesome hey thanks for 00:00:23.900 --> 00:00:29.840 that here with the beta show we answer your digital ministry questions i'm literally giving 00:00:29.840 --> 00:00:40.800 you my cell phone number right now on the air 484-324-8724 that's 484-324-8724 literally my 00:00:40.800 --> 00:00:47.400 cell phone number is number four the church so text those ministry questions in 484-324-8724 00:00:47.400 --> 00:00:55.740 we will address them on future episodes here of the beta show here with episode 28 we're digging in on 00:00:55.740 --> 00:01:03.260 this topic for reasons small churches can thrive fidgetally for reasons small churches can thrive 00:01:03.260 --> 00:01:08.540 fidgetally there's a misnomer out there that a small church has no business doing digital ministry 00:01:08.540 --> 00:01:14.580 oftentimes i think this is propagated by the small church pastors themselves who may be locked into one 00:01:14.580 --> 00:01:20.940 model or not understanding that really their strengths of a small church play very well into 00:01:20.940 --> 00:01:24.700 digital ministry now you may be saying what's a small church i don't know that i'm necessarily going 00:01:24.700 --> 00:01:28.700 to put numbers on that because for for me a small church actually might be a medium or a large size 00:01:28.700 --> 00:01:33.420 church to another but at the end of the day i think that all churches including smalls including church 00:01:33.420 --> 00:01:38.380 plants we at stadia we work a lot with church plants and helping them understand a lot of the same 00:01:38.380 --> 00:01:44.380 fidgetal strategy and a lot of the same mindsets coming into it as a matter of fact in this uh season 00:01:44.380 --> 00:01:49.500 in covid season we maybe we're coming out of covid season let's admit that in this early in this covid 00:01:49.500 --> 00:01:56.060 season i had a digital pastor a good friend of mine at a let's call it a giga church uh let's say that 00:01:56.060 --> 00:02:03.260 pre-covid it was 20 000 person church in physical attendance so this is a very large church a digital 00:02:03.260 --> 00:02:08.460 pastor this is what he said to me he says jeff i really wish i was at a small church right now 00:02:08.460 --> 00:02:15.980 where i was actually able to do tangible ministry relational ministry the giga church the large 00:02:15.980 --> 00:02:23.260 churches oftentimes they don't have the ability to connect in with that relational component they work 00:02:23.260 --> 00:02:27.340 very hard because of the size because of the building size because of all this really the 00:02:27.340 --> 00:02:33.740 intimacy of that relationship is lost in physical and believe it or not in digital space and this 00:02:33.740 --> 00:02:40.380 is where i think that really small churches thrive small churches are set up to succeed digitally in 00:02:40.380 --> 00:02:48.300 many ways better than the larger churches but here's the deal it takes a different mindset you need to 00:02:48.300 --> 00:02:54.860 be thinking differently than maybe the large churches are and then maybe even than how you're thinking today 00:02:54.860 --> 00:03:01.180 so really let's focus here as we're going through this conversation let's focus on how do we have 00:03:01.740 --> 00:03:07.180 that different mindset what do we need to do to overcome maybe some of the challenges that we have 00:03:07.180 --> 00:03:12.940 to be able to have that different mindset here you go for four reasons that churches can thrive 00:03:12.940 --> 00:03:19.660 small churches can thrive physically here's number one excuse number one we are so small our online 00:03:19.660 --> 00:03:25.260 church service production looks horrible i've heard that excuse time and time again from a small church 00:03:25.260 --> 00:03:31.100 believe me i'm at a church plant i attend reality church down here in miami carlos lolette's a stadia 00:03:31.100 --> 00:03:38.060 church planner i i think we've done three maybe just two pop-up services like it's very new and so yeah 00:03:38.060 --> 00:03:44.460 we can really look at the production that we're doing it in our services and realize man our church is so 00:03:44.460 --> 00:03:50.860 small we're so new like to actually do the production it looks horrible compared to life church or any 00:03:50.860 --> 00:03:57.020 many other churches that that are out there it's very easy to stop at that excuse the new mindset the new 00:03:57.020 --> 00:04:03.580 reality is that honestly relationships are so much stronger than your weekend service content and once 00:04:03.580 --> 00:04:07.900 again this is the strength of a small church the strength of a small church isn't the quality of 00:04:07.900 --> 00:04:12.700 production it's not the quality of the worship leader honestly sir and i apologize lead pastor here it's not 00:04:12.700 --> 00:04:19.660 even the quality of your sermon the the strength of a small church is the relationships that you can have 00:04:19.660 --> 00:04:27.260 the friendships the intimacy that happens when you're in small and so when we look at doing digital church 00:04:27.260 --> 00:04:34.380 let's focus more on that component on that piece when we look at at digital and understanding how a small 00:04:34.380 --> 00:04:41.340 church can do thing do digital ministry man those content those relationships are so much stronger 00:04:41.900 --> 00:04:47.100 than the content is and so pour into those relationships we're going to build on that here 00:04:47.100 --> 00:04:53.660 in a little bit but let's look at number two here excuse number two you've probably heard a church say 00:04:53.660 --> 00:04:57.820 this before we don't have any budget it's funny i've heard small churches say that i've heard large 00:04:57.820 --> 00:05:02.540 churches say that i've heard giga churches say i i everybody nobody ever has any budget but i guess 00:05:02.540 --> 00:05:09.500 budget is is kind of um i guess contextual depending upon what size church you are budget can be defined 00:05:09.500 --> 00:05:16.780 differently but in a small church i guarantee they don't have you know let's go get a bunch of uh 4k 00:05:16.780 --> 00:05:23.340 cameras hey let's let's get a new 2me switcher hey let's let's really start to you know like get a 00:05:23.340 --> 00:05:29.340 get a quality broadcast encoder and do that oftentimes small churches they they don't have 00:05:30.060 --> 00:05:38.380 those resources to really make that weekend production pop well i i guess the new mindset would be 00:05:38.380 --> 00:05:43.900 uh how much budget do you need to buy zoom like not stock in zoom although that probably would have 00:05:43.900 --> 00:05:49.820 been a good idea a couple years ago uh when it comes down to though is man zooms like 15 bucks a month 00:05:49.820 --> 00:05:55.660 uh for an account and and and now i can build relationships i can dialogue with people i can 00:05:55.660 --> 00:06:03.260 meet with people i can disciple people in digital space and because i'm doing it digitally the reach 00:06:03.260 --> 00:06:10.140 is much farther than i would normally get the engagement people wanting to stick around longer because 00:06:10.140 --> 00:06:15.820 digital is easier to have that conversation with the intimacy where you're able to process through deeper 00:06:15.820 --> 00:06:22.060 things quicker man there's a bunch of strengths in digital that small churches if we could utilize 00:06:22.060 --> 00:06:29.660 this if we could utilize zoom not just as a man we we i had this conversation recently with with a pastor 00:06:29.660 --> 00:06:35.020 and they said yeah we do we do digital small groups just for you know the the people that can't do 00:06:35.020 --> 00:06:39.820 physical like we'd rather them go physical but digital is just kind of like the the catch-all for the 00:06:39.820 --> 00:06:46.700 people who aren't done wearing masks yet and stuff like that that may be true uh but if that's your 00:06:46.700 --> 00:06:53.580 mindset small church there's a whole crowd of people there's a whole ministry potential there's a mission 00:06:53.580 --> 00:07:01.420 field you're missing by just having it be the second thought instead of man how do we how can we really 00:07:01.420 --> 00:07:08.060 tap into people digitally how can we really creative digitally with how we're doing small groups i've 00:07:08.060 --> 00:07:13.020 i've told stories and i've told i've talked about my mom a lot here uh with the beta show and the 00:07:13.020 --> 00:07:20.140 podcast and and my mom's leading a small group right now i love my mom my mom's 70 years old uh yeah i did 00:07:20.140 --> 00:07:26.540 stutter through that that wasn't like bad audio uh so uh she's not the typical person that you would think 00:07:26.540 --> 00:07:31.100 would be leading an online small group and my mom came up with this actually she leads i think two 00:07:31.100 --> 00:07:36.140 or three at this point but my mom she has one of her small groups i think they meet on monday night 00:07:36.140 --> 00:07:45.580 it's women her age so it's women in the 60s and 70s meeting with daughters that are displaced around 00:07:45.580 --> 00:07:53.900 the country so it's women meeting with their daughters weekly talking about the bible so basically the only 00:07:53.900 --> 00:08:01.580 time the majority of the time these women my mom's age get together with people with their daughters 00:08:01.580 --> 00:08:05.500 with their family who live on the other side of the country is when they get together to talk about 00:08:05.500 --> 00:08:11.180 the bible like this is a phenomenal concept that brings families together that it strengthens family 00:08:11.180 --> 00:08:17.260 discipleship um even strengthening the bonds of of family because now you're definitely talking to your 00:08:17.260 --> 00:08:23.420 daughter on that upcoming monday small group it's an incredible idea my mom came up with it entirely on 00:08:23.420 --> 00:08:28.860 her own and when she told me the idea i'm like that's the greatest thing i've ever heard mom that's 00:08:28.860 --> 00:08:34.940 awesome and she's had immense success with that and so rather than looking at small groups and zoom as 00:08:34.940 --> 00:08:41.340 a limitation look at it as a strength what can you do creatively with zoom uh that you can't do in the 00:08:41.340 --> 00:08:46.940 physical space my mom's idea of getting mothers and daughters together would never work in physical space 00:08:46.940 --> 00:08:54.540 if only because these people live in opposite time zones so great idea there love mom hi mom my mom 00:08:54.540 --> 00:08:59.820 could actually be watching or listening to this at some point so just want to publicly say that number 00:08:59.820 --> 00:09:05.900 three excuse number three i don't understand digital okay no i'm not saying that i i jeff i i think i have a 00:09:05.900 --> 00:09:11.740 have a grasp on it not always learning though let's do this pastor saying this i don't understand digital 00:09:11.740 --> 00:09:17.980 i'm really a brick and mortar guy i don't know how to lead this uh frankly well first off if if you are 00:09:17.980 --> 00:09:25.900 thinking that um say it own it because there's nothing wrong with that pastor a lot of times at a 00:09:25.900 --> 00:09:31.420 small church you're trained into into one model and and that's great now coming out of this covet season 00:09:31.420 --> 00:09:37.340 you're definitely seeing multimodal different models pop up and so now maybe it's time for for your 00:09:37.340 --> 00:09:44.620 church to expand into a second model and just because you don't understand it doesn't mean that your 00:09:44.620 --> 00:09:51.980 church shouldn't do it which would get you to this new mindset number three ask for volunteers ask for 00:09:51.980 --> 00:09:59.980 help disciple those people create them as leaders and then let them lead pastor it is completely okay 00:09:59.980 --> 00:10:05.740 that you don't understand the digital implications of of what's happening and and i want to release that 00:10:05.740 --> 00:10:11.660 from you what i would suggest though is that you find someone in your church or people within your church 00:10:12.220 --> 00:10:19.420 and you let them lead out a little bit here um and let them listen care for them spiritually 00:10:19.420 --> 00:10:24.380 disciple them to the place where you trust them spiritually and then you need to trust them to 00:10:24.380 --> 00:10:30.380 the place technologically that they can take the church trust but verify test experiment do some 00:10:30.380 --> 00:10:38.540 stuff build it slowly but that is a great process to go through to take your church beyond where even you 00:10:38.540 --> 00:10:43.740 can lead it yourself listen and this is this is going to be funny and maybe a little bit out of context 00:10:43.740 --> 00:10:47.820 god actually gives us a digital strategy in in proverbs i don't know if you're ready for this 00:10:47.820 --> 00:10:52.220 proverbs 3 5 and 6 trust in the lord with all your heart lean not on your own understanding 00:10:52.860 --> 00:10:58.060 in all your ways acknowledge him and and he will direct your path listen like okay completely out 00:10:58.060 --> 00:11:02.140 of context don't don't send the hate mail for for this i probably deserve hate mail for other things 00:11:02.140 --> 00:11:09.100 not for this ultimately pastor if if we're trusting god and we're leaning not on our own understanding 00:11:09.100 --> 00:11:16.860 like let others lead in maybe even follow god in how he's leading those people experiencing god look and 00:11:16.860 --> 00:11:24.780 see where where god is moving around you and follow suit join him in that journey and so even as you're 00:11:24.780 --> 00:11:31.020 not falling on your own and depending more on others and on god and you're acknowledging him if you're 00:11:31.020 --> 00:11:35.180 doing those three things then he's going to direct your path which is really gets down to the to the 00:11:35.180 --> 00:11:40.620 beauty of this now that's completely out of context and some pastors out there is opening up his email 00:11:40.620 --> 00:11:46.700 so i'm not going to die on this hill but it really there's an opportunity to expand the capacity of your 00:11:46.700 --> 00:11:54.300 church by letting others lead in to that all right look at this remember this pastor if there's one thing 00:11:54.300 --> 00:12:00.940 you're taking away from this number three you can control or you can multiply but you really can't do 00:12:00.940 --> 00:12:07.820 both as you're wanting to do the uh the multiplication what we're talking about here is doing digital 00:12:07.820 --> 00:12:12.700 ministry that's separate from the physical ministry and you're looking at doing different things there 00:12:12.700 --> 00:12:18.620 comes to this place where maybe i really shouldn't necessarily be controlling this thing tightly 00:12:18.620 --> 00:12:24.140 as much as releasing it and letting uh giving others an opportunity to lead trust but verify 00:12:24.140 --> 00:12:29.740 disciple to the place where you trust spiritually these are necessary things but releasing is going 00:12:29.740 --> 00:12:35.180 to give you a multiplication opportunity all right hey let's look at this number four excuse number 00:12:35.180 --> 00:12:43.340 four i don't want to do digital until i can staff it i i have heard this quite a bit uh and and the 00:12:43.340 --> 00:12:48.700 answer to this honestly is is very simple you've already got all the resources you need new mindset 00:12:48.700 --> 00:12:55.180 number four you've got all the resources you need it was funny just recently i was on a stream uh with 00:12:55.180 --> 00:13:00.940 my good friends over at resi i was doing a webinar with them and one of the questions they asked was 00:13:00.940 --> 00:13:06.940 what's the um strengths weaknesses what's the greatest strength what's the greatest weakness in the church 00:13:06.940 --> 00:13:13.580 today uh and to me it was simple strength yeah church we have a phenomenal number of resources we have a 00:13:13.580 --> 00:13:19.660 phenomenal number of people that attend that are involved the you know call them consumers call 00:13:19.660 --> 00:13:24.460 them butts in seats call them religious hangers on the number of people yes maybe it's shrunk in this 00:13:24.460 --> 00:13:32.300 coveted season but it is still a phenomenal large number of people and if we can move them from a consumer 00:13:32.300 --> 00:13:38.940 get them to the place where they're on mission where they're activated um guess what we really don't need 00:13:38.940 --> 00:13:44.380 the staff i mean honestly when you're when you're looking at like global movements and historical 00:13:44.380 --> 00:13:52.220 movements uh paying a staff person actually like limits the growth of what's possible um paying for 00:13:52.220 --> 00:14:00.140 that accountability often wise kills the accountability of what could be without that because it goes from 00:14:00.140 --> 00:14:05.980 a heart thing to a man i just want that paycheck and so this idea of i don't want to do it till i can 00:14:05.980 --> 00:14:13.900 staff it honestly there's no reason not to do it right now and you may not even need that staff 00:14:13.900 --> 00:14:20.460 that may be a separate conversation look ultimately here church small church uh don't copy the big church 00:14:20.460 --> 00:14:25.100 model of online don't look at the life churches and say i'm going to do it exactly like they do it 00:14:25.100 --> 00:14:31.180 there's lessons to learn i love my friends at life church saddleback crossroads you can drop whatever 00:14:31.180 --> 00:14:36.780 church you want to in there and there's lessons to learn from them but i guarantee a small church is 00:14:36.780 --> 00:14:42.300 going to be successful by doing it different than what some of the the big boys are doing with it 00:14:43.100 --> 00:14:53.100 remember this relationships win over content use the relationships um to make more relationships 00:14:53.100 --> 00:14:59.500 content can get you to relationships it's a hard path relationships on relationships will get you 00:15:00.140 --> 00:15:06.140 more relationships quicker a relationship to relationship is going to be far more effective 00:15:06.140 --> 00:15:13.180 than content getting you to that relationship i had somebody tell me this just recently i was doing a 00:15:14.460 --> 00:15:19.500 thing kevin marsico u.s director of the timothy initiative said this content does not 00:15:19.500 --> 00:15:28.780 change values values values don't actually change until people actually do something and so as we're 00:15:28.780 --> 00:15:34.060 looking at at our church services as you're creating this content on the weekend big churches especially 00:15:34.060 --> 00:15:41.100 small churches you're not actually seeing it happen until we're driving people to do something 00:15:41.100 --> 00:15:48.540 to have those conversations so really focus in on that in small church utilizing your relationships your 00:15:48.540 --> 00:15:54.700 connections that you have with people you're going to be able to get people to do something at a much 00:15:54.700 --> 00:16:01.740 quicker honestly easier route i would predict than what some of the giga churches are doing small church 00:16:01.740 --> 00:16:08.620 ultimately get your people on mission fidgetally physically and digitally let that be the game 00:16:08.620 --> 00:16:15.660 let that be the the goal of what we're trying to do there with the small church hey great so that was 00:16:15.660 --> 00:16:23.420 what like i don't know 16 minutes four reasons why your church why your small church needs to be fidgetal 00:16:23.420 --> 00:16:30.780 and pushing this idea of a different mindset along the way once again we would love to hear from you 00:16:30.780 --> 00:16:36.860 in future 484-324-8724 and if this struck a nerve if you're like hey i want to learn more about 00:16:36.860 --> 00:16:43.900 this stadia has fidgetal learning communities that are specifically set up to help churches like yours 00:16:43.900 --> 00:16:52.700 you're a big church or your small church understand how to do this how to take people and move them and 00:16:52.700 --> 00:16:58.380 create them into a movement physically and digitally you can see it here on the back of the tv if you're 00:16:58.380 --> 00:17:07.580 watching the video stadia church planting dot org slash digital stadia church planting dot org slash 00:17:07.580 --> 00:17:15.660 digital p-h-y-g-i-t-a-l check that out get connected into a learning community and let us help you take 00:17:15.660 --> 00:17:21.340 some of these next steps digitally hey for everybody and as funny as i love this hey thanks for the chat 00:17:21.340 --> 00:17:26.140 that that's coming in at the last minute literally as i'm landing the plane sorry my bad i gotta go uh but 00:17:26.140 --> 00:17:30.700 this is jeff with the church digital and state church planning hey we'll be back with a live beta 00:17:30.700 --> 00:17:37.100 show again next thursday uh but until then check out the podcast check out at the church dot digital 00:17:37.100 --> 00:17:43.900 find me on social media and and find out what stadia is doing to help churches like yours uh figure out 00:17:43.900 --> 00:17:50.700 how to master this idea of digital to the point of creating making disciple making movements powerful 00:17:50.700 --> 00:17:56.060 stuff the stadia church planning dot org slash digital that's it everybody i'm done y'all have a good day 00:17:56.140 --> 00:18:01.260 that's it everybody i'm done and i'm done and i'm done and i'm done and i'm done and i'm done so