WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.640 I mean, when I heard the problem statement for the very first time, when I was brought 00:00:03.640 --> 00:00:08.700 into, you know, thinking about how we're going to bring a powerful message to the marketplace 00:00:08.700 --> 00:00:14.800 that can help shape culture for Christ and turn, you know, the tide from so many people 00:00:14.800 --> 00:00:19.720 walking away or people not even considering, when you hear that problem statement, you 00:00:19.720 --> 00:00:21.640 know, it's just a big problem statement. 00:00:22.060 --> 00:00:26.600 And quite honestly, a lot of Christians and Christianity and churches have contributed 00:00:26.600 --> 00:00:27.600 to the problem. 00:00:27.600 --> 00:00:29.480 Welcome to the Church Digital Podcast. 00:00:30.200 --> 00:00:35.440 Through this podcast, we'll talk about the technological innovations within the church, but more than 00:00:35.440 --> 00:00:38.760 tech for tech itself, we'll address deeper questions. 00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:41.480 Is disciple making possible digitally? 00:00:42.220 --> 00:00:44.460 How should we approach the digital mission field? 00:00:45.200 --> 00:00:48.000 Can a biblically grounded church operate in digital space? 00:00:48.720 --> 00:00:51.020 Oh, and where does the metaverse fit into all this? 00:00:51.760 --> 00:00:57.100 Whether you're a big or small church, an established church or a startup church plant, the Church 00:00:57.100 --> 00:01:02.640 Digital's goal is to help churches like yours learn to be a multiplying church, digitally 00:01:02.640 --> 00:01:03.680 and physically. 00:01:04.400 --> 00:01:05.140 Our heart? 00:01:05.640 --> 00:01:10.580 That churches like yours will discover a newfound focus on disciple making that will revolutionize 00:01:10.580 --> 00:01:11.340 your church. 00:01:11.980 --> 00:01:14.660 And now, here's your host, Jeff Reed. 00:01:15.460 --> 00:01:15.960 Hey, everybody. 00:01:16.160 --> 00:01:17.940 Welcome to the Church Digital Podcast. 00:01:18.240 --> 00:01:22.740 You know, every week I say I'm excited about the episodes that are coming up and the guests, 00:01:22.900 --> 00:01:26.840 but this is going to be a phenomenal conversation and I don't want to oversell this. 00:01:27.240 --> 00:01:32.400 I really think this is the best opportunity for any given church today to reach a new person, 00:01:32.480 --> 00:01:34.720 to reach a different type of person. 00:01:34.840 --> 00:01:38.840 So if you, digital church, you church online, you digital church planner, maybe even some 00:01:38.840 --> 00:01:44.120 of you metaverse guys, as you're listening to this, I think there's an opportunity for you 00:01:44.120 --> 00:01:47.860 today to start to reach a different type of person. 00:01:47.860 --> 00:01:52.180 And oh, by the way, through the Church Digital, Digital Church Network, it's free. 00:01:52.640 --> 00:01:53.420 So do me a favor. 00:01:53.540 --> 00:01:54.520 I'm not overselling this. 00:01:54.560 --> 00:01:55.740 This is not hyperverbally. 00:01:56.100 --> 00:01:57.420 I don't, that's probably not the right word. 00:01:57.760 --> 00:01:59.800 Hyper, whatever the word is. 00:01:59.980 --> 00:02:01.020 I'm not overselling this. 00:02:01.480 --> 00:02:02.880 Listen to this conversation. 00:02:02.880 --> 00:02:08.060 And let's take part of jumping in here with what Glue is doing. 00:02:08.140 --> 00:02:09.920 So by the way, I just let the cat out of the bag. 00:02:10.300 --> 00:02:14.520 We've got some of our friends from Glue jumping on the podcast here. 00:02:14.760 --> 00:02:18.860 And so let me open up first off and introduce Brad Hill to the conversation. 00:02:19.140 --> 00:02:24.060 Brad is Chief Solutions Officer for Glue. 00:02:24.360 --> 00:02:25.600 That sounds very important, Brad. 00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:26.360 Hey, Jeff. 00:02:26.420 --> 00:02:27.040 Good to be with you. 00:02:27.040 --> 00:02:33.100 Yeah, it just means that I get to look at problems all day, I guess is what that means. 00:02:33.380 --> 00:02:38.600 And we genuinely do, though, look at what's going on with our churches and how we can help 00:02:38.600 --> 00:02:40.740 them get value out of platforms. 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:45.340 So a lot of that is with partnerships, which is a big part of He Gets Us. 00:02:45.720 --> 00:02:50.260 So, you know, our other illustrious guests here today are really close partners of ours. 00:02:50.260 --> 00:02:54.660 And we're just trying to figure out how to translate the great work they're doing to the world of 00:02:54.660 --> 00:02:55.060 the pastor. 00:02:55.560 --> 00:02:56.220 That's beautiful. 00:02:56.220 --> 00:03:02.600 And so we're going to be digging into a campaign that Glue has been running that's called He Gets 00:03:02.600 --> 00:03:02.980 Us. 00:03:03.400 --> 00:03:06.000 Now, He Gets Us has been running for a while. 00:03:06.180 --> 00:03:10.360 And some of you churches out there may actually be utilizing it right now in some capacity. 00:03:10.780 --> 00:03:14.900 And Brad, I don't know if the cat's been let out of the bag or maybe I'm doing, maybe I'm 00:03:14.900 --> 00:03:19.960 not even supposed to say this, but there's a Super Bowl ad coming and just an immense exposure 00:03:19.960 --> 00:03:25.260 opportunity to get connected to different people, people that don't come to church buildings 00:03:25.400 --> 00:03:26.860 that are happening in real time. 00:03:26.860 --> 00:03:34.120 And some of the genius behind this, some of the brains behind this is Jason Vanderground, 00:03:34.180 --> 00:03:41.180 excuse me, and Bill McKendry here from Haven Creative, the creative agency that's kind of 00:03:41.180 --> 00:03:43.760 has created this idea of He Gets Us. 00:03:43.820 --> 00:03:47.040 So Jason, Bill, thanks for jumping on the podcast as well. 00:03:47.200 --> 00:03:47.760 Great to be here. 00:03:47.840 --> 00:03:48.220 Thank you. 00:03:48.340 --> 00:03:48.740 Thanks, Jeff. 00:03:48.740 --> 00:03:50.760 So listen, it's funny. 00:03:50.860 --> 00:03:55.220 I wanted to start the conversation, even just digging more into like He Gets Us and where 00:03:55.220 --> 00:03:56.720 the creative ideas come from. 00:03:56.920 --> 00:03:59.440 And so maybe let's just do this. 00:03:59.700 --> 00:04:03.960 Bill, to get us started here into the conversation today, could you maybe describe a little bit 00:04:03.960 --> 00:04:07.340 of what He Gets Us is, how it's operating? 00:04:07.340 --> 00:04:11.600 Yeah, it initially started out as a campaign. 00:04:12.560 --> 00:04:19.860 We see it now becoming a movement, quite honestly, and we're enjoying watching that unfold. 00:04:20.360 --> 00:04:27.220 But it did start out as a campaign, and it started out with a realization that something is happening 00:04:27.220 --> 00:04:32.020 in our culture, and people are walking away from the church or not even considering the 00:04:32.020 --> 00:04:33.960 church like they had in the past. 00:04:34.360 --> 00:04:39.180 And one of the things that was driving this initiative was the realization of, you know, 00:04:39.340 --> 00:04:43.900 how is the church being characterized, and how is Christianity being characterized in 00:04:43.900 --> 00:04:44.620 today's culture? 00:04:45.300 --> 00:04:52.240 And the problem statement that we started this whole campaign with was the idea of, 00:04:52.720 --> 00:04:58.080 how did the greatest love story in Jesus become known as a hate group? 00:04:59.720 --> 00:05:04.100 You know, and when we share that problem statement with people, you know, whether it's a church 00:05:04.100 --> 00:05:08.980 or a minister or a donor or whoever it is that's related to this, and it can see what's going 00:05:08.980 --> 00:05:11.920 on in our culture, that really hurts, right? 00:05:11.920 --> 00:05:16.020 I mean, when I heard the problem statement for the very first time, when I was brought 00:05:16.020 --> 00:05:21.080 into, you know, thinking about how we're going to bring a powerful message to the marketplace 00:05:21.080 --> 00:05:27.520 that can help shape culture for Christ and turn, you know, the tide from so many people walking 00:05:27.520 --> 00:05:32.880 away or people not even considering, when you hear that problem statement, you know, it's 00:05:32.880 --> 00:05:34.040 just a big problem statement. 00:05:34.420 --> 00:05:40.000 And quite honestly, a lot of Christians and Christianity and churches have contributed to the problem. 00:05:40.320 --> 00:05:43.700 But the beautiful thing is when we did our research, and we'll get a little bit more into that, 00:05:43.800 --> 00:05:48.120 I know, but, you know, the beautiful thing is that when we actually talk to people in the 00:05:48.120 --> 00:05:52.720 marketplace, even people who would consider themselves to be very skeptical of Christians 00:05:52.720 --> 00:05:55.880 and Christianity, they haven't given up on Jesus yet. 00:05:56.880 --> 00:06:01.760 And so the brand of Jesus, actually, the good news is the brand of Jesus is actually in very 00:06:01.760 --> 00:06:02.240 good shape. 00:06:03.420 --> 00:06:08.840 So what are we going to do to be able to shape this culture for Christ and be able to bring people 00:06:08.840 --> 00:06:13.260 back into consideration and walking back toward his story? 00:06:13.780 --> 00:06:18.100 And that is, we've decided from the beginning, after we saw all the research, what is it that 00:06:18.100 --> 00:06:18.820 we need to do? 00:06:19.380 --> 00:06:20.480 We need to focus on Jesus. 00:06:21.040 --> 00:06:22.420 Yeah, I love that. 00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:29.320 And the audience that's listening into here, so often we talk about the idea of people that are 00:06:29.320 --> 00:06:32.160 becoming de-churched, they're not really mad at God. 00:06:32.320 --> 00:06:35.960 They're not holding anger towards the Trinity. 00:06:36.840 --> 00:06:38.280 They're upset at people. 00:06:38.420 --> 00:06:41.100 They're upset at situations within the building. 00:06:41.320 --> 00:06:47.920 And oftentimes it's the flesh, it's the skin part that is keeping people separated from God, 00:06:48.020 --> 00:06:48.800 from the church. 00:06:49.300 --> 00:06:52.280 And so it's like, how do we re-engage in that? 00:06:52.420 --> 00:06:59.220 And so, Jason, as you've been doing this work, from a practical standpoint, what is he gets 00:06:59.220 --> 00:06:59.400 us? 00:06:59.480 --> 00:07:00.280 How is it operating? 00:07:00.720 --> 00:07:05.520 Yeah, and I think just coming right out of your last point there, as Jesus followers, 00:07:06.080 --> 00:07:10.680 as Christians, we're trying to follow the example of somebody who was perfect. 00:07:11.280 --> 00:07:13.620 And none of us do that perfectly. 00:07:14.100 --> 00:07:18.540 And the unfortunate thing is a lot of times people who are just spiritually open and kind 00:07:18.540 --> 00:07:20.340 of skeptical, they see that. 00:07:20.480 --> 00:07:22.100 They see that in all of us. 00:07:22.260 --> 00:07:29.040 And so the number one thing that they want to avoid in Christians and Christianity and the 00:07:29.040 --> 00:07:33.260 church is that hypocriticalness, that we say one thing and do another. 00:07:33.420 --> 00:07:34.420 And we've all been there. 00:07:34.920 --> 00:07:40.420 The other is the judgmentalism, that these people and these behaviors are okay, and these 00:07:40.420 --> 00:07:42.280 people and these behaviors are not okay. 00:07:42.460 --> 00:07:46.380 And some of those are scriptural, some of those we've actually contrived on our own as human 00:07:46.380 --> 00:07:46.800 beings. 00:07:47.280 --> 00:07:49.480 I think the other area is really the discrimination. 00:07:50.040 --> 00:07:56.920 And so one of the ways that we're operationalizing around that is the campaign is making bold overtures 00:07:56.920 --> 00:08:01.600 to a lot of times people who have not seen Christianity as being for them. 00:08:01.700 --> 00:08:06.680 And one of the insights that we love the most that somebody shared with us is, she said, 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:12.240 and she's been very much a skeptic her whole life, but she said, you know, I've always 00:08:12.240 --> 00:08:16.220 understood when people were kind of approaching me about Christianity and trying to explain 00:08:16.220 --> 00:08:20.280 it to me that what they really wanted was for me to become one of them. 00:08:21.100 --> 00:08:26.100 And what I'm starting to see now through this, he gets his campaign, you're telling me he 00:08:26.100 --> 00:08:27.220 was one of you. 00:08:27.420 --> 00:08:32.760 And that's a fundamentally different proposition for people who are spiritually open than what 00:08:32.760 --> 00:08:33.740 they're used to presenting. 00:08:33.860 --> 00:08:39.220 So a lot of what we're doing, the way we kind of operationalize is we just, we study the life of 00:08:39.220 --> 00:08:42.060 Jesus and we study the life of the American people. 00:08:42.160 --> 00:08:43.460 Now we're in research all the time. 00:08:43.540 --> 00:08:46.840 We treat them as missionaries would treat a people group. 00:08:47.260 --> 00:08:48.560 And so we want to understand them. 00:08:48.640 --> 00:08:52.080 We want to understand their language, their ways, their framework, everything about them, 00:08:52.180 --> 00:08:56.520 and then design a message around appealing to them. 00:08:56.640 --> 00:09:01.860 And so that's a lot of what's helped He Gets Us connect so well with people who are just 00:09:01.860 --> 00:09:02.600 spiritually open. 00:09:03.220 --> 00:09:03.800 And I love this. 00:09:03.920 --> 00:09:08.460 And you may, audience out there, you may have seen some of these He Gets Us campaigns that 00:09:08.460 --> 00:09:09.120 are out there. 00:09:09.700 --> 00:09:11.860 I, you know, I feel like I've seen commercials online. 00:09:11.960 --> 00:09:13.480 I've seen lots of social media graphics. 00:09:13.620 --> 00:09:16.140 I don't even know if this was official, He Gets Us. 00:09:16.200 --> 00:09:21.220 And I know the idea is decentralized a lot, but I was actually walking around Altspace 00:09:21.220 --> 00:09:25.180 VR and there was, there was somebody created a He Gets Us world. 00:09:25.700 --> 00:09:28.200 And they, they were just, it was, it was the He Gets Us logo. 00:09:28.580 --> 00:09:33.080 I clicked on it, walked in and they were, they were just having like random conversations 00:09:33.080 --> 00:09:38.600 talking about Jesus, just very relational, conversational. 00:09:38.860 --> 00:09:42.880 And, and the room was, I mean, had maybe 20, 30 people in it when I walked in. 00:09:42.880 --> 00:09:46.160 And so like the idea of He, was that official? 00:09:46.580 --> 00:09:47.960 Have you done anything in virtual reality? 00:09:48.240 --> 00:09:50.100 Like, I don't want to go off too far on that, but. 00:09:50.380 --> 00:09:52.960 Not yet, but that, that sounds like a cool place to hang out. 00:09:53.340 --> 00:09:54.020 There you go. 00:09:54.120 --> 00:09:56.640 Somebody out there is, is doing virtual reality. 00:09:56.720 --> 00:09:58.420 He Gets Us and they didn't even know about it. 00:09:58.440 --> 00:09:59.600 So that, that's, that's awesome. 00:09:59.960 --> 00:10:05.740 But so it's this idea of the campaign where I think that there's an incredible opportunity 00:10:05.740 --> 00:10:11.400 for us as churches to engage with a different type of person than typically comes into our 00:10:11.400 --> 00:10:11.760 building. 00:10:12.300 --> 00:10:19.140 And so, you know, before we go too far into this, what were some, from a creative standpoint, 00:10:19.260 --> 00:10:20.120 you all are creative people. 00:10:20.140 --> 00:10:21.380 We talk creative things on here. 00:10:21.940 --> 00:10:24.240 What, maybe what were some of the, the bad ideas? 00:10:24.320 --> 00:10:25.920 What were some of the, maybe bad, bad ideas? 00:10:26.160 --> 00:10:27.540 What was on the cutting room floor? 00:10:27.640 --> 00:10:28.640 What got, what got chopped? 00:10:29.000 --> 00:10:31.040 What was the, ah, that's not quite good enough. 00:10:31.160 --> 00:10:34.740 Were there maybe some other bylines or some things that you all were working on? 00:10:34.740 --> 00:10:40.460 So the idea is that, you know, we approach this like, like, like no other Christian effort 00:10:40.460 --> 00:10:45.260 has ever been approached before in the sense that we created an air attack, you know, an 00:10:45.260 --> 00:10:47.360 air support to a Christian ecosystem. 00:10:47.820 --> 00:10:52.240 And one thing that we're not, we want to make sure that we're not doing is we're trying, we're 00:10:52.240 --> 00:10:53.960 not trying to recreate the Christian ecosystem. 00:10:53.960 --> 00:10:56.860 There's plenty of places for people to go to. 00:10:57.680 --> 00:11:01.320 However, they exit before they even get there. 00:11:01.320 --> 00:11:10.360 So he gets us as a giant on-ramp for the Christian ecosystem, for people to explore where their 00:11:10.360 --> 00:11:13.100 resources that best fit them, right? 00:11:13.600 --> 00:11:18.760 And so when we were considering this also, we said, if this is going to be a monumental 00:11:18.760 --> 00:11:24.800 effort, unlike anything that had been done before, we're going to approach this much like 00:11:24.800 --> 00:11:27.100 the big brands approach things. 00:11:27.100 --> 00:11:33.920 We're actually going to have multiple people and multiple agencies give us ideas and consider 00:11:33.920 --> 00:11:34.960 them all, right? 00:11:35.020 --> 00:11:38.520 We're going to do our research and our homework and understand the target audience and how 00:11:38.520 --> 00:11:40.260 to message to them, right? 00:11:40.320 --> 00:11:42.200 Before we even go to market. 00:11:42.600 --> 00:11:49.400 And many of the ideas, so we had, we had five national agencies, creative shops pitch this 00:11:49.400 --> 00:11:50.700 and we went through it all. 00:11:50.860 --> 00:11:53.980 And he gets us with something that rose to the top, right? 00:11:53.980 --> 00:11:58.840 But one thing that we decided to leave on the, you know, quite honestly, the quality of the 00:11:58.840 --> 00:11:59.920 work was so good. 00:12:00.060 --> 00:12:01.180 It was very difficult. 00:12:01.180 --> 00:12:05.840 We actually looked through 15 different campaigns before we decided on, he gets us. 00:12:06.140 --> 00:12:08.020 And I can't say that any of them were bad. 00:12:08.180 --> 00:12:09.620 There was nothing bad, right? 00:12:09.680 --> 00:12:12.420 It was just one seemed to rise to the top. 00:12:12.640 --> 00:12:16.900 But a lot of the things that we need to leave on the chopping block or on the, on the editing 00:12:16.900 --> 00:12:21.960 floor, quite honestly, is the, is the hard work of threading the needle of not being political, 00:12:21.960 --> 00:12:29.160 for example, and threading that needle and making sure that we're presenting something that allows 00:12:29.160 --> 00:12:34.360 people to have an on-ramp, which is about raising the respect and relevancy of Jesus. 00:12:34.720 --> 00:12:37.220 We're not advertising the gospel, right? 00:12:37.540 --> 00:12:41.540 We're advertising what Jesus said, what he stood for, what he stood against. 00:12:42.200 --> 00:12:47.760 And it's an entry point for people to say, that seems to be a worthy example to follow. 00:12:47.900 --> 00:12:50.180 I really like what Jesus has to say. 00:12:50.900 --> 00:12:54.460 Then they can begin the exploration to learn more, right? 00:12:54.580 --> 00:12:58.220 And we're going to continue to feed them and give them information. 00:12:58.220 --> 00:13:05.500 But ultimately, our job is to feed them to the Christian ecosystem so that they can, they 00:13:05.500 --> 00:13:07.560 can find an off-ramp that works for them. 00:13:08.260 --> 00:13:13.100 And so that, that off-ramp within the Christian ecosystem, the way that I'm, I'm interpreting 00:13:13.100 --> 00:13:19.000 that, that's, that's the churches, the campaign exists in social media and things to, to hand 00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:20.360 off, to get people connected to church. 00:13:20.640 --> 00:13:20.920 Right. 00:13:21.240 --> 00:13:23.480 And it could even be just a Christian friend, right? 00:13:23.540 --> 00:13:23.920 Perfect. 00:13:23.920 --> 00:13:27.500 Somebody, you know, chances are, it's probably going to be a Christian friend more than anything 00:13:27.500 --> 00:13:27.900 else. 00:13:28.420 --> 00:13:33.300 And something that they can, a connection point to them where I just need to talk to somebody 00:13:33.300 --> 00:13:33.820 about this. 00:13:33.880 --> 00:13:34.800 I want to explore. 00:13:35.180 --> 00:13:42.060 We give that, we give people a lot of opportunities to respond on our website and they can chat, 00:13:42.140 --> 00:13:45.340 they can text, they can, you know, have somebody pray for them. 00:13:45.420 --> 00:13:49.960 But the number one thing that people want to do is read more, right? 00:13:49.960 --> 00:13:55.660 And so these people are exploring, they're, they're, they're looking and they're not finding 00:13:55.660 --> 00:13:58.720 answers either in the secular world or in the secular narrative. 00:13:58.720 --> 00:14:01.340 You know, as a result, they're, they're, they're heartbroken. 00:14:01.720 --> 00:14:04.940 They, they maybe don't have as much hope as they, as they wish they had. 00:14:05.380 --> 00:14:08.660 And, and as a result, they are looking for answers. 00:14:09.180 --> 00:14:14.600 And what we want them to know is that Jesus has answers and he has answers that they, that 00:14:14.600 --> 00:14:19.920 they really like a lot and will really be helpful to them in their, in their, in their perspective 00:14:19.920 --> 00:14:21.040 and in their life. 00:14:21.100 --> 00:14:21.860 That's beautiful. 00:14:21.860 --> 00:14:26.480 By the way, Bill, I'm going to have you start the right copy for the church digital, because 00:14:26.480 --> 00:14:33.140 when you say that an explorer is looking for a friend online to connect with, to, for them 00:14:33.140 --> 00:14:39.200 to have Jesus shared, you just described exactly the, the motives and the drive behind a lot 00:14:39.200 --> 00:14:44.120 of these digital churches, these churches that are operating only in digital space or the 00:14:44.120 --> 00:14:49.360 metaverse churches that, that, that we're working with churches that are, um, that are driven, 00:14:49.360 --> 00:14:54.600 that understand truly what digital discipleship can be in the relational community aspects 00:14:54.600 --> 00:14:55.080 of it. 00:14:55.400 --> 00:14:57.720 And to be honest, that's why I'm so excited. 00:14:57.820 --> 00:14:58.540 I'll shut up in a second. 00:14:58.660 --> 00:14:59.460 I talk a lot. 00:14:59.680 --> 00:15:01.320 In a media saturated world, right? 00:15:01.820 --> 00:15:07.560 People are given all kinds of options, but today people use, and they understand, they 00:15:07.560 --> 00:15:11.600 understand the digital world is the place that they can explore and they can explore safely 00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:14.100 and they can create a beginning of a relationship. 00:15:14.240 --> 00:15:15.160 And that's, you're exactly right. 00:15:15.160 --> 00:15:20.840 That's why the digital church and digital outreach is so critical today because it's just a very 00:15:20.840 --> 00:15:25.060 comfortable place for most people to begin their exploration process. 00:15:25.740 --> 00:15:26.720 That's, that's so great. 00:15:26.800 --> 00:15:33.340 And this is why I'm so excited about this conversation because the campaign has worked great on social 00:15:33.340 --> 00:15:35.800 media and they're getting ready to up it. 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:40.200 It's going to get ramped up with a, I'm not making this up, right? 00:15:40.260 --> 00:15:43.860 There's a Superbowl commercial you guys are working on for it with this campaign. 00:15:44.220 --> 00:15:44.860 That's the plan. 00:15:45.200 --> 00:15:45.560 Awesome. 00:15:46.040 --> 00:15:52.800 And so there's now an opportunity for digital churches to get connected to a whole different 00:15:52.800 --> 00:15:59.000 type of person to get connected with these people through a social media commercial, through 00:15:59.000 --> 00:16:05.000 a, or a social media campaign, through a Superbowl commercial, uh, and to meet people digitally, 00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:08.460 which, oh, by the way, you all are really good at because that's what you do. 00:16:09.060 --> 00:16:13.340 And so this is what I, I, I got to sat down with, uh, with Randy and some friends at glue 00:16:13.340 --> 00:16:16.240 and I'm like, Hey, this, we gotta, we gotta figure out how to make this work. 00:16:16.440 --> 00:16:20.120 And so there's literally, we're going to keep going into the podcast, but there's literally 00:16:20.120 --> 00:16:26.660 they're giving away 12 month scholarship for the, he gets us, um, all the fees, everything 00:16:26.660 --> 00:16:27.220 is covered. 00:16:27.220 --> 00:16:28.820 Hey, digital church planner. 00:16:29.040 --> 00:16:30.600 We understand you're bivocational. 00:16:30.880 --> 00:16:37.580 We understand you're working on a shoestring budget and glue here is giving away everything 00:16:37.580 --> 00:16:38.580 for free. 00:16:38.580 --> 00:16:45.200 Uh, so the access to the campaign, the access to the system, uh, to receive these, uh, explorers 00:16:45.200 --> 00:16:46.380 that are looking for help. 00:16:46.380 --> 00:16:48.900 It's literally no cost to you. 00:16:49.040 --> 00:16:53.860 You just get the follow-up on the people, build relationships, uh, get them connected to God 00:16:53.860 --> 00:16:57.740 and, and hopefully get them connected into your church or a physical church. 00:16:57.740 --> 00:17:01.200 If that's what they're looking for, here's what you need to do. 00:17:01.200 --> 00:17:04.420 If you're interested in this, there's two ways to sign up. 00:17:04.500 --> 00:17:09.440 You can text 855-631-4850. 00:17:09.700 --> 00:17:10.800 All this will be in the show notes. 00:17:10.840 --> 00:17:11.740 You can click over to that. 00:17:11.820 --> 00:17:16.200 Check out the YouTube descriptions, text 855-631-4850. 00:17:17.160 --> 00:17:22.500 And you're going to enter in the phrase, he gets us, or go check out the church.digital 00:17:22.500 --> 00:17:25.260 slash he gets us. 00:17:25.480 --> 00:17:28.180 You'll be able to get the, uh, the, the code. 00:17:28.300 --> 00:17:29.320 You'll enter into the system. 00:17:29.420 --> 00:17:30.540 You'll get all the discounts. 00:17:31.020 --> 00:17:32.620 Everything's going to be free 12 months. 00:17:32.620 --> 00:17:37.060 Plus other things that glue is incredible with are going to be included in, into that. 00:17:37.280 --> 00:17:41.080 I don't need to, I could sell glue all day long, but the fact that they're going to send 00:17:41.080 --> 00:17:46.520 you people to get connected into your church digitally so that you can work with them digitally 00:17:46.520 --> 00:17:52.800 into your discipleship process, into your relational communities, whatever you've got, man, I serious. 00:17:52.880 --> 00:17:55.720 I cannot think of a better opportunity for you here. 00:17:55.940 --> 00:18:00.820 By the way, uh, Brad, like how are churches responding to this? 00:18:00.820 --> 00:18:02.880 What, what are churches typically seeing? 00:18:02.960 --> 00:18:03.780 What are some stories? 00:18:03.960 --> 00:18:04.620 What are you seeing? 00:18:05.060 --> 00:18:05.260 Yeah. 00:18:05.540 --> 00:18:11.500 Well, you know, Jeff, the glue first became aware of this project maybe a year and a half 00:18:11.500 --> 00:18:12.760 ago, a little more than that. 00:18:13.120 --> 00:18:17.020 And when we saw what was shaping up here, you know, some of what you just heard Bill and 00:18:17.020 --> 00:18:22.240 Jason described, uh, we, we saw a little bit of what you just said, which is that this 00:18:22.240 --> 00:18:26.560 is my words would be, this is a gigantic gift to the church. 00:18:27.180 --> 00:18:31.320 Um, like the church really has not had this type of air cover before. 00:18:32.040 --> 00:18:35.820 Um, and you know, pastors are out there working hard, they're grinding it out. 00:18:35.880 --> 00:18:38.060 They're trying different ways to reach people. 00:18:38.640 --> 00:18:44.380 Um, this project, I mean, Bill used the words earlier, this is softening ground in a way 00:18:44.380 --> 00:18:47.480 that, you know, we just haven't had available to us. 00:18:47.480 --> 00:18:53.140 And even if it was out there cost prohibitive, you know, we don't have the marketing savvy that 00:18:53.140 --> 00:18:55.980 these large world-class brands typically get to access. 00:18:55.980 --> 00:19:02.500 So to think as a church leader, that you've got a giant campaign about something as central 00:19:02.500 --> 00:19:09.700 as Jesus, that's fully funded, uh, that is an on-ramp that's really directing them people 00:19:09.700 --> 00:19:11.960 to, to serve. 00:19:11.960 --> 00:19:18.000 And, and, um, you know, Jeff, we would, we would look at this as not so much like a, a lead 00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:18.360 magnet. 00:19:18.360 --> 00:19:22.380 And it's not, it's not just people who we can get into our churches, although that is 00:19:22.380 --> 00:19:23.040 part of it. 00:19:23.420 --> 00:19:29.200 But, um, these people that see the ads, like you, you talk about Superbowl, but already there's 00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:33.340 been just an incredible presence on many, many live sporting events. 00:19:33.340 --> 00:19:38.140 If you want to talk about soccer, major league baseball, uh, we've been out doing tailgate 00:19:38.140 --> 00:19:40.760 tours and college football this fall. 00:19:41.540 --> 00:19:48.900 Um, and then, you know, major television shows, digital billboards, Times Square, and people 00:19:48.900 --> 00:19:50.160 see these messages, right? 00:19:50.280 --> 00:19:51.860 And, and then what do they do? 00:19:51.920 --> 00:19:53.280 They go, they go to work. 00:19:54.080 --> 00:19:56.100 Uh, they, they hang out with friends. 00:19:56.100 --> 00:19:57.400 They, they live their lives. 00:19:58.060 --> 00:19:59.920 Um, they aren't necessarily coming to our churches. 00:20:00.200 --> 00:20:04.260 And what I often tell pastors is, okay, the people that you're shepherding in your church, 00:20:04.260 --> 00:20:09.640 whether it be physical, digital, or hybrid, or both, the people in your church go to work, 00:20:09.720 --> 00:20:12.800 they go to carpool, they go to their places too. 00:20:13.580 --> 00:20:18.840 And what we're finding is those spiritually open, but maybe skeptical people will say, Hey, 00:20:18.840 --> 00:20:21.400 Jeff, you're kind of a, like a religious guy, right? 00:20:21.400 --> 00:20:24.580 Like, did you see that Jesus commercial on the game last night? 00:20:25.160 --> 00:20:26.140 What do you think about that? 00:20:26.180 --> 00:20:27.540 Like, do you believe that stuff? 00:20:28.260 --> 00:20:31.180 And I'm not, I'm not, this isn't hypothetical, right? 00:20:31.180 --> 00:20:34.400 I mean, these conversations are actually spinning up now daily. 00:20:35.120 --> 00:20:41.860 And so my message to the pastor is how, how might you want to prepare your people to respond 00:20:41.860 --> 00:20:42.500 in that moment? 00:20:42.740 --> 00:20:44.500 They don't have to go knock on doors. 00:20:44.920 --> 00:20:49.260 They don't have to necessarily put themselves out there in a way that feels uncomfortable. 00:20:50.040 --> 00:20:51.980 Uh, the campaign is doing that for us. 00:20:51.980 --> 00:20:57.140 It's building a bridge really toward, toward those of us that are already kind of on the 00:20:57.140 --> 00:20:57.940 journey with Jesus. 00:20:58.700 --> 00:21:02.340 Um, your job kind of to decide is how do you want to equip your people? 00:21:02.640 --> 00:21:06.500 And to me, it's a beautiful expression of in many ways, what the church should be doing, 00:21:06.580 --> 00:21:12.760 which is preparing our folks to go out and live this out in their social media corners, 00:21:12.760 --> 00:21:14.980 at work, at school, et cetera. 00:21:15.660 --> 00:21:22.060 Um, and so we, we, the campaign, uh, Bill mentioned earlier has really two big, simple goals. 00:21:22.060 --> 00:21:26.940 The first he mentioned is how do we raise the respect and relevance of Jesus in our culture? 00:21:27.640 --> 00:21:32.680 Uh, we think the campaign is doing a beautiful job of that and we'll continue to do so. 00:21:33.000 --> 00:21:37.360 But the second goal talks about how do we call up Jesus followers? 00:21:37.360 --> 00:21:44.260 How do we call up Christians to best reflect authentically that radical love of Jesus in 00:21:44.260 --> 00:21:45.640 their circles of influence? 00:21:46.020 --> 00:21:51.800 So wherever that is, if it's physical, digital, whatever, um, and that, so you talk about glue, 00:21:51.920 --> 00:21:56.940 like everything that we're assembling and powering for these churches is really to put in the 00:21:56.940 --> 00:22:01.660 hands of you as a church leader so that you can help us accomplish that second goal that 00:22:01.660 --> 00:22:02.820 we think you want to do too. 00:22:03.080 --> 00:22:07.740 We think you want to call up all the people that are following you to reflect Jesus. 00:22:07.740 --> 00:22:14.020 So that's, that's, that describes in a nutshell, all the tools, content, resources, communications, 00:22:14.240 --> 00:22:15.940 capabilities that we're putting in your hands. 00:22:16.560 --> 00:22:17.720 It's so you can do that. 00:22:18.280 --> 00:22:23.700 So you're not even, you're seeing normal people engage in this and sign up for stuff, like 00:22:23.700 --> 00:22:29.280 even beyond church organizations, like, has this gotten down to like, at a people level, 00:22:29.380 --> 00:22:30.440 someone signing up for this? 00:22:30.820 --> 00:22:30.960 Yeah. 00:22:31.040 --> 00:22:32.960 In fact, you know, to give you a real example. 00:22:33.260 --> 00:22:35.240 So I personally went on the road last weekend. 00:22:35.500 --> 00:22:37.540 I was like, this tailgate tour sounds pretty cool. 00:22:37.620 --> 00:22:39.140 I'm going to, I'm going to see what this is all about. 00:22:39.160 --> 00:22:42.020 So I got on a plane and went to one of these games. 00:22:42.120 --> 00:22:45.820 I won't say which team, cause I don't want to alienate people on the other side of the 00:22:45.820 --> 00:22:49.460 conference, but we've been out at a lot of the big games, let's just say. 00:22:49.800 --> 00:22:55.680 And, um, the, the two top comments that we get when we're out there on the street, 00:22:55.680 --> 00:22:58.040 we have a booth, we're handing out towels. 00:22:58.040 --> 00:23:03.540 For example, at a football context, we have a towel that says Jesus left it all on the 00:23:03.540 --> 00:23:03.820 field. 00:23:04.700 --> 00:23:05.680 It's a white towel. 00:23:05.760 --> 00:23:08.240 And so we give that to fans on both sides of the game. 00:23:08.340 --> 00:23:11.840 We're like, Hey, take this in the game, wave this around during the game, right? 00:23:12.420 --> 00:23:17.180 To the two questions we get the most, um, how can I support what you guys are doing? 00:23:17.300 --> 00:23:18.360 I think this is incredible. 00:23:19.180 --> 00:23:20.360 And how can I donate? 00:23:21.020 --> 00:23:23.000 Those are the, those are the two responses we get. 00:23:23.000 --> 00:23:28.940 And, and on the second, uh, right now we're, we're actually not accepting individual donations. 00:23:29.100 --> 00:23:33.620 So it's, you know, it's like, thank you, but we're not, this isn't why we're doing this. 00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:39.720 But on the first, yeah, we, we have individuals that are just excited to leverage this. 00:23:39.780 --> 00:23:45.720 Um, and yeah, churches are that way as well, but, um, we're, we're busy working hard right 00:23:45.720 --> 00:23:51.000 now, figuring out how can we say yes to all these people, give them a tool, give them social 00:23:51.000 --> 00:23:55.980 graphics to share, give them a shirt or a hat, uh, that they can wear, uh, cause people are 00:23:55.980 --> 00:23:56.600 really excited. 00:23:56.600 --> 00:23:59.200 And, and in some cases even proud of what's going on here. 00:23:59.440 --> 00:23:59.540 Yeah. 00:23:59.600 --> 00:24:01.760 And that's, that's an incredible idea. 00:24:01.760 --> 00:24:06.560 Like I just even mentally hadn't gotten there myself, but the, we, we talk a lot about missional 00:24:06.560 --> 00:24:11.560 imagination and about, you know, you can imagine, well, shoot, I had a conversation earlier 00:24:11.560 --> 00:24:12.840 today with, with Andre. 00:24:13.080 --> 00:24:16.540 Andre runs a digital church called barbecue assemblies of God. 00:24:16.680 --> 00:24:22.280 So you can start to see some of the imaginative ideas that are coming into digital and metaverse. 00:24:22.280 --> 00:24:23.280 I want to go to that church. 00:24:23.700 --> 00:24:24.460 Dude, seriously. 00:24:24.460 --> 00:24:24.940 For sure. 00:24:25.240 --> 00:24:27.660 He was, he was talking to me about something he does. 00:24:27.740 --> 00:24:30.540 Um, he does, he does tailgate parties where he cooks out. 00:24:30.540 --> 00:24:35.100 He shares Jesus, he connects it digitally to something like he's doing some really, right. 00:24:35.160 --> 00:24:35.740 What'd he tell me? 00:24:35.740 --> 00:24:41.020 He says he's got, he's got 10 locations, 10 micro locations scattered around where people 00:24:41.020 --> 00:24:46.900 are watching services online regularly, uh, gathering together, even doing physical small 00:24:46.900 --> 00:24:48.480 groups scattered across the country. 00:24:48.480 --> 00:24:51.480 And he's been doing it less than five months. 00:24:51.480 --> 00:24:57.360 I think he said he started the church in May 21, 22, whole other conversation. 00:24:57.360 --> 00:25:01.980 Well, I was going to say that's, that's key is, so I think one of the things that that's 00:25:01.980 --> 00:25:07.280 really great about this campaign is we've put it into the market and we're forcing people 00:25:07.280 --> 00:25:08.140 to respond. 00:25:08.240 --> 00:25:08.720 Right. 00:25:08.980 --> 00:25:12.760 And so I tell people all the time, we could spend the next 10 years trying to get the 00:25:12.760 --> 00:25:16.820 market ready for this campaign and they still probably wouldn't be ready. 00:25:17.060 --> 00:25:22.580 Instead, what we're doing is we're putting pressure on the market and we're going to market with 00:25:22.580 --> 00:25:23.420 this campaign. 00:25:24.180 --> 00:25:28.700 However, we're also telling anybody who says that, how, how, how can I relate to this? 00:25:28.720 --> 00:25:30.900 How can I, how can I, what can I do with this? 00:25:30.920 --> 00:25:35.500 We always say, we just want to be a tool in your tool belt, you know, and I love the idea 00:25:35.500 --> 00:25:41.580 that you said, you know, to people's imaginations, to their, to their current ministry, what can, 00:25:41.740 --> 00:25:43.760 what can we do to help you? 00:25:43.760 --> 00:25:49.620 And we're developing tools all the time and we're developing content all the time, but it's 00:25:49.620 --> 00:25:54.680 really more about not us really forcing us on them. 00:25:54.840 --> 00:25:57.840 It's about them saying, how can I use this? 00:25:57.960 --> 00:25:59.120 How can I leverage this? 00:25:59.140 --> 00:26:05.520 And we're trusting the people and their imaginations and their capabilities to say, I can align with 00:26:05.520 --> 00:26:07.020 this in this way. 00:26:07.100 --> 00:26:09.060 And this is how I'm going to use it. 00:26:09.060 --> 00:26:13.260 And so we, that's why it's like when Brad says, we're not even taking donations. 00:26:13.260 --> 00:26:15.260 I mean, most people are pretty blown away. 00:26:15.300 --> 00:26:16.220 It's like, really? 00:26:16.440 --> 00:26:20.980 And it's like, no, we're, we're, we're not, you know, we, we have funding behind this and 00:26:20.980 --> 00:26:23.340 we want to put pressure on the marketplace to respond. 00:26:23.340 --> 00:26:28.540 But at the same time, we want to give the marketplace, plenty of content and information to respond 00:26:28.540 --> 00:26:28.920 with. 00:26:29.480 --> 00:26:33.840 Even the, the guy, whoever it was, I don't even know who it was, who was doing the virtual 00:26:33.840 --> 00:26:35.700 reality expression that I walked into. 00:26:36.060 --> 00:26:41.640 I mean, that, that's, that's taking a resource and applying imagination to it and doing something 00:26:41.640 --> 00:26:43.800 incredible with it. 00:26:43.800 --> 00:26:48.720 You know, and we talk a lot about creating in digital and metaverse, uh, the evangelism. 00:26:48.720 --> 00:26:50.020 I'm actually writing a book on this. 00:26:50.080 --> 00:26:52.020 That's where, uh, that's getting published in January. 00:26:52.020 --> 00:26:55.160 I'm coauthoring a book, but the idea is shared experiences. 00:26:55.380 --> 00:26:59.540 Like if you want to connect to people, if you want to build relationships digitally or virtual 00:26:59.540 --> 00:27:04.160 reality, there's some level of shared experience that you have that, that you need to have with 00:27:04.160 --> 00:27:11.200 the person to get credibility and the opportunity to use this, he gets us as a launching pad, 00:27:11.200 --> 00:27:16.720 as a first step to creating a shared experience or create the shared experience. 00:27:16.720 --> 00:27:21.720 And then when you're comfortable taking the next step, bringing in the, he gets us idea into a 00:27:21.720 --> 00:27:22.340 conversation. 00:27:22.540 --> 00:27:24.360 This is, this is just beautiful. 00:27:24.360 --> 00:27:29.800 And I love this resource and I love how open-handed you've been with this. 00:27:29.800 --> 00:27:32.100 Like, and I want, I'm going to swing the heavy hammer here. 00:27:32.220 --> 00:27:38.680 If you're a digital pastor, if you're a metaverse guy, if you're in doing the, even a digital 00:27:38.680 --> 00:27:46.360 volunteer, like there's opportunities to utilize this information, these graphics, um, the, the, 00:27:46.360 --> 00:27:51.360 the information, the people that get fed to you, the leads, the explorers, these are people 00:27:51.360 --> 00:27:53.480 that need, uh, connection. 00:27:53.480 --> 00:27:54.660 They need community. 00:27:54.660 --> 00:27:59.220 Uh, and, and oftentimes, and I'm, I'm, I'm just going to make up this example, but I'm sure 00:27:59.220 --> 00:28:01.980 it's one of, of thousands, if not more. 00:28:02.860 --> 00:28:07.140 Oftentimes where these people are coming from, there's not a physical church in the database. 00:28:07.140 --> 00:28:12.660 Like it, Brad, am I, am I okay saying that where you don't have U S full exposure of, of 00:28:12.660 --> 00:28:13.080 churches. 00:28:13.080 --> 00:28:16.620 And so it's hard to get people connected into a physical church. 00:28:16.660 --> 00:28:17.300 Am I right? 00:28:17.560 --> 00:28:17.800 Yeah. 00:28:18.260 --> 00:28:19.160 Spot on Jeff. 00:28:19.160 --> 00:28:23.660 In fact, I mean, there are already thousands of churches involved, but as you, as you stated, 00:28:24.160 --> 00:28:28.900 you know, we can't cover every last mile, every last zip code at that local level. 00:28:28.900 --> 00:28:33.180 So one of the things we've really worked hard is to, is to look for churches. 00:28:33.180 --> 00:28:38.520 And I think a lot of them are probably in your, your audience base who can truly do ministry 00:28:38.520 --> 00:28:40.740 from, from a digital context. 00:28:40.740 --> 00:28:45.380 You know, we're not just talking about streaming, but, um, you know, internally we'll call them 00:28:45.380 --> 00:28:51.920 remote ready or, or, or, or a church that really has done the work and put the thought and planning 00:28:51.920 --> 00:28:59.600 into, if I get somebody five States away or two time zones away from me, who is interested 00:28:59.600 --> 00:29:04.340 in just connecting with someone, they have questions about Jesus, or they want to just 00:29:04.340 --> 00:29:05.500 process together. 00:29:05.940 --> 00:29:11.640 You know, is your church, the kind of environment that would welcome that, even if it means they 00:29:11.640 --> 00:29:15.820 may or may not attend, even if it means they may or may not engage in your community. 00:29:15.820 --> 00:29:19.620 Now, of course, all of us would hope for that sort of outcome down the road. 00:29:20.060 --> 00:29:25.620 But as, as, as Bill said, like the campaign provides an on-ramp, what we want to do is 00:29:25.620 --> 00:29:31.480 have kind of our catchers mitts out ready to just engage, but also respect the fact that 00:29:31.480 --> 00:29:35.160 he gets us as really encouraging folks to explore at their own pace. 00:29:35.800 --> 00:29:41.040 And so how can we be there just to provide like a friendly next step, a connection? 00:29:41.040 --> 00:29:42.460 Like, yeah, I'm on the journey too. 00:29:43.360 --> 00:29:48.780 Uh, we, one of the things we do at glue is we provide support for the live chat that comes 00:29:48.780 --> 00:29:50.340 in through the campaign. 00:29:50.340 --> 00:29:57.020 And so we get to see front row seat to people on all ends of the spectrum who, uh, believe 00:29:57.020 --> 00:29:59.820 it, don't believe it, want to question it, want to argue it. 00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:01.220 And we support that. 00:30:01.620 --> 00:30:04.380 You know, some people are like, why don't you turn off the comments on YouTube? 00:30:05.320 --> 00:30:09.460 And it's like, well, actually the point is we want to, we want to see people processing. 00:30:09.680 --> 00:30:10.720 We want the conversation. 00:30:10.860 --> 00:30:11.440 We welcome that. 00:30:11.500 --> 00:30:17.200 So we're, we're looking for churches, by the way, who are, you know, excited to do that 00:30:17.200 --> 00:30:22.500 and are prepared and maybe have a volunteer base that can step into that with, with comfort. 00:30:23.140 --> 00:30:24.520 Uh, that's, that's, that's beautiful. 00:30:24.520 --> 00:30:30.480 And this is why, I mean, what, what Brad was just saying, this is why I believe that digital 00:30:30.480 --> 00:30:35.040 churches and churches that understand, we use the term digital discipleship here all the 00:30:35.040 --> 00:30:36.880 time, the relational connection. 00:30:37.440 --> 00:30:42.680 Um, this is why I think this campaign is going to be so successful in the digital environment, 00:30:42.680 --> 00:30:47.720 because we are capable of, of connecting with people on the other side of the country. 00:30:47.940 --> 00:30:49.440 You're already doing it. 00:30:49.600 --> 00:30:55.280 Uh, the physical church, I mean, I hate to say it this way, but the buildings are lid for what the 00:30:55.280 --> 00:30:56.080 potential can be. 00:30:56.140 --> 00:31:00.840 And oftentimes we don't have enough buildings in enough cities to do this effectively. 00:31:00.840 --> 00:31:04.740 It was, it was to go even going back to the Billy Graham, I had this conversation with 00:31:04.740 --> 00:31:07.000 a bunch of Liberty professors earlier this week. 00:31:07.000 --> 00:31:08.900 That was the challenge of the Billy Graham crusades. 00:31:09.300 --> 00:31:11.920 Billy Graham would come in, get a whole bunch of people saved. 00:31:11.920 --> 00:31:14.240 And it's like, okay, where are the churches to do follow-up? 00:31:14.340 --> 00:31:19.560 And oftentimes there weren't enough churches to do the local physical follow-up, you know, 00:31:19.600 --> 00:31:23.080 back in Billy's ages, back in the seventies, eighties, and nineties. 00:31:23.380 --> 00:31:28.540 Well, because of digital, because of the work that you all are doing in expanding digital 00:31:28.540 --> 00:31:33.720 discipleship to make it scalable and reachable, this campaign is designed specifically. 00:31:33.720 --> 00:31:38.060 They don't realize it yet, the potential of what's here, but it's designed to help churches 00:31:38.060 --> 00:31:44.500 like yours get connected to new people and the effectiveness of us to lean in, to utilize 00:31:44.500 --> 00:31:49.180 the skillset that we already have, to reach these, to disciple these, to encourage these, 00:31:49.240 --> 00:31:51.380 to build the relationships with these people. 00:31:51.620 --> 00:31:55.360 I truly believe it's going to be phenomenal. 00:31:56.080 --> 00:32:00.820 So you're, so tell me this, Bill, uh, Jason, one of you, we're, we're, we're talking a lot 00:32:00.820 --> 00:32:06.380 here about, um, you're, you're doing some physical stuff you're doing on, or you're doing, 00:32:06.380 --> 00:32:11.840 it sounds like you're doing some sports, um, possible Superbowl, like where, where is this 00:32:11.840 --> 00:32:14.380 campaign going beyond this? 00:32:14.400 --> 00:32:15.840 Like, is there, is there a next step? 00:32:15.920 --> 00:32:17.320 What's where, where are you going? 00:32:17.420 --> 00:32:19.400 What's, what's the forecast of where this thing's heading? 00:32:19.400 --> 00:32:19.840 Yeah. 00:32:20.100 --> 00:32:26.500 So it, um, you know, the, the campaign is, he gets us is in all the big cultural moments. 00:32:26.500 --> 00:32:32.000 And so, I mean, every Sunday, you know, during NFL games and we have partnerships with four 00:32:32.000 --> 00:32:36.240 major league baseball teams, the pirates, the Cardinals, the White Sox, the Rangers. 00:32:36.380 --> 00:32:40.460 You know, we're super excited because the NBA and the NHL season to start, you know, so 00:32:40.460 --> 00:32:45.400 basically whatever you're watching, wherever you're going, primetime TV, digit, you know, 00:32:45.400 --> 00:32:50.720 like Brad was saying, it's, it's very present and people are seeing it's about 108 million 00:32:50.720 --> 00:32:53.200 people that are already familiar with the campaign. 00:32:53.380 --> 00:32:59.560 But I think one of the things that's most important for your audience to understand is just some 00:32:59.560 --> 00:33:04.320 of the underlying insights, because these are things that anybody can apply is they work to 00:33:04.320 --> 00:33:06.500 have conversations with people who are spiritually open. 00:33:06.600 --> 00:33:11.640 You don't have to use the, he gets us ads to do this, but it's important to know what the 00:33:11.640 --> 00:33:17.660 obstacles are, the barriers for somebody who is spiritually open, but has a lot of skepticism 00:33:17.660 --> 00:33:18.520 about Christianity. 00:33:18.680 --> 00:33:23.000 And the number one thing is they have a deep seated instinct to not want to hear from Christians. 00:33:23.000 --> 00:33:28.740 And so I created my own analogy, which is just, you know, imagine your favorite shopping experience, 00:33:28.940 --> 00:33:29.840 whatever that is. 00:33:30.340 --> 00:33:35.120 And then imagine a really annoying salesperson who keeps asking you to look at things you're 00:33:35.120 --> 00:33:40.560 not interested in, keeps redirecting you away from areas that you want to go, just interrupts 00:33:40.560 --> 00:33:40.900 a lot. 00:33:41.200 --> 00:33:45.500 And, and unfortunately, that's a lot of times what somebody who's kind of spiritually open 00:33:45.500 --> 00:33:49.540 experiences when, when we try to intervene in their faith journey. 00:33:49.660 --> 00:33:52.120 So we have to tread, I think, really lightly. 00:33:52.120 --> 00:33:57.000 I think there's, there's a humble approach here to say, what's your path? 00:33:57.080 --> 00:33:57.920 What's your story? 00:33:58.080 --> 00:33:59.620 What language are you comfortable with? 00:33:59.700 --> 00:34:00.880 What things do you understand? 00:34:00.960 --> 00:34:01.980 What are you interested in? 00:34:02.000 --> 00:34:05.920 Like, I'm here to serve you, not the other way around. 00:34:05.920 --> 00:34:09.540 And then I think another thing that's really key for them to understand is that, you know, 00:34:09.580 --> 00:34:13.700 if you're trying to like defend or promote Christianity or all the good things that the church 00:34:13.700 --> 00:34:16.880 does just doesn't work at all with this audience. 00:34:16.880 --> 00:34:23.760 And they're also, they really, they struggle with the divinity of Jesus. 00:34:24.080 --> 00:34:27.780 And so we've made a conscious effort to respect them. 00:34:27.920 --> 00:34:31.520 And the thing that they're interested in is the humanity of Jesus. 00:34:31.520 --> 00:34:32.860 And he was fully human. 00:34:33.060 --> 00:34:37.560 And so we say, great, if that's the conversation you're open to having, let's talk about that 00:34:37.560 --> 00:34:37.800 then. 00:34:38.220 --> 00:34:43.120 And so all of these common experiences, like, hey, you know, have you ever faced criticism 00:34:43.120 --> 00:34:46.520 or are you, do you ever see injustice in the world around you? 00:34:46.680 --> 00:34:50.940 Do you ever feel judged or see people around you being judged? 00:34:51.820 --> 00:34:54.300 Do you just want to have fun sometimes and enjoy family? 00:34:54.400 --> 00:34:54.840 Guess what? 00:34:55.240 --> 00:34:56.780 Jesus, all of those things. 00:34:56.780 --> 00:35:05.000 And so I think that is focusing there is really what people can be applying in their ministry. 00:35:05.180 --> 00:35:11.340 And so anything that they can do to convey through the message, Jesus is for everybody. 00:35:11.620 --> 00:35:13.640 You know, Christians are not gatekeepers to Jesus. 00:35:13.640 --> 00:35:15.160 You don't have to go through me to get Jesus. 00:35:15.700 --> 00:35:17.260 That's why he came in the first place. 00:35:17.340 --> 00:35:18.860 You could get access to him directly. 00:35:19.660 --> 00:35:24.740 You know, seeing just the positiveness of his teachings and going, even if I'm not a 00:35:24.740 --> 00:35:28.480 Christian, like, what Jesus laid down, that's just a good way to live. 00:35:28.580 --> 00:35:32.460 Like, it's hard to go wrong doing things the way that he did things. 00:35:32.700 --> 00:35:34.800 And so there is this familiarity. 00:35:35.060 --> 00:35:40.660 People actually know more about Jesus and know more about the Bible. 00:35:40.760 --> 00:35:44.240 A lot of times in what we give them credit for, and they're interested in learning more, 00:35:44.340 --> 00:35:45.780 but it has to be on their own terms. 00:35:45.780 --> 00:35:50.400 And so that's why, you know, going all the way back to what Bill mentioned, one of the 00:35:50.400 --> 00:35:54.060 things that they really enjoy doing the most, actually the thing they do the most on our 00:35:54.060 --> 00:35:57.680 website than anything else, is subscribe to Bible reading plans. 00:35:57.900 --> 00:36:03.340 And so I think as you think about digital ministry, there's something about the anonymity of being 00:36:03.340 --> 00:36:07.200 able to consume content on your own without having to have somebody on the other end. 00:36:07.340 --> 00:36:08.480 Like, texting is great. 00:36:08.640 --> 00:36:09.320 Chatting is great. 00:36:09.380 --> 00:36:10.280 We do all those things. 00:36:10.640 --> 00:36:14.020 But the number one thing people are doing is, I just want to sign up and just read it for 00:36:14.020 --> 00:36:14.480 myself. 00:36:15.180 --> 00:36:21.680 And so how do you facilitate self-exploration and then be there? 00:36:21.800 --> 00:36:23.660 I like Brad's, you know, when they're ready. 00:36:23.800 --> 00:36:24.940 But it's all on their terms. 00:36:25.040 --> 00:36:26.480 It's not on our terms anymore. 00:36:26.880 --> 00:36:28.120 Yeah, I love that. 00:36:28.240 --> 00:36:29.720 You're empowering them. 00:36:30.280 --> 00:36:31.820 You're respecting them as an individual. 00:36:31.980 --> 00:36:38.340 You're giving them the authority, the permission to control their own spirituality and to seek 00:36:38.340 --> 00:36:39.160 it on their own. 00:36:40.280 --> 00:36:46.080 That, by the way, Jason, what you just said, that's the heart of every digital and metaverse 00:36:46.080 --> 00:36:47.200 pastor I know. 00:36:47.200 --> 00:36:51.520 Like, the ability to give it to them. 00:36:51.520 --> 00:36:54.200 I mean, that's how the church multiplies. 00:36:54.580 --> 00:37:01.120 That's how the church gets into disciple-making multiplication, by giving it to them and not 00:37:01.120 --> 00:37:02.780 being the gatekeeper of it. 00:37:02.840 --> 00:37:10.180 And so very, very excited that an organization like Glue is putting the emphasis, is running 00:37:10.180 --> 00:37:13.820 with this and is seeing it happen in real time. 00:37:13.900 --> 00:37:14.540 I'm just curious. 00:37:14.800 --> 00:37:16.280 And I don't want to be about numbers. 00:37:16.860 --> 00:37:18.620 Do we have any idea what kind of reach? 00:37:18.840 --> 00:37:19.840 I don't want to make it about the Super Bowl. 00:37:19.900 --> 00:37:20.160 I'm sorry. 00:37:20.240 --> 00:37:21.140 I'm keeping it back to the Super Bowl. 00:37:21.520 --> 00:37:23.200 But February 12th is right around the corner. 00:37:23.840 --> 00:37:28.700 And I'm excited to see he gets us right alongside Apple Music's halftime show starring Rihanna, 00:37:28.860 --> 00:37:29.700 February 12th. 00:37:29.920 --> 00:37:33.640 So tell me, do you have any idea what the reach is with the ad? 00:37:33.840 --> 00:37:34.920 Like, what are they predicting? 00:37:35.860 --> 00:37:37.020 What's the potential here? 00:37:37.340 --> 00:37:40.160 Well, even just already, the campaign launched this spring. 00:37:40.260 --> 00:37:45.300 We launched it around March Madness, the NCAA basketball tournaments, through Easter and 00:37:45.300 --> 00:37:46.240 then right through the summer. 00:37:46.240 --> 00:37:51.520 So already, the campaign has had over 3 billion impressions, 3.07 impressions. 00:37:52.240 --> 00:37:53.180 3 billion. 00:37:53.480 --> 00:37:55.980 And is that targeted and focused in the U.S. only, right? 00:37:56.160 --> 00:37:56.520 It is. 00:37:56.720 --> 00:37:56.880 Yep. 00:37:57.380 --> 00:37:57.560 Wow. 00:37:57.640 --> 00:37:57.780 Yeah. 00:37:57.940 --> 00:38:02.920 And then there's about 340 million views now on YouTube. 00:38:03.100 --> 00:38:07.800 And then, like I mentioned just a second ago, 108 million people are aware of this campaign. 00:38:08.200 --> 00:38:12.400 So this is a campaign that people are seeing. 00:38:12.900 --> 00:38:16.160 And those numbers are only going to go up as we go through the fall. 00:38:16.240 --> 00:38:20.520 And then, like you said, through the NFL playoffs and then, you know, all the way through the 00:38:20.520 --> 00:38:20.960 big game. 00:38:21.060 --> 00:38:23.040 And then, and that, and we're just getting started. 00:38:23.200 --> 00:38:27.920 So this is just, you know, we're, we're about six, seven months into launching this thing. 00:38:27.920 --> 00:38:29.780 And so it's brand new. 00:38:29.780 --> 00:38:32.020 And so the great thing is, it's kind of like the weather. 00:38:32.300 --> 00:38:35.540 You can always use it to start a conversation, no matter where you are. 00:38:35.640 --> 00:38:36.940 It's a common experience. 00:38:37.380 --> 00:38:42.320 That's essentially what he gets as his created is it's something that everybody will be seeing 00:38:42.320 --> 00:38:43.980 and everybody will be experiencing. 00:38:44.260 --> 00:38:46.640 And so it's just a no-brainer start to a conversation. 00:38:46.880 --> 00:38:50.860 And so, you know, just know what the weather is in other parts of the country. 00:38:51.040 --> 00:38:53.780 And you have a guaranteed conversation starter. 00:38:53.940 --> 00:38:58.620 If you, if you know the ads, if you're familiar with some of the concepts, you'll be able to 00:38:58.620 --> 00:38:59.880 use that as a lead in. 00:39:00.060 --> 00:39:02.800 And then as people say, I'm interested, I saw this. 00:39:02.900 --> 00:39:04.000 It made me uncomfortable. 00:39:04.260 --> 00:39:05.280 It raised a question. 00:39:06.120 --> 00:39:07.260 You're there to go. 00:39:07.600 --> 00:39:07.840 Great. 00:39:07.920 --> 00:39:10.780 I would love to talk with you and answer your questions. 00:39:11.160 --> 00:39:16.340 The Super Bowl, though, you're right, is a really unique format in the sense that, or a unique 00:39:16.340 --> 00:39:22.260 platform in the sense that, you know, the numbers are, you know, predicted that 112 million people 00:39:22.260 --> 00:39:23.460 will watch the Super Bowl. 00:39:24.040 --> 00:39:26.960 Well over 50% of America watches the Super Bowl. 00:39:27.200 --> 00:39:30.320 And, you know, it's essentially a national holiday, right? 00:39:31.700 --> 00:39:34.480 We, I've done, I've done stuff in the Super Bowl before. 00:39:34.680 --> 00:39:38.140 I know we've got people on our team that have done stuff in the Super Bowl before. 00:39:38.240 --> 00:39:40.580 We know what the impact is like, right? 00:39:40.920 --> 00:39:46.500 But we also, we also know that, you know, from, from even surveys that we've done, national 00:39:46.500 --> 00:39:50.360 surveys, you know, that have appeared and written up in the New York Times and stuff like that, 00:39:50.680 --> 00:39:55.900 65% of the people who watched the Super Bowl watched it for the ads as much as the game. 00:39:56.240 --> 00:40:02.120 So it's a very unique platform from that standpoint because, you know, you not only, you have 00:40:02.120 --> 00:40:05.440 112 million people, which is just, you know, on a cost per thousand basis, people always 00:40:05.440 --> 00:40:09.380 talk about the cost of running an ad in the Super Bowl, but the reality is on a cost per 00:40:09.380 --> 00:40:13.960 thousand basis, it may be one of the most efficient TV buys, period, right? 00:40:14.040 --> 00:40:18.940 But then you have all these people who pay attention to the ads and are waiting for the ads. 00:40:18.980 --> 00:40:22.600 And especially if you think about women, for example, the number even goes higher of why 00:40:22.600 --> 00:40:23.860 they're watching the Super Bowl. 00:40:24.080 --> 00:40:28.900 But the Super Bowl also has an aspect to it where people talk about it after the game, 00:40:28.980 --> 00:40:29.100 right? 00:40:29.120 --> 00:40:30.020 What did they see? 00:40:30.280 --> 00:40:34.140 And, you know, it's just something that you, because you do experience it, you know, in 00:40:34.140 --> 00:40:38.800 a group setting most of the time, you know, and you have this shared experience, you know, 00:40:38.800 --> 00:40:40.460 it's something that people talk about for years. 00:40:40.600 --> 00:40:46.600 I mean, you know, I was in business with a guy who did a Super Bowl ad like in the early 00:40:46.600 --> 00:40:50.000 nineties that they still rank as one of the top Super Bowl ads. 00:40:50.040 --> 00:40:53.420 And I can, I can bring it up to people who are barely, I don't even think we're born 00:40:53.420 --> 00:40:53.700 then. 00:40:53.700 --> 00:40:57.260 And I say, have you ever seen the ad with Michael Jordan and Larry Bird? 00:40:57.440 --> 00:40:58.340 You know, nothing but net. 00:40:58.400 --> 00:41:00.540 And they, they challenge each other for a Big Mac. 00:41:00.760 --> 00:41:03.180 And I know college students that weren't even born then. 00:41:03.280 --> 00:41:04.400 They go, yeah, I've seen that ad. 00:41:04.820 --> 00:41:06.460 That's because it ran during the Super Bowl. 00:41:07.280 --> 00:41:08.880 And my partner actually did it. 00:41:09.560 --> 00:41:10.280 That's awesome. 00:41:10.380 --> 00:41:13.040 It's such an incredible opportunity. 00:41:13.040 --> 00:41:22.560 And once again, glue is graciously offering a 12 month scholarship to this for any digital 00:41:22.560 --> 00:41:29.280 metaverse church, any physical church that is using this coupon code, this access to get 00:41:29.280 --> 00:41:38.880 in, you can go to, you can text 855-631-4850, 855-631-4850. 00:41:39.140 --> 00:41:45.840 Type in the code, he gets us in the text and send it, or go to the church.digital slash 00:41:45.840 --> 00:41:47.560 he gets us. 00:41:47.640 --> 00:41:52.040 Either way, uh, you follow the instructions that go to there, then get you into the system. 00:41:52.220 --> 00:41:54.080 You should see the cost disappear. 00:41:54.520 --> 00:41:59.700 They are so motivated to get churches that can handle at a national level and digital 00:41:59.700 --> 00:42:05.040 churches, metaverse churches, physical churches, understanding digital discipleship, my people, 00:42:05.520 --> 00:42:06.760 you are the solution here. 00:42:06.840 --> 00:42:12.120 So let's sign up, let's join in in the He Gets Us campaign and be active, uh, trying to 00:42:12.120 --> 00:42:13.360 reach a different type of person. 00:42:13.460 --> 00:42:14.620 Hey, we got to land a plane. 00:42:14.940 --> 00:42:15.500 Go ahead, Brad. 00:42:16.040 --> 00:42:21.040 Yeah, no, I, just as, as we close out, I wanted to, um, number one, a statement Bill made 00:42:21.040 --> 00:42:27.580 about really making He Gets Us a tool in the tool belt of the church leader, um, that 00:42:27.580 --> 00:42:31.540 demonstrates also, there's a degree of, I think, humility throughout this project. 00:42:31.540 --> 00:42:33.540 And I just want to give credit where credit's due. 00:42:33.660 --> 00:42:37.540 Like you've said a lot of nice things about Glue, but, you know, Glue is just one of the 00:42:37.540 --> 00:42:38.520 partners in this project. 00:42:38.520 --> 00:42:42.860 We didn't create this campaign, but we've fully like steered our ship behind it. 00:42:43.380 --> 00:42:49.280 And if I can borrow like story brand language, our hope is that this project and then Glue kind 00:42:49.280 --> 00:42:53.860 of maybe being a bridge from He Gets Us down to you as the pastor is going to help you as 00:42:53.860 --> 00:42:57.060 the church become the hero and the guide to your people. 00:42:57.560 --> 00:42:59.800 Um, and so this is all possible. 00:42:59.800 --> 00:43:02.420 The reason we can offer it for free is because of donors. 00:43:02.920 --> 00:43:07.540 So actually we've, we've heard from donors that are saying we want churches to win and 00:43:07.540 --> 00:43:10.760 we want Jesus followers to be the hero here. 00:43:10.820 --> 00:43:15.420 So, um, everything from the sermon guides and the content you're going to find there. 00:43:15.840 --> 00:43:19.380 And, uh, we didn't talk a lot about this, Jeff, but there's free texting that every church 00:43:19.380 --> 00:43:20.180 here can have. 00:43:20.740 --> 00:43:23.160 That's, that has a real cost and it's paid for. 00:43:23.320 --> 00:43:26.380 So the, these donors have basically put it out in front of you. 00:43:26.460 --> 00:43:32.080 So we're thrilled to just be there a little bit as a vessel to get you guys connected to 00:43:32.080 --> 00:43:32.960 what is happening. 00:43:33.060 --> 00:43:37.560 And I could listen to Bill and Jason all day talk about the research and the creative process. 00:43:37.560 --> 00:43:40.860 It's really just a breathtaking opportunity that we all have. 00:43:40.860 --> 00:43:43.780 Yeah, definitely excited to see what's going to come of it. 00:43:43.880 --> 00:43:48.720 We packed a lot into this podcast, uh, and, and gentlemen, I want to thank you for the time. 00:43:48.820 --> 00:43:55.440 Jason, Bill, Brad, thank you for jumping on here once again, uh, to sign up for, he gets 00:43:55.440 --> 00:43:58.040 us and, and to take advantage of the scholarship. 00:43:58.040 --> 00:44:02.120 It's 855-631-4850. 00:44:02.300 --> 00:44:04.200 You can text, he gets us to that number. 00:44:04.380 --> 00:44:09.720 Oh, or the church dot digital slash he gets us all that information and more is in the 00:44:09.720 --> 00:44:14.860 show notes or in the YouTube, uh, uh, whatever the word is there a description. 00:44:15.020 --> 00:44:15.980 Why can't I come up with that word? 00:44:16.080 --> 00:44:16.620 It's been a long day. 00:44:17.000 --> 00:44:20.700 Hey, but we're going to land a plane for, for Brad, for Jason, for Bill. 00:44:20.760 --> 00:44:24.200 This is Jeff at the church, digital digital church network and a whole bunch of other fun 00:44:24.200 --> 00:44:24.380 stuff. 00:44:24.460 --> 00:44:25.860 Thanks for jumping on the podcast here. 00:44:26.080 --> 00:44:26.960 We'll see you next time on the show. 00:44:27.380 --> 00:44:27.920 Y'all have a good day.