WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.460 All right. Hey, welcome to The Beta Show. It's episode 39. Well, once again, I'm Jeff 00:00:06.460 --> 00:00:11.800 with The Church Digital Podcast. All of this is powered by Stadia Church Planting. We're 00:00:11.800 --> 00:00:15.440 going to be talking a lot about Stadia and some of the things we're working on here in 00:00:15.440 --> 00:00:19.640 The Beta Show coming up. But just to review, as if you don't know, here at The Beta Show, 00:00:19.740 --> 00:00:28.060 we answer your digital ministry questions live. Go ahead and text us on the air, 484-324-8724. 00:00:28.300 --> 00:00:31.920 That's my cell phone. I usually hold up my cell phone and wave it around in the air right 00:00:31.920 --> 00:00:35.940 now. Currently experimenting with it being my teleprompter. Thank you very much, Ben Stapley, 00:00:36.060 --> 00:00:39.960 for the recommendation. And so we're going to give it a shot, see if it works. Don't text 00:00:39.960 --> 00:00:43.540 me right now because I get notifications, I mean, literally popping up and it's a little 00:00:43.540 --> 00:00:49.440 weird on my phone. I got to figure that out. Hey, here with Beta 39, here's what we're doing. 00:00:49.620 --> 00:00:54.200 We're talking digital discipleship. Affinity is the new vicinity. I stole that quote from 00:00:54.200 --> 00:00:57.480 someone. We'll give credit in a little bit, but we're going to be talking about some digital 00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:03.540 discipleship stuff here with the Beta Show here at 39. If you are listening to this on demand, 00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:09.020 by the way, if you're live, thank you. Love having you on and feel free to interact in whatever 00:01:09.020 --> 00:01:12.980 platform you're watching in. And let's go ahead and talk this thing through. If you are watching 00:01:12.980 --> 00:01:20.080 on demand, hey, we want to do this live with you. We broadcast the Beta Show Thursdays at noon 00:01:20.080 --> 00:01:28.580 Eastern. Check out facebook.com slash thechurchdigital as well as youtube.com, thechurchdigital. And we'd 00:01:28.580 --> 00:01:33.500 love to see you in that live environment or, of course, in digital ministry, you always reach more 00:01:33.500 --> 00:01:40.040 people on demand. Remember that live is great for community. On demand is better when it comes 00:01:40.040 --> 00:01:44.620 towards reaching and getting more people for that. That's just a free tip here. Another free tip, 00:01:44.620 --> 00:01:54.080 I am going to be hanging out with some exponential friends here in 2021 for the upcoming year. So go 00:01:54.080 --> 00:02:03.520 ahead and check out exponential regional equipping labs for the year fall 2021 exponential.org. Sign up 00:02:03.520 --> 00:02:09.560 for that. I'm going to be in Washington, DC, San Francisco Bay Area, Southern California, SoCal, 00:02:09.720 --> 00:02:15.120 Houston, and Chicago. Go to exponential.org. Sign up for one of those regional events. And in the 00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:21.840 pre-conference lab type stuff, I am going to be in, it's like physical and digital, some physical 00:02:21.840 --> 00:02:26.460 ministry and digital ministry, something like that, to sign up and get connected with mine. I would love 00:02:26.460 --> 00:02:31.960 to talk with you and learn more about what ministry looks like for you, maybe some of the challenges 00:02:31.960 --> 00:02:41.580 that you all are facing with physical and digital. Hey, beta next week, beta 40. Give me a topic. 00:02:41.800 --> 00:02:47.560 Digital discipleship is a hot topic right now. And so I definitely want to like focus on that and talk 00:02:47.560 --> 00:02:53.340 about that more. But let me hear from you on that. What questions do you guys have on digital 00:02:53.340 --> 00:02:58.940 discipleship? Because we're definitely seeing spikes in interest when we talk digital, but want to kind of 00:02:58.940 --> 00:03:06.080 see what you're wrestling with so that we can dig into that. Give me that. Text me, 4-8-4-3-2-4-8-7-2-4. 00:03:06.460 --> 00:03:07.700 Here, 4-39, 00:03:08.700 --> 00:03:16.180 we're going to talk about digital discipleship in context of affinity being the next vicinity. 00:03:16.900 --> 00:03:20.540 And this is an interesting phrase. This actually came from Dan Hickling, 00:03:20.940 --> 00:03:23.740 who's pastor at Calvary, digital pastor at Calvary Chapel, 00:03:24.060 --> 00:03:28.800 Fort Lauderdale. And he's actually the brainchild of this. So I want to give him credit up front. I was 00:03:28.800 --> 00:03:33.860 hanging out with him at Nashville, I don't know, a couple of weeks ago or last, last week. Time flies, 00:03:33.940 --> 00:03:38.180 man. We're hanging out last week in Nashville and he dropped that line. And I was like, wait, 00:03:38.580 --> 00:03:44.200 who just said that? I want to write that down. And there's rules when you, when you speak and when 00:03:44.200 --> 00:03:49.440 you hear some, what somebody else has said and you use it. So here's the rules, Dan. The first time that 00:03:49.440 --> 00:03:55.140 I use your quote publicly, I'm going to give you credit. The second time I'm going to say it's been 00:03:55.140 --> 00:03:59.280 said, or I've heard someone say, and I'm going to pretend like I don't remember, even though Dan, 00:03:59.340 --> 00:04:04.340 I know that it was you. And then the third time that I use that line, I'm going to steal it as my 00:04:04.340 --> 00:04:09.960 own. So publicly, Dan affinity is, is the next vicinity. I'm giving you credit for that right now. 00:04:10.340 --> 00:04:14.640 Next time, third time, you just, you know, the routine, you know what to expect now. 00:04:14.640 --> 00:04:22.420 And that'll be good. The reality is, is here in 2021, because of COVID, because of technology, 00:04:22.560 --> 00:04:29.360 because of everything, community lines are being redrawn. In this season, we, the church, 00:04:29.500 --> 00:04:36.760 we community, not even about the church, we're redefining what community means in real time. 00:04:37.020 --> 00:04:41.380 Now, look, we can go Matthew 28. We can go biblical here. Love your neighbor as yourself 00:04:41.380 --> 00:04:47.340 has always meant more than the person that is physically living next door to you. Like, I mean, 00:04:47.380 --> 00:04:53.160 that's a, that's a fallacy. Jesus is not literally saying love the person who lives on the other side 00:04:53.160 --> 00:04:58.580 of you and the guy across the street and the guy that's behind the fence and the guy that's on this 00:04:58.580 --> 00:05:04.820 side, because when he speaks and when he says this, it's, it's more, it's bigger. What, so I'm not 00:05:04.820 --> 00:05:09.800 supposed to love the guy that's two doors down from me or, or three doors or five doors or, or in, 00:05:09.800 --> 00:05:15.080 in another city, you know, Dan talking about him just earlier, he was the digital pastor at Calvary 00:05:15.080 --> 00:05:20.900 Chapel, Fort Lauderdale. I'm in Miami. That's a city away. Hey, Dan, we're not neighbors because 00:05:20.900 --> 00:05:27.760 you live in another city. Ironically, Dan actually does his job, not from Fort Lauderdale. He lives in 00:05:27.760 --> 00:05:33.440 Nashville. And so Dan, even though you're in another state, even though you're in another time zone, 00:05:33.440 --> 00:05:38.340 I'm sorry, bud, we're not, we're not neighbors. God calls us to love our neighbors as ourself, 00:05:38.340 --> 00:05:45.000 and you are not in close enough vicinity for me to love you. So you, sir, are on your own. That is a 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:51.520 heart, that doesn't make any sense. Like if we really get down to it, the idea that our neighbors 00:05:51.520 --> 00:05:58.800 are defined by the exact proximity, the closeness, or even that we, our churches, are only trying to 00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:07.000 reach and disciple people that are within physical vicinity of us, that that's an old idea. And really 00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:12.900 what it comes down to is we've got a physical mindset here when we're defining what a neighbor 00:06:12.900 --> 00:06:20.220 is. And we've got a digital idea when we're trying to define what a neighbor is. And so we need to 00:06:20.220 --> 00:06:26.400 wrestle with that. We need to work through this idea of physical and digital mindsets. Now, physical, 00:06:26.400 --> 00:06:31.720 yeah, it's the guy next door. Maybe it's the cop that lives two doors that way for me, 00:06:31.720 --> 00:06:37.500 or the person over here behind the fence who really, really likes cats, whatever it is for you, 00:06:37.560 --> 00:06:43.980 you do have those physical neighbors and you are to love them, but it doesn't stop there. 00:06:44.460 --> 00:06:49.520 Because there's a digital idea here. And there's probably some other cultural ramifications of 00:06:49.520 --> 00:06:54.600 this that need to be unpacked. Would love to have that conversation. But what would it look like 00:06:54.600 --> 00:07:05.340 if we loved our digital neighbors with that as well? If affinity is the new vicinity, we must, number one, 00:07:05.700 --> 00:07:14.500 we must see that social media, that digital, is a mission field for us to engage in, for us to get 00:07:14.500 --> 00:07:19.820 out of our echo chamber. Now, so much, let's talk about the echo chamber. So much of echo chamber is 00:07:19.820 --> 00:07:26.740 surrounded around us being connected with people just like us. So great. Hey, you want to own a, 00:07:26.740 --> 00:07:32.580 or you want to sign up for a Facebook group for, you know, I'm a Marvel cinematic guy in case you 00:07:32.580 --> 00:07:38.820 haven't like seen any of the bobbleheads behind me. So, you know, maybe you're in a club, a Facebook 00:07:38.820 --> 00:07:43.980 group where they're talking about Marvel cinematic things or, or why the new Spider-Man trailer has yet 00:07:43.980 --> 00:07:49.640 to come out yet. And, and like Spider-Man fanboys are freaking out or why star Wars hasn't gotten a 00:07:49.640 --> 00:07:55.120 movie right since episode five, or, you know, maybe it's for you, it's a Lego and I'm just being stupid 00:07:55.120 --> 00:08:00.240 because like kid stuff, Lego thing, or I bought a grill recently and, and that company has its own 00:08:00.240 --> 00:08:04.900 club. Or maybe you're in a, in a, in a Facebook group that talks about digital church, or, I mean, 00:08:04.900 --> 00:08:09.340 we can just keep going on and on about these affinity, these things that, that we connect with. 00:08:09.340 --> 00:08:15.240 And what's interesting is, is for me, I connected a lot of those groups and I've got friends in those 00:08:15.240 --> 00:08:21.520 groups. I've got friends within physical proximity that I also connect with, not because I'm physical 00:08:21.520 --> 00:08:26.720 proximity to them, but because I have an affinity, a relationship with them because they're, they're 00:08:26.720 --> 00:08:32.280 similar. Now I can connect with, and I can build relationships with those affinities, but when I 00:08:32.280 --> 00:08:38.320 start to judge them or criticize them because of different political feelings or different masks, 00:08:38.320 --> 00:08:43.760 feelings or, or different opinions like that and not recognize them as a human being, this is when we 00:08:43.760 --> 00:08:48.320 start to get into this idea of echo chamber, where we're just trying to surround ourselves with people 00:08:48.320 --> 00:08:54.000 who are just like us. And at what point do we start shoving away people who need Jesus? Because, well, 00:08:54.360 --> 00:08:58.480 they're, they're not a Christian, so I don't, I don't want to be affiliated with them. I don't want to 00:08:58.480 --> 00:09:03.280 talk with them. We are to be an island. I've had a pastor tell me that once, and honestly, I died a little 00:09:03.280 --> 00:09:11.280 bit inside, because we Christians are not to be an island, especially in digital context. We're not to, to fight. 00:09:11.280 --> 00:09:18.720 Digital is a mission field, and we've got to stop with the echo chamber and recognize that digital has a lot more 00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:28.280 influence if we stop surrounding ourselves with people who are just like us, politically, emotionally, spiritually, and we start 00:09:28.280 --> 00:09:36.280 recognizing the need to do ministry digital. Affinity is the new vicinity. Number two here: 00:09:36.280 --> 00:09:44.280 affinity is the new vicinity. We must relate to people who are similar to us, yet different. This is the key. 00:09:44.280 --> 00:09:52.280 We need to recognize the ministry potential to engage in dialogue with people who are different to us, 00:09:52.280 --> 00:10:00.280 yet similar. Let's listen. Let's have those conversations. What, what does it mean to be, uh, how do you view an agnostic, 00:10:00.280 --> 00:10:06.280 sir? Like, what do you, what is your view of Christ, and how do you reconcile some of these things? Don't start from a 00:10:06.280 --> 00:10:12.280 platform of shoving down, but listen through those conversations, and maybe there's an opportunity even 00:10:12.280 --> 00:10:18.280 to dialogue. Through that listening and through that relationship, all of a sudden you see more coming in 00:10:18.280 --> 00:10:22.280 place where you now have an opportunity to engage in their life at a deeper level, because you didn't start 00:10:22.280 --> 00:10:28.280 by preaching at them. The first thing you did was listen. Number three here: if affinity is the new 00:10:28.280 --> 00:10:34.280 vicinity, we must recognize that discipleship and disciple making can happen outside of the building. The fact that we are 00:10:34.280 --> 00:10:40.280 still having this conversation in 2021 blows my mind. The fact that there are churches that are still putting 00:10:40.280 --> 00:10:46.280 all their energy into getting back into the building, that's great, that's awesome. Can we learn a lesson 00:10:46.280 --> 00:10:52.280 here about digital discipleship? Can we notice here that digital is powerful when it comes towards equipping 00:10:52.280 --> 00:11:00.280 and engaging with people? And so, if we could get our attenders that have no spiritual purpose outside of the building 00:11:00.280 --> 00:11:02.280 that are struggling when it comes to getting activated and being on mission with God, if we can include 00:11:02.280 --> 00:11:10.280 them digitally through digital methods, if we can disciple them so that they can in turn disciple others in 00:11:10.280 --> 00:11:16.280 physical and/or digital space, the world, the church, people's views of God would look very different, 00:11:16.280 --> 00:11:22.280 but instead we're huddled up in these buildings with these temples, with these, I forget, I'm trying to 00:11:22.280 --> 00:11:30.280 say silo, what's the pointy thing on the top? Silo is not steeple, thank you very much, with the steeples, 00:11:30.280 --> 00:11:36.280 and when that's not, that's not where we should be looking. Pastor, don't be upset your people have no purpose 00:11:36.280 --> 00:11:44.280 or they're not in your building, be upset that they have no purpose when they're not in your building, let's get them activated outside of that. 00:11:44.280 --> 00:11:52.280 If affinity is the new vicinity, the number four, we must be okay with seeds falling in thorny bush and rocky soil. 00:11:52.280 --> 00:11:58.280 Now look, it's hard discipling digitally, it's hard being on mission in social media. 00:11:58.280 --> 00:12:06.280 A couple weeks ago I got trolled, and it was like, hey, you know what, my knee-jerk response, and I stepped away from the keyboard. 00:12:06.280 --> 00:12:12.280 My knee-jerk response was, I want to roast this guy, I'm ticked, I'm angry, how dare he? 00:12:12.280 --> 00:12:16.280 But the step back was to realize, hey, the troll needs Jesus too. 00:12:16.280 --> 00:12:24.280 And so how we handle and how we work with these things, now look, you can cast seeds out there, you can connect with people, you can pray for people, 00:12:24.280 --> 00:12:28.280 and their response could be screw you, or worse. 00:12:28.280 --> 00:12:32.280 Their response could be, you know, talk to the hand if you want to go back a decade. 00:12:32.280 --> 00:12:36.280 Their response could be something that isn't pleasant for you. 00:12:36.280 --> 00:12:39.280 And at the end of the day, if that's the case, it's all right. 00:12:39.280 --> 00:12:47.280 It's okay if it happens in that experience, in that moment, because God's going to use it. 00:12:47.280 --> 00:12:55.280 Which is the funny thing about why we're so against physical, or so against digital, and wanting to only do physical. 00:12:55.280 --> 00:13:03.280 Because if we believe that in anything we can do, God can use us for the kingdom, then why aren't we more aggressive in taking advantage of every opportunity possible, 00:13:03.280 --> 00:13:13.280 instead just trying to limit on a couple maybe tested over time methods that honestly haven't been very effective in the past couple decades? 00:13:13.280 --> 00:13:19.280 Why not experiment with digital? Why not take advantage of the technology that's placed? 00:13:19.280 --> 00:13:22.280 Why not look at affinity being that new vicinity? 00:13:22.280 --> 00:13:27.280 We really have got no reason, no excuse, not to go down this road. 00:13:27.280 --> 00:13:35.280 Number five here, if affinity is the new vicinity, we must remember that affinity does not replace vicinity. 00:13:35.280 --> 00:13:39.280 Oh, Jeff, you sound like a hypocrite here, Jeff, you're working both sides of the coin. 00:13:39.280 --> 00:13:40.280 Yes, yes, I am. 00:13:40.280 --> 00:13:43.280 Because it's digital, it's physical and digital. 00:13:43.280 --> 00:13:44.280 We do find ways for it to work together. 00:13:44.280 --> 00:13:48.280 Now there are communities that do work in digital only space. 00:13:48.280 --> 00:13:50.280 And I can have those conversations. 00:13:50.280 --> 00:13:57.280 And in 2021, the bleeding edge is that digital only type of person. 00:13:57.280 --> 00:14:03.280 And they are out there and they are effective, but they're the majority of people need both. 00:14:03.280 --> 00:14:10.280 The majority of the people are going to recognize that they are living in physical and digital hemispheres. 00:14:10.280 --> 00:14:12.280 They operate in both worlds. 00:14:12.280 --> 00:14:17.280 And so we church, we should be taking advantage of the physical and the digital. 00:14:17.280 --> 00:14:23.280 Give it 20 years as more and more digital natives come in where it's not logging on to the Internet. 00:14:23.280 --> 00:14:25.280 That's always just been on. 00:14:25.280 --> 00:14:30.280 And all of a sudden, I think you're going to see culture change maybe sooner than we realize. 00:14:30.280 --> 00:14:34.280 But for today, it's operating in physical and digital. 00:14:34.280 --> 00:14:37.280 Jesus spoke of loving your neighbor as yourself. 00:14:37.280 --> 00:14:39.280 And that relates to the cat guy. 00:14:39.280 --> 00:14:42.280 That relates to the cop two doors down. 00:14:42.280 --> 00:14:45.280 That relates to the new neighbor that just moved next door from me. 00:14:45.280 --> 00:14:51.280 And that relates to the person that I engage with on social media who needs Jesus. 00:14:51.280 --> 00:14:59.280 That relates to my college roommate who's in four states away from me and is going through a hard time. 00:15:00.280 --> 00:15:05.280 That relates to the person from insert story here. 00:15:05.280 --> 00:15:09.280 There's an opportunity to engage, to dialogue, to utilize digital. 00:15:09.280 --> 00:15:12.280 And that is the win for us. 00:15:12.280 --> 00:15:13.280 Not just physical. 00:15:13.280 --> 00:15:14.280 Digital. 00:15:14.280 --> 00:15:15.280 Figital. 00:15:15.280 --> 00:15:17.280 Figure out how to make them work together. 00:15:17.280 --> 00:15:18.280 Crazy idea? 00:15:18.280 --> 00:15:20.280 Of course it's a crazy idea. 00:15:20.280 --> 00:15:22.280 Is this the first time you've listened to the beta show? 00:15:22.280 --> 00:15:24.280 All we do is we talk crazy here. 00:15:24.280 --> 00:15:26.280 But that doesn't mean that I'm wrong. 00:15:26.280 --> 00:15:32.280 There's an opportunity here for you to revolutionize your church's disciple making process. 00:15:32.280 --> 00:15:33.280 Is it guaranteed? 00:15:33.280 --> 00:15:34.280 No. 00:15:34.280 --> 00:15:37.280 Is it probably a step forward from where you are right now? 00:15:37.280 --> 00:15:38.280 Yeah. 00:15:38.280 --> 00:15:39.280 Why not give it a shot? 00:15:39.280 --> 00:15:40.280 Why not experiment? 00:15:40.280 --> 00:15:41.280 Why not try with some of these things? 00:15:41.280 --> 00:15:47.280 By the way, Stadia is doing digital learning communities in fall of 21. 00:15:47.280 --> 00:15:50.280 Kicking them off right now in the next couple of weeks. 00:15:50.280 --> 00:15:53.280 StadiaChurchPlanting.org/Figital. 00:15:53.280 --> 00:15:57.280 StadiaChurchPlanting.org/Figital. 00:15:58.280 --> 00:15:59.280 Get plugged into a learning community. 00:15:59.280 --> 00:16:03.280 Walk alongside other churches that are wrestling with the same stuff. 00:16:03.280 --> 00:16:11.280 Understand how digital discipleship can be more effective for your church and can help your 00:16:11.280 --> 00:16:14.280 church thrive, grow, and multiply. 00:16:14.280 --> 00:16:15.280 Check that out. 00:16:15.280 --> 00:16:17.280 StadiaChurchPlanting.org/Figital. 00:16:17.280 --> 00:16:19.280 And hey, we're going to wrap. 00:16:19.280 --> 00:16:20.280 It's funny. 00:16:20.280 --> 00:16:21.280 My screen has been very glitchy. 00:16:21.280 --> 00:16:23.280 And so hopefully this is broadcast clean. 00:16:23.280 --> 00:16:24.280 If not, we're going to figure it out. 00:16:24.280 --> 00:16:26.280 But hey, technology. 00:16:26.280 --> 00:16:28.280 Try something new and sometimes it glitches. 00:16:28.280 --> 00:16:32.280 So for Stadia, for The Church Digital, I'm Jeff. 00:16:32.280 --> 00:16:33.280 It's been great to have you here. 00:16:33.280 --> 00:16:37.280 We've got some cool stuff coming up here very soon with The Church Digital. 00:16:37.280 --> 00:16:39.280 I don't want to let the cat out of the bag. 00:16:39.280 --> 00:16:40.280 I hate cats. 00:16:40.280 --> 00:16:41.280 I'm actually very allergic to cats. 00:16:41.280 --> 00:16:42.280 But stay tuned. 00:16:42.280 --> 00:16:46.280 There's going to be some real cool stuff coming up here in the next little bit. 00:16:46.280 --> 00:16:47.280 Hey, thanks for being here. 00:16:47.280 --> 00:16:48.280 We'll see you next time here at The Beta Show. 00:16:48.280 --> 00:16:49.280 Y'all have a good one.