WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.800 Welcome to the Church Digital Podcast, powered by Stadia Church Planting. 00:00:04.440 --> 00:00:08.520 Through this podcast, learn about how God is using technology and innovation 00:00:08.520 --> 00:00:11.580 in digital and digital environments around the world. 00:00:12.080 --> 00:00:16.000 Our goal? To help churches like yours learn to be the church digitally. 00:00:16.640 --> 00:00:21.600 Our heart? That churches like yours will discover a newfound focus on disciple-making 00:00:21.600 --> 00:00:23.620 that will revolutionize your church. 00:00:24.120 --> 00:00:26.640 And now, your host, here's Jeff Reed. 00:00:27.060 --> 00:00:31.060 All right, listening audience out there, hey, it's Jeff Reed here with the Church Digital. 00:00:31.220 --> 00:00:33.900 Once again, all of this is powered by Stadia Church Planting. 00:00:34.020 --> 00:00:39.380 And if there's one thing you know about me, if you really do know me, it is this right here. 00:00:39.680 --> 00:00:42.180 I am a huge Disney nut. 00:00:42.480 --> 00:00:46.440 Yeah, I'm a little freak. I'm a little crazy. I'm a little obsessed with the pop culture. 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:51.440 I mean, the backdrop wall, if you've ever watched me on YouTube, testifies to that. 00:00:51.820 --> 00:00:54.480 All the different Funkos and things that I've got. 00:00:54.480 --> 00:00:58.160 I'm literally holding a Mickey Mouse Funko in my hand at this moment. 00:00:58.660 --> 00:01:03.660 On top of that, my gosh, the MCU, Kevin Feige, sir, the things that you're doing over there. 00:01:03.760 --> 00:01:06.280 Disney is not paying you enough. They should pay you more. 00:01:06.500 --> 00:01:08.520 Huge Marvel fan. Star Wars fan. 00:01:08.640 --> 00:01:13.780 Hey, looking forward to what's coming next out of Star Wars and what the future holds there. 00:01:14.140 --> 00:01:14.860 It's a huge fan. 00:01:14.920 --> 00:01:19.920 The first movie I ever remember seeing in a theater was actually Empire Strikes Back. 00:01:20.280 --> 00:01:26.100 And Star Wars may have been down since then because, let's face it, Episode 5 was the best Star Wars movie ever. 00:01:26.740 --> 00:01:28.960 But needless to say, I am a Star Wars. 00:01:29.060 --> 00:01:29.600 I'm a Disney. 00:01:29.700 --> 00:01:30.260 I'm a Marvel. 00:01:30.940 --> 00:01:32.640 It's all about the mouse. 00:01:32.640 --> 00:01:44.380 And so when Facebook paired me up with someone named Stephen Barr, I thought Facebook was doing a good job with their algorithm of connecting Disney nuts together. 00:01:44.520 --> 00:01:49.500 Stephen Barr is lead pastor of a church in Orlando called Cast Member Church. 00:01:49.500 --> 00:01:59.400 Now, if you know anything about Disney culture, cast members are the employees that run the parks and work in the company. 00:01:59.520 --> 00:02:01.020 Everything is a cast member. 00:02:01.740 --> 00:02:06.680 And so we're looking at a church that's aimed at reaching cast members. 00:02:07.540 --> 00:02:09.220 Is this a workplace ministry? 00:02:09.320 --> 00:02:09.900 Is this a church? 00:02:10.160 --> 00:02:11.160 How does this work? 00:02:11.220 --> 00:02:11.880 How is this funded? 00:02:12.020 --> 00:02:13.520 How does this function? 00:02:13.800 --> 00:02:15.860 This is thinking outside the box. 00:02:15.860 --> 00:02:22.940 And so as I connected with Stephen on Facebook, suddenly I found myself, hey, Stephen, why don't we do a podcast? 00:02:23.080 --> 00:02:23.680 You don't know me. 00:02:23.820 --> 00:02:25.200 I talk digital church. 00:02:25.260 --> 00:02:26.520 I talk digital discipleship. 00:02:26.780 --> 00:02:29.480 We talk innovation, thinking outside the box. 00:02:29.560 --> 00:02:32.980 We talk about people who are crazy and doing crazy things for ministry. 00:02:33.060 --> 00:02:35.240 We'd love to just kind of learn more about Cast Member Church. 00:02:35.880 --> 00:02:38.900 And the things that I learned in this conversation surprised even me. 00:02:39.620 --> 00:02:44.980 I was not expecting the conversation that we had here with this conversation. 00:02:45.180 --> 00:02:50.740 And honestly, I'm not going to tell you anything else because the conversation is so good, you don't need to hear it from me. 00:02:50.780 --> 00:02:54.740 You need to hear it from Stephen, from his mouth in itself. 00:02:54.740 --> 00:03:03.520 So for this conversation, I'm bringing in Stephen Barr, lead pastor at Cast Member Church in Orlando. 00:03:03.660 --> 00:03:16.000 I'm bringing in myself, Jeff, with the Church Digital and with Stadia Church Planting in a simple conversation that I'm calling What Disney Cast Member Church Can Teach You About Digital and Discipleship. 00:03:16.240 --> 00:03:17.560 Okay, everybody, here you go. 00:03:17.700 --> 00:03:18.840 You know, just tell me a little bit. 00:03:18.860 --> 00:03:21.800 How did you get started in doing this Cast Member Church? 00:03:21.800 --> 00:03:24.160 Well, that goes back all the way to 1991. 00:03:25.180 --> 00:03:29.040 I was a cast member at Walt Disney World for a year. 00:03:29.660 --> 00:03:36.560 And it was one of those moments where I was already a believer, but I was pursuing a career in music. 00:03:36.740 --> 00:03:42.780 And Disney is one of those logical steps that you take towards having a career like that. 00:03:43.240 --> 00:03:50.700 And I remember playing keyboards in front of Cinderella Castle and look, this was back when the music was live. 00:03:51.420 --> 00:03:58.820 And I remember looking down at the train station and in the middle of one of our performances. 00:03:58.900 --> 00:04:02.420 And I thought to myself, there should be a church here. 00:04:02.800 --> 00:04:07.120 I don't have a church to go to because we're working all the time. 00:04:07.740 --> 00:04:08.820 Weekends are the busiest. 00:04:08.820 --> 00:04:13.420 And there was, it was just a passing thought, just a passing thought. 00:04:13.940 --> 00:04:15.540 And that's all. 00:04:15.880 --> 00:04:17.360 I pretty much forgot about that. 00:04:17.840 --> 00:04:23.480 And I went ahead and continued to pursue a career in music and ended up in ministry, 00:04:24.120 --> 00:04:27.780 was spent 10 years in Spanish speaking praise and worship music. 00:04:28.560 --> 00:04:39.060 But spent, I think I was, it was probably 30 years, 25 years at the time as a worship pastor. 00:04:39.680 --> 00:04:44.480 And I was getting to the age, I was turning 50 years old. 00:04:44.480 --> 00:04:52.340 And I thought, you know, I don't want to be one of those worship guys over 50 that's trying to be something that I'm not. 00:04:52.340 --> 00:04:59.980 And I was feeling the Lord tug on me in some different directions, just in my own walk and the way I was relating with people. 00:05:00.360 --> 00:05:02.900 And I felt like it was time to make a change. 00:05:03.120 --> 00:05:05.880 And I was feeling drawn towards planting a church. 00:05:06.600 --> 00:05:09.860 And my wife and I were living in San Antonio, Texas at the time. 00:05:10.640 --> 00:05:14.900 And we started, we went through all the assessments and all that fun stuff. 00:05:14.900 --> 00:05:17.880 And we started planting a church in San Antonio, Texas. 00:05:17.880 --> 00:05:20.960 And it was in the real artsy district called Southtown. 00:05:21.480 --> 00:05:30.120 And we wanted to reach the weird artsy people, the musicians, the artists, the ones who just didn't fit in anywhere else. 00:05:30.580 --> 00:05:33.080 And we started, we had a great launch. 00:05:33.280 --> 00:05:35.100 Our church met in an art museum. 00:05:35.700 --> 00:05:38.820 It was very eclectic and wonderful. 00:05:39.820 --> 00:05:46.180 But for me personally, it was a little bit of a letdown. 00:05:47.020 --> 00:05:48.520 I was kind of like, I got this thing started. 00:05:48.680 --> 00:05:50.840 And then I was like, okay, now what? 00:05:51.640 --> 00:05:55.900 And I was, I think I'll even go so far as to say I was a little bored. 00:05:56.720 --> 00:06:01.380 And looking back now, I realize it was the Holy Spirit doing something. 00:06:01.520 --> 00:06:05.920 And I was meeting with my leaders one time at Panera Bread, as many church leaders do. 00:06:06.520 --> 00:06:11.360 And one of them made the comment to me, Stephen, why aren't you doing this at Disney? 00:06:11.880 --> 00:06:13.260 I said, what are you talking about? 00:06:13.480 --> 00:06:16.320 He says, oh my goodness, Stephen, you bleed Disney. 00:06:16.440 --> 00:06:19.420 Everything you talk about is at Disney, they did this. 00:06:19.480 --> 00:06:20.620 At Disney, they do that. 00:06:20.700 --> 00:06:27.080 And this is how they, and even, I even made the comment one time that Disney knows how to make disciples better than the church does. 00:06:27.520 --> 00:06:30.560 And, and so they were like, why aren't you doing this at Disney? 00:06:30.760 --> 00:06:32.300 And I'm not kidding you, Jeff. 00:06:32.440 --> 00:06:37.900 At that very moment, that thought that I had in front of Cinderella Castle came back. 00:06:38.320 --> 00:06:41.100 And I knew that God was saying, I heard that. 00:06:41.800 --> 00:06:42.660 I heard that. 00:06:43.340 --> 00:06:48.840 And so a year later, it took some time to make the, to make the adjustments and, and shift. 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:52.740 And the biggest one being convincing my wife to move from San Antonio to Orlando. 00:06:53.240 --> 00:06:57.680 And, and we launched Cast Number Church 10 years ago this January. 00:06:57.960 --> 00:06:59.660 So that's what God is here. 00:07:00.040 --> 00:07:00.140 Wow. 00:07:00.220 --> 00:07:01.360 You've been doing this 10 years? 00:07:01.600 --> 00:07:01.880 Yes. 00:07:02.160 --> 00:07:02.960 Can you believe it? 00:07:03.420 --> 00:07:04.600 That's a surprise to me. 00:07:04.680 --> 00:07:05.940 I, I, you know, it's funny. 00:07:05.940 --> 00:07:08.500 Like, I thought I knew everything that was going in and out of Disney. 00:07:08.720 --> 00:07:11.860 Cause I'm a, I'm a little bit of a Disney freak and, um, too. 00:07:12.540 --> 00:07:20.360 And, uh, I, I, I just, I, I hadn't, I hadn't heard of you until you hit my, I guess some Facebook recommended us as friends or whatever Facebook does. 00:07:20.360 --> 00:07:22.000 The algorithm puts us together. 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:25.120 And I'm like, what is, yeah, what is, what is this Cast Number Church? 00:07:25.760 --> 00:07:27.920 Now, now, so you, you planted this thing. 00:07:27.960 --> 00:07:29.200 Completely from scratch. 00:07:29.740 --> 00:07:38.120 Um, you, this is not like, are you partnering with any other church organization around or you're, you're literally doing a church for cast members? 00:07:38.420 --> 00:07:40.140 We're Evangelical Free Church of America. 00:07:40.140 --> 00:07:45.940 So we're, we were considered a church plant of that, but we broke every rule in church planting, to be honest with you. 00:07:46.020 --> 00:07:48.500 I mean, uh, it was a parachute drop. 00:07:48.620 --> 00:07:51.520 My wife and I, uh, we were underfunded. 00:07:52.180 --> 00:07:55.800 Um, it was, it was pretty much every rule in church planting. 00:07:56.020 --> 00:07:57.080 We broke it. 00:07:57.620 --> 00:08:02.740 And, and I'm glad we did, to be honest with you, because we learned a lot as a result. 00:08:03.240 --> 00:08:05.140 But, um, no, we just started. 00:08:05.260 --> 00:08:06.140 And I'll be honest with you. 00:08:06.180 --> 00:08:17.960 When we first started Cast Number Church, my vision was to create an attractional church that would draw Christians that were working at Disney and give them that Disney environment. 00:08:17.960 --> 00:08:23.060 And, and, uh, I even, you know, looking back, it was my ego, but I had this attitude. 00:08:23.060 --> 00:08:26.760 It was like, we'll even out Disney, Disney, because we've got Jesus and he can even do better. 00:08:27.080 --> 00:08:32.200 And, uh, and it was, it was, it was that, that kind of delusion of grandeur, I think that I had. 00:08:32.460 --> 00:08:41.000 And it was about two weeks after we arrived here that I realized one, um, Disney had changed a lot since 1991. 00:08:41.480 --> 00:08:42.420 It always does. 00:08:42.480 --> 00:08:43.320 It's always changing. 00:08:43.480 --> 00:08:44.640 I should have known better. 00:08:44.640 --> 00:08:58.360 And number two is I had lived in a church bubble for 25 years and I did not really, I was not prepared to connect with the Disney culture that I assumed was there. 00:08:58.780 --> 00:09:06.840 Uh, uh, uh, an attractional church would never, would never have worked because you're trying to reach the people who are the show. 00:09:07.080 --> 00:09:12.220 They know they, you know, uh, we, we call it, you know, the, um, sizzle and wow. 00:09:12.420 --> 00:09:16.120 Disney is the master or sparkle and wow, sparkle and wow. 00:09:16.460 --> 00:09:17.720 They know how to do that. 00:09:18.140 --> 00:09:19.960 And, and we, we can't do it. 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:20.900 We can't match that. 00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:21.720 We just can't. 00:09:21.720 --> 00:09:26.720 I mean, we could, but then it would become a show and that's not what Jesus is calling us to do. 00:09:27.060 --> 00:09:30.740 So for a couple of weeks, Jeff, I didn't want to get out of bed. 00:09:30.920 --> 00:09:32.960 I w I had moved my family there. 00:09:33.180 --> 00:09:36.480 I had no idea how we were everything that I thought we were going to do. 00:09:36.480 --> 00:09:42.500 I had this great little strategy notebook that was like, you know, about an inch thick of all 00:09:42.500 --> 00:09:45.860 the different things we were going to do, all the different books I had read, and this is how 00:09:45.860 --> 00:09:46.820 it's going to work and all that. 00:09:47.060 --> 00:09:50.480 And it was like, God had taken the whole thing and just dropped it in the trash can. 00:09:51.480 --> 00:09:54.040 And I was, I was devastated. 00:09:54.180 --> 00:09:55.820 I mean, I was in panic mode. 00:09:56.340 --> 00:10:01.240 And then one morning, I think I was just really feeling sorry for myself. 00:10:01.240 --> 00:10:06.100 And I felt the Lord in my spirit say, are you ready to do this my way? 00:10:06.100 --> 00:10:10.020 And I was like, I don't have another choice. 00:10:10.360 --> 00:10:13.940 I don't know what we're going to do other than, than your way. 00:10:14.160 --> 00:10:19.540 And we realized that he wanted this thing to not be about reaching Christians at Disney, 00:10:19.540 --> 00:10:24.960 but he was going to, he, in fact, he, he gave us three promises, uh, that we've, that we've 00:10:24.960 --> 00:10:25.440 followed. 00:10:25.600 --> 00:10:29.480 Well, I take that back three promises that when we've embraced them, it's been wonderful. 00:10:29.480 --> 00:10:33.700 And when we've tried to shortcut them, it's ended up being very difficult. 00:10:33.700 --> 00:10:40.100 But the first thing was, he said he was going to take us into uncharted waters, which meant 00:10:40.100 --> 00:10:45.220 there wasn't a book written other than scripture that would show us what we were supposed to 00:10:45.220 --> 00:10:45.400 do. 00:10:45.500 --> 00:10:48.400 There was nothing I could, there was no ABC format. 00:10:48.880 --> 00:10:53.240 Uh, number two was, is he would form this out of those who were skeptical and suspicious 00:10:53.240 --> 00:10:53.680 of him. 00:10:54.860 --> 00:10:58.260 That was pretty cool, uh, but also unnerving. 00:10:58.500 --> 00:11:02.180 And the third thing was, is he said he would multiply it all around the world. 00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:09.320 So those were really encouraging things, but I had no idea how to, to really do any of that. 00:11:09.320 --> 00:11:14.180 We were stepping into, uh, well, uncharted waters, as he said. 00:11:14.460 --> 00:11:20.140 And so we, we realized that the only way we were going to do that was relationship, relationship 00:11:20.140 --> 00:11:20.760 with people. 00:11:20.900 --> 00:11:25.960 And that's 10 years later, our church is founded on, on relationship. 00:11:26.100 --> 00:11:29.340 We, that's why you don't, you haven't really heard about us is we don't market. 00:11:29.540 --> 00:11:32.540 We don't, uh, of course we're focused on Disney cast members. 00:11:32.540 --> 00:11:39.140 So there's not a, a sense of, of publicity out there that we're trying to get, but we focus 00:11:39.140 --> 00:11:40.940 on those who don't know Jesus. 00:11:41.200 --> 00:11:45.140 So everything we do is designed in their direction. 00:11:45.780 --> 00:11:48.140 And, uh, and we've learned along the way. 00:11:48.600 --> 00:11:51.940 Just from a practical sense, like what, what does this look like? 00:11:51.940 --> 00:11:54.040 You're not, you're not trying to overproduce Disney. 00:11:54.220 --> 00:11:57.980 You're, you know, uh, I can tell you some, some horror stories around some churches. 00:11:58.100 --> 00:12:02.520 I've got a planner friend that went into Vegas and was like, Hey, I'm, I'm gonna, we're 00:12:02.520 --> 00:12:05.940 gonna out show Vegas and come to find out similar story to you. 00:12:06.320 --> 00:12:10.860 It's like, Hey, the, the, the Vegas people don't want the out, don't want to be, don't 00:12:10.860 --> 00:12:11.720 want the show. 00:12:11.820 --> 00:12:12.860 They're part of the show. 00:12:12.920 --> 00:12:15.200 They feel how, how shallow the show is. 00:12:15.320 --> 00:12:19.120 They're much more interested in that same thing as you, that relational piece. 00:12:19.420 --> 00:12:23.540 So what is relationships look like among cast members, among your church? 00:12:23.580 --> 00:12:25.660 Like what's a practical sense of what you guys are doing? 00:12:25.880 --> 00:12:27.880 Boy, we could spend all day talking about this. 00:12:28.140 --> 00:12:32.800 Um, I think the first thing that we, Disney is the uniting factor. 00:12:33.140 --> 00:12:38.120 Disney, when we call it mouse blood, cast members have mouse blood, whether you were, 00:12:38.700 --> 00:12:44.660 um, whether you're a cast member today or you were a cast member 50 years ago, um, you 00:12:44.660 --> 00:12:47.680 are, you have mouse blood and it never leaves. 00:12:47.820 --> 00:12:49.840 So it's, it's, it's like a band of brothers. 00:12:49.840 --> 00:12:53.640 It's like, uh, something that you've been through or you're going through that nobody 00:12:53.640 --> 00:12:54.440 else will understand. 00:12:54.780 --> 00:12:58.780 So there's that little uniting factor that it's that little nod. 00:12:58.900 --> 00:13:03.340 I remember when I used to drive a Jeep, uh, you know, you drive down the highway, you'd 00:13:03.340 --> 00:13:04.400 see somebody else driving a Jeep. 00:13:04.460 --> 00:13:05.080 You kind of give that. 00:13:05.480 --> 00:13:05.780 Yeah. 00:13:05.880 --> 00:13:07.620 Like little nod, that little wave. 00:13:07.680 --> 00:13:08.480 Like, yeah, I know. 00:13:08.620 --> 00:13:09.060 I know. 00:13:09.440 --> 00:13:11.420 And well, cast members are the same way. 00:13:11.420 --> 00:13:16.120 When you say that you were a Disney cast member, you are a Disney cast member, there's an 00:13:16.120 --> 00:13:19.220 immediate connection because you've shared the same vision. 00:13:19.740 --> 00:13:23.480 You've shared the same set of values and you've shared the same vocabulary. 00:13:24.260 --> 00:13:28.880 And that's what, that's what defines a culture in a sense is value, vision, values, vocabulary 00:13:28.880 --> 00:13:30.400 and a common rhythm. 00:13:31.040 --> 00:13:34.540 And so we tapped into that. 00:13:34.880 --> 00:13:41.240 And then again, uh, all the evangelistic, uh, things that I had learned over the years 00:13:41.240 --> 00:13:47.920 were kind of irrelevant because the people that we were starting to interact with didn't 00:13:47.920 --> 00:13:50.240 even have the Bible as a reference point. 00:13:50.360 --> 00:13:55.180 Most of the people in our church have, had never touched a Bible in their lives. 00:13:55.440 --> 00:14:01.200 So to talk about, you know, the sinful nature or to talk about, you know, the goodness, even 00:14:01.200 --> 00:14:09.300 the goodness of God, it was a, it was very difficult to kind of maneuver those conversations. 00:14:09.600 --> 00:14:17.020 So we became really good listeners, really good listeners and finding out what was going 00:14:17.020 --> 00:14:17.920 on in their lives. 00:14:18.040 --> 00:14:20.160 What was, what were their highs? 00:14:20.260 --> 00:14:21.140 What were their lows? 00:14:21.240 --> 00:14:23.940 What were their, what were the fractures in their life? 00:14:23.940 --> 00:14:31.160 And then little by little, we, we learned to listen to the spirit and be able to, I almost 00:14:31.160 --> 00:14:35.800 call it, it's almost like dripping, you know, you're just kind of seasoning everything, uh, 00:14:35.880 --> 00:14:40.380 with, you know, one of those things where it's like, well, you know, in the Bible, uh, it 00:14:40.380 --> 00:14:45.100 says this, it's just something really simple, you know, something that, you know, and they'd 00:14:45.100 --> 00:14:48.020 be like, Oh, I didn't know that that's where that came from. 00:14:48.220 --> 00:14:49.340 Or I did. 00:14:49.420 --> 00:14:50.160 That's amazing. 00:14:50.160 --> 00:14:50.820 That's wonderful. 00:14:51.100 --> 00:14:58.320 So we would season those things and little by little, we, we form trust, which is the 00:14:58.320 --> 00:15:01.040 most important piece in what we do. 00:15:01.200 --> 00:15:08.040 Uh, there's three, there's three keys to revealing Jesus in relationship, uh, here, uh, here with 00:15:08.040 --> 00:15:08.620 Cast Member Church. 00:15:08.620 --> 00:15:10.220 And it's true really with any believer. 00:15:10.500 --> 00:15:14.060 The first thing is, is expressing value. 00:15:14.600 --> 00:15:18.740 Well, I'll tell you all three expressing value, forming trust, offering hope. 00:15:19.300 --> 00:15:24.160 Now, here's why people don't care about the hope we have to offer if they don't trust us 00:15:24.160 --> 00:15:28.220 and they won't trust us until they know we value them. 00:15:28.740 --> 00:15:30.640 So we have to start with value. 00:15:31.340 --> 00:15:36.880 And that's how we started building relationship, looking at every person as made in the image 00:15:36.880 --> 00:15:41.180 of God, even if it was hard to see, even the people that annoy you, even the people that 00:15:41.180 --> 00:15:46.920 are completely different from you, you look for that image of God and you, I, you, you 00:15:46.920 --> 00:15:50.680 actually pointed out, you know, you talk to somebody and say, you know what? 00:15:50.800 --> 00:15:53.460 You are one of the most passionate people I've ever met. 00:15:53.560 --> 00:15:58.920 I, when you walk into a room that just, your passion just fills the room. 00:15:58.920 --> 00:15:59.620 And you know what? 00:15:59.700 --> 00:16:03.180 That is such, God has just given you something so incredible. 00:16:04.100 --> 00:16:06.440 You, no one's going to be offended by that. 00:16:06.960 --> 00:16:09.760 No one's going to be offended by being valued. 00:16:10.320 --> 00:16:11.660 And, uh, and we start there. 00:16:11.780 --> 00:16:17.700 So relationships are always about expressing value, forming trust and offering hope. 00:16:18.020 --> 00:16:22.920 And when you build on those three foundations, you're forming relationships that will last 00:16:22.920 --> 00:16:23.200 forever. 00:16:23.800 --> 00:16:24.740 That's very cool. 00:16:24.740 --> 00:16:32.040 And, and to, to tap into that, that ongoing community like Disney has, um, where, and 00:16:32.040 --> 00:16:37.760 then the cast members with, with longevity, like, are you trying to get supporters, trying 00:16:37.760 --> 00:16:41.300 to get, um, financial donors, trying to get volunteers? 00:16:41.300 --> 00:16:48.000 Like, was, is it hard for you to get, to cast this vision for people to, to buy into, to 00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:49.860 support, or are they jumping? 00:16:50.040 --> 00:16:51.180 Like, you know, I'm serious. 00:16:51.180 --> 00:16:54.240 Like my wife and I, we were talking about moving to Orlando anyway. 00:16:54.240 --> 00:16:58.320 And just this idea of a cast member church and, and, and, and doing ministry in those 00:16:58.320 --> 00:17:01.460 areas is really exciting to us, but we're kind of weird people in general. 00:17:01.460 --> 00:17:05.500 So do, are others like, are the others buying into this? 00:17:05.740 --> 00:17:09.040 Uh, yeah, well, there's a couple of other churches in the area that are focusing on Disney 00:17:09.040 --> 00:17:09.420 as well. 00:17:09.480 --> 00:17:14.760 I mean, you're looking at, you're basically looking at a city of 74,000 people, 74,000 00:17:14.760 --> 00:17:16.320 people work for the Walt Disney company. 00:17:16.680 --> 00:17:19.120 That's larger than a lot of small towns in America. 00:17:19.580 --> 00:17:23.140 And, uh, there's not a shortage of ministry need. 00:17:23.620 --> 00:17:28.480 Um, there are churches that are, are a little more focused on just creating a community for 00:17:28.480 --> 00:17:31.080 Christians and all that, which is great because that's needed. 00:17:31.460 --> 00:17:37.860 Uh, we're kind of out there, uh, in our own sandbox, I guess, you know, we, we, the Lord 00:17:37.860 --> 00:17:40.960 told us he would build this out of people who were skeptical and suspicious. 00:17:40.960 --> 00:17:43.620 So that's the people that we get excited about. 00:17:43.740 --> 00:17:47.740 We'd like to, we'd like to say to ourselves, the future leaders of cast member church don't 00:17:47.740 --> 00:17:48.440 know Jesus yet. 00:17:49.060 --> 00:17:52.900 And that gets us up every day, you know, to, to keep moving forward. 00:17:53.320 --> 00:17:58.140 And, um, so, yeah, as far as when I first shared the vision, there were two responses. 00:17:58.680 --> 00:18:00.460 One was that is so cool. 00:18:00.460 --> 00:18:01.900 That is so unique. 00:18:02.440 --> 00:18:05.620 Um, which I think is translated to better you than me. 00:18:07.240 --> 00:18:12.100 And the other one was, oh, so you're going to go suffer for Jesus at Walt Disney world 00:18:12.100 --> 00:18:14.800 and the sarc, the sarcastic approach. 00:18:14.960 --> 00:18:18.620 And which, okay. 00:18:18.820 --> 00:18:24.320 You know, it's not that, you know, we're, we're truly doing ministry here, but yes, it 00:18:24.320 --> 00:18:27.220 is one of the most influential places in the world. 00:18:27.280 --> 00:18:28.640 The world comes here. 00:18:28.980 --> 00:18:33.640 The people that come here to work at Walt Disney world are going, are dreamers and doers. 00:18:33.740 --> 00:18:35.120 That's what Walt Disney called them. 00:18:35.200 --> 00:18:36.160 Dreamers and doers. 00:18:36.240 --> 00:18:42.820 They're coming here to get their training, to get their, their feet wet in not just the 00:18:42.820 --> 00:18:47.900 world of entertainment, but in technology and in engineering and all of those other things 00:18:47.900 --> 00:18:49.140 that would make a city run. 00:18:49.380 --> 00:18:52.340 They come here and they get all of that. 00:18:52.400 --> 00:18:53.880 And eventually they go somewhere else. 00:18:54.600 --> 00:19:00.300 And kind of like Rome, the apostle Paul could not wait to get to Rome because he knew that 00:19:00.300 --> 00:19:05.000 if he could get the gospel into Rome, it would travel all those roads out around the world. 00:19:05.520 --> 00:19:06.700 Well, Disney's a modern day Rome. 00:19:07.600 --> 00:19:12.660 And so we look at this as this is a great, well, and we've proven it because we're now on 00:19:12.660 --> 00:19:20.320 six continents, but, but we started here and we've seen that multiply and go out. 00:19:20.580 --> 00:19:23.200 And it's been, it's been incredible. 00:19:23.320 --> 00:19:24.580 It's beyond anything I imagined. 00:19:25.100 --> 00:19:27.160 Talk to me a little bit about that multiplication piece. 00:19:27.240 --> 00:19:28.780 So you just said six continents. 00:19:29.400 --> 00:19:33.120 I can probably try to name all the Disney parks that are in my head right now. 00:19:33.300 --> 00:19:37.900 I didn't, I didn't, is there one in Australia or is that, I mean, like there, so, so where, 00:19:37.900 --> 00:19:40.040 where, where are you right now? 00:19:40.080 --> 00:19:44.100 And maybe what does that multiplication, what does that look like for, for your church? 00:19:44.480 --> 00:19:47.600 Well, right now I, I, my home is at Walt Disney world. 00:19:47.700 --> 00:19:52.680 In fact, one mile behind that corner of my office is Cinderella castle. 00:19:53.260 --> 00:19:58.980 And so we, you know, we started here and of course Anaheim, the original Disneyland. 00:19:58.980 --> 00:20:02.600 Uh, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. 00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:06.020 And so those are the, those are the Disney park locations. 00:20:06.380 --> 00:20:12.500 What happened for us is Walt Disney world hat had, I say that in past tense, simply because 00:20:12.500 --> 00:20:18.040 of the pandemic implications that we're dealing with right now at Disney used to have a very 00:20:18.040 --> 00:20:24.640 large international, uh, population of cast members from all over the world, uh, through 00:20:24.640 --> 00:20:28.260 the college program or the cultural representative program. 00:20:28.260 --> 00:20:32.760 As someone who's familiar with Disney, I'm sure you've seen Epcot with the world showcase. 00:20:32.760 --> 00:20:36.380 Every country has its own cast members from that country. 00:20:37.220 --> 00:20:41.600 We focused very heavily on world showcase because that's just where the fruit was. 00:20:41.680 --> 00:20:47.200 We were seeing God opening up, giving us favor and opening up doors with all these cast members 00:20:47.200 --> 00:20:48.640 from other parts of the world. 00:20:48.640 --> 00:20:51.080 So we, you know, of course you focus on the fruit. 00:20:51.240 --> 00:20:53.540 So you, you, we, we did that. 00:20:53.640 --> 00:20:58.020 And then of course, you know, the famous words and then COVID. 00:20:58.740 --> 00:21:04.760 And we went from this, really this thriving community of people that were meeting at different times and 00:21:04.760 --> 00:21:07.420 different days and hanging out at our house. 00:21:07.680 --> 00:21:11.980 Um, our house was kind of the central location for everything that we did. 00:21:12.500 --> 00:21:19.080 And because we were so close to, to Disney and, uh, uh, and we had this, it was wonderful. 00:21:19.240 --> 00:21:21.660 I mean, it was one of those where I'm like going, this is great. 00:21:21.780 --> 00:21:23.520 I'm, I'm happy with the way things are. 00:21:23.520 --> 00:21:26.980 And then COVID hit and we went to zero. 00:21:27.880 --> 00:21:32.400 Everybody was sent in a, in a very short time period, Disney shut down. 00:21:32.720 --> 00:21:33.700 We thought it would be a week. 00:21:33.820 --> 00:21:34.860 We thought it would be two weeks. 00:21:34.940 --> 00:21:36.700 We thought, okay, maybe a month. 00:21:36.900 --> 00:21:38.440 And that dragged on. 00:21:38.500 --> 00:21:43.820 And of course the inevitable happened where Disney was shut down in indefinitely, which 00:21:43.820 --> 00:21:47.480 was strange, incredibly strange for us. 00:21:47.600 --> 00:21:51.520 And so all these people went back to their homes all around the world. 00:21:51.520 --> 00:21:56.680 We Brisbane, Australia, Berlin, uh, Rome, uh, Morocco. 00:21:57.040 --> 00:21:59.760 I mean, just everywhere that you can imagine. 00:22:00.820 --> 00:22:06.020 And once again, I was sitting there going, okay, God, what now? 00:22:06.500 --> 00:22:10.000 I mean, he, obviously he saw, he knew this was going to happen. 00:22:10.140 --> 00:22:16.420 And we were, we were a little, a little more wise this time, rather than trying to jump 00:22:16.420 --> 00:22:17.120 into a strategy. 00:22:17.120 --> 00:22:20.760 We thought, let's just kind of see what God wants to do. 00:22:21.480 --> 00:22:27.140 And we had already been using, uh, a digital platform to a certain extent, just to connect 00:22:27.140 --> 00:22:29.500 with old, you know, we've been doing this for 10 years. 00:22:29.600 --> 00:22:32.360 So a lot of cast members have left Disney and gone on to other things. 00:22:32.360 --> 00:22:36.080 And so the digital platform was very simple for us to use just to stay connected. 00:22:36.900 --> 00:22:39.920 Well, we decided, Hey, anybody want to get together with us? 00:22:40.060 --> 00:22:41.260 We just like to see how you're doing. 00:22:41.880 --> 00:22:46.860 And of course this, remember, this was a global, this was a global nightmare at the time. 00:22:47.480 --> 00:22:50.120 And, um, we put the word out. 00:22:50.280 --> 00:22:53.320 Anyone who wants to meet with us, we'd love to spend some time with you. 00:22:55.120 --> 00:23:00.640 Jeff, I was busy from like seven in the morning till four in the afternoon, every single day 00:23:00.640 --> 00:23:08.800 sitting here, just like I'm talking to you, uh, and encouraging and trying to process everything 00:23:08.800 --> 00:23:09.620 that was happening. 00:23:09.880 --> 00:23:15.240 And it was, you know, dealing with anxiety issues, all, everything that went with the pandemic. 00:23:16.400 --> 00:23:17.980 And then I thought it would be a one-off. 00:23:18.260 --> 00:23:19.060 I thought it'd be one of those things. 00:23:19.120 --> 00:23:20.300 It's like, okay, that was good. 00:23:20.400 --> 00:23:21.700 And just want to see how you were doing. 00:23:21.940 --> 00:23:24.740 And they were all saying, can we keep doing this? 00:23:25.880 --> 00:23:30.600 And my wife and I said, I think we just got the green light from God for the next step. 00:23:31.500 --> 00:23:32.620 And so we said, yeah. 00:23:32.760 --> 00:23:38.380 So we put the word out again, anybody who wants to be a part of this on, you know, this digital 00:23:38.380 --> 00:23:41.180 world and with the church, let us know. 00:23:41.560 --> 00:23:48.080 Well, we went to six continents and, uh, multiple groups in, in different locations around the 00:23:48.080 --> 00:23:48.320 world. 00:23:48.540 --> 00:23:53.180 And, uh, and we're not looking back to be honest with you, even as the borders have reopened 00:23:53.180 --> 00:23:55.860 and all, um, it works. 00:23:55.860 --> 00:24:01.340 I just had a cast member just this, this week, tell me, uh, a German cast member. 00:24:01.440 --> 00:24:06.120 He said, you know, if I would have been at Disney, I don't think I would have been as close 00:24:06.120 --> 00:24:10.840 to everyone as I am now meeting online all the time. 00:24:10.980 --> 00:24:15.460 He says, I feel closer to you now than I was when I was there in person, because this 00:24:15.460 --> 00:24:17.140 is intentional, this. 00:24:17.680 --> 00:24:20.580 And I was like, yes, yes. 00:24:20.840 --> 00:24:26.800 And that was incredibly encouraging because that tells me, yes, you can do life in the 00:24:26.800 --> 00:24:27.360 digital world. 00:24:27.500 --> 00:24:31.520 You can, you can see the spirit moving in the digital world. 00:24:31.520 --> 00:24:35.040 You can build solid relationships in the digital world. 00:24:35.540 --> 00:24:36.960 So that's where we live now. 00:24:37.360 --> 00:24:37.760 That's awesome. 00:24:37.860 --> 00:24:39.080 I totally got this on tape. 00:24:39.200 --> 00:24:40.720 I'm going to cut that segment out. 00:24:40.800 --> 00:24:45.280 We're just going to loop it over and over, over the rest of the digital relationships 00:24:45.280 --> 00:24:45.940 are valid. 00:24:46.080 --> 00:24:46.620 That that's great. 00:24:46.740 --> 00:24:47.300 Oh, they are. 00:24:47.540 --> 00:24:47.700 Yeah. 00:24:47.760 --> 00:24:50.980 Now, now that the, now, you know, are the doors even open globally? 00:24:51.120 --> 00:24:52.000 Not, not yet. 00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:52.300 Right. 00:24:52.300 --> 00:24:53.160 Like the international. 00:24:53.160 --> 00:24:53.420 Oh, yeah. 00:24:53.480 --> 00:24:53.960 It is. 00:24:54.140 --> 00:24:54.320 Okay. 00:24:54.780 --> 00:24:55.940 Everybody's, everybody's open. 00:24:56.320 --> 00:24:59.800 So like, and, and I'm, I'm actually, I'm heading out to the West coast. 00:24:59.880 --> 00:25:02.460 I'll be at Disneyland here in a couple of weeks. 00:25:02.460 --> 00:25:05.260 I'm spending a weekend in between some work jobs. 00:25:05.260 --> 00:25:08.020 And so I'll be out there and the family's flying out with me. 00:25:08.060 --> 00:25:12.820 And so we're going to go enjoy the California sunset and look, really looking forward to it. 00:25:12.980 --> 00:25:18.380 But now that everything's getting back to normal, whatever normal is, and even normal is suspect. 00:25:18.920 --> 00:25:19.920 We live in Florida. 00:25:20.140 --> 00:25:20.800 You and I do. 00:25:21.220 --> 00:25:23.840 And, and Delta variant is, is a, is a real thing. 00:25:24.600 --> 00:25:28.320 But is, is digital still like part of, part of your strategy? 00:25:28.660 --> 00:25:33.360 How are you keeping balancing that digital and what you were doing physical, some of the 00:25:33.360 --> 00:25:35.880 stuff at your house and some of the relational pieces? 00:25:35.880 --> 00:25:38.200 Like, is it either, or is it both? 00:25:38.240 --> 00:25:39.300 How are you managing that? 00:25:39.300 --> 00:25:42.900 I would say that our strategy is we're making it up as we go along. 00:25:44.120 --> 00:25:46.500 I think it really is. 00:25:48.860 --> 00:25:56.020 For us, I, I look at it as, um, we just decided this in the last couple of weeks to officially 00:25:56.020 --> 00:26:03.120 say that we are a digital church simply because that's our, that's our gathering piece. 00:26:03.260 --> 00:26:09.780 We gather in the digital primarily, even here in Orlando, even locally, it's easier to gather 00:26:09.780 --> 00:26:12.300 online than to get together physically. 00:26:12.300 --> 00:26:18.380 And what I mean by that is, uh, in our unique context, you work an eight hour shift. 00:26:18.860 --> 00:26:24.040 Out in the hot sun, out in the hot Florida sun all day, you go home to your apartment, 00:26:24.040 --> 00:26:27.280 you change your clothes, you take a shower, you change your clothes. 00:26:27.280 --> 00:26:33.340 And the last thing you want to do is to go back out again and go to Disney Springs or the 00:26:33.340 --> 00:26:35.900 Starbucks or, or our house for that matter. 00:26:36.420 --> 00:26:42.200 Uh, but if you say, Hey, you know, uh, if you want to, uh, hop online and we'll all meet 00:26:42.200 --> 00:26:42.540 there. 00:26:43.240 --> 00:26:49.100 It's much better and more effective that way, even on a local, uh, in a local context. 00:26:49.380 --> 00:26:50.940 So we're trying to figure that out. 00:26:51.040 --> 00:26:52.180 We're trying, is this a trend? 00:26:52.260 --> 00:26:54.300 Is this a, a fluke? 00:26:54.300 --> 00:26:55.840 Is this just a bump in the road? 00:26:56.180 --> 00:26:57.920 But you know, it's like surfing. 00:26:57.960 --> 00:27:00.680 You just ride the wave and trust it knows where it's going. 00:27:01.120 --> 00:27:04.920 And, uh, so we're kind of just writing it and see what happens. 00:27:05.040 --> 00:27:06.980 I love meeting together locally. 00:27:06.980 --> 00:27:14.400 I love my dining room table, um, seats, eight people, and we've had over, uh, over a thousand 00:27:14.400 --> 00:27:15.860 cast members sit at that table. 00:27:15.960 --> 00:27:17.860 It's one of the most special places. 00:27:18.240 --> 00:27:21.580 Um, and obviously the most special piece of furniture in our home. 00:27:22.240 --> 00:27:26.980 And there's something very special about that, uh, that a lot of brokenness has been shared. 00:27:27.060 --> 00:27:30.220 There are a lot of anger, a lot of, we let cast members be themselves. 00:27:30.420 --> 00:27:34.080 We, we, you know, there's a lot of things shared at our table that probably wouldn't be shared 00:27:34.080 --> 00:27:34.840 in other churches. 00:27:36.120 --> 00:27:42.620 Things just have been spoken, but we have, people have experienced vulnerability at the 00:27:42.620 --> 00:27:42.980 table. 00:27:43.060 --> 00:27:46.100 Well, that's transferred over into our DNA, into the digital. 00:27:46.680 --> 00:27:50.600 Um, I don't notice a difference in vulnerability, whether it's online or in person. 00:27:51.200 --> 00:27:56.460 Um, that could be just the way they're led the way that it's cultivated. 00:27:56.460 --> 00:28:04.500 I don't know, but I see it's not really an either or it's a both and, you know, if once Disney 00:28:04.500 --> 00:28:09.140 kind of gets its footing back, which this is the 50th anniversary, so things need to be 00:28:09.140 --> 00:28:09.820 coming together. 00:28:10.360 --> 00:28:15.980 Um, we'll probably start some more things on the local level and hopefully do some getting 00:28:15.980 --> 00:28:17.340 together in person as well. 00:28:17.640 --> 00:28:23.140 Uh, if, if the, if people want to go that direction, but we won't, but we won't, uh, 00:28:23.400 --> 00:28:25.220 we won't back off on the digital at all. 00:28:25.820 --> 00:28:26.100 Love that. 00:28:26.100 --> 00:28:30.040 And in the balance, and I can totally have conversations with you about digital only 00:28:30.040 --> 00:28:35.040 expressions with no physical, but even in, in your context, you like the, the balance 00:28:35.040 --> 00:28:40.100 between the two and try to find, we use the term digital a lot, physical and digital finding 00:28:40.100 --> 00:28:42.900 that, that sweet balance, um, is, is good. 00:28:42.900 --> 00:28:47.480 And it, to be honest, uh, you're, are very similar to many other pastors that I've talked 00:28:47.480 --> 00:28:49.580 to in the season, man, I don't know what I'm doing. 00:28:49.660 --> 00:28:50.760 We're, we're just giving it a shot. 00:28:50.840 --> 00:28:52.300 We're figuring out we're going down this road. 00:28:52.380 --> 00:28:53.220 We're learning along the way. 00:28:53.220 --> 00:28:55.800 So that, that is, that's, that's a beautiful thing. 00:28:55.900 --> 00:29:03.060 One thing that's, that I, that I find really unique about you is, is your, uh, singular focus. 00:29:03.060 --> 00:29:07.700 So here at Stadia, we use the term like the one, the, the target audience, the type 00:29:07.700 --> 00:29:10.680 of person that, that you, that the church is, is going after. 00:29:11.080 --> 00:29:16.180 Um, and it's interesting when we talk with planters, a lot of times they struggle with 00:29:16.180 --> 00:29:22.700 the, like defining their church off of a one because, you know, uh, be all things to all 00:29:22.700 --> 00:29:25.540 people so that some may come to know, uh, Christ. 00:29:25.540 --> 00:29:30.660 And so, you know, they're wanting to cast a much larger net or they feel that tension 00:29:30.660 --> 00:29:33.400 of, Hey, I got to do everything for everyone. 00:29:33.400 --> 00:29:37.680 And I don't, honestly, I don't necessarily agree with that, which is why I find your 00:29:37.680 --> 00:29:43.680 approach refreshing, but I want to ask, like, have you felt tension or how do you manage 00:29:43.680 --> 00:29:51.000 like going outside of, of the one, like, uh, you're even something as silly as, um, you 00:29:51.000 --> 00:29:56.240 know, uh, a cast member's girlfriend who works outside of Disney is going to be involved. 00:29:56.240 --> 00:30:00.240 And so, you know, you're, we're there because some things you're okay with, but is, have 00:30:00.240 --> 00:30:05.460 you thought about moving outside of the cast member, like target range, or is it singular 00:30:05.460 --> 00:30:06.280 focused on that? 00:30:06.280 --> 00:30:08.520 No, Disney is so big. 00:30:08.640 --> 00:30:13.460 And I mean, I'm not just talking about Walt Disney world, but the, the Disney company is 00:30:13.460 --> 00:30:16.200 so big because you're not just talking about theme parks. 00:30:16.200 --> 00:30:19.940 You're talking about cruise ships, movie studios, television. 00:30:19.940 --> 00:30:25.800 Uh, you're talking about, I have a, one member of our church is over the standards and practices 00:30:25.800 --> 00:30:34.960 for Disney plus, uh, Hulu, the Disney channel for Switzerland, Germany, and Austria, the German 00:30:34.960 --> 00:30:35.980 speaking portion. 00:30:36.520 --> 00:30:42.580 And, uh, but she started out as a cast member and a great cast member, mind you, but we, 00:30:42.720 --> 00:30:46.500 her influence has, has grown and, and we, we've grown with her. 00:30:46.560 --> 00:30:50.120 Um, I do understand the tension. 00:30:50.120 --> 00:30:51.300 It doesn't affect me. 00:30:51.300 --> 00:30:54.020 I've had people say, Hey, you should, you should do this for universal. 00:30:54.360 --> 00:30:55.840 You should do this for sea world. 00:30:56.060 --> 00:30:56.820 You should do. 00:30:57.360 --> 00:31:03.360 And I don't feel that because, uh, what I would say to other church planters is who 00:31:03.360 --> 00:31:04.480 do you connect with? 00:31:04.780 --> 00:31:09.140 Who do you, who gets you, you know, who do you, when you sit down with somebody and you 00:31:09.140 --> 00:31:13.060 talk about something that you could talk about for hours, who is that person? 00:31:13.500 --> 00:31:15.000 Well, for me, it's Disney cast members. 00:31:15.140 --> 00:31:15.800 I get them. 00:31:16.020 --> 00:31:18.660 I just, I, I know what's inside their head. 00:31:18.780 --> 00:31:23.200 We speak this again, shared vision, shared values, shared vocabulary. 00:31:24.080 --> 00:31:25.200 We get that. 00:31:25.620 --> 00:31:31.840 And so there isn't this labor of cultural contextualization where we have, I have to, 00:31:32.160 --> 00:31:34.040 Ooh, how do I, how do I make this work? 00:31:34.320 --> 00:31:37.220 It's like, no, it's the world that I operate in. 00:31:37.220 --> 00:31:40.120 Even when I lived in San Antonio, I was still a cast member. 00:31:40.260 --> 00:31:41.540 I still thought like that. 00:31:42.100 --> 00:31:44.240 So it's a natural connection. 00:31:44.940 --> 00:31:49.200 The, the, the bizarre thing for me is, is when people go, well, you're really lucky. 00:31:49.200 --> 00:31:52.240 That's very fortunate for you that you, God called you to that. 00:31:52.320 --> 00:31:59.240 I'm thinking, no, I think, I think this is the way it should be is God designs each person 00:31:59.240 --> 00:32:01.300 to connect with certain people. 00:32:01.400 --> 00:32:07.340 And if you connect naturally with them, well, Jesus, that's an easy bridge for Jesus to cross. 00:32:07.840 --> 00:32:11.560 And so I think we have to really get to know ourselves and our passions. 00:32:11.700 --> 00:32:13.480 And connect with other people. 00:32:13.480 --> 00:32:19.800 I use the example, um, you know, you've got a guy, uh, you know, we'll call him Al and 00:32:19.800 --> 00:32:21.040 Al is into cars. 00:32:21.120 --> 00:32:26.900 He has a, he has an auto repair shop and he's, he's in, you know, he loves to do all these 00:32:26.900 --> 00:32:28.040 things with engines and cars. 00:32:28.160 --> 00:32:29.940 Who's Al going to hang out with? 00:32:30.600 --> 00:32:32.700 Al's going to hang out with car people. 00:32:32.800 --> 00:32:39.880 So what if the church equipped Al instead of inviting people to his church to learn how 00:32:39.880 --> 00:32:41.700 to be the church among car people? 00:32:42.320 --> 00:32:46.520 Well, that's what we're doing here at Disney is we're looking at every Disney cast member. 00:32:46.580 --> 00:32:47.780 What fires them up? 00:32:47.860 --> 00:32:49.820 What, what, who do they connect with? 00:32:50.300 --> 00:32:54.760 How can we empower you to be the church wherever God's called you? 00:32:55.220 --> 00:32:58.780 Hey, I just want to say for the public record that this is the first time that I've ever 00:32:58.780 --> 00:33:00.180 had a conversation with Steven. 00:33:00.360 --> 00:33:05.940 And I did not prompt him to say any of the previous comments in any way, shape, manner, 00:33:05.980 --> 00:33:06.300 or form. 00:33:06.400 --> 00:33:09.300 I don't even know if that was the question I was asking was, was hinting towards that. 00:33:09.440 --> 00:33:10.600 That, that, that was, that was beautiful. 00:33:10.720 --> 00:33:15.620 I, I say that 50, I say that 50 times a day, like, and it's, uh, you know, and it's, it's 00:33:15.620 --> 00:33:19.160 more of, Hey, uh, you know, and, and I'm a, I'm a techie guy. 00:33:19.160 --> 00:33:22.400 So I use language like, um, churches app, churches platform. 00:33:22.740 --> 00:33:28.640 Um, Hey, what if we, what if we stopped creating a product instead started producing others 00:33:28.640 --> 00:33:33.360 and giving them the ability to, and I'll do like, you know, we're doing a podcast later 00:33:33.360 --> 00:33:37.200 with some people from glue talking about the Uberization of church. 00:33:37.320 --> 00:33:43.920 What would church learn from Uber from, um, uh, you know, so many other platform based companies 00:33:43.920 --> 00:33:44.860 out there. 00:33:44.940 --> 00:33:47.100 Airbnb was the one I was just blanking on a second ago. 00:33:47.340 --> 00:33:47.560 Anyway. 00:33:47.880 --> 00:33:48.100 Yeah. 00:33:48.160 --> 00:33:50.260 And so there, there's a lot of lessons towards that. 00:33:50.280 --> 00:33:53.220 And you've, you've kind of stumbled into that. 00:33:53.500 --> 00:33:57.540 This is not even the conversation I was expecting to have when I was talking to a Disney church, 00:33:57.540 --> 00:34:02.460 but I'm super excited to hear that that's, that's where you're landing because you're 00:34:02.460 --> 00:34:02.800 right. 00:34:02.800 --> 00:34:09.960 Your greatest resource are the thousands of employees and cast members of Disney parks and 00:34:09.960 --> 00:34:17.080 Disney in general, because their circle of influence, their Oikos is huge, is multinational 00:34:17.080 --> 00:34:22.980 in, in, in many situations and, and the ability for us to equip and empower them and disciple 00:34:22.980 --> 00:34:25.240 them to that place is, is beautiful. 00:34:25.240 --> 00:34:28.400 My next question was literally going to, and you, you may have just answered it, but let 00:34:28.400 --> 00:34:29.180 me throw it at you anyway. 00:34:29.660 --> 00:34:33.860 What does discipleship look like for your, for your church? 00:34:34.100 --> 00:34:37.320 How do you disciple these cast members? 00:34:37.480 --> 00:34:43.540 Like what's the process to get them to understand, uh, you know, their story and Jesus's story 00:34:43.540 --> 00:34:44.860 that others need to hear? 00:34:45.340 --> 00:34:53.140 Well, let me give you a statistic that will shock you and anyone who hears this 95% of 00:34:53.140 --> 00:34:59.680 the people who call cast member church, their family are still yet to know Jesus personally 00:34:59.680 --> 00:35:00.680 to trust him. 00:35:01.500 --> 00:35:05.240 Uh, so we, we've embraced the philosophy. 00:35:05.400 --> 00:35:06.400 Well, it's not really a philosophy. 00:35:06.540 --> 00:35:10.700 I think it's just fact is discipleship begins before conversion. 00:35:11.620 --> 00:35:13.880 So we are discipling them. 00:35:14.040 --> 00:35:19.120 I mean, if you look at Jesus walking with the disciples for three plus years, how much 00:35:19.120 --> 00:35:24.880 time took between the time Jesus called Peter to the time that Jesus was standing there in 00:35:24.880 --> 00:35:29.620 front of, um, the, the location, the gates of hell location where he told Peter, who do 00:35:29.620 --> 00:35:35.420 you say that I am how much time passed between that him calling Peter and Peter confessing 00:35:35.420 --> 00:35:41.040 that Jesus was the savior, uh, and the son of God the whole time they're moving as a family. 00:35:41.040 --> 00:35:43.180 And yet these guys are still trying to figure it out. 00:35:43.180 --> 00:35:44.860 And they're, they're drawn to Jesus. 00:35:45.020 --> 00:35:47.580 There's something, there's something really special about him. 00:35:47.700 --> 00:35:52.100 They think they wonder maybe, and they're, but they're following along. 00:35:52.100 --> 00:36:00.440 Um, we have this huge family of people that are on a journey moving towards Jesus constantly. 00:36:01.100 --> 00:36:07.500 Um, and so we don't, I think one of the things is we move the goalposts a little bit. 00:36:08.140 --> 00:36:12.120 Most people, uh, I, I hate it when I generalize. 00:36:12.180 --> 00:36:15.280 So I'm, I'm going to, I'm going to preface that by saying, I'm not sure I'm right on this, 00:36:15.280 --> 00:36:19.960 but I would say most tend to think that salvation is the goal line. 00:36:20.540 --> 00:36:22.500 Get, you know, lead people to Jesus. 00:36:22.940 --> 00:36:23.220 Boom. 00:36:23.320 --> 00:36:24.000 We got the win. 00:36:24.900 --> 00:36:26.780 And I don't see that in scripture. 00:36:27.140 --> 00:36:29.160 I see that as a life and death decision. 00:36:29.620 --> 00:36:30.140 Absolutely. 00:36:30.560 --> 00:36:35.080 The, a crucial decision, but it is not the goal line. 00:36:35.400 --> 00:36:44.120 The goal line is someone who, uh, knows Jesus and is becoming like Jesus, meaning it, not 00:36:44.120 --> 00:36:49.900 just in his character, but also in his, in his capabilities to multiply disciples. 00:36:49.900 --> 00:36:58.200 And invest in other people to serve others, to be where people are that don't know Jesus. 00:36:58.820 --> 00:37:01.940 And so we are modeling that the whole time. 00:37:01.980 --> 00:37:05.440 I had a cast member one time, uh, make the comment. 00:37:05.540 --> 00:37:08.160 He, he was, he was listening to something I was talking about. 00:37:08.360 --> 00:37:11.460 And I was talking to another cast member about a situation they were going through. 00:37:11.460 --> 00:37:13.440 And he was, this was happening online, by the way. 00:37:13.780 --> 00:37:17.600 And he goes, I know what you're doing. 00:37:17.860 --> 00:37:19.320 I know what you're doing. 00:37:19.380 --> 00:37:21.200 I said, Oh, what am I doing? 00:37:21.260 --> 00:37:24.220 He says, you're teaching us how to be like Jesus. 00:37:25.820 --> 00:37:28.820 And I'm like, guilty as charged. 00:37:31.120 --> 00:37:35.540 But what we do is we are showing Jesus to them every time. 00:37:35.540 --> 00:37:37.680 And we're, we don't avoid any conversation. 00:37:37.900 --> 00:37:38.380 Oh my gosh. 00:37:38.400 --> 00:37:43.440 We don't avoid any conversation, no matter how controversial, no matter how awkward, no matter 00:37:43.440 --> 00:37:46.320 how, but Jesus isn't afraid of that. 00:37:46.780 --> 00:37:52.660 So we're always showing them Jesus, always showing, but we're not, we're not pushing him. 00:37:52.920 --> 00:37:55.960 We're not, he, he's always coming in naturally. 00:37:55.960 --> 00:38:01.560 It's a part of our, when we started the communities, we call them communities D for Disney, unless 00:38:01.560 --> 00:38:02.200 they want to suit. 00:38:02.320 --> 00:38:02.440 Yeah. 00:38:02.480 --> 00:38:04.560 If they, if they, if they sue us, it's for discipleship. 00:38:04.640 --> 00:38:11.520 So, uh, but, um, but, uh, but in any case we may, we told all of our global communities, 00:38:11.520 --> 00:38:13.540 look, we are going to get together. 00:38:13.540 --> 00:38:16.760 We're going to get, we would love to get together with you, but here's the thing. 00:38:17.360 --> 00:38:20.140 We're going to talk about Jesus because he's a natural part of our life. 00:38:20.140 --> 00:38:23.620 And we're going to, just so you know, you know, we're, that's just who we are. 00:38:23.860 --> 00:38:27.700 And the most common response was, well, that's what we would expect. 00:38:28.120 --> 00:38:28.800 We like that. 00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:37.740 So discipleship for us is moving people one step closer to Jesus, every single interaction. 00:38:38.400 --> 00:38:45.280 And then as they come to know him, helping them learn how to reveal Jesus to others, how 00:38:45.280 --> 00:38:46.760 to be Jesus to others. 00:38:46.960 --> 00:38:54.280 And it's, so it's a very, it's, it's a, it's very natural, very, very, very natural. 00:38:54.860 --> 00:38:56.520 And it's not awkward. 00:38:56.680 --> 00:38:59.760 That's why I love, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a former worship pastor. 00:38:59.920 --> 00:39:01.540 I was terrible at evangelism. 00:39:01.540 --> 00:39:05.400 The idea of evangelizing outside of the church scared the living daylights out of me. 00:39:05.440 --> 00:39:07.400 I just thought, Oh, I don't have the gift of evangelism. 00:39:07.740 --> 00:39:08.740 Let them do that. 00:39:09.080 --> 00:39:13.240 And now it's just a part of my daily life, but it's not weird. 00:39:13.720 --> 00:39:14.800 It's not weird at all. 00:39:14.920 --> 00:39:17.280 It's just, it's about talking about my friend, Jesus. 00:39:17.480 --> 00:39:20.140 I was talking about, I was talking to my friend, Jesus this morning about you. 00:39:20.520 --> 00:39:22.880 And we were talking about this. 00:39:24.780 --> 00:39:25.520 That natural. 00:39:26.320 --> 00:39:33.540 And people in the world that we live in, again, our cast members are either skeptical, suspicious, 00:39:33.840 --> 00:39:35.540 or by and large, indifferent. 00:39:35.860 --> 00:39:36.600 They just don't know. 00:39:36.880 --> 00:39:38.080 They don't know what they don't know. 00:39:38.900 --> 00:39:41.640 And so to them, this is like, this is really interesting. 00:39:42.220 --> 00:39:48.760 This is fascinating because we talk about it as a part of our lives, not as a segment of our lives. 00:39:48.960 --> 00:39:49.940 My Christian life. 00:39:50.440 --> 00:39:52.000 No, this is my life. 00:39:53.240 --> 00:39:54.520 Jesus is my life. 00:39:54.960 --> 00:39:57.900 And I want you to hear what he's doing in my life. 00:39:58.020 --> 00:40:00.180 And, oh my gosh, we've been talking about you too. 00:40:00.520 --> 00:40:04.520 And here's some things that, you know, he might be interested, that you might be interested in knowing he's doing in yours. 00:40:05.020 --> 00:40:06.360 So it's very subtle. 00:40:06.480 --> 00:40:07.140 It is intentional. 00:40:07.660 --> 00:40:08.300 Don't get me wrong. 00:40:08.340 --> 00:40:13.260 I don't want you to think, it's not, we're not thinking like generic, just hang out with Jesus kind of a thing. 00:40:13.600 --> 00:40:15.800 But it's very intentional. 00:40:16.380 --> 00:40:24.540 But we become so attuned to how the Holy Spirit works through this that it doesn't feel like we're evangelizing. 00:40:24.540 --> 00:40:26.620 It just feels like we're inviting people into our lives. 00:40:27.040 --> 00:40:27.120 Gotcha. 00:40:27.480 --> 00:40:28.280 Just curious. 00:40:28.460 --> 00:40:30.160 Do you use like a particular system? 00:40:30.360 --> 00:40:35.000 Is it something that you've homegrown, like curriculum, that sort of thing? 00:40:35.180 --> 00:40:36.660 I'm not a fan of the word curriculum. 00:40:36.860 --> 00:40:38.720 As soon as I hear curriculum, I think program. 00:40:39.140 --> 00:40:40.800 I think, you know, something. 00:40:41.700 --> 00:40:43.640 It just depends on the life of that person. 00:40:44.000 --> 00:40:44.780 It really does. 00:40:44.900 --> 00:40:45.860 It's learning. 00:40:46.240 --> 00:40:50.320 Again, like I said earlier, we learned how to become really good listeners. 00:40:51.240 --> 00:41:00.060 And one of those, one ear on the conversation, one ear on the Holy Spirit, and just being able to navigate that. 00:41:00.780 --> 00:41:05.780 God always gives us the right words at the right time. 00:41:06.160 --> 00:41:07.340 We've made lots of mistakes. 00:41:07.340 --> 00:41:08.120 Don't get me wrong. 00:41:08.600 --> 00:41:22.400 But you just, I think the more comfortable you become with just being a disciple and inviting other people into those conversations, it doesn't, you don't feel like you're doing a curriculum. 00:41:22.400 --> 00:41:24.600 You're just talking about life. 00:41:25.120 --> 00:41:28.440 And God gives you what you need at that moment in time. 00:41:28.980 --> 00:41:29.260 Love that. 00:41:30.220 --> 00:41:30.980 Listening, you're right. 00:41:31.040 --> 00:41:31.840 It's so important. 00:41:31.980 --> 00:41:38.820 Plus, with those big Mickey Mouse ear hats, like you got a lot more listening capacity coming through on that. 00:41:38.960 --> 00:41:39.540 I'm sorry. 00:41:39.680 --> 00:41:39.800 Yeah. 00:41:40.940 --> 00:41:44.720 Hey, let me, I mean, this might be a weird question following up Mickey Mouse. 00:41:44.820 --> 00:41:45.040 I don't know. 00:41:45.120 --> 00:41:46.020 It can get weirder than that. 00:41:46.140 --> 00:41:46.800 Oh, let's go there. 00:41:47.180 --> 00:41:47.540 Funding. 00:41:47.680 --> 00:41:51.480 Are you self-funded within the ties? 00:41:51.680 --> 00:41:54.620 Are you having to be creative with some funding by Vocovo? 00:41:54.900 --> 00:41:58.100 Like, what does ministry life look like for here? 00:41:59.120 --> 00:42:03.100 Supporting ministry, supporting you, other staff, like what's happening there? 00:42:03.460 --> 00:42:04.520 That's a great question. 00:42:05.940 --> 00:42:09.680 Again, we broke every church planting rule when we started this. 00:42:09.680 --> 00:42:11.600 So we came in, like I said, underfunded. 00:42:11.800 --> 00:42:14.560 We had some money coming in, but we were underfunded. 00:42:15.040 --> 00:42:16.640 My wife actually works for Disney. 00:42:17.740 --> 00:42:19.880 Part of that is because we needed the income. 00:42:20.480 --> 00:42:23.360 And two, it was a boots on the ground kind of a thing. 00:42:23.640 --> 00:42:34.840 As a pastor, it's very awkward for me to work for Disney and also, you know, be representing a faith because Disney is very careful about that. 00:42:34.840 --> 00:42:35.560 I respect that. 00:42:35.660 --> 00:42:36.460 They're a secular company. 00:42:36.580 --> 00:42:37.640 They can do whatever they want. 00:42:38.360 --> 00:42:43.880 And so for me to be a pastor and working for Disney could create some tensions. 00:42:44.080 --> 00:42:45.020 And we don't want to do that. 00:42:45.140 --> 00:42:47.480 We want to – Jesus can work with that. 00:42:47.800 --> 00:42:48.260 Believe me. 00:42:48.340 --> 00:42:49.020 He can work with it. 00:42:49.100 --> 00:42:51.920 So my wife works for Disney. 00:42:52.380 --> 00:42:53.160 So that helped. 00:42:53.880 --> 00:43:03.000 We raised some funding in the beginning, but over the course of time, like I said, one of the promises was that God would multiply this around the world. 00:43:03.000 --> 00:43:08.400 And I neglected to say without the need of a building or a staff. 00:43:09.500 --> 00:43:19.140 And so we knew, okay, if this is going to happen, it's going to have to be people that already have jobs that are Bivo or Covo or whatever. 00:43:19.720 --> 00:43:22.400 And, of course, cast members already have a job. 00:43:22.400 --> 00:43:24.520 You know, they're already working for Disney. 00:43:24.780 --> 00:43:31.380 And if they are making disciples in the process, you've got a functioning church. 00:43:31.840 --> 00:43:36.600 The funding comes by way – we've had people that have contacted and said, hey, we love what you're doing. 00:43:37.000 --> 00:43:38.780 I would like to support monthly. 00:43:39.560 --> 00:43:53.100 I do take a salary from cast member church, but I'm actually weaning myself off of it simply because I want to set an example that I get to serve cast member church, not that I work for cast member church, but that I get to serve. 00:43:53.380 --> 00:43:54.680 That's not the case for everybody. 00:43:54.840 --> 00:43:56.880 That's not a – I'm not saying that's the prescription. 00:43:57.440 --> 00:44:01.860 I'm just saying that in the world that I live in, I want to model that. 00:44:01.860 --> 00:44:03.680 So I do other things. 00:44:03.920 --> 00:44:05.800 I do – I write books. 00:44:06.040 --> 00:44:07.000 I speak. 00:44:07.320 --> 00:44:29.040 I consult different things like that that help wean that income down so that when the money that's coming into cast member church, whether it's ties or outside support, goes right back into what we're doing, allows us to upgrade or expand and even just simply serve cast members in their times of need. 00:44:29.540 --> 00:44:30.760 I mean, that is your story. 00:44:30.760 --> 00:44:38.060 That has been a story that I've heard more often and more often in this mid-post wherever we are COVID season. 00:44:38.720 --> 00:44:59.660 It seems like more and more pastors are moving out of a paid full-time position, going part-time, even going true bivo-covo, A, to ease pressure and finances off the church, but also as an invitation to allow people to come up with the church. 00:44:59.660 --> 00:45:06.180 Come up within the church instead of being the paid professional Christian to allow people to do that. 00:45:06.240 --> 00:45:06.740 It's interesting. 00:45:06.960 --> 00:45:22.940 Just the stat that I found this week, 75% of church budget is driven towards payroll and building, which is interesting because you're the exact opposite of that. 00:45:23.100 --> 00:45:23.840 That's not our problem. 00:45:23.840 --> 00:45:23.900 That's not our problem. 00:45:24.560 --> 00:45:27.820 That's not – we just – we shot the curve on that one. 00:45:27.940 --> 00:45:28.760 So, yeah. 00:45:29.440 --> 00:45:30.220 Yeah, you're ahead of it. 00:45:30.240 --> 00:45:35.000 Now there's pain points for where you are, certainly, but there's opportunities to learn it and work through it. 00:45:35.080 --> 00:45:40.180 And so, man, I'm just ecstatic by this conversation. 00:45:40.900 --> 00:45:42.360 I just – I called you. 00:45:42.500 --> 00:45:45.560 I did this because I thought, hey, it's a Disney thing. 00:45:45.620 --> 00:45:47.680 I got to pay homage to my Disney people. 00:45:48.640 --> 00:45:54.320 And then he's outing himself as a digital church, and he's talking about discipleship openly on the podcast. 00:45:54.520 --> 00:45:58.900 I mean, like this may be my favorite podcast in 2021 just with that happening right there. 00:45:58.940 --> 00:45:59.720 Yes, it's been good stuff. 00:46:00.160 --> 00:46:02.640 Hey, so one last question as we're wrapping up here. 00:46:03.840 --> 00:46:05.500 So somebody – a church wants to do this. 00:46:05.540 --> 00:46:06.920 A church planner wants to do this. 00:46:07.700 --> 00:46:10.380 You jumped in feet first without asking any questions. 00:46:10.960 --> 00:46:12.380 Would you advise that moving forward? 00:46:12.620 --> 00:46:17.500 Would you like – what are some next steps if somebody wants to get started into this? 00:46:17.900 --> 00:46:33.880 I can only speak for myself, but I think if I was to – here's what I would say, and maybe this is a little controversial, but I've never shied away from that, is focus on making disciples. 00:46:34.160 --> 00:46:35.380 Are you a disciple maker? 00:46:35.540 --> 00:46:37.660 Are you passionate about making disciples? 00:46:38.700 --> 00:46:51.440 A guy who discipled me for a while, Mike Breen – you probably have heard of Mike with 3DM and all – makes the comment that if you plant a church, you might get disciples, but if you make disciples, you always get a church. 00:46:51.760 --> 00:47:00.980 And when we made that pivot, that was huge for us because we no longer had the expectations of, oh, if we're a church, we need this. 00:47:01.180 --> 00:47:02.820 If we're a church, we've got to have that. 00:47:03.360 --> 00:47:10.940 And we just simply were obedient and faithful to the Great Commission, and whatever that looked like was up to God. 00:47:11.720 --> 00:47:17.500 So I would – the first thing I would say is you really – you want to be passionate about making disciples. 00:47:18.300 --> 00:47:23.620 I would also say if you love the lost, great. 00:47:23.840 --> 00:47:27.460 If you have a – if you don't, figure it out. 00:47:28.400 --> 00:47:33.080 Figure it out just simply because that's the mark of a disciple. 00:47:33.360 --> 00:47:34.900 Is to serve. 00:47:36.160 --> 00:47:43.840 But I would say for someone who's actually, like, feeling the call, I would split the difference. 00:47:44.000 --> 00:47:46.300 I would not necessarily recommend a parachute drop. 00:47:46.860 --> 00:47:51.020 You know, God is – you know, God will work with whatever we give him, and so he's been faithful. 00:47:51.020 --> 00:47:59.280 And one of our jokes has been for 10 – you know, we celebrate 10 years in January, and I said, you know, our celebration should be we're still here. 00:48:02.220 --> 00:48:05.940 But the truth of the matter is he blessed that. 00:48:06.060 --> 00:48:06.960 He took that. 00:48:07.400 --> 00:48:10.300 But there was – there were some pain points that we could have avoided. 00:48:10.840 --> 00:48:22.260 But we also learned dependence upon the Holy Spirit in ways that maybe I wouldn't have learned if we were fully funded, if we were, you know, all set up and – I don't know. 00:48:22.380 --> 00:48:25.520 I don't – it just – that was just the choice that we made. 00:48:25.820 --> 00:48:27.120 But I would split the difference. 00:48:27.120 --> 00:48:35.800 I would say don't wait till you're ready because you're not going to be – that's like getting married. 00:48:36.040 --> 00:48:36.900 That's like having a baby. 00:48:37.620 --> 00:48:40.920 Don't say, I'll plant a church when I'm ready. 00:48:42.880 --> 00:48:47.000 Well, then stay where you are because you're never going to be ready. 00:48:47.500 --> 00:49:00.860 I would also recommend surrounding yourself with people who can speak, you know, can either affirm or give you counsel as to whether this is a pipe dream or if it's a call of God. 00:49:01.180 --> 00:49:02.440 Because they look similar. 00:49:03.580 --> 00:49:07.400 They can look really – you can convince yourself, oh, this is – I know I'm called. 00:49:07.500 --> 00:49:12.920 I've had people come to want to serve with Cast Member Church saying, oh, I'm called. 00:49:13.100 --> 00:49:14.060 God's called me here. 00:49:14.640 --> 00:49:18.200 And in the early days, we'd be like, awesome, more people, great, you know. 00:49:18.700 --> 00:49:24.380 And then they find out, oh, I was looking for more of a normal church. 00:49:24.540 --> 00:49:26.620 I'm more comfortable around believers. 00:49:27.580 --> 00:49:35.940 And it's like, well, you knew all along that this was – some people just love the idea of mission, not the actual mission. 00:49:36.160 --> 00:49:47.480 So if you have people in your life that can give you wisdom saying, man, you really – this is definitely a call or someone saying, are you really sure? 00:49:47.620 --> 00:49:50.720 Are you really – have you counted the cost? 00:49:51.460 --> 00:49:58.540 That's really important because it's – you know, church planters – I mean I'm preaching to the choir to anyone who's listening to this. 00:49:58.600 --> 00:50:01.420 But church planters, you get a target on your back. 00:50:01.800 --> 00:50:11.000 Satan is going to put a target on your back, and so you better be prepared because sometimes it's just the confidence in that call that will get you through. 00:50:11.340 --> 00:50:17.240 That you go – you get up in the morning and you go, okay, God called me to this. 00:50:17.580 --> 00:50:19.160 He will not abandon me. 00:50:19.760 --> 00:50:20.700 That's what gets you through. 00:50:20.840 --> 00:50:24.800 But if it's a pipe dream, I don't know what to say. 00:50:26.020 --> 00:50:27.640 I hope that helps. 00:50:28.440 --> 00:50:30.900 No, that was incredible. 00:50:30.900 --> 00:50:35.580 You know, and so often through Stadia, we've got a discovery process. 00:50:36.260 --> 00:50:40.660 And I'll be honest, like I've helped planters do that discovery process. 00:50:41.120 --> 00:50:43.260 And I'm like, yeah, you are set. 00:50:43.360 --> 00:50:44.360 You're good to go. 00:50:44.660 --> 00:50:46.840 And, you know, good luck, Godspeed. 00:50:47.240 --> 00:50:50.700 And at the same time, they look at me and it's like, God hasn't called me to this. 00:50:51.780 --> 00:51:01.320 And I've had people that I thought would make excellent planters realize through that process, hey, this is not what God's called me to. 00:51:01.460 --> 00:51:03.760 I don't know what it is, but it's not planting. 00:51:04.120 --> 00:51:28.540 And so, you know, having those people in your lives that can speak truth to you and being open and honest to God for how he can lead you and be humble, teachable, faithful in that season to listen, to put on the Mickey Mouse hat with the big ears and use it to listen in more deeply, more keenly to the Spirit is so important. 00:51:28.540 --> 00:51:30.980 I would also add resilience. 00:51:31.200 --> 00:51:32.640 I would add resilience to that. 00:51:33.180 --> 00:51:36.200 Are you willing to get back up every time you get knocked down? 00:51:36.880 --> 00:51:39.060 Are you a resilient person? 00:51:40.020 --> 00:51:44.420 And that comes with taking things personally, all that stuff that happens. 00:51:45.160 --> 00:51:46.620 Can you shake it off? 00:51:47.380 --> 00:51:48.460 Can you shake it off? 00:51:48.680 --> 00:51:51.240 Because I think that separates. 00:51:51.680 --> 00:51:56.400 When you're in the mission field, that's a person who can say, okay, well, that didn't work. 00:51:56.740 --> 00:52:00.560 Okay, we'll try this, you know, and you just keep getting back up. 00:52:00.640 --> 00:52:01.740 You keep getting back up. 00:52:01.960 --> 00:52:02.580 That's the one. 00:52:02.640 --> 00:52:03.440 That's the one. 00:52:03.740 --> 00:52:06.080 Those are the people that drive Satan nuts. 00:52:06.680 --> 00:52:08.740 They just keep getting back up. 00:52:09.440 --> 00:52:11.560 And that's the person I want to be. 00:52:12.020 --> 00:52:12.160 Love it. 00:52:12.500 --> 00:52:14.720 Emotional intelligence right alongside with that. 00:52:14.720 --> 00:52:21.180 Just been able to wear through, you know, the situations that come up. 00:52:21.220 --> 00:52:33.660 Even in Disney World, Satan still has power and is able to affect some things, even in the great magic kingdom. 00:52:34.020 --> 00:52:34.400 So, all right. 00:52:34.780 --> 00:52:38.100 Hey, this has been an incredible conversation. 00:52:38.320 --> 00:52:38.720 Thank you. 00:52:38.780 --> 00:52:40.580 Thank you, Stephen, for this. 00:52:41.000 --> 00:52:46.660 Cast Member Church, if somebody wanted to follow you or find more information on Cast Member Church, where should they go? 00:52:46.660 --> 00:52:49.400 It's real simple, castmemberchurch.com. 00:52:50.220 --> 00:52:52.960 And I'm also on Instagram and Facebook. 00:52:53.200 --> 00:52:54.300 You can find me. 00:52:55.060 --> 00:53:00.500 But, yeah, start with castmemberchurch.com and learn a little more about who we are, what we're doing. 00:53:00.580 --> 00:53:02.980 And hopefully it's an encouragement to anyone who sees it. 00:53:03.240 --> 00:53:08.280 Hey, yeah, so this season with the podcast, we're talking about, you know, crazy people doing crazy things for God. 00:53:08.360 --> 00:53:09.860 And you are right up there. 00:53:09.860 --> 00:53:19.820 So, thank you for your faithfulness of 10 years of doing Cast Member Church centered around Disney cast members, current and old, literally around the world. 00:53:19.940 --> 00:53:27.300 And for recognizing that digital has power to influence and to help your church go to places where it could not normally go. 00:53:27.620 --> 00:53:30.960 So, man, thank you for jumping on this podcast, Stephen. 00:53:31.060 --> 00:53:31.940 Greatly appreciate it. 00:53:32.280 --> 00:53:36.360 For the audience at home, this is Jeff at the Church Digital and with Stadia Church Planning. 00:53:36.480 --> 00:53:39.760 Thanks for joining us here at the pod, and we'll see you next time at the show. 00:53:40.220 --> 00:53:40.720 Y'all have a good day.