WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.380 Hey, we're going to get you to that podcast in one second, but before we get there, I, 00:00:03.580 --> 00:00:08.160 Jeff Reed, the Church Digital, Stadia Church Planning, I wanted to have a conversation with 00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:13.180 you, churches that are out there. One of the greatest things I arguably think that I've done 00:00:13.180 --> 00:00:17.300 in my life, other than married and kids, okay, that aside, one of the greatest ministry things 00:00:17.300 --> 00:00:21.800 I've ever done is this idea of the fidgetal learning communities that we are offering 00:00:21.800 --> 00:00:27.320 through Stadia Church Planning. We want to help you. We want to help your church learn to thrive, 00:00:27.320 --> 00:00:34.340 grow, and multiply fidgetally, physically, as well as digitally. We've seen about 200 churches go 00:00:34.340 --> 00:00:40.340 through this already, and it's been a phenomenal result of it. Culture is changing within these 00:00:40.340 --> 00:00:46.080 churches. They're understanding what it is to thrive. They're understanding how to grow people, 00:00:46.220 --> 00:00:52.500 how to grow their church, even in the midst of this COVID, not COVID, wherever we are in the season, 00:00:52.500 --> 00:00:59.520 and they're even starting to understand what it means to multiply in fidgetal space. There's no secret 00:00:59.520 --> 00:01:05.760 sauce to doing a digital strategy. There's no secret sauce to doing a fidgetal strategy. There's no 00:01:05.760 --> 00:01:11.660 secret sauce to making your church thrive, grow, and multiply. It takes work. I'm not going to lie, 00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:15.180 but through the framework, through the questions, through the learning communities, 00:01:15.180 --> 00:01:21.920 we connect you with churches. We give you some content. We coach you along the way to help you 00:01:21.920 --> 00:01:28.860 make the decisions that you need to make so that your church's strategy can thrive, grow, and multiply 00:01:28.860 --> 00:01:35.280 your church along the way. This is a great opportunity for your church. We would love to have you be a part 00:01:35.280 --> 00:01:40.920 of it. For more information, check out stadiacchurchplanning.org slash fidgetal, 00:01:41.020 --> 00:01:49.320 stadiacchurchplanning.org slash fidgetal, P-H-Y-G-I-T-A-L. All right. Hey, that's it. 00:01:49.420 --> 00:01:51.260 We're going to get you back to that episode right now. 00:01:52.160 --> 00:01:58.000 Can small groups actually multiply? Can fidgetal small groups actually multiply? This is the question 00:01:58.020 --> 00:02:02.900 that we're digging into here with this episode of the Church Digital Podcast. Jeff Reed here, 00:02:03.300 --> 00:02:08.480 Church Digital, powered once again by Stadia Church Planting. I love the stuff that Stadia is doing, 00:02:08.660 --> 00:02:13.700 fidgetal, and the way that they're exploring things like even small groups and how churches 00:02:13.700 --> 00:02:20.820 can thrive, grow, and multiply, develop strategies that can help churches like yours learn to thrive, 00:02:21.120 --> 00:02:27.180 grow, and multiply. Just recently, I had the opportunity to be on a webinar with our friends 00:02:27.180 --> 00:02:33.280 over at Glue. If you're not familiar with Glue, check the website out, glue.us. There's some 00:02:33.280 --> 00:02:39.480 really interesting things that they're doing even towards the point of helping churches market and 00:02:39.480 --> 00:02:44.940 connect with people within their communities. Go to glueconnect.church slash stadia for more 00:02:44.940 --> 00:02:49.240 information. I don't want to park out on that. Within the webinar, you'll hear something at the end that 00:02:49.240 --> 00:02:55.800 gives more information towards this Glue Connect thing that they're doing for churches. But specifically 00:02:55.800 --> 00:03:01.120 here, we're going to talk about how to get groups that multiply. And so I had a really great 00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:06.800 conversation with Jamie Larson of Glue, where she was interviewing me. So we're going to flip the script 00:03:07.320 --> 00:03:11.580 here on the Church Digital Podcast. Instead of me interviewing somebody else, somebody's interviewing me, 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:17.820 talking about how to get groups to multiply and maybe even a little bit teasing to what a 00:03:17.820 --> 00:03:24.140 discipleship relationship with discipleship groups can look like in digital space. So for the conversation 00:03:24.140 --> 00:03:29.040 here, Jamie Larson with Glue, Glue Connect, myself, Jeff with the Church Digital and Stadia Church 00:03:29.040 --> 00:03:35.240 Planting, simply put, having a conversation about digital groups that multiply. Okay, everybody, here you go. 00:03:36.880 --> 00:03:42.840 Well, hey, everyone. I'm Jamie Larson. I want to welcome you. Today's workshop is digital groups that multiply. 00:03:43.160 --> 00:03:49.120 And by digital, we mean combining physical and digital. Please continue to introduce yourself in the chat. We do want 00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:55.020 this to be interactive throughout the entire time. So you won't, don't feel rude if you're asking questions 00:03:55.020 --> 00:04:01.100 or you're putting something in the chat. We absolutely want you to do that. If you're here with us for the 00:04:01.100 --> 00:04:08.940 first time today, welcome. We've actually been having multiple workshops. And so we have a whole series of 00:04:08.940 --> 00:04:16.140 them. We've got ones from writing emails to your congregation that they will actually read. And then we've got stuff 00:04:16.140 --> 00:04:21.920 around social media and how to build relationships. We've got videos, we've got downloads, so much more. 00:04:22.500 --> 00:04:30.860 And so we want to direct you to where you can watch any of those that may be helpful to you. And we have 00:04:30.860 --> 00:04:36.440 in the chat, we'll have a link that you can go to so that you can access all of those. So over the next 45 00:04:36.440 --> 00:04:42.580 minutes, we're going to walk you through the best practices for helping online groups multiply. I'm really 00:04:42.580 --> 00:04:48.340 excited that you're here today. Don't know if you can tell, but I am super excited. My name is Jamie 00:04:48.340 --> 00:04:54.340 Larson. I've been a pastor's wife for 20 years, which is weird because I don't even think I'm old enough 00:04:54.340 --> 00:05:01.300 to be a pastor's wife for 20 years, but I have been. I started an online education site a couple or several 00:05:01.300 --> 00:05:06.820 years ago, actually. And I had to learn the ins and outs of digital marketing, how to attract people 00:05:06.820 --> 00:05:12.420 digitally, and how to grow them without ever meeting them. Does that sound familiar? Because that's what a 00:05:12.420 --> 00:05:18.340 lot of you are having to do right now. Now I actually work at GLUE and I run the engaged church 00:05:18.340 --> 00:05:26.080 community for pastors and communication directors. We also have Randy, Julia, and Jeremy from GLUE in the 00:05:26.080 --> 00:05:32.260 chat who are available to answer any of your questions throughout the workshop. We will have a Q&A time at the 00:05:32.260 --> 00:05:37.620 very end for you to also ask Jeff your questions. So if they can't answer those questions, they're going 00:05:37.620 --> 00:05:43.860 to feed them to us at the end to make sure that we go over afterwards. So throughout our workshop, 00:05:44.980 --> 00:05:51.460 we're going to post in the chat and ask some questions. And we would love for you to interact 00:05:51.460 --> 00:05:56.580 with those answers or those questions and give us your answers. And so again, I just want to remind you, 00:05:56.580 --> 00:06:04.500 make sure that as you're replying, that it's replying to everybody and not just panelists. Okay. Hey, Jeff, 00:06:04.740 --> 00:06:09.380 how's it going? Well, hey, that was a mouthful. You went through that pretty well. 00:06:10.580 --> 00:06:16.680 Yes, it is a mouthful. I'm glad I got through it. And I'm so excited that you are here with us today, Jeff. I want to 00:06:16.680 --> 00:06:22.120 introduce everybody to you. I think a lot of people probably already know who you are, but just in case they don't, 00:06:22.340 --> 00:06:27.300 I'm going to share a little bit about you. You are the director of digital church planting for Stadia, 00:06:27.560 --> 00:06:34.760 correct? Yep. That's pretty awesome. Yeah, it's a fun job. I bet it is. Jeff's been in the church for 00:06:34.760 --> 00:06:42.200 nearly 20 years and he started the church.digital in 2018. And now as the director of digital church 00:06:42.200 --> 00:06:49.220 planning for Stadia, Jeff spends his time helping plant digital only churches in online communities. 00:06:49.220 --> 00:06:54.280 That's so awesome. As well as helping churches develop and implement strategies for 00:06:54.280 --> 00:07:00.160 digital church. I just know I'm going to get that term wrong, but I said it right this time, 00:07:00.280 --> 00:07:06.120 digital. You're also married with your wife is Amy. You've got two children, a puppy who has a taste 00:07:06.120 --> 00:07:12.240 for technology. Tell me about that. Yeah. So my dog loves to eat products and it seems to be the more 00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:19.800 expensive, the better taste that it has. So recently she, she totally demolished, demolished the pair of 00:07:19.800 --> 00:07:26.980 iPad or excuse me, I, uh, ear pods, AirPods version two, uh, not the pros. It was actually my excuse 00:07:26.980 --> 00:07:34.200 to upgrade to the pros, but, uh, the case. Oh yeah. I was, so it, she's, I used to joke that like, 00:07:34.200 --> 00:07:39.420 she's Thanos just coming along and thinning out the herd, allowing for, for more growth to come 00:07:39.420 --> 00:07:44.180 afterwards. You see, I did a Marvel tie in there. I totally got that. Totally, totally got that. Good, 00:07:44.240 --> 00:07:50.240 good, good, good. That's great. Yes. We have a, we have a puppy as well who does love ear pods. Um, 00:07:50.320 --> 00:07:55.360 so I can, I can definitely relate. Well, Hey, we want to make sure that you stick around until the 00:07:55.360 --> 00:07:58.920 end, because like I said, we're going to have a Q and a, which I think is going to be super valuable, 00:07:58.920 --> 00:08:05.620 but we're also going to be giving two bonuses created by Stadia, um, with next steps that can 00:08:05.620 --> 00:08:10.320 take you beyond what we even talk about today. These are really informative and really beautifully 00:08:10.320 --> 00:08:15.820 designed, uh, bonuses. If this is the first time that you have been hanging out with glue, 00:08:15.820 --> 00:08:21.780 I just want to tell you a little bit about us at glue. We are really passionate about growth and 00:08:21.780 --> 00:08:28.260 we refer to leaders of churches and nonprofits as champions, because that's exactly what you are. 00:08:28.260 --> 00:08:34.720 At the end of the day, our goal is to serve you. So we spend a lot of our time listening to our 00:08:34.720 --> 00:08:41.220 champions and figuring out what is standing in the way of your success. And then we work to build 00:08:41.220 --> 00:08:48.340 tech solutions that make your job a little easier. I also want to preference that any tools or tech 00:08:48.340 --> 00:08:55.060 solutions that we talk about today, um, they will be at zero cost to you. So we are not trying to sell 00:08:55.060 --> 00:09:02.080 you anything. I hope that is really refreshing to hear today is all about being a gift to you. And, 00:09:02.080 --> 00:09:07.840 um, we hope that this conversation serves you and your church really well. So without further ado, 00:09:08.020 --> 00:09:15.740 let's move on to our guest, Jeff, and learn about digital groups that multiply. Okay, Jeff. So what are 00:09:15.740 --> 00:09:21.060 the strengths and the weaknesses as well as the similarities and differences of online small 00:09:21.060 --> 00:09:27.480 groups versus physical small groups? How do we do this? Well, wow. Like that, that's the big question, 00:09:27.580 --> 00:09:33.560 right? How to, what's the difference? We know this physical realm, we're trying to do it online. Um, 00:09:33.580 --> 00:09:36.900 and by the way, it's great to be here. Really looking forward to the conversation. Glue crowd. Hey, 00:09:36.920 --> 00:09:41.920 thanks for, thanks for this. Um, and I'm a big chat guy, like, like we had talked about here. So even, 00:09:41.920 --> 00:09:46.860 I want to ask the room in advance right now, you tell me what, what are the strengths that you see 00:09:46.860 --> 00:09:51.940 as you've been testing, as you've been experimenting, as you've been trying online small groups as a 00:09:51.940 --> 00:09:57.420 result of COVID, what are you seeing kind of as, as the strengths coming out of that? For me, I see 00:09:57.420 --> 00:10:05.440 scalability. It's the ability to virtually at any time do a small group. You want to do a small group 00:10:05.440 --> 00:10:10.120 at nine o'clock at night to reach a bunch of soccer moms that single soccer moms that have a bunch of 00:10:10.120 --> 00:10:15.140 kids. Yeah, you can do that. You, after the kids go to bed, do a small group and create that 00:10:15.140 --> 00:10:19.420 community. Then you want to do it at 11 o'clock at night. Well, I mean, I guess if you're single and 00:10:19.420 --> 00:10:23.720 you're not going to wake up the house, sure. Why not go do that? Five o'clock in the morning, 00:10:23.800 --> 00:10:28.460 there there's no excuse because you're in an online environment. You're able to do things 00:10:28.460 --> 00:10:33.160 virtually digitally that you wouldn't be able to do physically. It's, it's much more convenient 00:10:33.160 --> 00:10:39.000 as well. So it's a lot less excuses for engaging in there. It's easy to join a group. Honestly, 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:44.420 we all have webcams in our pockets. They're called iPhones or Androids. And so that the little, 00:10:44.660 --> 00:10:48.940 you know, cameras that we've got built in coupled with zoom or some sort of technology, 00:10:48.940 --> 00:10:56.080 it's easy to engage right there. But from a more kind of philosophical standpoint, video, 00:10:56.700 --> 00:11:01.920 digital small groups is really the great equalizer. Oftentimes, if you really analyze some of the 00:11:01.920 --> 00:11:08.540 psychology of what happens in, in, on, in physical small groups, there's a lot of, of judging, or 00:11:08.540 --> 00:11:14.140 there's a lot of uncomfortability based on, on where we are meeting in the physical space. Maybe 00:11:14.140 --> 00:11:22.760 it's a lower economical person, uh, who's joining a physical small group, walking into a luxurious two 00:11:22.760 --> 00:11:29.380 two-story mansion with this gorgeous, uh, gateway doorway. And immediately they're feeling, um, 00:11:29.380 --> 00:11:35.760 less valued, uh, more shy, more uncomfortable because it's not in their space. When in fact, 00:11:35.860 --> 00:11:41.200 what we discover in, uh, on, in online small groups, there's a lens, like you can't see it, 00:11:41.220 --> 00:11:49.260 but it's, it's right there. And that lens gives me the ability, safety, comfort. You know, um, Jamie, 00:11:49.380 --> 00:11:54.320 you're, you're on the other side of the country. You and I can have a conversation and I'm not worried 00:11:54.320 --> 00:12:00.580 about being judged because I'm in Miami, Florida, and you're in Colorado. And so the ability for us 00:12:00.580 --> 00:12:05.500 to get real with each other quickly in digital environments, digital pastors tell you that happens 00:12:05.500 --> 00:12:09.480 very quickly in digital space, but not necessarily physical space. 00:12:09.580 --> 00:12:13.440 Yeah. That's actually a really great point. I never would have thought of that. And also I 00:12:13.440 --> 00:12:16.700 don't have to clean. I mean, you're only seeing the neat part of my office right now. I didn't 00:12:16.700 --> 00:12:22.360 have to clean everything up, which is a huge plus. Yeah. It's, it's ironic. I'm actually in my guest 00:12:22.360 --> 00:12:28.000 bedroom. So there's like a bed four feet that way. You don't know that you don't need to know that 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:33.580 I don't have to. My dog is probably trashing the living room as we speak. And so I don't have to 00:12:33.580 --> 00:12:39.220 explore and expose a lot of that. I can just worry about the conversation that we're having 00:12:39.220 --> 00:12:44.140 and engage in the space without having to worry about what's happening in the other areas. 00:12:45.640 --> 00:12:49.460 And from, once again, from another practical standpoint, we've got the ability, and you can 00:12:49.460 --> 00:12:55.780 Google this term. It's called flip the classroom. This is actually like a, an educational, my wife 00:12:55.780 --> 00:13:01.860 has a master's in education and they've studied this, where they found that the lecture portion 00:13:01.860 --> 00:13:08.840 of what happens in a, in a, in a classroom setting. The best way to do that is not within the actual 00:13:08.840 --> 00:13:14.560 classroom setting with multiple people, but it's watching it on demand during the week. And then when 00:13:14.560 --> 00:13:21.380 you gather together, it's not listen to one person lecture, it's actually dialoguing. Right. And so now 00:13:21.380 --> 00:13:29.380 we've got the opportunity to not just listen to a video, watch a video kind of online, do that stuff in 00:13:29.380 --> 00:13:35.120 advance, but come into the room ready to dialogue. It's, it's better in digital environments. It's 00:13:35.120 --> 00:13:39.840 better to ask questions than make statements. It's better to use question marks than periods. And, and 00:13:39.840 --> 00:13:45.960 that question, that facilitating allows for people to engage in conversation, which is really the 00:13:45.960 --> 00:13:50.580 strength of what we want, utilizing these digital tools, get people engaging in conversations. 00:13:51.360 --> 00:13:56.220 Yeah. That's really good that I, and I've actually heard of flip the classroom before. That's, that's a 00:13:56.220 --> 00:14:02.340 great approach. So then do we have weaknesses when it comes to, uh, to doing this digitally? 00:14:03.340 --> 00:14:08.260 Oh yeah. I mean, I would be crazy to say that there's not weaknesses. No, there's, there's 00:14:08.260 --> 00:14:13.720 opportunities as well to maybe overcome. And once again, I'll ask in the, in the chat, would love you 00:14:13.720 --> 00:14:18.960 guys to tell me, what are some of the weaknesses that you're seeing in context of the digital small 00:14:18.960 --> 00:14:25.620 groups? For me, right off the bat, and this is, this is not a new concept. This is decades old. It's 00:14:25.620 --> 00:14:32.360 the perception that utilizing technology is cold. It's distant. Um, this, this isn't necessarily a 00:14:32.360 --> 00:14:36.460 bad thing. It's just means it's, we have to work with a church. We've got to work hard to overcome 00:14:36.460 --> 00:14:43.680 that. Uh, it's the impression that, uh, it's very impersonal, uh, when in fact it's, it's very, very 00:14:43.680 --> 00:14:49.220 personal. I mean, just this week, and unfortunately I don't want to get into the details within an hour 00:14:49.220 --> 00:14:55.760 yesterday, I made a grown woman cry on a zoom call. It wasn't, it was not. No, it wasn't open 00:14:55.760 --> 00:15:02.040 confession there. And Jeff, I can be a jerk, uh, but it wasn't in that situation. Honestly, we just got 00:15:02.040 --> 00:15:07.240 so real with each other. Her husband was in the room on the call as well, but we just unearthed some 00:15:07.240 --> 00:15:13.900 things in 45 minutes worth of conversation that she was very real and personal to her. And she got 00:15:13.900 --> 00:15:20.280 emotional as a result of it. And once again, it's recognizing the tools for the strengths and yes, 00:15:20.320 --> 00:15:24.680 there are weaknesses, but we can overcome it. It's global. This means that we've got to deal with 00:15:24.680 --> 00:15:30.800 issues like time zones. I personally, I've led one small group at one time with, uh, I was in Miami, 00:15:30.800 --> 00:15:35.660 Florida. There was a guy in England and there was a guy in Hawaii. Uh, and so the best time to do that 00:15:35.660 --> 00:15:41.640 was 3 PM Sunday, Eastern standard time, because that was like eight o'clock in, in England. And 00:15:41.640 --> 00:15:46.100 that was like 6 AM in Hawaii. And so these are challenges you've got to look at if you're doing 00:15:46.100 --> 00:15:54.120 something, um, global, if you're reaching a global person, um, it's new. We're talking fidgetal, 00:15:54.200 --> 00:15:58.640 which is a new word, physical and digital. The fact that you're addressing digital is probably new for 00:15:58.640 --> 00:16:02.960 your church. But at the same time here, we're talking, we're going to talk more about this idea 00:16:02.960 --> 00:16:10.040 of multiplication and intentional multiplication, intentional focus on this is probably two new 00:16:10.040 --> 00:16:14.500 concepts for your church. You're, you're maybe saying it, but you're not putting some of it into 00:16:14.500 --> 00:16:20.660 practice. And even one of these concepts is hard. Intentionally focusing on both is once again, 00:16:20.660 --> 00:16:26.960 even more hard. Any change in church structure can be slow and tackling two at the same time is 00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:33.200 definitely a slow process. For sure. For sure. People are having to get used to change these days a 00:16:33.200 --> 00:16:39.720 little bit quicker. It seems like though. So, um, okay. So second question, changes in the church can 00:16:39.720 --> 00:16:44.500 take time. So that's what we're talking about right now. What strategies might a church need to make 00:16:44.500 --> 00:16:50.620 to ensure that their, uh, digital groups can thrive and multiply. And I, I'm even thinking in my head, 00:16:50.640 --> 00:16:55.780 Jeff, right now, some of the older generation and, you know, not having the tech. And so maybe you'll 00:16:55.780 --> 00:17:01.080 cover some of that, but, um, would love to know the answer to this. Awesome. Love that. And we'll, 00:17:01.080 --> 00:17:06.160 we'll dig into the, the older generation. I'll tell you a story about my mom coming up. I'm not calling 00:17:06.160 --> 00:17:11.060 my mom. Well, yeah, I am calling my mom old. Sorry, mom. Um, so right. We've got a strategy 00:17:11.060 --> 00:17:17.320 that we need to shift here. The biggest hurdle that, that hopefully we're overcoming in this season 00:17:17.320 --> 00:17:25.820 is that we need to move past the Sunday large gathering being the singular focus. Uh, now in 00:17:25.820 --> 00:17:30.200 pre COVID, it was, we've done the analogy before we've talked about it where that Sunday large 00:17:30.200 --> 00:17:36.280 gathering was really the queen. Um, if you wanted something done, if you wanted something communicated, 00:17:36.280 --> 00:17:40.680 if you wanted to get people for your ministry, for your small group, for whatever, get it in that 00:17:40.680 --> 00:17:45.140 Sunday service. And by the way, if you get the pastor to work it into a sermon, extra credit 00:17:45.140 --> 00:17:51.280 points, you're guaranteed success. Right. I mean, it's crazy, but there's an opportunity to do more 00:17:51.280 --> 00:17:56.520 than just that. And, and, and as, and as upset as we were when we could no longer gather in our 00:17:56.520 --> 00:18:01.560 buildings, honestly, pastor, don't be upset about not gathering in the building. Be upset that your 00:18:01.560 --> 00:18:07.560 people don't have purpose when they're not in your building, which really gets us to this three, 00:18:07.560 --> 00:18:12.500 we call them three piston approach. Uh, Ali Ruhi, who's a church planner at Stadia has talked about 00:18:12.500 --> 00:18:17.460 this a lot. And it's this idea of, yes, the Sunday morning, the large gathering, the sermon 00:18:17.460 --> 00:18:22.880 is important, but it's not the only thing. Let's, let's throw groups in there. Let's throw a biblical 00:18:22.880 --> 00:18:30.220 community, getting people at a, at a, in a broken level, smaller groups for intentional discipleship. 00:18:30.220 --> 00:18:36.420 That's important. There's a third as well that works together in this, getting people, and I would call 00:18:36.420 --> 00:18:42.860 it on personal mission. And really this personal mission and groups, these two pieces work very 00:18:42.860 --> 00:18:47.840 well together. And it really, it needs to be an integral part of your church's mission and vision 00:18:47.840 --> 00:18:52.720 working for moving forward. And it works great because no matter where you're located, honestly, 00:18:53.120 --> 00:18:58.880 you can be the guy in England, you can be the guy in Hawaii. You have the opportunity to reach out to 00:18:58.880 --> 00:19:06.980 your community and your own circle of influence and reach them for Christ. So we're talking intentional 00:19:06.980 --> 00:19:14.120 evangelism, intentional multiplication at literally in my example, a global, a worldwide movement, 00:19:14.120 --> 00:19:20.820 a benefit of COVID. And I really do believe this is that I believe that God realigned his church with 00:19:20.820 --> 00:19:28.160 his true mission. We, we moved beyond maybe some unhealthy dependencies on a large gathering where 00:19:28.160 --> 00:19:34.920 one person stands on a podium and exudes a spiritual gift in front of thousands. And instead now we've 00:19:34.920 --> 00:19:41.380 moved into a place where all of us have the opportunity to strengthen our individual spiritual gifts 00:19:41.380 --> 00:19:45.720 and use them to reach our circle of influences with that. 00:19:46.840 --> 00:19:47.280 Yeah. 00:19:47.560 --> 00:19:54.920 Ali, Ali Ruhi is, is a great example. And I mentioned him earlier. Um, he's, he's a pastor out in California 00:19:54.920 --> 00:20:00.620 and he was quoted as, as saying this to me. And, and I, I'll be honest, like my jaw hit the, hit the table 00:20:00.620 --> 00:20:07.360 when, when I heard this, he says, Jeff, my church is healthier because of COVID. And, and, and immediately I 00:20:07.360 --> 00:20:13.860 leaned in cause I never heard a pastor say my church is healthier because of COVID. But he's, he started 00:20:13.860 --> 00:20:21.140 telling me stories of, um, his attendance of his large gathering, his weekend service, uh, was cut 00:20:21.140 --> 00:20:28.120 80%, like dwindled down next to nothing in an, in an online environment. But he saw his online small 00:20:28.120 --> 00:20:34.740 groups triple. He saw people start to get on mission and understand the personal mission aspects of what 00:20:34.740 --> 00:20:40.760 was there. And, and, and honestly talking about another metric to look at in the COVID season in 00:20:40.760 --> 00:20:49.360 California, he saw his giving increased 25% increase of giving as a result of it. And so he's not looking 00:20:49.360 --> 00:20:55.620 at just shuffling people from, uh, services to small groups. He's measuring giving. He's measuring 00:20:55.620 --> 00:21:02.300 personal mission and evangelism. He was saying, Jeff, because of our intentionality towards personal 00:21:02.300 --> 00:21:07.380 mission, tying it into groups, this multiplication angle, our church is healthier as, as a result of 00:21:07.380 --> 00:21:13.720 it. And, you know, I know I would even segue there into, uh, I mean, Seth Godin, we, we, this is weird 00:21:13.720 --> 00:21:19.220 because Seth is probably one of the top marketing guys in the country, maybe the planet. Right. I mean, 00:21:19.220 --> 00:21:24.860 we've all, we've all read his books. Uh, he was on a podcast, Google, Google Seth Godin, but he was on, 00:21:24.920 --> 00:21:30.420 he did his podcast and somebody from, I think Turkey, uh, phoned in a question for his podcast. 00:21:30.420 --> 00:21:36.680 And the guy asked from Turkey, Hey, how do I get my message heard around the world? And Seth, 00:21:37.080 --> 00:21:41.680 Seth basically answered this. You'll never get a billion people to agree with what you have to say. 00:21:41.800 --> 00:21:48.200 A billion people do not care about your individual message. If, if you really want to reach people, 00:21:48.200 --> 00:21:53.080 it's, it's not a hundred million. It's not a 10 million. It's not a million. It's not a hundred 00:21:53.080 --> 00:21:59.340 thousand, 10,000 to really impact people. You want to tell the smallest number of people possible 00:21:59.340 --> 00:22:07.100 in idea. You want to get them to own it and you want to get them to replicate it. Yeah. Seth is, 00:22:07.100 --> 00:22:13.240 is Jewish, not a Christian. And he's describing in, in simple principles, the, the foundation with 00:22:13.240 --> 00:22:17.480 Christ built his church. I mean, he's this, he's explaining discipleship and disciple making. 00:22:17.680 --> 00:22:24.360 And so we have this opportunity to see multiplication in these small groups led by 00:22:24.360 --> 00:22:32.100 volunteers, by individuals who are on personal mission to see this multiplication happen. And 00:22:32.100 --> 00:22:37.140 we've got opportunities in this COVID season to do it in physical space, maybe, but we definitely have 00:22:37.140 --> 00:22:42.900 opportunities to do it in digital space where people can be more real and more transparent with each other. 00:22:43.240 --> 00:22:47.320 Yes. I love that. Wow. That is really great. So what about changes in the culture? 00:22:48.880 --> 00:22:54.960 Multiplying groups can be hard. It's a, it's a definite, a culture change. I mean, 00:22:54.980 --> 00:23:00.900 and let's even ask this in the chat would, would love some feedback. What, what cultural shifts 00:23:00.900 --> 00:23:07.580 has your church had to do in this COVID season? Groups, uh, giving, moving online. What has that 00:23:07.580 --> 00:23:09.800 tension looked like and felt like for you guys? 00:23:09.800 --> 00:23:15.020 It's so much, it's so much right now. It really is amazing that we are in this time of history and 00:23:15.020 --> 00:23:20.260 we're going to look back and say, wow, this was a transformation of the church and how the church 00:23:20.260 --> 00:23:25.380 had to present itself. Um, so yeah, I'm, I'm curious to know. 00:23:25.940 --> 00:23:31.660 Totally and completely up front. Hey, let's experiment. Let's try something different. 00:23:32.160 --> 00:23:37.360 Let's be okay with it because COVID made us change everything anyway. So let's be intentional 00:23:37.360 --> 00:23:43.700 and maybe claim some hills, gain some victories towards it. Let's celebrate those victories when 00:23:43.700 --> 00:23:49.260 they come and, and let's celebrate the failures and recognize failures for what they are. You know, 00:23:49.300 --> 00:23:54.540 maybe some questions even walking into it is staff bought in. Have you had the conversation with 00:23:54.540 --> 00:23:59.840 staff? Do they understand what you're trying to achieve? What about key volunteers, high level leaders? 00:23:59.840 --> 00:24:06.140 Have, have you had that level of conversation? Do they all understand the why? Not, not what you're 00:24:06.140 --> 00:24:09.860 wanting to do, but why you're wanting to do it? Do they understand some of the motivations? 00:24:10.240 --> 00:24:14.460 Because them owning the motivations, once again, it's going to help them replicate it out 00:24:14.460 --> 00:24:19.100 into others. Before you roll out that new culture to your entire church, 00:24:19.720 --> 00:24:24.120 create test environments where you can learn lessons from it. 00:24:25.020 --> 00:24:32.260 Re-evaluate and then try again, reiterate. And so with an experiment, it should never be 00:24:32.260 --> 00:24:34.800 an experiment. Oh, that didn't work. Let's throw it away. 00:24:35.260 --> 00:24:35.360 Sure. 00:24:35.440 --> 00:24:39.800 It should be, let's experiment with it. Let's learn something from it. Let's broaden, 00:24:40.100 --> 00:24:46.140 bring more people in and let's experiment again. And so learn lessons, iterate, especially 00:24:46.140 --> 00:24:51.500 looking at all the churches that were doing physical ministry in 2019, February, 00:24:51.700 --> 00:24:56.360 that are now having to address with everything digital. It's okay to not have the answers, 00:24:56.580 --> 00:25:01.000 like give yourself a pass for that. But it's not okay not to do anything. 00:25:01.440 --> 00:25:01.520 Sure. 00:25:01.520 --> 00:25:07.900 Try something and kind of experiment and build through that. Stay true to who you are, 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:14.280 but don't be afraid to reassess with that. And definitely, definitely involve others in the 00:25:14.280 --> 00:25:20.300 conversation. Let others speak into that. Rather than just, it's got to be my way or the hard way, 00:25:20.660 --> 00:25:25.560 let others come in. And the more that they come in, the more that they will own that as they're going 00:25:25.560 --> 00:25:26.360 back out. 00:25:26.780 --> 00:25:33.360 I love that you use the word experiment and test because it really gives permission for failure. 00:25:33.580 --> 00:25:37.300 And that's really what we have to do is we have to fail fast so that we can turn around and do it 00:25:37.300 --> 00:25:41.200 again and figure out what actually works. And this is the time to be doing that. In marketing, 00:25:41.200 --> 00:25:44.900 that's like a known thing and there's permission to do it. But I feel like sometimes in the church, 00:25:44.960 --> 00:25:49.820 there's not that permission. And right now we're giving the permission to fail fast so that we can 00:25:49.820 --> 00:25:51.340 figure this thing out, right? 00:25:53.200 --> 00:26:01.100 Yeah. And really the heart of failing fast is learning those lessons. Learning what you need to pick 00:26:01.100 --> 00:26:08.460 yourself up and do it again. The sooner you can fail is the sooner you get to the next step. The 00:26:08.460 --> 00:26:14.480 sooner you get to that next version, that could be the success. And if that ends up failing, cool. 00:26:14.880 --> 00:26:20.480 Pick yourself up and try again. Iterate from it. Learn from it and try again. 00:26:21.200 --> 00:26:27.360 And I will say this. We've got different size churches in the room. Don't wait for the big 00:26:27.360 --> 00:26:33.500 churches to figure it out. Big churches doing digital ministry, doing online ministry looks 00:26:33.500 --> 00:26:38.500 different than small churches. Coming from a guy who's working in both environments, helping 00:26:38.500 --> 00:26:44.320 churches in both environments. I had an executive pastor tell me, I'm just waiting for the giga church 00:26:44.320 --> 00:26:47.460 to figure it out. And then we'll just copy whatever they're doing. It doesn't work. 00:26:47.960 --> 00:26:54.520 I will say this. I actually had a giga church digital pastor pre-COVID attendance, over 20,000 00:26:54.520 --> 00:26:59.760 people, not including the online audience. The digital pastor of this church said to me pre-COVID, 00:26:59.880 --> 00:27:05.940 Jeff, I really wish I was at a small church right now, able to do tangible relational ministry, 00:27:06.120 --> 00:27:11.960 as opposed to what I'm doing here in the giga church mentality. So there's opportunities for the 00:27:11.960 --> 00:27:17.460 small church even to be more successful in this digital environment by looking at it through a 00:27:17.460 --> 00:27:18.140 relational scope. 00:27:18.820 --> 00:27:23.060 That's good. Okay. Moving right along here, we're going to go to question number three. 00:27:23.560 --> 00:27:30.140 How can we empower leaders to start and lead digital small groups that multiply, especially 00:27:30.140 --> 00:27:32.600 when more groups means more leaders? 00:27:32.600 --> 00:27:38.840 Yeah. Great, great question. Ultimately, the big question is, who's accountable? What is the 00:27:38.840 --> 00:27:43.480 relationship between your physical small groups and your digital small groups? Is it all under the 00:27:43.480 --> 00:27:49.360 same umbrella? Are two different people leading it? What does that look like? Is there a pastor? Is 00:27:49.360 --> 00:27:53.820 there a staff member? Is there a high-level volunteer who's responsible for the small groups, 00:27:54.200 --> 00:28:00.160 physical and or digital? Figure out who is the accountable person towards it. Get clarity 00:28:00.160 --> 00:28:07.220 towards that. Oftentimes, churches don't have that clarity. And then at that point, now that person 00:28:07.220 --> 00:28:13.000 is investing into others and maybe in the staff, but more likely it's volunteers. And by the way, 00:28:13.060 --> 00:28:19.040 volunteers are going to scale much quicker than the staff will. Investing directly into calls and texts 00:28:19.040 --> 00:28:27.120 or encouragement. If you're a small group, challenge a volunteer to own the ministry and manage it and 00:28:27.120 --> 00:28:34.720 grow it. Oftentimes, I've seen volunteers be a better recruiter for other volunteers because there's 00:28:34.720 --> 00:28:41.440 this, well, you're paid to be a pastor. Isn't this your job? Shouldn't you be doing this? Which, 00:28:41.680 --> 00:28:47.280 honestly, that mindset kills growth. It kills multiplication within any church, within any 00:28:47.280 --> 00:28:53.620 organization. I mean, even going back to the Seth Godin idea, it's not let me as a pastor tell a bunch 00:28:53.620 --> 00:29:00.820 of people, but let me cast an idea vision to volunteers who then cast it and drive it down to 00:29:00.820 --> 00:29:09.620 even more volunteers. Large churches sign, set up a network of leaders where a volunteer is responsible 00:29:09.620 --> 00:29:15.880 for X number of groups. Honestly, I've heard, Life.Church has told me there's, in the U.S. 00:29:15.960 --> 00:29:22.080 military, there's only, one person's only over seven different people. Nowhere within the military 00:29:22.080 --> 00:29:27.820 structure is there more than one person who oversees seven. And so for them, that's their 00:29:27.820 --> 00:29:33.180 structure, Life.Church. One person, one volunteer oversees seven who oversee another seven, oversee 00:29:33.180 --> 00:29:39.040 another seven. It kind of, you know, pyramids away. What's fascinating by doing this is that churches 00:29:39.620 --> 00:29:47.060 Crossroads Saddleback, they've got thousands of small groups spanning multiple continents. 00:29:47.860 --> 00:29:54.840 And with it, it's really only one or two staff people that are overseeing the small group part 00:29:54.840 --> 00:30:01.740 because they have such a high standard for leadership of the volunteers. And really, this is the 00:30:01.740 --> 00:30:07.380 challenge. We should expect more. We should challenge more. We should lead them to a higher level. By the 00:30:07.380 --> 00:30:12.080 way, we should be spiritually challenging them as well. Not just in a leadership standpoint, but in a 00:30:12.080 --> 00:30:17.180 discipleship standpoint. Help them raise up so that they even see the importance of personal mission 00:30:17.180 --> 00:30:23.500 in their lives and can even cast it on to someone else. And it'll make it stickier for them because 00:30:23.500 --> 00:30:32.040 they're highly involved. Exactly. Just, you know, keep in mind with this that paid staff people are a lid 00:30:32.040 --> 00:30:38.240 to a multiplication movement. And the answer is not. And I know that's hard, Pastor. I've been the guy on 00:30:38.240 --> 00:30:44.700 your staff. I have been the guy who oversees 30 employees. But when it comes towards growth and 00:30:44.700 --> 00:30:49.480 movement, especially in this mid-coast, post-COVID season, I think there's opportunities for us to 00:30:49.480 --> 00:30:54.800 raise the standard of volunteers and encourage them. And this is where we see revival happen. There's going 00:30:54.800 --> 00:31:02.280 to be an urgency within you because it was within me where I have to control the situation. And I want to 00:31:02.280 --> 00:31:07.460 encourage you a little bit here. Release the control. You know what? And I would even ask this. Let's throw 00:31:07.460 --> 00:31:14.360 this in the chat. Is your church too involved in how small group leaders lead? Is it not involved enough? Or is it 00:31:14.360 --> 00:31:21.280 involved perfectly? Like, self-evaluate yourself. Honest hour here. Like, you know, I mean, this is a glue 00:31:21.280 --> 00:31:24.500 webinar. I don't know. I don't know where the answers are going, but ask yourself that. Throw it 00:31:24.500 --> 00:31:31.260 in the chat. Let's figure it out. Small things can happen in a digital space. Like, you know, 00:31:31.300 --> 00:31:36.300 something as simple as you get a small group leader that comes up and says, hey, I got a bunch of 00:31:36.300 --> 00:31:44.500 soccer moms. We want to do, we want to use Google Hangouts or whatever they call it now as our platform 00:31:44.500 --> 00:31:49.560 for our small group. Hopefully the answer is sure. You know, normally we encourage this idea of 00:31:49.560 --> 00:31:55.020 platform agnostic where I honestly, as a digital pastor, I don't care what platform you use. 00:31:55.780 --> 00:32:01.040 I will support one. I'll support Zoom. And if you don't have a platform, I'll recommend Zoom because 00:32:01.040 --> 00:32:06.840 it's something that we as a church recommend. But if they want to get on Discord, if they want to get 00:32:06.840 --> 00:32:12.500 on Slack, if they want to use WhatsApp, if they want to do a Bible reading plan on the YouVersion app, 00:32:12.860 --> 00:32:18.560 if they want to do Clubhouse, which is the new thing. I mean, to me, it doesn't matter. 00:32:19.080 --> 00:32:23.400 It, what matters is I think there are standards that we put in place for our small groups. 00:32:23.940 --> 00:32:32.020 But then we say, hey, there's even some flexibility within that. So if a small group wants to meet and 00:32:32.020 --> 00:32:36.080 they only want to use WhatsApp, they don't want to get on camera where they can dialogue with each other, 00:32:36.080 --> 00:32:41.280 but they want to utilize these tools like a text group. And so they just want to like mass text each 00:32:41.280 --> 00:32:45.260 other kind of, you know, and I'm, I'm in a bunch of just different groups like that where sometimes 00:32:45.260 --> 00:32:50.340 it's guys, you know, joking around, but, but some of these groups are quite serious where I've got 00:32:50.340 --> 00:32:55.440 guys in four or five States and we're praying for each other. And one of the wives just had cancer 00:32:55.440 --> 00:33:03.800 and we're pouring into a text group support versus prayer, literally crying while, while texting on a 00:33:03.800 --> 00:33:09.620 phone. Now, if that's the only thing you're doing great. Now, if that's a short-term solution, 00:33:09.620 --> 00:33:14.580 there's an opportunity to grow that into more, which is one of the things that we've worked on 00:33:14.580 --> 00:33:20.360 over time. And so raise that standard, but if somebody wants to start somewhere, be okay, 00:33:20.680 --> 00:33:25.320 release that control and let them kind of grow through that. 00:33:26.020 --> 00:33:32.820 Yeah, that is good. It's good. Okay. So do you have anything else you want to say on this? I think 00:33:32.820 --> 00:33:37.560 we've got to get moving on to the next question, but I just want to make sure that you're, you feel 00:33:37.560 --> 00:33:44.380 good about. Love it. Yeah. Let's move to what's next. Okay, great. Okay. So this is, this is a big 00:33:44.380 --> 00:33:48.900 question because it's like, I think, you know, we kind of got to a point where we knew how to group, 00:33:48.900 --> 00:33:54.580 you know, grow some groups, um, in person, but how do you multiply groups online? 00:33:55.340 --> 00:34:01.060 Yeah. So the challenge untangible, you know, it's, it's overwhelming, right? I mean, 00:34:01.060 --> 00:34:05.940 we're really talking about two different things where we're talking about creating a multiplying 00:34:05.940 --> 00:34:12.160 disciple making structure. And at the same time, we're talking about doing it digitally. And both 00:34:12.160 --> 00:34:16.720 of these may be a little uncomfortable or go against the norm of where we are. A couple of things, 00:34:16.720 --> 00:34:22.500 maybe heading in, um, first off challenge people to, to reach their, their circle of influence, 00:34:22.500 --> 00:34:28.500 like give people cast vision towards this. There, there's a number of, of materials and resources 00:34:28.500 --> 00:34:33.340 that, that are out there. I personally, in my life, I've used a material called Timothy Initiative 00:34:33.340 --> 00:34:39.980 that kind of cast vision and does training towards that. Uh, four fields is, is another one. And so 00:34:39.980 --> 00:34:44.400 would love, and we talk about a lot of these, you know, later on with some other stadia resources, 00:34:44.400 --> 00:34:51.200 but don't start with discipleship standards so high that you're excluding people and not letting 00:34:51.200 --> 00:34:57.820 people get started from, from the get go. Let people come in and literally the old song from like 00:34:57.820 --> 00:35:03.660 the eighties, put me in coach. I'm ready to play, like get them in and, and, and we're through them 00:35:03.660 --> 00:35:10.500 out there. Teach, explore, raise the standard, educate, disciple, give them better understanding. 00:35:11.000 --> 00:35:17.140 It's better for them to be out in the field, playing out in the field, doing what they feel 00:35:17.140 --> 00:35:23.440 God's leading them to do instead of having them on the bench for an extended period of time, not doing 00:35:23.440 --> 00:35:28.720 it, uh, instead watching somebody else. Get qualified people leading as quickly as possible, 00:35:28.720 --> 00:35:33.560 but that doesn't mean they're done learning. Keep discipling them. You want to really, you want to 00:35:33.560 --> 00:35:38.440 find leaders that can lead five to 10 people. And sometimes I feel like in small groups, we, we try 00:35:38.440 --> 00:35:45.240 to get those big hitters, the people that can, you know, reach 50, lead a hundred, lead 200. Those, 00:35:45.360 --> 00:35:52.480 those people are nice, but you really just need five to 10. So work on that five to 10 and grow them 00:35:52.480 --> 00:35:58.320 and develop them through it. Provide training, provide personal investment to help these leaders. 00:35:58.800 --> 00:36:06.060 Remember digital allows for a lot more, um, flexibility, you know, even, Hey, we can use the 00:36:06.060 --> 00:36:13.020 Bible version, the you version Bible app to go through reading plans together. Do it like, don't know. 00:36:13.140 --> 00:36:18.260 We have to define small groups as staring into a webcam. That's not necessary with that because 00:36:18.260 --> 00:36:22.900 there's an opportunity to do more. And there's an opportunity to reach people by doing these 00:36:22.900 --> 00:36:29.280 different ways online. People are looking for a personal connection. Pastors, we've talked about 00:36:29.280 --> 00:36:35.520 this. It's a, you're a lid to growth. A real person is, is going to be more effective. And I would even 00:36:35.520 --> 00:36:39.780 throw this as an example, pastor, when's the last time? Well, maybe not in COVID. This is a bad example, 00:36:39.780 --> 00:36:43.560 but you're on the airplane and the guy over next to you says, Hey, what do you do for a living? 00:36:43.940 --> 00:36:48.160 And you have that awkward dance where you try not to say that you're a pastor. And if you do say you're 00:36:48.160 --> 00:36:52.860 a pastor, he probably shuts you down and doesn't have any conversation with you for the rest of the 00:36:52.860 --> 00:36:59.260 flight. At least that that's been me on several occasions, but situations like a person reaching 00:36:59.260 --> 00:37:06.240 out to another person. Hey, Susie, my name's Jamie. Uh, I'm a single mom. Uh, you know, I, I got connected 00:37:06.240 --> 00:37:10.640 to you through the church. Pastor Jerry over here told me you might be interested in a small group. 00:37:10.640 --> 00:37:15.620 We've got four small groups over here. We, uh, we've got, I've got four moms that are involved 00:37:15.620 --> 00:37:20.380 in a small group and I would love to invite you into the small group. We, we meet online at eight 00:37:20.380 --> 00:37:25.260 30 at night after all the kids are out of bed. Um, sometimes there's a glass of wine. Sometimes 00:37:25.260 --> 00:37:30.000 we're in our pajamas. Ultimately it's a great time for us to unpack, but we, we read through God's 00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:35.080 scripture. We pray together and it's been incredibly helpful, honestly, in my life. And so 00:37:35.080 --> 00:37:40.220 we're wondering if you'd like to join us in that, that right there means more than the pastor 00:37:40.220 --> 00:37:45.920 checking in pastor check in, but now you've got somebody that's relatable that can connect 00:37:45.920 --> 00:37:52.120 to her. Yeah. So love that focus on personal evangelism. Um, you know, let's say that personal 00:37:52.120 --> 00:37:56.820 mission in, in resources that are available to leaders, things like this Timothy initiative, 00:37:56.820 --> 00:38:06.060 other things, get that in front of people. This experience of, of multiplying guided by strong 00:38:06.060 --> 00:38:13.320 curriculum will help people invite more people, which will invite more people. And what's fascinating 00:38:13.320 --> 00:38:18.780 this, especially if we focus on the personal mission aspects of multiplying, it's less about 00:38:18.780 --> 00:38:24.340 the church and it's more about individuals. You're not inviting people to a large gathering. 00:38:24.920 --> 00:38:31.440 You're encouraging people to have a personal mission in their life and evangelize and utilize 00:38:31.440 --> 00:38:37.140 that to bring others to Christ. And through that process, obviously, yes, get them connected 00:38:37.140 --> 00:38:42.040 to the church for, for more disciple making, but that's a much more, you know, to, to use the 00:38:42.040 --> 00:38:47.300 buzzword, that's a much more authentic approach through this individual way than, than others. 00:38:47.920 --> 00:38:53.140 Um, from a practical standpoint, my small group, I met last night with them. We was literally 00:38:53.140 --> 00:38:57.240 my wife and I were in this room. And so there's about 50 people. It's about 30 devices. 00:38:57.580 --> 00:38:58.580 Wow. That is huge. 00:38:58.920 --> 00:39:05.020 Yeah. And so we start big and, and what happens in our group, there's the time where we come 00:39:05.020 --> 00:39:09.660 together, we pray, we do a devotional, there's a vision casting kind of at a large group where 00:39:09.660 --> 00:39:14.840 we're going through, uh, emotionally healthy relationships because they're a book. And so there's 00:39:14.840 --> 00:39:19.580 a portion that's together that's big, but we break up. And so we utilize a zoom feature 00:39:19.580 --> 00:39:20.060 called breakout rooms. 00:39:20.060 --> 00:39:27.000 Right. And so now I'm not in a group of like 50 people. I'm more like in a group of six 00:39:27.000 --> 00:39:31.500 to eight. Uh, and so then there's a leader in the room and we're, we're going through 00:39:31.500 --> 00:39:35.600 and talking about it. Now what's, and then at some point we'll either come back together 00:39:35.600 --> 00:39:37.900 for closing prayer. We'll, we'll break up from the groups. 00:39:37.900 --> 00:39:38.460 Okay. 00:39:38.460 --> 00:39:43.720 What's fascinating by using this kind of large gathering, small gathering approach is that 00:39:43.720 --> 00:39:49.500 we're actually mentoring and growing other leaders in this small group setting. We're seeing 00:39:49.500 --> 00:39:56.380 who's stepping up to be the leader. And so initially, eventually maybe empowering that person or this 00:39:56.380 --> 00:40:03.220 group to not be a group of 50 and then break out. But maybe the six to eight people goes and starts 00:40:03.220 --> 00:40:07.560 their own small group. We, this leader that's being nurtured, it doesn't even know that he's 00:40:07.560 --> 00:40:12.180 being nurtured is eventually going to be cast this vision of, Hey, why don't you go lead this 00:40:12.180 --> 00:40:17.080 small group over here? Uh, and I'll tell you like Saddleback utilized this method. We stole it from 00:40:17.080 --> 00:40:22.920 them. Um, everything's borrowed. You guys can take this idea, but Saddleback does, uh, they did a 00:40:22.920 --> 00:40:28.000 super group kind of thing where it's this 50 people, large gathering for small groups. Uh, they did 00:40:28.000 --> 00:40:32.140 seven days a week. Uh, and they ran an experiment with it where they had one of these super groups, 00:40:32.140 --> 00:40:37.500 uh, meetings. So it was seven large groups. And at the end of the six weeks that their curriculum 00:40:37.500 --> 00:40:44.480 was run, they had birthed something like 57 small groups out of seven. And so we're literally seeing 00:40:44.480 --> 00:40:50.480 multiplication here because you're utilizing this, this factory of the super group, this large 00:40:50.480 --> 00:40:57.200 gathering. You've got an opportunity to intimately grow individuals in these small gatherings. 00:40:57.340 --> 00:41:01.260 And then you've got an opportunity to release them to kind of do their own thing. 00:41:02.040 --> 00:41:05.660 Accountability is still a part, but you're doing that through a multiplication purpose. 00:41:06.500 --> 00:41:12.740 Oh my gosh. That, that is a great nugget right there. Um, wow, Jeff, you have shared so many 00:41:12.740 --> 00:41:17.960 great things for us to think about today. Um, and I'm just wondering, I'm sure that you have a lot 00:41:17.960 --> 00:41:22.120 more to, to share as well, but I'm wondering, what do you want to leave folks with now? 00:41:23.720 --> 00:41:30.920 Um, yeah, so absolutely here. Uh, we've got two bonuses. Now I'm really excited about these, 00:41:30.980 --> 00:41:36.380 these resources and I love helping churches and, and right off the bat, we've got two bonuses that, 00:41:36.480 --> 00:41:40.880 that I want to leave in your hands. First off, there's a selection of questions that I hope 00:41:40.880 --> 00:41:46.000 you'll bring back to your church and talk with your team about, because it's not enough for you to 00:41:46.000 --> 00:41:50.600 understand this. You're not going to change culture. Just you bring your team in. These discussion 00:41:50.600 --> 00:41:57.360 questions are all about digital groups and how it can operate at your church. And the second bonus 00:41:57.360 --> 00:42:03.760 is an excerpt from, from our book that Stadia called Defining the Fidgetal Church. You'll get 00:42:03.760 --> 00:42:09.700 both of these bonuses sent right to your inbox, along with a link to the recordings, uh, from today's 00:42:09.700 --> 00:42:16.600 workshop. Oh, and by the way, uh, if one more thing here, Steve Jobs, one more thing. Um, hopefully 00:42:16.600 --> 00:42:22.860 it's that cool. Uh, if this has been helpful for you, uh, we're thrilled here to announce that in 00:42:22.860 --> 00:42:28.780 partnership with Glue Connect, we're making, uh, our 10 on-demand fidgetal training sessions 00:42:28.780 --> 00:42:35.420 available to you for free. Really, really excited about this. Through the 10-part course, we'll walk 00:42:35.420 --> 00:42:41.300 you through the essentials of engaging your people more deeply than ever before, even when you can't 00:42:41.300 --> 00:42:46.380 meet in person by, by doing this in physical and digital space. You'll walk away with best practices 00:42:46.380 --> 00:42:51.760 for online worship that engages people for the long run, how to run small groups, even when you can't 00:42:51.760 --> 00:42:57.260 meet in person, how to be a change agent at your church, how to change that culture, how to prepare 00:42:57.260 --> 00:43:04.480 for the future. Uh, and there's a ton of more information in here. Uh, so do this, go to glueconnect.church 00:43:04.480 --> 00:43:10.320 slash stadia to sign up for the fidgetal quick start course, uh, through a glue connect. 00:43:10.780 --> 00:43:17.000 And that'd be a great, yeah. So like we, we do this with stadia, uh, and there's, there's groups 00:43:17.000 --> 00:43:21.680 that are, that are there. Uh, but honestly, and this is, I love glue. I've, I've loved you guys for 00:43:21.680 --> 00:43:27.520 years. And so the opportunity to make these resources available for you to impact more churches, 00:43:27.520 --> 00:43:31.940 including some of the churches that are in here on this webinar. Yeah, this is, this is my heart. 00:43:31.940 --> 00:43:36.940 And so we would love to make this available to you. Yeah. Thank you so much. That is 00:43:36.940 --> 00:43:42.000 incredibly generous. It's very relevant. I'm really excited to be able to offer this to everybody 00:43:42.000 --> 00:43:47.040 for free. Um, and I want to share a little bit more about glue connect just because I think that 00:43:47.040 --> 00:43:51.020 there's probably quite a few people on here who haven't heard of it. We believe that the church 00:43:51.020 --> 00:43:55.480 is stronger when it's working together. And that's not just churches, that's networks, that's people 00:43:55.480 --> 00:44:02.420 like you together to change lives and to transform cities altogether. Um, so here's how glue connect 00:44:02.420 --> 00:44:10.920 works. It uses a collective of ad buying power to support church outreach campaigns in your city. 00:44:11.480 --> 00:44:15.940 So it's not just you doing it. Um, so it's not just you doing it. It's a collective of, of churches doing 00:44:15.940 --> 00:44:22.540 it together. We do all the planning. So glue does all the planning and strategy, uh, for you running 00:44:22.540 --> 00:44:30.100 the ads on social media with very targeted, um, you know, unique to the needs of the people within your 00:44:30.100 --> 00:44:36.940 city city. And why do we do this? We are working together to help you get more people through your 00:44:36.940 --> 00:44:42.640 digital front door. We want you to focus on doing what you do best, which is building relationships and 00:44:42.640 --> 00:44:48.400 nurturing disciples through the, uh, power of the gospel. And then we do what we do best, which is 00:44:48.400 --> 00:44:55.220 serving you through tech solutions. The ads, uh, sent to people or the ads, you can see them right 00:44:55.220 --> 00:45:01.100 here. I think it's, it's on the, um, the, the slide right here. This is what they look like. And it sends 00:45:01.100 --> 00:45:08.180 people to a directory of churches and your church should definitely be in that directory. People can 00:45:08.180 --> 00:45:13.920 view, uh, your church's profile. And then if they want to learn more or connect, um, they're encouraged 00:45:13.920 --> 00:45:19.500 to reach out by social media or by visiting your website and look at how great this all looks. I mean, 00:45:19.500 --> 00:45:26.080 this is very professionally done. The value of all of this is $1,700, which we know through talking to 00:45:26.080 --> 00:45:32.140 our champions, um, is a lot of money and it's hard right now to, um, to be able to finance something 00:45:32.140 --> 00:45:38.560 like this, but we also know how powerful it can be for you. So glue connect is rolling out city by city 00:45:38.560 --> 00:45:47.100 right now. The, there are donors in, um, Dallas, Fort Worth, Florida, Kansas city, and Columbus who are 00:45:47.100 --> 00:45:54.080 kingdom minded and who have stepped up to pay the cost. You guys, this is amazing. We have donors who 00:45:54.080 --> 00:46:00.920 have stepped up to pay the cost of glue connect for churches like you. So for your church, it's, 00:46:00.980 --> 00:46:05.500 it's, it's free of charge. It's not free though. I hate when people say, Oh, glue connect is free 00:46:05.500 --> 00:46:11.040 because it's not free. Um, nothing is really free, right? The reality is that someone out there has 00:46:11.040 --> 00:46:17.520 already paid it for you so that churches like you can have access. But I do want to say that there are 00:46:17.520 --> 00:46:23.720 limited, um, amounts of scholarship per city. So because you are on this workshop, you are one of the 00:46:23.720 --> 00:46:28.800 first hearing about it and you can go snag a scholarship, um, so that you can be one of the 00:46:28.800 --> 00:46:33.940 first churches, um, you know, and, and able to get the scholarship and, and your church will be inside 00:46:33.940 --> 00:46:41.560 this church directory. Together churches can win so that you can go focus your attention on your 00:46:41.560 --> 00:46:43.300 ministry and what really matters. 00:46:44.240 --> 00:46:49.060 Love that. Hey, remember that by signing up, you're going to get access to the resources from 00:46:49.060 --> 00:46:54.220 stadia, like our fidgetal quickstart and a lot of the other, uh, partners who want like us, 00:46:54.220 --> 00:46:59.440 they want to serve churches like you. And, and, and again, to get access to these 10 modules from 00:46:59.440 --> 00:47:04.120 stadia, uh, all centered around utilizing the strengths and the weaknesses of physical and digital 00:47:04.120 --> 00:47:13.000 fidgetal church, um, go to glue connect. Uh, it's right there. Glue connect. Church slash stadia, uh, 00:47:13.000 --> 00:47:18.460 and sign up for your glue connect account and you'll be able to access our course at that point 00:47:18.460 --> 00:47:19.660 completely free. 00:47:20.160 --> 00:47:25.360 So everything's free. You get glue connect and you get, uh, this amazing course and it's done for you. 00:47:25.440 --> 00:47:29.180 So glue connect is not one of those piece of technology where you actually like have to go 00:47:29.180 --> 00:47:33.780 hire somebody to figure it out. Um, it is done for you. The only thing you have to do is fill out 00:47:33.780 --> 00:47:38.940 your profile that, that shows up in the directory. And at glue, we actually have, um, champion success 00:47:38.940 --> 00:47:43.560 managers who, uh, walk alongside you to help you do that. We have a community as well that will help 00:47:43.560 --> 00:47:50.620 you, um, fill out that profile. So, Hey, I just really want to thank you so much, Jeff, for joining 00:47:50.620 --> 00:47:56.180 us. You just gave us so much information so generously. Um, and so thank you for being here, 00:47:56.180 --> 00:48:01.460 Jeff. And I want to thank everybody else, uh, who joined us today. Remember that you're going to get 00:48:01.460 --> 00:48:08.280 the bonus. You get free 12 months of glue connect plus stadia's digital quickstart course. Um, 00:48:08.280 --> 00:48:12.920 and so if you have any questions, make sure that you reach out to us via email. We'll put that in 00:48:12.920 --> 00:48:19.780 the chat. Um, and we are going to go now into, um, Q and a. And so if you do have questions that you 00:48:19.780 --> 00:48:24.600 want to ask Jeff, we invite you to stay a little bit longer, um, and we'll get those questions answered 00:48:24.600 --> 00:48:34.220 for you. How do you facilitate the nature of five to 10 minute casual space for catching up and having 00:48:34.220 --> 00:48:39.660 time for fellowship in digital groups? How can you help you feel a sense of community? 00:48:40.300 --> 00:48:47.040 Yeah. Love that. The, the awkward thing in that 50 person group kind of gathering is that there's 00:48:47.040 --> 00:48:53.220 only in zoom, there's only one thread conversation. So when I'm in a room with 50 people, I can lean 00:48:53.220 --> 00:48:57.160 over to my wife who's physically sitting next to me. I can turn off the mic and I can whisper something, 00:48:57.160 --> 00:49:04.120 but that moment where I'm trying to talk to square number 27 on my screen and, and I can do that in 00:49:04.120 --> 00:49:09.200 chat, but that's not nearly as cool. What I will tell you this is there are other platforms, uh, that 00:49:09.200 --> 00:49:15.800 are working, that are coming out that give more attention to this. Um, uh, unplug here. Alter live 00:49:15.800 --> 00:49:22.720 actually does a lot of that where I can break out. I can have like a, just a talk with just square 00:49:22.720 --> 00:49:28.060 number 27 and kind of isolated conversations. So check out that platform. Okay. Ultimately you want 00:49:28.060 --> 00:49:34.240 to get people talking. And so if you're creating environments for that, even doing some of the 00:49:34.240 --> 00:49:39.720 breakouts, giving people the ability to kind of go utilizing some of the breakout feature, we'll get 00:49:39.720 --> 00:49:44.560 them talking in that five minutes. Um, they'll make it about one on one way conversation, but 00:49:44.560 --> 00:49:50.160 multiple. Yes. Yeah. That's, that's really good. Um, we actually kind of talked about this a little 00:49:50.160 --> 00:49:55.440 bit, but didn't go too deep into it. So how, uh, can a church get specific age groups like seniors 00:49:55.440 --> 00:49:59.880 and we're not talking high schools and high school seniors. We're talking about senior, seniors, uh, 00:49:59.880 --> 00:50:03.220 involved in groups, uh, when they're not super comfortable with technology. 00:50:03.660 --> 00:50:05.820 I never told my mom's story. Sorry, mom. 00:50:05.820 --> 00:50:07.120 Oh, you didn't. That's so true. 00:50:07.120 --> 00:50:14.120 Oh my gosh. I I'm, I'm so embarrassed. Um, so my mom's 73 years old and true, honest to 00:50:14.120 --> 00:50:18.120 God story. Um, maybe four years ago, I was a digital pastor and I looked at mom and I said, 00:50:18.160 --> 00:50:23.840 Hey mom, I've, I've got a group of, um, my mom's, uh, a, uh, uh, female professional, 00:50:23.840 --> 00:50:30.640 a lady professional here in Miami, just like a business professional, very kind of VP of major 00:50:30.640 --> 00:50:35.060 fortune 500 companies, kind of that, that wiring. And I said to mom, I said, Hey mom, I've, 00:50:35.060 --> 00:50:40.140 I've got some 20 somethings, young professionals, females. Um, would you want to do a small group 00:50:40.140 --> 00:50:46.060 with them? Like, like teach them not, I mean, teach them all about God. Yes. But also like past 00:50:46.060 --> 00:50:51.060 wisdom, mentorship, like kind of mentor these, these young professionals. There's a lawyer, 00:50:51.180 --> 00:50:56.080 there was a doctor. And my mom's like, sure. Honestly, she was in her late sixties at the 00:50:56.080 --> 00:50:59.860 time. She thought her ministry career was over. This is her story. She thought her ministry career 00:50:59.860 --> 00:51:04.640 was over. She's like, Hey, all the church that she's at, it's all a bunch of young people. 00:51:05.060 --> 00:51:11.580 I'm just going to retire. I'm done. And, uh, and so she tell you like this rejuvenated her career. 00:51:11.680 --> 00:51:16.280 My mom is not technological. She's like, I'm having to go over there and teach her how to print 00:51:16.280 --> 00:51:21.760 at least once a month. Like, so she's, it's not like she's the super sharp and the technical aspects, 00:51:21.760 --> 00:51:28.260 but she's recognized the ability to love on people, care for them to the point where she's leading two 00:51:28.260 --> 00:51:35.380 groups. I think she's starting considering doing a third. Um, one of her groups is she's reached out 00:51:35.380 --> 00:51:43.180 to moms that she knows that, you know, maybe fifties, you know, more in that age that have young 00:51:43.180 --> 00:51:50.920 daughters, 20 sums that are scattered across the country. And so my mom's second group is working 00:51:50.920 --> 00:51:57.100 with older ladies and their daughters. And the only time that they really gather together regularly 00:51:57.100 --> 00:52:02.320 during the week is talking about the Bible and praying together. Like this is the opportunity 00:52:02.320 --> 00:52:08.080 that my mom has. And even like some of the groups that she's led, uh, there was a girl that she was 00:52:08.080 --> 00:52:14.180 introduced to her. She was a law school student up in DC. She's since moved to Houston. And that this 00:52:14.180 --> 00:52:17.900 girl that my mom mentored, who my mom said, Jeff, it's like the daughter I never had. 00:52:18.400 --> 00:52:24.740 She's now leading physical small groups in Houston and still engages regularly digitally. So even my 00:52:24.740 --> 00:52:31.840 mom is seeing multiplication where she's worked with this girl in Houston or in DC who moved to 00:52:31.840 --> 00:52:38.140 Houston and is now leading small group in the physical space in Houston. So digital technology, 00:52:38.960 --> 00:52:44.060 old people, I don't think that that's an excuse to back off. I think that you cast the vision. 00:52:44.060 --> 00:52:49.420 This isn't an opportunity for you to do things digitally. This is an opportunity for you to 00:52:49.420 --> 00:52:55.880 mentor and disciple a generation that's looking for help that, that can gain something from your 00:52:55.880 --> 00:53:03.600 influence. And so approach that with it. Now, you know, is it get with small groups? Is it do a 00:53:03.600 --> 00:53:09.620 massive party line like on a call? Cause they're really technologically phobic. Yeah. Work through 00:53:09.620 --> 00:53:17.040 that stuff. Right. But if we're really looking to multiply, I have seen old people engage in digital 00:53:17.040 --> 00:53:23.420 church as much as I have the millennial and the 20 something. It all depends on that perspective and 00:53:23.420 --> 00:53:27.800 that challenge of personal mission. That's where an older generation is going to win on personal 00:53:27.800 --> 00:53:32.440 mission. That's good. And you know, here's a question. I don't know that you need to go too deep 00:53:32.440 --> 00:53:37.340 into it because I feel like you did talk about it quite a bit, but in a digital group, how do you 00:53:37.340 --> 00:53:41.880 encourage outreach? And maybe what they're talking about is more, you know, instead of multiplication 00:53:41.880 --> 00:53:51.900 outreach, it's, you know, I'm actually community-based service. Yeah. Yeah. So you got to teach people 00:53:51.900 --> 00:54:00.420 to fish. Um, I'm in, I'm on multiple continents, uh, spread across 11 time zones. Um, I can't, 00:54:00.420 --> 00:54:06.760 we can't all get together and do the service project together, but I can encourage people 00:54:06.760 --> 00:54:12.540 and the guy in England and the guy in Hawaii and the guy in New York, Hey, why don't you find five 00:54:12.540 --> 00:54:20.320 friends and go work at a homeless center? Why don't you go do something? And, and, and I'm not giving 00:54:20.320 --> 00:54:26.800 people the service project to do. I'm teaching them the importance of serving in their communities. 00:54:26.800 --> 00:54:32.540 And I'm challenging them to reach their circle of influence where they are. It's a huge opportunity 00:54:32.540 --> 00:54:36.420 for them to connect with their neighbors, their coworkers, their friends, and start to carry it. 00:54:36.420 --> 00:54:41.680 It's more important in this environment. Uh, I could preach a whole sermon on that. I'm not going to, 00:54:42.060 --> 00:54:46.140 but, but essentially the gospel that we hear in our online world, it has to influence 00:54:46.140 --> 00:54:52.420 our offline relationships. And so it's very important for these people, wherever they are, 00:54:52.420 --> 00:54:57.520 to be engaging in that physical space. That's, that's part of even this multiplication because I 00:54:57.520 --> 00:55:04.660 want them to be talking to their friends about this. That's good. Yeah. Okay. So, um, this question 00:55:04.660 --> 00:55:09.860 is near and dear to my heart, actually. Um, would you recommend making a digital group or hybrid digital 00:55:09.860 --> 00:55:15.680 in-person group public like, um, you know, Facebook, like a Facebook group? 00:55:16.840 --> 00:55:25.600 Okay. So I would utilize Facebook, um, if I'm creating a Facebook group for the 10 people or 00:55:25.600 --> 00:55:31.180 the 30 people or the 50 people in my super group or individuals, I don't know that I would make that 00:55:31.180 --> 00:55:37.520 public. I would make that just for those people that are within that community. That being said, 00:55:37.660 --> 00:55:43.600 asterisk, your church, I would suggest has a, as a public Facebook group for the entire church 00:55:43.600 --> 00:55:48.820 or for the online community. Utilize that as a place to gather people together. I've personally, 00:55:48.820 --> 00:55:54.460 I've seen more success out of a Facebook group for your church, as opposed to your Facebook page 00:55:54.460 --> 00:56:00.200 for your church. And there's lots of strategies I could talk about, about broadcasting church services 00:56:00.200 --> 00:56:06.220 into Facebook groups, driving people into Facebook groups, because as people go into Facebook groups, 00:56:06.220 --> 00:56:10.300 there's a record that they were there. And I have a handle, which means that I get a Facebook 00:56:10.300 --> 00:56:16.260 candle so I can contact them. Facebook groups is a very powerful tool. The real question is what's 00:56:16.260 --> 00:56:21.940 the context where you're trying to achieve towards it? So I hope that's helpful. I'd love to drill in 00:56:21.940 --> 00:56:27.460 specifics at a later point if that's possible. Yeah, that's good. That's good. Okay. So gosh, 00:56:27.600 --> 00:56:32.980 we, this is a lot of questions for today. Um, how do you know if my digital physical groups 00:56:32.980 --> 00:56:37.920 are really multiplying? What should I be looking for? So how, how do you know if your groups are 00:56:37.920 --> 00:56:44.240 multiplying? Um, you're going to start to see some generations happen. You're going to start to see 00:56:44.240 --> 00:56:50.000 people inviting others in. You're going to start to hear salvation stories. You're going to start to see 00:56:50.000 --> 00:56:55.220 videos of, of baptism. Yeah. Like, like even let's figure out how you're going to baptize somebody 00:56:55.220 --> 00:57:00.320 that gets saved in another, another time zone, an old friend from Facebook. There, there, there are ways 00:57:00.320 --> 00:57:05.380 to do that. These are the things that you're going to start to kind of struggle with questions that 00:57:05.380 --> 00:57:13.000 are going to pop up. And when these stories come in, celebrate them, get up on the rooftop, put a play, 00:57:13.080 --> 00:57:18.220 the video in front of the church, all text, everybody within the church staff, you know, 00:57:18.220 --> 00:57:24.560 especially in this experimental phase, celebrate your victories and tell people the lessons that 00:57:24.560 --> 00:57:30.020 you're learning. If, if it's not going well, what's the lesson and how are you going to change it and 00:57:30.020 --> 00:57:35.860 do it different next time? Like be very public with the experiment because people are going to start 00:57:35.860 --> 00:57:39.640 praying with you. They're going to celebrate with you. They're going to be like, Hey, I'm not okay with 00:57:39.640 --> 00:57:46.680 this. I'm not okay that some guy's getting baptized, uh, in, in a, in a, uh, apartment in a condo 00:57:46.680 --> 00:57:51.060 in New York city in a small little bathtub. He almost banged his head on the faucet. 00:57:51.300 --> 00:57:56.740 Too bad. It already happened. Like, and this is, this is awesome. We're, we're seeing a, a person 00:57:56.740 --> 00:58:01.760 movement here where people are evangelizing to others within their circle of influence in digital 00:58:01.760 --> 00:58:05.960 space. It's okay. God's doing something great here and that's needs to be celebrated. 00:58:06.220 --> 00:58:11.760 That's right. That is right. Oh, Jeff, thanks so much for all the information. Thank you for staying 00:58:11.760 --> 00:58:15.240 long to answer questions. Um, this was a wealth of knowledge. 00:58:15.240 --> 00:58:21.440 I want to encourage you to glow, go to glue connect.church slash stadia, get your free course, 00:58:21.760 --> 00:58:26.200 get on glue connect. You want to make sure that your church shows up in that profile. So when 00:58:26.200 --> 00:58:31.640 explorers are looking for a church, you can be that church for them. All right. And if you have any more 00:58:31.640 --> 00:58:37.300 questions, please email growth at glue.us and have a fabulous rest of your day.