WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.380 The goal is to go from like a large top-end funnel where it's just like creating content 00:00:06.380 --> 00:00:14.140 down to a communal relationship. So getting to know the people you're influencing on a personal 00:00:14.140 --> 00:00:18.880 level and then introducing them to Jesus and then introducing them to in-person community 00:00:18.880 --> 00:00:23.840 somewhere. It doesn't have to be our church. We call it Church Anywhere for a reason. It doesn't 00:00:23.840 --> 00:00:29.740 have to be First Capital. It could be wherever as long as they're in community. Welcome to the 00:00:29.740 --> 00:00:34.580 Church Digital podcast. Through this podcast, we'll talk about the technological innovations 00:00:34.580 --> 00:00:40.840 within the church. But more than tech for tech itself, we'll address deeper questions. Is 00:00:40.840 --> 00:00:46.600 disciple-making possible digitally? How should we approach the digital mission field? Can 00:00:46.600 --> 00:00:51.620 a biblically grounded church operate in digital space? Oh, and where does the metaverse fit 00:00:51.620 --> 00:00:56.920 into all this? Whether you're a big or small church, an established church, or a startup church 00:00:56.920 --> 00:01:02.320 plant. The Church Digital's goal is to help churches like yours learn to be a multiplying 00:01:02.320 --> 00:01:08.740 church, digitally and physically. Our heart? That churches like yours will discover a newfound 00:01:08.740 --> 00:01:15.820 focus on disciple-making that will revolutionize your church. And now, here's your host, Jeff Reed. 00:01:16.400 --> 00:01:22.020 All right. Hey, welcome to episode 215. Hey, it's Jeff with the Church Digital podcast, the Church 00:01:22.020 --> 00:01:28.740 Digital, Digital Church Network. So, so much fun stuff here. And I'm excited about this podcast. 00:01:28.860 --> 00:01:35.000 This person we've got coming up here, this may actually be the most podcasted person here 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:40.460 at the Church Digital. It means that he's been on more than anybody else. By the way, before 00:01:40.460 --> 00:01:46.440 we get even into the podcast, if you've not joined FAM, Digital Church Network's online community called 00:01:46.440 --> 00:01:54.260 FAM, I would love to invite you to come be a part of that. Check out the website, digitalchurch.network 00:01:54.260 --> 00:02:01.400 slash join FAM. We're almost up to 500 people in the community. And what's awesome is it's centered 00:02:01.400 --> 00:02:06.300 around people that are excited about digital church, digital discipleship, metaverse church, 00:02:06.300 --> 00:02:11.640 innovation, doing something different in context and confines of the church. And really the heart of it 00:02:11.640 --> 00:02:17.060 is to help people do what they want to do, get them connected into community, get them connected 00:02:17.060 --> 00:02:24.360 into support, into trainings, and ultimately into accountability to help them accomplish the ministry. 00:02:24.500 --> 00:02:28.320 We're working with established churches. We're working with church planters. We're working with people 00:02:28.320 --> 00:02:33.420 that are just normal people that want to do something for the kingdom with their, with their skill 00:02:33.420 --> 00:02:41.640 sets and their dreams. And so check this out at digitalchurch.network slash join FAM. And we'll 00:02:41.640 --> 00:02:47.180 go from there. So, Hey, but let's, let's get back to this conversation here with, with my guest now 00:02:47.180 --> 00:02:53.520 lead pastor, a first capital Christian in Cordon, Indiana. Tyler Sansom is joining us here on the 00:02:53.520 --> 00:02:55.100 podcast. Hey Tyler, how are you doing, man? 00:02:55.360 --> 00:02:59.440 I am good, man. I am hanging out in Florida this week. So it's very relaxing. 00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:03.800 Yeah. I want to say of the podcast that I've done with you, there's at least two of them 00:03:03.800 --> 00:03:09.500 that I've managed to snag you on when you're on vacation. And so first off, I want to apologize 00:03:09.500 --> 00:03:14.500 to your wife. If I had known that you were on vacation, I would not have scheduled this podcast 00:03:14.500 --> 00:03:18.960 for this week. So let's, let's acknowledge that right now. Sarah, I'm sorry. Uh, but thanks for 00:03:18.960 --> 00:03:26.060 jumping on the podcast, even on vacation in sunny Orlando, Florida. How are you at Disney? What are you 00:03:26.060 --> 00:03:32.380 doing? No, I am at the international Christian film festival. Um, we are about to start principal 00:03:32.380 --> 00:03:38.360 photography on our next first capital film. And this is a nice way to connect with some people, 00:03:38.600 --> 00:03:42.120 maybe get some PAs, that kind of thing while I'm down here. So that's the hope. 00:03:42.380 --> 00:03:45.540 Very cool. So this will be the third, fourth movie? 00:03:45.700 --> 00:03:45.920 Third. 00:03:46.100 --> 00:03:46.260 Third. 00:03:47.060 --> 00:03:52.780 Wow. I feel like that's a corner, a conversation completely unto itself as, as we're trying to, 00:03:52.840 --> 00:04:00.660 to like a church that's doing a medium sized church in corn, Indiana, that's doing a really 00:04:00.660 --> 00:04:05.700 successful ministry. That's really engaged in digital. That's creating films. I mean, it's the 00:04:05.700 --> 00:04:09.680 reason I love first capital. They're literally the church that doesn't know they shouldn't be doing 00:04:09.680 --> 00:04:15.280 these things and yet they, they still are doing it. So, um, Hey, listen, I'm with this conversation 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:21.120 here. I'm excited. I want to hit on a couple topics. Um, you know, one, I definitely, I want to talk 00:04:21.120 --> 00:04:25.600 about you. I want to talk about digital discipleship. Oh no, I want to talk about being a digital, 00:04:25.680 --> 00:04:30.120 digital discipleship is part of it, but I want to talk about digital missionaries. And I know that 00:04:30.120 --> 00:04:33.860 you guys have been doing some work through first capital on that. And so we'll get into that 00:04:33.860 --> 00:04:39.260 here in a little bit, but right off the bat, congratulations, lead pastor, sir. Since the 00:04:39.260 --> 00:04:45.060 last time you've been on, what was it mid January, you, you came on board as the lead pastor of first 00:04:45.060 --> 00:04:50.320 capital Christian. So talk to me a little bit here about maybe what that role is and what that 00:04:50.320 --> 00:04:55.860 experience is and how you've kind of grown through the system to now being lead pastor of a physical 00:04:55.860 --> 00:05:02.420 church. That's also doing digital very well. Yes, definitely a different, a different pathway 00:05:02.420 --> 00:05:08.660 than most people take to becoming a lead pastor. I studied, um, I studied film and audio engineering 00:05:08.660 --> 00:05:14.420 in college and then went back to school for, um, social media marketing, digital communications. 00:05:15.140 --> 00:05:21.580 So I didn't, I've never gone to seminary. Um, all of my ministry training has really been from 00:05:21.580 --> 00:05:27.880 school hard knocks. So learning on the job, but I've been in ministry now for almost a decade, 00:05:27.880 --> 00:05:35.700 um, full time, started as a worship pastor and then ended up kind of pioneering this whole church 00:05:35.700 --> 00:05:41.680 anywhere thing. Um, especially for like the size of church that we are pioneering it both here and 00:05:41.680 --> 00:05:48.420 helping lots of churches around the country. And then, um, we grew into something that was really 00:05:48.420 --> 00:05:53.300 hard to explain to somebody that would have potential to come to Corbin, Indiana to be, uh, 00:05:53.300 --> 00:05:57.980 the succession plan. Cause, uh, Jeff, you know us well enough to know it's, it's hard to explain 00:05:57.980 --> 00:06:02.680 who first capital is. We're a physical church, but we're also a digital church. And we also are in 00:06:02.680 --> 00:06:10.860 every prison and we're also making movies and we're baptizing people in Kenya and in London and all of 00:06:10.860 --> 00:06:16.300 these different places. So to try to describe that to somebody, uh, coming out of more of a traditional 00:06:16.300 --> 00:06:22.240 route in ministry is super challenging. Uh, it'd be challenging enough. We were a mega church, but then 00:06:22.240 --> 00:06:27.160 we're a church in a small town. So that already narrows the pool of people who would want to come. 00:06:27.320 --> 00:06:34.880 And so, uh, to be ultra honest, I think I was a little bit default, the best candidate, um, just, 00:06:35.040 --> 00:06:40.180 just because we couldn't really find anybody else. And I've been there a long time. So I'm fortunate 00:06:40.180 --> 00:06:45.500 enough that I got this opportunity. Yeah. You're the, you're the, uh, only person crazy enough to try 00:06:45.500 --> 00:06:51.340 to run the nut house. So congratulations. But by the way, like, you know, you obviously you are doing 00:06:51.340 --> 00:06:56.640 a lot. I actually believe at the church moving forward, I think we're going to see more and more 00:06:56.640 --> 00:07:04.840 churches move towards this mindset where you're decentralizing away from the, the idea of it's just 00:07:04.840 --> 00:07:09.780 the building and you're putting focus in the digital, you're putting focus in the micro, you're putting 00:07:09.780 --> 00:07:15.880 focus in the prison, you're putting focus in, into, I don't know, workplace ministries or, or, you know, 00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:21.160 other things that may come up because, and this is the one thing that I think First Capital, uh, 00:07:21.160 --> 00:07:27.020 understands maybe better than any church that, that I've met. The best resource that you have right 00:07:27.020 --> 00:07:32.720 now as a church is sitting in your pews and getting those people discipled, getting them 00:07:32.720 --> 00:07:38.220 activated, getting them released, whether in physical or digital space, like that is, that's 00:07:38.220 --> 00:07:45.140 paramount. Uh, and it's so important because now we have that ability to reach into places that the 00:07:45.140 --> 00:07:49.540 building does not reach. So often we feel like they're the physical and digital, there's competition, 00:07:49.540 --> 00:07:54.760 but there's, there's not because digital is reaching a different type of person than physical 00:07:54.760 --> 00:07:58.800 can. I mean, just even looking at your prison ministries, you've told me stories about how, 00:07:58.960 --> 00:08:04.440 you know, there are, there are prisoners that tithe money regularly to the church, uh, because that's, 00:08:04.620 --> 00:08:09.080 that's what they think they should do because First Capital is their church. You've told me prisoners 00:08:09.080 --> 00:08:15.520 that are running hardcore church services, um, be on their own because there is so much ministry 00:08:15.520 --> 00:08:19.060 that's happening through the church. They, the church no longer had to volunteer staff. And so it's like, 00:08:19.060 --> 00:08:23.620 hey, no problem. We'll do it ourselves and, and, and dive it into that. By the way, like I could 00:08:23.620 --> 00:08:28.480 literally tell so many stories from First Capital. I'm, I'm, I'm like, literally, I feel like I'm a 00:08:28.480 --> 00:08:32.680 member of the church, even though I'm like literally on the other side of the country from it. But that's 00:08:32.680 --> 00:08:39.040 that, if the power of digital, nothing else. Well, Hey, uh, pastor, man, how, just give me some 00:08:39.040 --> 00:08:45.540 practical insights here. How has your life changed moving from digital to now lead? What, what, what is 00:08:45.540 --> 00:08:50.320 some of that? Uh, give me some experiences. What, what, what are you feeling like, like day to day, 00:08:50.380 --> 00:08:56.940 week to week in this? Yeah. Um, some of the big changes are, this is going to sound awful. I'm not 00:08:56.940 --> 00:09:02.780 sure I'm doing quite as much as I was. Um, I'm delegating a whole lot more and that's, that's an, 00:09:03.300 --> 00:09:09.920 not a new concept for me, but it's a new to this extreme concept for me. Um, the good news about 00:09:09.920 --> 00:09:15.580 the timing of when I became the lead pastor was right after the Mars Hill podcast came 00:09:15.580 --> 00:09:22.320 out and it was like a gigantic podcast storm playbook of what not to do as a young guy going 00:09:22.320 --> 00:09:27.780 into becoming the lead minister of a fairly large church. Um, that also has like a eight 00:09:27.780 --> 00:09:34.620 on the Enneagram personality type. So I, I've been intentional about making sure that I'm not 00:09:34.620 --> 00:09:39.940 the guy over anything. So we have a teaching team, we have a leadership team. Um, I'm never 00:09:39.940 --> 00:09:45.600 like solely making decisions on my own. And, uh, so that's, that's been the practical thing that I've 00:09:45.600 --> 00:09:50.900 had to learn how to do over the last four months is, um, how can I put up guardrails to ensure that 00:09:50.900 --> 00:09:56.380 we're not creating any type of celebrity pastorship? And, um, how can we make sure that we're actually 00:09:56.380 --> 00:10:02.740 doing this as a team with a unified vision moving forward? I love that. Um, yeah, I was not expecting 00:10:02.740 --> 00:10:07.440 you to say, yeah, I feel like I'm doing less. I'm, I'm going to just pause there, but, but the idea 00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:13.200 of it being healthy, um, you know, I, I think that's a, I think that that's, that's a big move. And, um, 00:10:13.220 --> 00:10:20.920 you know, especially a church like yours that, that, you know, I mean, wait, 800, how did COVID affect 00:10:20.920 --> 00:10:24.820 you? I mean, maybe that, that, that's a question. Do you feel like you're, are you down? Are you up? 00:10:24.820 --> 00:10:32.220 We are almost back. So we're almost back to where we were. I would say we're probably 75 to 80% back. 00:10:32.220 --> 00:10:38.120 That's awesome. So even, so you're probably 800, maybe plus or minus somewhere in that space and 00:10:38.120 --> 00:10:44.080 in physical space. And so like, there's only, there's only so much the budget can, can afford it. 00:10:44.100 --> 00:10:48.880 And you guys have been so good at, um, you know, stretching that and, and, and getting, 00:10:49.100 --> 00:10:54.140 you know, systems to overperform and, and finding ways to kind of stretch it and make it work. 00:10:54.460 --> 00:10:59.700 Um, that's, that's incredible. How's, um, what, what, I mean, let's, let's shift into 00:10:59.700 --> 00:11:04.460 this. What, what does discipleship look like for you all? Like what, what lessons did you 00:11:04.460 --> 00:11:09.340 learn during COVID? Like what, how is it working to activate and release these people? 00:11:09.700 --> 00:11:14.380 I, you know, I've been harping on relational discipleship, like literally for years. Um, 00:11:14.380 --> 00:11:18.620 that has been the only way we were able to build a church anywhere. It was completely 00:11:18.620 --> 00:11:22.920 through relationships because we don't have an Andy Stanley or Craig Rochelle that people are 00:11:22.920 --> 00:11:28.160 searching for. Nobody's typing in Randy Kirk or Tyler Sansom sermons. So we don't have that 00:11:28.160 --> 00:11:32.360 luxury, but what we can do is create genuine one-on-one relationships. 00:11:33.120 --> 00:11:38.700 So with that, um, a few years ago, my job description was changed to know a hundred people 00:11:38.700 --> 00:11:43.960 online. And then as I hired people on my church to do our staff, um, they had that same job 00:11:43.960 --> 00:11:49.720 description. Now we've taken that mindset and we've transferred it into empowering our people 00:11:49.720 --> 00:11:54.320 to do one-on-one discipleship as well. So we created this whole thing called, um, 00:11:54.760 --> 00:12:00.880 very non-creatively next step guides, but a better term would be one-on-one disciplers. 00:12:01.280 --> 00:12:07.520 So this year, um, we hit a hundred percent for the first time in April, but we're about 95% for the 00:12:07.520 --> 00:12:13.280 year. Every person that's been baptized has been paired with a mentor that we've given digital tools 00:12:13.280 --> 00:12:18.200 for the first six weeks of their journey with Christ. And it's the digital tools are something 00:12:18.200 --> 00:12:23.720 to do with the mentor every single day. So it's teaching them how to pray, how to be generous, 00:12:23.720 --> 00:12:29.840 how to serve, how to study the Bible, um, like why it's important to be in community. And they're 00:12:29.840 --> 00:12:35.040 doing that relationally one-on-one. And what we found is now we're starting to see people who are 00:12:35.040 --> 00:12:40.380 baptized. A few months later, after walking beside of somebody, they are now walking beside of other 00:12:40.380 --> 00:12:46.060 people. So it's not that there's like an expert and a learner. It's a, Hey, let's be friends. Let's 00:12:46.060 --> 00:12:51.100 be in relationship and like be the church and then learn how to do this thing together. And it has been 00:12:51.100 --> 00:12:57.540 an absolute game changer for us. So that's, that's this year, that's been our big focus is outfitting 00:12:57.540 --> 00:13:01.800 these people relationally. That's, that's, that's great. So it's, it's people that are, that are, 00:13:01.880 --> 00:13:07.900 that are, um, that are saved. You're giving them a, a guide and over a six week period. Now, 00:13:07.900 --> 00:13:14.340 did I hear you say like almost daily interaction for, for six? Yeah. So the six weeks we give them 00:13:14.340 --> 00:13:21.420 like, it's, it's an interactive website and we give them daily tools, um, for six weeks and the 00:13:21.420 --> 00:13:25.620 relationship can go longer than six weeks. We just outfit them with material for six weeks, 00:13:25.620 --> 00:13:31.300 very conversational. The guide gets a guide version and the person that was baptized gets like a next 00:13:31.300 --> 00:13:37.300 stepper version of it. And they kind of go from there. And so we've got like people that are in 00:13:37.300 --> 00:13:42.000 recovery. We've got people overseas doing this, but we also have people in our own physical 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:49.300 congregation doing this. Um, it works both in person and online. That's incredible. And, and like 00:13:49.300 --> 00:13:55.100 people, how do you, how long does it take to train a guide? Like what, what, so I'm taking a normal 00:13:55.100 --> 00:13:59.660 person. I'm basically saying, Hey, you're responsible for being, I mean, it's funny decades 00:13:59.660 --> 00:14:03.740 ago, we used to call them first friends, but like the people who would be that, that first friend at 00:14:03.740 --> 00:14:08.060 the church, I just maybe dated myself with that reference. I apologize. But how long does it take 00:14:08.060 --> 00:14:14.700 to grow that person or train that, that leader to, to take these steps with someone? Um, it depends on 00:14:14.700 --> 00:14:20.540 the person right now we're working specifically with, um, people that we know are pretty seasoned in their 00:14:20.540 --> 00:14:28.460 walk. And so the training has been done over the years. Um, but as we grow, I think that the actual 00:14:28.460 --> 00:14:34.220 six weeks of content that we're doing is enough training for that person at the end to at least 00:14:34.220 --> 00:14:38.380 be able to take somebody else through that six weeks of material. So the training, it's kind of 00:14:38.380 --> 00:14:39.100 happening on the job. 00:14:39.100 --> 00:14:43.420 It's being modeled. Hey, I'm going to, I'm going to do this for you. Now you're going to go and do 00:14:43.420 --> 00:14:44.860 this for, do this for somebody else. 00:14:44.860 --> 00:14:51.740 It's super cool on Easter. Um, I actually got to be in the water with a, so a guy that gave his 00:14:51.740 --> 00:14:56.380 life to Christ to church, anywhere in prison, he got out of prison and moved to court. And that 00:14:56.380 --> 00:15:01.900 happens way more frequently than be anticipated. Um, and so I became his next step guy. Cause I really 00:15:01.900 --> 00:15:06.380 wanted to, I wanted to be a leader that's really involved with everything that we're doing on the 00:15:06.380 --> 00:15:11.580 servant level. And so on Easter, I got to be in the water while he baptized somebody for the very 00:15:11.580 --> 00:15:16.700 first time. Um, so I was like the guy that walked beside of him and now I'm going to stand there as 00:15:16.700 --> 00:15:20.460 training wheels and you're going to baptize him in the water and I'll be there as you walk beside 00:15:20.460 --> 00:15:22.220 this guy. It was really cool moment. 00:15:22.220 --> 00:15:29.900 You know, I can remember, uh, pastor Randy talking about how you guys, uh, catalog count, 00:15:29.900 --> 00:15:34.780 not just the people that are getting baptized, but the baptizers, you're making it a big deal 00:15:34.780 --> 00:15:39.420 about giving, you know, the people that was very influential in the church and other people's lives, 00:15:39.420 --> 00:15:44.420 giving them the, the authority, the permission to do that. And, and, and even celebrating, 00:15:44.420 --> 00:15:49.900 cause that is a opportunity for spiritual maturity and spiritual growth to say, Hey, here are our 00:15:49.900 --> 00:15:55.260 baptizers that are, that are going through that. And what a powerful story. Dude, somebody from 00:15:55.260 --> 00:16:00.860 prison, um, you know, getting rehabilitated, coming back over, moving close to the church where 00:16:00.860 --> 00:16:05.900 they can be involved in the church and, and then spiritually getting to the point where they 00:16:05.900 --> 00:16:09.340 can baptize somebody else, man. What, what, what, what a testimony. 00:16:09.340 --> 00:16:14.300 One of the six weeks, like the digital stuff, we go through, uh, like a breakdown of first 00:16:14.300 --> 00:16:18.220 Peter three 15 is to always be prepared to give an account for the hope that you have in 00:16:18.220 --> 00:16:23.500 Christ. So when we got to that week, I had texted bill is the guy's name. I texted bill on Monday and 00:16:23.500 --> 00:16:27.980 said, here's the verse that we're going to talk about this week. I want you to do it. Your challenge 00:16:27.980 --> 00:16:32.380 this week is to go out and find somebody to give an account for the hope that you have. And on Thursday, 00:16:32.380 --> 00:16:35.980 he called me crying. He's like, you're never going to believe this, but I'm going to baptize somebody 00:16:35.980 --> 00:16:40.540 on Sunday because I told them I did what you said. And I told them about Jesus. And I was like, 00:16:40.540 --> 00:16:41.820 that's the coolest thing ever. 00:16:41.820 --> 00:16:49.180 That is so cool. So man, what, what are the, what are the, what is something coming back to 00:16:49.180 --> 00:16:50.300 being the lead pastor? 00:16:50.300 --> 00:16:55.660 What is something that you're experiencing that you didn't realize? What, what's the surprise? What's, 00:16:55.660 --> 00:17:00.460 what's the expectation that's different to tell me something different in this transition? 00:17:00.460 --> 00:17:07.500 Yeah. Um, we, one of the first things that I did as a lead pastor is set an extremely lofty, um, 00:17:07.500 --> 00:17:12.460 vision for the church of where we're going this year. We, it's, we're revisiting our core values, 00:17:12.460 --> 00:17:17.100 which is something we've talked about before, but we launched this whole outfitting structure 00:17:17.100 --> 00:17:21.420 that I keep alluding to, but we really have taken the onus off of counting people that are coming 00:17:21.420 --> 00:17:26.460 into the building and like focusing on different metrics and being specific and praying for the Holy 00:17:26.460 --> 00:17:31.980 Spirit to use our people and things like that. And so I stood up on stage and I had the whole church 00:17:31.980 --> 00:17:37.900 pray over this whole thing. I gave this compelling vision casting and I did not realize the, um, 00:17:37.900 --> 00:17:43.260 the spiritual warfare that would happen that follows that because, uh, that's just not something I had 00:17:43.260 --> 00:17:48.540 experienced before. I was never like the lead guy and I didn't realize how much the enemy would attack 00:17:48.540 --> 00:17:54.940 when the, um, the church is functioning as the church should. And so we're getting to see a ton of 00:17:54.940 --> 00:18:01.020 people come to Jesus, a ton of life change, a ton of discipleship. Uh, but the weight of leadership 00:18:01.020 --> 00:18:06.140 as the enemy is attacking, uh, is just something that I have continued to get used to. Decision 00:18:06.140 --> 00:18:11.420 making has so much more weight than it did before. How, how are you resolving? How are you working 00:18:11.420 --> 00:18:16.220 through that? Well, the good news is we put this leadership team in place. So it's not just me 00:18:16.220 --> 00:18:20.780 carrying that weight. It's, it's a team of people that I trust. Uh, Randy is actually still on that 00:18:20.780 --> 00:18:26.540 leadership team. So that transition has been, um, both really good and still hard to navigate because 00:18:26.540 --> 00:18:31.340 he's been the leader for 20 years. Um, and so we're working through that, but to have a team 00:18:31.340 --> 00:18:36.460 together to navigate that, um, takes that weight and breaks it into three people rather than all of it 00:18:36.460 --> 00:18:43.980 on one person's shoulder. Uh, but man, just the amount of, um, the amount of closed door conversations that 00:18:43.980 --> 00:18:49.100 that you have to have that are very hard, um, with staff members and key leaders is just something 00:18:49.100 --> 00:18:53.740 that you don't realize until you're in that position. I, I, I, I can totally respect that. 00:18:53.740 --> 00:18:59.260 And just some, a lot of that, that tension as, as change is coming now. And Randy, I mean, 00:18:59.260 --> 00:19:04.700 Randy didn't retire. He's, he's still on staff. I saw, or still playing a role at least. I saw his, 00:19:04.700 --> 00:19:11.660 his job title is coach, literally coach Randy. Coach Randy. Yeah. So he is, uh, he's there 00:19:11.660 --> 00:19:17.020 right now as a, kind of like a mentor figure or specifically be still on the leadership team. 00:19:17.020 --> 00:19:20.860 Um, and he's still preaching like once a month. Okay. Um, because we, we've been a teaching team 00:19:20.860 --> 00:19:26.540 for a long time. And so, uh, he's still really good at preaching. So that's, that's one thing 00:19:26.540 --> 00:19:32.460 that we're going to continue to have moving forward with him. Um, I don't know what capacity he will be 00:19:32.460 --> 00:19:37.340 after like a year or so, like vocationally, but I wouldn't imagine him going anywhere preaching-wise. 00:19:37.340 --> 00:19:42.140 I mean, it's, it's been obvious over the years, you guys have a, have a great relationship and to 00:19:42.140 --> 00:19:48.060 see that, that, that extended on like, even as he's transitioning, I, you know, I think it's, 00:19:48.060 --> 00:19:51.980 it's a beautiful thing. Well, listen, we, we, we've been dancing around this out, this, uh, 00:19:51.980 --> 00:19:55.980 outsiders. That's not the word I'm looking for. It's, it's out, I'm not outliers. That's another 00:19:55.980 --> 00:20:01.260 word outfitters. I have been writing a lot of outwards today. Everything that I, I'd literally 00:20:01.260 --> 00:20:06.540 have written stuff on, on outsiders and outliers. And neither of that is important for this 00:20:06.540 --> 00:20:11.340 conversation, but outfitters, I think is so, Hey, we've been dancing around that a little bit. 00:20:11.340 --> 00:20:19.020 Um, you know, maybe define clearly what this idea of, of a spiritual outfitter is and, and, and how 00:20:19.020 --> 00:20:26.060 you're utilizing that within, um, for capital. Yeah. For about, um, the last forever, the church has been 00:20:26.060 --> 00:20:32.540 really focused on one hour on a Sunday morning. And we decided, man, it's been a buzzword to hear, 00:20:32.540 --> 00:20:38.460 like, let's focus on the one 67. Let's do all this stuff. But to September of 2020, we decided, 00:20:38.460 --> 00:20:42.540 uh, why don't we just actually do that? Let's stop talking about it and let's figure out how 00:20:42.540 --> 00:20:46.620 we're actually going to do that. So we came up with this concept of spiritual outfitters, 00:20:46.620 --> 00:20:51.180 where we're going to shift the focus from getting people to come to our building for an experience. 00:20:51.180 --> 00:20:59.020 And our main priority is to, um, figure out ways that we can outfit our people that we're shepherding 00:20:59.020 --> 00:21:05.500 to take one step closer to Jesus every single day. Uh, which requires a whole lot of philosophical 00:21:05.500 --> 00:21:11.260 shift in how to do ministry requires us to be a lot more relational. Um, because if we're taking 00:21:11.260 --> 00:21:16.620 individuals on a journey, one step closer, we got to know our people. And then the second thing is we 00:21:16.620 --> 00:21:23.180 have to figure out, uh, different lead measures, um, because we're trying to get different lag measures. 00:21:23.180 --> 00:21:27.900 So before lead measures could have been, let's do a marketing campaign to get people into our 00:21:27.900 --> 00:21:33.020 building. Let's preach a great sermon series. So people will come back. Let's do a baptism Sunday. 00:21:33.020 --> 00:21:37.340 So don't know when to schedule a baptism, but our lead measures are completely different now. 00:21:37.340 --> 00:21:44.300 Um, it's how can we give opportunities for people to become generous? Um, how can we give people 00:21:44.300 --> 00:21:48.380 opportunities to go serve people they've never served before outside of the building? 00:21:48.380 --> 00:21:53.100 How can we make sure people are engaged on a Tuesday and on a Thursday? Um, so that's, 00:21:53.100 --> 00:21:57.980 that's been a total shift for our staff. We worked on the whole strategy for about a year 00:21:57.980 --> 00:21:59.900 and we launched it January of this year. 00:21:59.900 --> 00:22:03.500 What, what fruits have you seen with, with the start this year? How's it been received? 00:22:03.500 --> 00:22:10.220 Yeah, an unbelievable amount of baptisms. We were at like 78 or 80 baptisms for the year so far. 00:22:11.020 --> 00:22:13.420 Um, and that's, this is the first weekend of May. 00:22:13.420 --> 00:22:16.780 I mean, that, that, that, I mean, that's, that's like 10% of the audience, right? 00:22:16.780 --> 00:22:18.060 That's, so that's crazy. 00:22:18.060 --> 00:22:19.500 It is. Yeah, it's nuts. 00:22:20.620 --> 00:22:25.500 They're the retention of people being baptized is significantly higher as well. That, that's, 00:22:25.500 --> 00:22:31.340 that's another huge one. Um, since shifting our, we don't, we don't track, I, our executive 00:22:31.340 --> 00:22:35.340 pastor tracks the amount of money coming in. Nobody else ever sees the offering. 00:22:35.340 --> 00:22:40.300 Um, so we literally never send out attendance and offering, which has been something that 00:22:40.300 --> 00:22:46.460 every church ever sends out to like, at least the staff. We've switched to, um, a Google sheet 00:22:46.460 --> 00:22:53.900 that shows number of givers, um, and then number of people that are in connection that are in, um, 00:22:54.460 --> 00:22:58.460 like connection opportunities. So life groups, things like that, uh, number of people that are 00:22:58.460 --> 00:23:05.580 baptizing, uh, number of, uh, people that are serving in various aspects. So we've got this 00:23:05.580 --> 00:23:11.180 percentage of people that are actually being out there. And that's what we focused on metrics wise. 00:23:11.820 --> 00:23:18.300 And so the, um, the fruit, but the question you asked about the fruit is really easy to see because 00:23:18.300 --> 00:23:24.460 we're literally tracking only spiritual fruit that's happening rather than like these vanity metrics. 00:23:24.460 --> 00:23:28.380 So we're seeing lots more people give because we're giving them different opportunities to give. 00:23:28.380 --> 00:23:32.220 We're seeing more people serve because we're encouraging them to be missionaries in their 00:23:32.220 --> 00:23:34.300 daily lives, uh, that kind of thing. 00:23:34.300 --> 00:23:38.540 I mean, so, so you guys have, uh, literally what you're doing here is, is you're, you're 00:23:38.540 --> 00:23:43.260 intentionally focusing on, on the people in the pews. And, and like I'd said earlier, 00:23:43.260 --> 00:23:46.940 you're activating them through this, through this outfitter program. 00:23:46.940 --> 00:23:54.540 The byproduct is we're growing and the offerings going up and more people are hearing about Jesus 00:23:54.540 --> 00:24:01.660 in the community because we're unleashing like 800 people in a 3,000 person town or, um, a thousand 00:24:01.660 --> 00:24:08.300 people out of a 2,000 person reach online. So this is by far the best way we could reach as many people 00:24:08.300 --> 00:24:13.980 as possible. No marketing strategy or sermon series or anything like that could produce this kind of, 00:24:13.980 --> 00:24:15.020 uh, dividends. 00:24:15.020 --> 00:24:22.220 Wow. How much of it is like, you know, and, and sometimes, you know, you're giving them opportunities 00:24:22.220 --> 00:24:26.620 to, to do this, you know, like group leaders, you know, I think would be maybe sometimes serving in 00:24:26.620 --> 00:24:32.380 the community, maybe the church has a relationship. How much of it is, is helping them accomplish the 00:24:32.380 --> 00:24:36.700 thing they want to do. You know, I can remember like the, the micro church leaders that are doing 00:24:36.700 --> 00:24:41.740 it in hospitals, after school daycare centers, orphanages, rehab centers. Like those are some 00:24:41.740 --> 00:24:48.380 unique experiences, uh, to do. Like how much of it is, is giving them permission to do this? What, 00:24:48.380 --> 00:24:49.660 what does that look like for y'all? 00:24:49.660 --> 00:24:53.100 Yeah. One of our core values that we're talking about this year, we haven't, 00:24:53.100 --> 00:24:59.900 it's the last quarter of the year, um, is we want everyone to be on mission. So we want every 00:24:59.900 --> 00:25:05.500 Jesus follower to have a Jesus cause. And in order for us to preach that from the stage, 00:25:05.500 --> 00:25:12.140 we've been intentionally, um, outfitting specific people and capturing their story throughout. 00:25:12.140 --> 00:25:17.660 So let me give you an example in April. Uh, well in January, after, um, we laid this whole vision 00:25:17.660 --> 00:25:22.140 out, I had a guy come up to me and said, Hey, I do CrossFit. I'd love to somehow figure out a way 00:25:22.140 --> 00:25:29.580 to reach the CrossFit community, uh, in our area. Can I put together a triathlon and have it end at the 00:25:29.580 --> 00:25:34.540 church and then provide them the safe place to worship right after they finished the triathlon? 00:25:34.540 --> 00:25:39.980 I was like, yes, absolutely. That's exactly what we want you to do. So this guy organized the whole 00:25:39.980 --> 00:25:46.220 thing. We gave him some advertising money and we had, um, about 45 people from the community, 00:25:46.220 --> 00:25:51.340 um, sign up for this and they did a triathlon. It ended at our church and we got some love on them 00:25:51.340 --> 00:25:56.300 that way. So the more opportunities like that for people that are passionate about something, 00:25:56.300 --> 00:26:00.140 we would love to figure out ways to use that passion for a kingdom purpose. 00:26:00.140 --> 00:26:04.540 And we're seeing it throughout. Um, we've got a guy who's working with some Afghan refugees right 00:26:04.540 --> 00:26:09.740 now. Uh, we've got, uh, a girl from Missouri that watches us online. That's now leading an online 00:26:09.740 --> 00:26:15.260 prayer team. Um, that's just simply finding people that need prayer, uh, through Facebook and praying 00:26:15.260 --> 00:26:19.420 for them simple things, but it's taking a step closer to Jesus every day. 00:26:19.740 --> 00:26:23.420 I'm going to be completely honest. If I ran a triathlon, I don't know that I would want to 00:26:23.420 --> 00:26:28.780 do a worship experience immediately afterwards. We, uh, we threw them in the different auditoriums. 00:26:30.620 --> 00:26:35.260 I ran a half marathon and like, I couldn't walk for like three days afterwards. So the idea of a 00:26:35.260 --> 00:26:38.620 triathlon, I just, I, that's yeah, I don't think that's me. 00:26:38.620 --> 00:26:44.380 It was freezing cold too. It was like, it was like 40 degrees when they started. So they got out of the 00:26:44.380 --> 00:26:50.620 water at the YMCA and then tried to get on a bicycle and it was just like ice cubes. It's so cold. 00:26:50.620 --> 00:26:54.540 I felt awful for them, but it was a good event. Let me, let me dig in on something. Cause you 00:26:54.540 --> 00:26:59.740 talked about Missouri, you're in Indiana, you know, you can, you guys with your digital Europe, 00:26:59.740 --> 00:27:04.780 like I said, you're an 800 person church, uh, but you've got, I mean, I don't want to put global 00:27:04.780 --> 00:27:09.260 on it, but you mentioned a couple of countries earlier baptizing in Africa and London. I forget 00:27:09.260 --> 00:27:14.220 the nation in Africa, but right. Uh, and you're, you're Kenya, Kenya. Thank you. Um, you know, 00:27:14.220 --> 00:27:19.180 I know you've got microsites in, in physical location or microsites in, uh, 00:27:19.180 --> 00:27:25.100 different states scattered across America. Um, what's the tension? Well, 00:27:25.100 --> 00:27:29.500 let me ask, cause I don't, I don't feel the tension. So how did you, how are you counterbalancing 00:27:29.500 --> 00:27:35.580 the tension within your church? Because you know, smallest church, medium sized church, 00:27:35.580 --> 00:27:41.820 blue collar, smallest town. Let's, let's keep the money inside. Um, but, but you are intentionally 00:27:41.820 --> 00:27:47.820 focusing a lot of this outside and with digital, with prison, you know, with a lot of these things, 00:27:47.820 --> 00:27:54.380 these are not, you know, highly revenue generating ministries, but you're seeing ministry success 00:27:55.020 --> 00:28:00.220 out of it. Maybe that isn't even generating like money. So how have you managed to navigate that 00:28:00.220 --> 00:28:06.300 tension where now you can focus outside of the church and really build stuff beyond what's happening 00:28:06.300 --> 00:28:11.980 within those, those walls? Um, a lot of it has just been, uh, time, time has really helped. 00:28:11.980 --> 00:28:16.460 So that with the more like life change stories that we can share with our people that happen outside 00:28:16.460 --> 00:28:22.380 of the walls, um, the more they buy into the vision of what we're trying to do. And, uh, after six or 00:28:22.380 --> 00:28:27.260 seven years of doing that, that, uh, that has really helped and allowed us to be in a position to 00:28:27.260 --> 00:28:32.540 really have some freedom in those areas as we were coming up with the outfitting strategy. Um, the 00:28:32.540 --> 00:28:39.340 criteria was that everything that we put on the, um, like the metrics that we're tracking and the, 00:28:39.340 --> 00:28:43.740 we call them aisles. We do like an inventory list every quarter of things that we're outfitting our 00:28:43.740 --> 00:28:49.420 people with everything on the aisles, everything that we're tracking has to at least have the option 00:28:49.420 --> 00:28:56.700 for microsites and online to be a part of. Uh, so if it's like, if it's a lag measure, like, uh, 00:28:56.700 --> 00:29:01.340 they have to have the option to be a part of our reach because we've, we've started counting for a 00:29:01.340 --> 00:29:06.780 long time online plus microsites plus in-person attendance as a part of who we are. So if we're 00:29:06.780 --> 00:29:11.260 going to try to outfit everyone, we have to include everyone that we're shepherding. Um, 00:29:11.260 --> 00:29:14.860 and so that's just been a philosophical shift that's happened over the last like seven years. 00:29:14.860 --> 00:29:19.100 You, you mentioned, you know, at one point it was your job and you've, we've talked about this 00:29:19.100 --> 00:29:25.260 before on the podcast, where it's literally your job description to know a hundred people on online. Um, 00:29:25.260 --> 00:29:32.060 as do other people on your staff, do they have that responsibility now? I mean, you're a lead pastor. 00:29:32.060 --> 00:29:39.180 Do you even feel that tension now? Like how, how is that working out in, in 2022 first capital 00:29:39.180 --> 00:29:43.500 Christian? It's a really good question and a really good idea that I probably should have thought of. 00:29:44.220 --> 00:29:46.780 You can take credit for it. It's okay. Nobody knows about you and me. 00:29:46.780 --> 00:29:53.020 This, this shift that we've made has been, um, extremely relational. So, uh, even staff members 00:29:53.020 --> 00:29:59.980 that had, um, their only context of ministry might've been in like strategic systems have now 00:29:59.980 --> 00:30:04.940 started becoming more and more relational. And so I have not felt like I needed to mandate a hundred 00:30:04.940 --> 00:30:10.940 person online or a hundred person in person. You have to know them, uh, because I feel like right now, 00:30:10.940 --> 00:30:16.140 at least our staff is very unified in this vision going forward of making things very 00:30:16.140 --> 00:30:17.740 relational. And so it's kind of happened organically. 00:30:17.740 --> 00:30:22.220 Well, I mean, you're, you've achieved this place where it's part of your, your culture. 00:30:22.620 --> 00:30:27.580 You know, it's, it's like you, you culture is culture, you know, eat strategy, uh, for breakfast 00:30:27.580 --> 00:30:31.340 or something like that. Somebody said that, uh, you know, we'll give credit, we'll give credit 00:30:31.340 --> 00:30:35.660 to Tyler. Tyler said it's just because Tyler didn't say it. Yeah, totally. Um, but you know, 00:30:35.660 --> 00:30:40.140 and so, I mean, you've gotten to that place where it doesn't have to be because you and others 00:30:40.140 --> 00:30:45.900 kind of before you, um, you know, fought to get it there and leadership was supporting to get 00:30:45.900 --> 00:30:51.580 that, you know, many listeners out there. I don't, I'm, you're not quite at that culture point yet. 00:30:52.140 --> 00:30:56.140 And so laying down some of, some of those ground rules. Well, let me ask you, let me ask it this 00:30:56.140 --> 00:31:01.340 way, Tyler. Do you think you would have gotten to this place where it is culture without you forcing 00:31:01.340 --> 00:31:06.220 yourself and maybe challenging others that are around you to, to hold to that standard? 00:31:06.220 --> 00:31:10.540 No, I don't. And as a leader, I think if I don't continue to hold myself to that standard, 00:31:11.260 --> 00:31:17.420 the culture will also shift, uh, because our, like our natural tendency as church people, 00:31:17.420 --> 00:31:23.900 all we've known growing up is not super relational ministry. It's been systematic ministry where we put, 00:31:23.900 --> 00:31:28.860 put somebody in a pathway or a class or something, uh, to get them closer to Jesus. And we're taking 00:31:28.860 --> 00:31:33.500 that whole philosophy and turning it up on its head. So if I don't lead forward in that and continue to 00:31:33.500 --> 00:31:38.780 to be the one that like pioneers that and pushes into that, uh, then I think the culture could very quickly 00:31:38.780 --> 00:31:44.300 go back to the other direction. Um, so I think it was a great idea several years ago. I think it's a really 00:31:44.300 --> 00:31:46.860 good idea that I continue to lead out in that as well. 00:31:46.860 --> 00:31:52.700 Well, let me ask this, you know, I'm, I'm really excited and, and I feel, I believe this is going to tie 00:31:52.700 --> 00:31:57.580 into the outliers. Like I want to have a conversation about digital missionary, but I'm pretty sure it's going to tie 00:31:57.580 --> 00:32:02.780 into outliers, which will tie into digital discipleship. And so we're kind of talking, if you're watching on YouTube, 00:32:03.500 --> 00:32:08.060 we're like going like crazy up and down because it, everything kind of links and it's tied into one 00:32:08.060 --> 00:32:13.820 another. Uh, and so I, I don't, I, but I want to spend some time in the, in the nuance on, on the 00:32:13.820 --> 00:32:19.660 digital missionary piece. And so like here, here's the contact context for me, digital church network. 00:32:19.660 --> 00:32:25.660 We've, we've got, like I said earlier, almost 500 people in this network. Um, we've got, um, you know, 00:32:25.660 --> 00:32:31.500 a large percentage of them are bivocational, co-vocational. Uh, they're not attached to a church. Uh, 00:32:31.500 --> 00:32:36.060 and so, but they're looking to do digital ministry. They're, they're looking to connect with people 00:32:36.060 --> 00:32:44.220 digitally. And I've actually been surprised over the past couple months, how often I've heard the 00:32:44.220 --> 00:32:52.860 church say the words digital missionary. And so it's like, we're not, you know, the big C church. 00:32:52.860 --> 00:32:57.060 We're not comfortable with the idea of metaverse church. We're not comfortable maybe with digital 00:32:57.060 --> 00:33:01.300 only expressions of church. There needs to be some physical grounding as well. Okay. You know, 00:33:01.300 --> 00:33:04.660 we can have that conversation, but I disagree with you, but it's fine. But what we are comfortable 00:33:04.660 --> 00:33:09.860 with, because we are recognizing that it's, that it's a, it's a mission field. Digital and metaverse 00:33:09.860 --> 00:33:14.420 is a mission field. There are opportunities to reach people. We're not really comfortable yet with, 00:33:14.420 --> 00:33:19.060 with discipleship, uh, in digital and metaverse space, but we can at least engage with them at Jesus 00:33:19.060 --> 00:33:23.780 and try to get them connected to a physical church. Once again, I don't, I, there's parts of that 00:33:23.780 --> 00:33:28.180 strategy I love. If that's what a church has got to do to get started, that's fine. I think it's a 00:33:28.180 --> 00:33:33.300 great idea. I wouldn't end there, but I would at least start to engage with it. You guys have done, 00:33:33.300 --> 00:33:40.580 you know, some unique approaches with, uh, digital missionaries with, with influencers. And so I'd love 00:33:40.580 --> 00:33:46.420 to, as a matter of fact, I was kind of looking at your material a week or so ago and it said 2.0 next 00:33:46.420 --> 00:33:51.460 to it. It's like you're on influencer 2.0, uh, approach. And so, you know, I'd love to maybe 00:33:51.460 --> 00:33:55.380 learn a little bit about what the second approach is. Maybe some lessons you learned from the first, 00:33:55.380 --> 00:34:01.700 like, but maybe just even to start off, let's, let's unpack here. What, what exactly, what's your 00:34:01.700 --> 00:34:05.620 approach and how have you looked at this digital missionary? 00:34:05.620 --> 00:34:09.940 Yeah. So there's two, we have two different approaches to digital missionaries. 00:34:09.940 --> 00:34:16.900 approach number one, which is why influencer 2.0 exists. Approach number one is using, um, 00:34:16.900 --> 00:34:25.380 advertising to markets of people's felt needs. And we have a team of people, probably 11 or so people 00:34:25.380 --> 00:34:31.380 that respond to these emails. So, uh, we've created resources like mental health, uh, resources, 00:34:31.380 --> 00:34:36.180 marriage, grief, um, managing finances, like things that people are searching for. 00:34:36.820 --> 00:34:42.340 Uh, we've got a ton of resources on our website that we use advertising money to hit those people. 00:34:42.340 --> 00:34:45.780 And then there's a talk to a counselor option. There's a talk to the pastor option. So we have 00:34:45.780 --> 00:34:51.780 a team of people responding. We probably get like, I don't know, in, in between like 20 and to 30 a 00:34:51.780 --> 00:34:57.460 week or so of those, you know, and what's interesting, let me even unpack there. That strategy 00:34:57.460 --> 00:35:04.820 is actually very common globally. Organizations like crew organizations like Billy Graham Association, 00:35:04.820 --> 00:35:09.380 uh, international mission board, uh, international mission board, like there's whole departments. 00:35:09.380 --> 00:35:15.620 Uh, it's called media engagement in global missions and the ability to kind of create those 00:35:15.620 --> 00:35:23.380 campaigns, marketing campaigns that then funnels into a database that then has a, a multilingual call 00:35:23.380 --> 00:35:30.340 bank where they've got operators that are engaging on WhatsApp digitally or audibly on a phone call to 00:35:30.340 --> 00:35:36.180 engage with those types of people. Like that strategy is, uh, you know, I don't want to say billions, 00:35:36.180 --> 00:35:44.020 but there's a ton of money spent to make that happen at a global level. And sit, but you're one of the 00:35:44.020 --> 00:35:49.620 few churches that I've actually heard domestically here in America that, that has adapted that and 00:35:49.620 --> 00:35:53.780 kind of bring it into the church. So kudos for that, even just to call it 1.0. 00:35:53.780 --> 00:36:00.340 So I think we've, yeah, I think we actually started doing that in 2016. So this is, that's the longest 00:36:00.340 --> 00:36:08.020 form of digital mission work we've done. Um, last two years, 18 months or so ago, we stuck our foot 00:36:08.020 --> 00:36:14.900 into the global version of that. So we, we host perspectives at our church, the, um, like mission 00:36:14.900 --> 00:36:21.300 learning community thing. And it's like a 10 week course and people that, uh, are really interested 00:36:21.300 --> 00:36:26.260 in missions work after they take perspectives, but don't have any means to become a full-time 00:36:26.260 --> 00:36:32.900 missionary overseas. Uh, we provide them with a global digital missionary platform where we still 00:36:32.900 --> 00:36:38.420 are using felt needs, things like that, but our team has targeted India. So we have 18 people that 00:36:38.420 --> 00:36:42.580 have gone through perspectives. And the cool part is they're not just from our church. They're from 00:36:42.580 --> 00:36:46.900 churches all over the place, but they're a digital team. So it doesn't matter. Um, 00:36:46.900 --> 00:36:53.460 and they are, they're in conversation with people from India over over felt needs around a hundred to 00:36:53.460 --> 00:37:00.180 180 people a week. Um, it's really cool. And some of these relationships have lasted a long time. 00:37:00.180 --> 00:37:04.980 I got an email from one of our team members two weeks ago who has been in conversation with the same, 00:37:04.980 --> 00:37:09.700 uh, young female who was struggling with mental health for the last six months. And they are now 00:37:09.700 --> 00:37:15.300 calling each other on the phone, like via WhatsApp. And so it went from like a couple of emails to 00:37:15.300 --> 00:37:21.380 texting to, uh, Facebook messaging. So now they're actually friends and this person's walking beside 00:37:21.380 --> 00:37:26.020 of her and introducing her to Jesus. So that's like the first level of digital missionaries. 00:37:26.020 --> 00:37:33.140 We've got the domestic felt needs, the global felt needs and various people on those teams. But then 00:37:33.140 --> 00:37:39.780 there's the influencer 2.0 level, the, uh, the social media influencer level, we have seven people who 00:37:39.780 --> 00:37:47.700 are doing that right now. Um, but some of them are on TikTok. Some of them are writing blogs. Some of them 00:37:47.700 --> 00:37:55.220 are doing, um, YouTube channels. And, uh, I think that's, that's the only three avenues right now. Um, 00:37:55.220 --> 00:38:01.380 blogs, TikTok and YouTube, I think are the three, um, that we've got various channels on, but basically 00:38:01.380 --> 00:38:07.700 it's taking someone's interest. Um, we've got a girl that plays softball collegiately. So she does a lot 00:38:07.700 --> 00:38:13.300 of like how to hit softball videos and then shares her testimony and shared Bible verses on TikTok every day. 00:38:13.300 --> 00:38:21.140 And she's getting like 30 to 40,000 hits a week. Um, and then we've got a guy who's really passionate 00:38:21.140 --> 00:38:28.020 about, um, recovery from anxiety. And so he's doing something called rewrites and it's, uh, he's finding 00:38:28.020 --> 00:38:33.780 people's stories and creating these like cinematic stories of people who have overcome specific mental 00:38:33.780 --> 00:38:39.860 health issues and sharing them on a YouTube channel. We've got a couple that loves cooking. And so 00:38:40.820 --> 00:38:45.380 they do a channel that's like basically a food network cooking show. It's like five or six minutes. 00:38:45.380 --> 00:38:49.620 Here's how to cook a dish. But here's also why you do that. It's to be hospitable because that's 00:38:49.620 --> 00:38:54.260 what the Bible says. And they share their story through that. Um, so we've created this, uh, 00:38:54.900 --> 00:39:02.660 like six to eight week learning experience from, um, actual YouTube, TikTok, uh, Instagram influencers 00:39:02.660 --> 00:39:08.660 from all over the nation, um, that help provide content for it. It's called influencer 2.0. 00:39:09.380 --> 00:39:13.620 And we take our people through that and then kind of launch their channels. And we have a person on 00:39:13.620 --> 00:39:19.300 staff that's like their point person to walk beside them. So that's the other form of missionaries 00:39:19.300 --> 00:39:24.260 that we do. How has that, so you're, you're, you're running a, uh, it sounds like a beta test, 00:39:24.260 --> 00:39:28.820 like a seven, seven people. Well, it's hard to get somebody to commit to that. It's like a 00:39:29.380 --> 00:39:35.060 minimum year long commitment. So this, this is like the, the level that's a pretty committed kind of thing. 00:39:35.060 --> 00:39:39.540 What are you, what are you learning through it? Because, I mean, cause, cause that's, 00:39:39.540 --> 00:39:44.340 I mean, I, I, in my mind, just in, in my world with, with DCN and this later conversation, 00:39:44.340 --> 00:39:50.020 but you know, I could think of, I could think of 10 to 15 people that would be interested in doing 00:39:50.580 --> 00:39:56.500 something at that level to that extreme. Um, well, first off, why is it, why is it a year? Why, 00:39:56.500 --> 00:40:00.500 why is, do you need to, do you feel like that long is, is necessary? 00:40:00.500 --> 00:40:07.380 I mean, unless you come up with a viral video growth on social media is very slow. Um, 00:40:08.820 --> 00:40:13.780 influencer growth is very slow. We're not talking like throwing a Facebook page up with like posts 00:40:13.780 --> 00:40:17.700 every 10 weeks or something. Like the goal is to create relationships through these channels. 00:40:17.700 --> 00:40:24.180 And so it's hard to get a year is at minimum. I think what you would need to at least gain some 00:40:24.180 --> 00:40:29.940 form of audience, um, with this style of industry. So it's, it's more about the, the length of it 00:40:29.940 --> 00:40:38.180 isn't, you know, trainings and tactics and skills as much as it is, uh, just accountability and, and, 00:40:38.180 --> 00:40:43.620 and support of, of, of what's going on. That, that, that's really interesting. What, what is, um, 00:40:43.620 --> 00:40:47.860 is, is, is it like a, a biweekly, a weekly, a monthly, how often is, is engagement? 00:40:47.860 --> 00:40:54.500 It depends on the person. Uh, the cooking show is like once a month. Uh, my wife does actually one 00:40:54.500 --> 00:41:00.260 on photography. She's a professional photographer. And so she's doing one once a month right now. 00:41:00.260 --> 00:41:05.860 That's creating a YouTube video on, uh, wedding photography tips, and then sharing Jesus through 00:41:05.860 --> 00:41:13.780 that. Um, mine is the most sporadic, but I've also been doing it the longest. So, um, I do a YouTube 00:41:13.780 --> 00:41:19.300 video here and there, but most of them are like twice a month to once a month right now. 00:41:19.300 --> 00:41:24.260 So, so you're not dragging your upright piano out to like the beach anymore to sing, uh, 00:41:24.260 --> 00:41:28.660 you know, beaches up at Beth Midler cover. Not, not like you're not, you're not really doing that 00:41:28.660 --> 00:41:32.820 anymore. I'm going to, I'm going to continue to do it, but I got something I had to give. 00:41:33.540 --> 00:41:37.620 Yeah. I mean, you give yourself some credit. You may be a, a, a lead pastor who thinks he's got 00:41:37.620 --> 00:41:42.980 his life easy, but you're also working on a Christian film. So like there's, there's contextually, 00:41:42.980 --> 00:41:46.820 you're kind of still a busy guy. Yeah. After, after the film's over, you'll, you'll see some 00:41:46.820 --> 00:41:54.660 more Broadway covers, I think. But what are you, um, who are you looking for with this? Like 00:41:54.660 --> 00:42:01.860 if, uh, what type of person makes a digital missionary at that influencer type level that, 00:42:01.860 --> 00:42:05.700 that's your, maybe what are, what are some traits or some characteristics? Like, 00:42:05.700 --> 00:42:10.740 how do I know that this is me? They, I mean, you have to be charismatic behind a camera for them, 00:42:10.740 --> 00:42:13.460 or in front of the camera for the most part, unless you're just writing a blog, 00:42:13.940 --> 00:42:18.340 which there's a guy named Evan that writes a blog who, um, he had written a blog before, 00:42:18.340 --> 00:42:22.260 and now he's partnered with us to be a digital missionary. And that's awesome. Cause we can use 00:42:22.260 --> 00:42:26.900 like our Google ad grant money to push people to the blog. Cause it's hosted on our site now, 00:42:26.900 --> 00:42:32.580 things like that. Um, so for the most part though, you have to at least be good on camera. 00:42:33.140 --> 00:42:36.420 Otherwise, like nobody's going to want to watch you, but on the flip side of that, 00:42:36.420 --> 00:42:42.660 you also have to be authentic. So it can't be just like an actor or something like that. It has to be 00:42:43.300 --> 00:42:47.860 a person that's gifted in charisma and also a person that's sold out for Jesus. Cause 00:42:47.860 --> 00:42:50.420 people on the internet will sniff through that so fast. 00:42:51.780 --> 00:42:55.140 So that's the two main things that we look for is authenticity, 00:42:55.140 --> 00:42:58.740 and then at least some form of skill to be in front of the camera. 00:42:58.740 --> 00:43:00.500 Yeah. That's, that, that's fascinating. 00:43:00.500 --> 00:43:02.580 Which is why the pool is like this big. 00:43:02.580 --> 00:43:08.580 And listen, I mean, listen, we all have influence. Uh, you know, I remember writing a blog early on 00:43:08.580 --> 00:43:14.020 about, you know, your, your aunt Ruth, who's really good at pistachio pudding. She has influence. 00:43:14.020 --> 00:43:20.420 Now, I don't know that she wants to dedicate a year towards being more of a influencer approach, 00:43:20.420 --> 00:43:24.820 but I think that she can be activated as a digital ministry through maybe some other, 00:43:24.820 --> 00:43:28.820 you know, approaches. And one of the things that actually in next week in the podcast, 00:43:28.820 --> 00:43:33.540 we've got John Ferguson coming in, uh, talking about, you know, Dave and John, 00:43:33.540 --> 00:43:39.060 they wrote a book years ago about the blessed practices, uh, and, and really kind of this, 00:43:39.060 --> 00:43:45.060 this methodology. And it was written for like physical neighbors, physical people to engage 00:43:45.060 --> 00:43:52.500 within their neighborhood and start to, um, you know, engage their neighbors and be a blessing to 00:43:52.500 --> 00:43:56.980 them and build relationships. And what's, what's fascinating as I sat down and really, 00:43:56.980 --> 00:44:00.900 as we started to unpack kind of like the blessed practices, since I worked with new thing and 00:44:00.900 --> 00:44:04.420 community Christian and all these people, I started, you know, we started recognizing, 00:44:05.140 --> 00:44:08.660 Hey, this actually works for like digital missionaries. And so we're going to talk about 00:44:08.660 --> 00:44:14.180 a simplified approach, uh, with John next week on the podcast. But, you know, for this one, 00:44:14.180 --> 00:44:20.980 really kind of focusing on, on these influencers approach. Yeah. Maybe not everybody's going to be, 00:44:21.780 --> 00:44:25.940 you know, I'm kind of half joking, but dragging the upright piano out into the, uh, 00:44:25.940 --> 00:44:31.700 ocean and shooting a video while singing, you know, uh, whatever beaches by, uh, uh, 00:44:31.700 --> 00:44:35.460 Bette Midler. Did Bette Midler actually sing beaches? I don't know if that's like a horrible 00:44:35.460 --> 00:44:41.620 example. I just, I, it was close. I did, um, a bright piano and I think Africa by Toto in fake rain. 00:44:41.620 --> 00:44:46.660 So that's really close. That's what I'm sorry. I knew it was something to do with water. And, 00:44:46.660 --> 00:44:50.100 uh, but you're, you're kind of, you're the show tunes guy on YouTube, aren't you? Yeah. 00:44:50.100 --> 00:44:56.100 Like a little bit, um, bless the rains down in Africa. I would, a friend of mine just posted on, 00:44:56.100 --> 00:45:00.500 on Facebook this past week that, that they went and they saw Toto like live in concert. 00:45:01.060 --> 00:45:05.140 And, and my response, I was like, Toto's still alive. Like that was kind of, it was a surprise 00:45:05.140 --> 00:45:10.340 bet. I didn't, I didn't realize, but actually our, um, Megan, who's our engagement pastor, 00:45:10.900 --> 00:45:15.300 that's pioneering all of the digital missionary stuff. She actually went and saw Toto with her 00:45:15.300 --> 00:45:20.580 husband last week in journey. Maybe that's what it was. It was Toto and journey together. 00:45:21.140 --> 00:45:25.460 Oh my gosh. That actually would, that actually would have been a really good concert. 00:45:25.860 --> 00:45:30.180 Megan's not old enough to think that's a good concert. I, I, she's young. That surprises. 00:45:30.420 --> 00:45:34.900 That is her husband's favorite band of all time. Toto. So awesome. I have no idea how we got, 00:45:34.900 --> 00:45:39.380 I actually do know how we got there, but, but it's, but it's fun. Like what's, what's a win 00:45:40.340 --> 00:45:47.540 for you on this, this influencer? Like, is that, is this part of your church? Is this a separate 00:45:47.540 --> 00:45:52.340 thing that you're just experimenting with as lead pastor? What, I mean, what are your expectations 00:45:52.340 --> 00:45:57.620 coming, coming out of the influencer? Yeah, it is, uh, very much part of our church, part of our DNA. 00:45:57.620 --> 00:46:04.500 Um, I'll give you a very practical win. It was, um, one of our tick tock digital missionaries, 00:46:05.300 --> 00:46:12.420 uh, found out that she's done. She does a lot of stuff on being a mom, um, and also being an anxious 00:46:12.420 --> 00:46:18.580 mom. So she has anxiety when she's a young mom. And so that's like a lot of her tick tock. And so she 00:46:18.580 --> 00:46:23.460 connected with this girl, um, that was struggling with the same issues and they found out they were like 00:46:23.460 --> 00:46:28.580 an hour and a half away. And so they met up in person after they connected online through this 00:46:28.580 --> 00:46:34.420 digital missionary platform. And then now the mom, the other mom drives like an hour to our church 00:46:34.980 --> 00:46:42.500 and brings her daughter with her. And so this digital missionary is literally sitting in the auditorium 00:46:42.500 --> 00:46:47.140 with this mom. That's like an hour away that the only connection is through tick tock. 00:46:47.140 --> 00:46:54.020 So that's a very practical win, um, to bring that like online engagement to an in-person relationship. 00:46:54.740 --> 00:47:01.380 Obviously that's the, like the pinnacle of, of wins, but that's a good example that actually happened. 00:47:01.380 --> 00:47:07.780 So you're, the goal is you're, you're trying to get the, the influencers to get people that their 00:47:07.780 --> 00:47:12.820 audience connected into a physical relationship with the influencer, with the church, with another 00:47:12.820 --> 00:47:20.020 church, like what's that would be awesome. Uh, with another church, the goal is to go from like a large 00:47:21.060 --> 00:47:27.140 top end funnel where it's just like creating content down to a communal relationship. So, 00:47:27.140 --> 00:47:33.300 um, getting to know the people you're influencing on a personal level and then introducing them to 00:47:33.300 --> 00:47:38.100 Jesus and then introducing them to in-person community somewhere. It doesn't have to be our 00:47:38.100 --> 00:47:42.580 church. Um, we call it church anywhere for a reason. It doesn't have to be first capital. It could be 00:47:42.580 --> 00:47:46.180 wherever, as long as, uh, they're in community with other believers. 00:47:46.180 --> 00:47:50.900 I mean, that that's very open-handed, which is another thing I think we're going to see 00:47:51.460 --> 00:47:56.740 in churches in the future that it's, it's not about, you know, a, a brand or an individual or 00:47:56.740 --> 00:48:02.020 kind of driving that traffic to, to first cat to first capital, but Hey, let's try to connect with 00:48:02.020 --> 00:48:07.620 others and try to connect people across that. So I think, I think that's, that's noble. Um, 00:48:08.660 --> 00:48:15.780 what, how, let me ask this question. How, how far are you in, into the, the, with the seven, 00:48:15.780 --> 00:48:21.140 like what changes would you consider doing for the second round? What lessons have you learned to 00:48:21.140 --> 00:48:26.420 try to even reproduce and do this? Maybe what are some next steps even with, uh, with this influencer 00:48:26.420 --> 00:48:32.660 track? Yeah, I think, I honestly think we're still a little bit early in, um, to answer that question 00:48:32.660 --> 00:48:37.700 fully. Uh, we've already been making a ton of questions specific or answering a ton of questions 00:48:37.700 --> 00:48:43.620 specifically, like how often do they post? What's the style of posting that each of them, um, are 00:48:43.620 --> 00:48:49.700 seeing the most traction with, um, what type of content are people actually wanting to watch versus, 00:48:49.700 --> 00:48:54.980 uh, what the influencers want to create. So finding that balance of like trying to guide them, 00:48:54.980 --> 00:49:02.180 um, like Megan and myself are not, we're not big influencers by any means. Um, although I do have 00:49:02.180 --> 00:49:07.460 the blue check mark on Facebook, my wife and I are very proud about that. She's like sitting over here 00:49:07.460 --> 00:49:15.940 listening. Uh, but, uh, we've just got some experience on figuring out like algorithms and 00:49:15.940 --> 00:49:20.340 what's opposed to when to post and trying to, that's, that's not an easy concept to teach just 00:49:20.340 --> 00:49:25.700 like a regular person, uh, that doesn't live in that world. And so that's really the things that 00:49:25.700 --> 00:49:31.060 we're learning is how to communicate, um, algorithm shifts to people, how to communicate, 00:49:31.060 --> 00:49:35.940 Hey, this is a great idea, but nobody's going to watch that in a loving way and things like that. 00:49:35.940 --> 00:49:38.260 So it's a continual process of learning. 00:49:38.260 --> 00:49:42.580 I mean, so you guys are really diving in. There's a lot of tactics here. If you're getting 00:49:42.580 --> 00:49:49.620 into analyzing the algorithms, um, beyond just like the, the simple content piece and accountability, 00:49:49.620 --> 00:49:51.060 that, that, that's really good. 00:49:51.060 --> 00:49:55.380 And that's more on our staff. Like that's, that's how we're guiding. So we're not expecting 00:49:55.380 --> 00:49:58.580 people to do that, but we have to be on top of it so you can coach them. 00:49:58.580 --> 00:50:02.100 Coach them through it. And that's, and that's an ever changing game as well. Of course, 00:50:02.100 --> 00:50:08.740 as you know, um, what is, what, what areas did you say that the people we're in right now? 00:50:08.740 --> 00:50:15.620 Um, it's TikTok. I remember YouTube blog blogs and YouTube and what was the last one? 00:50:15.620 --> 00:50:18.020 YouTube, TikTok, YouTube and blog and blog posts. 00:50:18.020 --> 00:50:24.660 What blog surprises me is, is there, is there much, you know, coming to a blogger? Um, is there much 00:50:24.660 --> 00:50:27.700 influence left, left in blogs? Maybe what's the, what's the secret to that one? 00:50:27.700 --> 00:50:34.740 So this one is about men who are, um, struggling with sexual addiction. And so it's a very niche 00:50:34.740 --> 00:50:40.980 audience with a guy who's got a great story in that of how God redeemed him. And so it's not the 00:50:40.980 --> 00:50:46.340 largest influence, but it's an extremely important influence and a tight knit community, if that makes 00:50:46.340 --> 00:50:46.660 sense. 00:50:46.660 --> 00:50:50.340 So the lesson there is you're not trying to reach everybody. You're trying to reach a particular 00:50:50.340 --> 00:50:50.740 person. 00:50:50.740 --> 00:50:53.780 But it's a very much needed person to be reached. 00:50:53.780 --> 00:50:58.820 And this is the one that you were talking about moving it to your domain, which now that niche 00:50:58.820 --> 00:51:03.780 group, that niche group makes sense, you know, still doing that within the, which, which domains 00:51:03.780 --> 00:51:09.460 you put it on church anywhere? Yeah. Uh, you know, and so that doesn't feel entirely out of place 00:51:09.460 --> 00:51:14.340 on, on that. Um, and you can use the grant. I mean, that, that it's called the constant battle. 00:51:14.340 --> 00:51:17.460 If you want to check it out on our, our sites, it's pretty good stuff. 00:51:17.460 --> 00:51:20.420 Cool. We'll, we'll put a, we'll put a link into the show notes. We'll, we'll find that 00:51:20.420 --> 00:51:24.340 and get, get that figured out. But this is beautiful, man. Listen, I can, I know you're 00:51:24.340 --> 00:51:27.300 on vacation. I mean, I could sit around here and talk to you for another couple of hours, 00:51:27.300 --> 00:51:33.380 but I want to let you get back to whatever is at the international Christian movie cinema 00:51:33.380 --> 00:51:40.420 conference, mostly movies, mostly movies, I guess. Awesome. Um, Hey, listen, as, as, um, 00:51:40.420 --> 00:51:44.980 I feel like I want to ask a joke, like, you know, something like, you know, or is, or cinema is 00:51:44.980 --> 00:51:50.500 going to make it okay. Um, what's the last movie you saw in a theater? Are you, are you getting 00:51:50.500 --> 00:51:55.940 to the theaters a lot? I'm actually curious. Uh, the last movie that I saw in a theater, 00:51:57.780 --> 00:52:08.020 you know, sir, I don't know. We, we, we were all in on the regal unlimited pass. Um, we saw 00:52:08.020 --> 00:52:14.420 every movie that ever came out for like two years and then COVID hit. And then we just had a hard 00:52:14.420 --> 00:52:17.780 time getting back in the suite of things, but we do live really close to the drive in and it opens 00:52:17.780 --> 00:52:22.740 this weekend. So, um, we'll hit that a lot. So maybe, maybe I'll get, maybe I'll get that back. 00:52:22.740 --> 00:52:27.460 You know, I, I just, you know, I feel bad saying this is a guy who makes movies, but yeah, at this 00:52:27.460 --> 00:52:33.380 point, like for me to actually hit a theater, like it's gotta be Marvel cinematic, you know, 00:52:33.380 --> 00:52:39.060 something epic that I just want to experience on the screen. I watch movies all the time at home, 00:52:39.060 --> 00:52:45.060 but you know, the theaters, man, they're, they're, they're dwindling away. So, um, but that's a 00:52:45.060 --> 00:52:48.900 conversation for another day. We'll have to do like the, the Christian, what's the name of the new 00:52:48.900 --> 00:52:54.260 movie? I, I can, I can, what I, is it just, I can, it's just, I can, um, you know, I've got, 00:52:54.260 --> 00:52:59.860 I've got fight in my head. So I've naturally put, I can fight together, which is not probably what you 00:52:59.860 --> 00:53:05.140 want to do. The mashup of those two, I don't think might probably not. Yeah. Maybe that's the sequel 00:53:05.140 --> 00:53:11.700 that none of us really want at this point. So that's awesome. Hey, as, as we're, as we're landing 00:53:11.700 --> 00:53:16.980 the plane, any closing thoughts, man? Uh, no, I would just tell you that the, probably the biggest 00:53:16.980 --> 00:53:22.420 lesson I've learned in all of ministry specifically now that I get to be the lead and my voice has a 00:53:22.420 --> 00:53:28.660 lot of weight is, uh, there's a whole lot of, Hey, let's just do this mindset that has to happen 00:53:28.660 --> 00:53:33.700 really soon with the church. Like we can't, we got to stop just talking about stuff and just like, 00:53:33.700 --> 00:53:38.100 let's just do it. Let's stop talking about the 167. Go figure out a way to make it happen. 00:53:38.100 --> 00:53:43.060 So stop talking about digital missionaries and digital, uh, stuff and let's just go do it. 00:53:43.060 --> 00:53:47.540 And then we can talk about what we did after. Um, I think that's, that's a, that's a big lesson 00:53:47.540 --> 00:53:53.380 we all need to learn. Awesome. Um, to just, you know, burn, burn the ships, man. Let's go. Uh, 00:53:53.380 --> 00:53:57.060 you know, the it's, it's funny, even, you know, some of the, some of the churches, 00:53:57.060 --> 00:54:00.420 you know, I'm working with some churches on some things and I'm like, no, you're going to, 00:54:00.420 --> 00:54:04.100 we're going to launch something in 22. Like, this is not, I don't want to sit around and just, 00:54:04.100 --> 00:54:09.700 you know, wax poetic and talk theoretical. There's, there's other opportunities to do that, 00:54:09.700 --> 00:54:14.980 but we want to, we want to go with the goers. And so, you know, love your heart and, and, 00:54:14.980 --> 00:54:20.820 and, and, you know, quite honestly, you have put your money where your mouth is over the years and, 00:54:20.820 --> 00:54:26.980 uh, lead pastor, sir. It's, it's an honor to have you on and excited to see how God's going to 00:54:26.980 --> 00:54:33.460 continue to utilize, uh, you and, uh, and, and just even other churches, uh, setting the example, 00:54:33.460 --> 00:54:38.020 uh, through first capital. So thanks for doing it, man. And, and thanks for jumping on the show, 00:54:38.020 --> 00:54:42.500 but we're going to land the plane. So for, for Tyler, this is Jeff with the church digital, 00:54:42.500 --> 00:54:46.820 digital church network and a bunch of other fun stuff. Thanks for jumping on the podcast here. 00:54:46.820 --> 00:54:48.900 We'll see you next time here at the show. Y'all have a good one.