WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.620 Welcome to the church digital podcast. Through this podcast, we'll talk about the technological 00:00:05.620 --> 00:00:10.420 innovations within the church, but more than tech for tech itself, we'll address deeper 00:00:10.420 --> 00:00:15.320 questions. Is disciple making possible digitally? How should we approach the digital mission 00:00:15.320 --> 00:00:20.200 field? Can a biblically grounded church operate in digital space? Oh, and where does the metaverse 00:00:20.200 --> 00:00:25.760 and artificial intelligence fit into all of this? Whether you're a big or small church, 00:00:25.760 --> 00:00:31.140 an established church, or a startup church plant, the Church Digital's goal is to help churches like 00:00:31.140 --> 00:00:37.600 yours learn to be a multiplying church digitally and physically. Our heart? That churches like 00:00:37.600 --> 00:00:42.580 yours would discover a new founded focus on disciple making that will revolutionize your church. 00:00:43.440 --> 00:00:47.200 And now here's your host, Jeff Reed. All right, right up here, right off the bat, 00:00:47.260 --> 00:00:54.240 episode 276 of the Church Digital Podcast, and it is good to be back. It is great to be back. 00:00:55.760 --> 00:01:01.280 Let me tell you, I missed you all. You know, I hear through emails and social media, 00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:07.520 historically, you know, for many of you, the planters, the digital pastors, the digital 00:01:07.520 --> 00:01:12.300 planters, the digital practitioners, the digital missionaries, those of you that are out there in 00:01:12.300 --> 00:01:16.600 that space, how much of an encouragement we've been able to be through the Church Digital, through 00:01:16.600 --> 00:01:22.800 the blogs and the podcasts and the books, and even through the other channels that God blessed me to 00:01:22.800 --> 00:01:28.220 have access to over the years. And it's been, it's been an encouragement, you know, I say this, it's been 00:01:28.220 --> 00:01:37.740 encouragement for me to know that many of you, we were able to help. And bluntly, as I stepped back over 00:01:37.740 --> 00:01:42.020 this past six months, I took a, I took a break, it's about to go get into it a little bit. As I took that 00:01:42.020 --> 00:01:48.300 break, it was, it was you, it was the people, it was you that I missed. It was, it was the stories of life 00:01:48.300 --> 00:01:53.180 change. It was the, the conversations about what God is doing through, through your ministry and about 00:01:53.180 --> 00:01:58.900 new innovative ideas that, that you've, you've had. And it was, it was really, you was the people 00:01:58.900 --> 00:02:07.040 that I missed the most. And so I am, I am blessed, I am honored to be sitting here in this chair once 00:02:07.040 --> 00:02:13.400 again, episode 276, continuing on the Church Digital Podcast for the next season. So thank you so much 00:02:13.400 --> 00:02:21.940 for graciously allowing me to come back in after a six month break, sabbatical, vacation. I don't know, 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:26.140 I don't know what you want to call this thing. After 25 years of ministry, I'll be honest, I never 00:02:26.140 --> 00:02:31.500 have actually had sabbatical, barely have had a vacation here or there. I'm borderline workaholic. 00:02:32.320 --> 00:02:37.120 And well, to be honest, and maybe we get into this in greater detail at a later point, but 00:02:37.120 --> 00:02:46.520 uh, on the, somewhere around June, 2023, um, I had a break, like a mental break, a, a physical break, 00:02:46.660 --> 00:02:55.220 a, um, if it could be broken, uh, it broke an emotional break in my, in my life. Um, my, 00:02:55.340 --> 00:03:02.200 my body broke. I have, um, I have diabetes type two. I have arthritis in my, in my knees and, 00:03:02.200 --> 00:03:09.000 in legs and feet. Uh, I have bad feet pain with the, the diabetes. Um, I've, there's a number of 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:13.220 other ailments. I don't want to make this medical one-on-one, but let's just say I'm 46 years old 00:03:13.220 --> 00:03:18.180 and I walk around with a cane. Um, that's what it looks like for me to get from point A to point B 00:03:18.180 --> 00:03:25.020 physically. Like, um, things went south for me, uh, quickly. Um, there was an emotional break. You 00:03:25.020 --> 00:03:29.800 know, my, my friend John Pyle just recently did a, a podcast. He preached a sermon talking about, 00:03:29.800 --> 00:03:36.200 um, little T traumas in our life and how, you know, even something simple as, Hey, 00:03:36.200 --> 00:03:40.380 how am I going to pay this bill? Um, how am I going to pay my mortgage? That's not a, 00:03:40.420 --> 00:03:44.760 that's not a major trauma, but it's a minor trauma. When you get enough minor traumas in my life, 00:03:44.760 --> 00:03:53.240 all of a sudden it's a, it's a major thing. And, um, summer 23 brought the Reed family into a major 00:03:53.240 --> 00:03:59.320 trauma situation. Um, and there was a, there was a break. I mean, it was minor traumas that contributed 00:03:59.320 --> 00:04:05.760 and piled up into a, a major situation. And, uh, and, and as a result of it, honestly, I had to step 00:04:05.760 --> 00:04:11.120 back from leadership and, and, and get my family, get my life, get, get everything figured out. 00:04:11.480 --> 00:04:16.300 And so I did it. I, I stepped back from the organization that I founded and was, was leading 00:04:16.300 --> 00:04:21.220 at that moment. Actually it was two, it was the church digital and the second, the digital church 00:04:21.220 --> 00:04:28.660 network. Um, and so stepped back from that. Uh, and after six months of, of figuring out 00:04:28.660 --> 00:04:33.700 what life looks like, what ministry looks like, what family looks like. And after working through 00:04:33.700 --> 00:04:39.760 multiple different business models and, and, and, uh, meeting some new friends, um, man, 00:04:39.880 --> 00:04:46.320 I'm excited about 2024 and what's in store. We've got some new relationships coming out and you're 00:04:46.320 --> 00:04:50.080 going to, you're going to hear some things in the podcast and future conversations, future podcasts 00:04:50.080 --> 00:04:57.000 talking about resi and push pay and, and, and glue and start church. And there's a lot of really 00:04:57.000 --> 00:05:02.420 awesome things coming up in the life of Jeff and the life of church, the church digital as well. 00:05:02.540 --> 00:05:06.820 You're going to, you're going to hear us talk about a new logo, a new website that's brand 00:05:06.820 --> 00:05:11.420 coming up for the, for the church digital is where I would not say the vision is changing, 00:05:11.420 --> 00:05:15.920 but, but I do think there's more clarity and I think there's more people that are owning larger 00:05:15.920 --> 00:05:21.920 pieces of it. Um, I never wanted to build an organization that was centered around me. 00:05:22.080 --> 00:05:27.360 I was very vocal about that. I did not want the church digital centered around me. And I love the 00:05:27.360 --> 00:05:35.660 fact that 2024, um, we're seeing this happen where the church digital, um, is, is becoming renewed 00:05:35.660 --> 00:05:41.140 without it being centered around me. As a fact, I'm not even the guy that's leading the organization. 00:05:41.140 --> 00:05:46.580 I now have a boss with the church digital who gets to tell me what to do, uh, which actually 00:05:46.580 --> 00:05:52.760 is a highlight of my life. I enjoy that very much. And so in this podcast, um, we're, we're 00:05:52.760 --> 00:05:59.640 talking about the new, the church digital. We've got, um, Bernie Mapili, who's now the CEO of the 00:05:59.640 --> 00:06:07.080 church digital. And we've got Andy Mage, who's the COO operating director of the church digital. 00:06:07.080 --> 00:06:12.380 And you've got me, Jeff Reed, the founder, the old guy, the guy, if you're watching on 00:06:12.380 --> 00:06:17.520 YouTube, shaved his beard, he's got this like gray scruff on his face, new look. Uh, but the 00:06:17.520 --> 00:06:23.280 fact is, uh, what you, what I hope you hear is the same heart for digital discipleship, for 00:06:23.280 --> 00:06:27.880 doing something different digitally, to reach a different person, to empower a different 00:06:27.880 --> 00:06:33.360 leader, to disciple in different ways. Uh, but at the heart of this aligning to what Christ 00:06:33.360 --> 00:06:41.400 has called us disciple makers in churches to be biblically. And so here we are, Andy Mage, 00:06:41.400 --> 00:06:46.560 Bernie Mapili, myself, Jeff with the chat with, uh, Jeff Reed with the church digital. That was 00:06:46.560 --> 00:06:51.040 weird. Jeff with Jeff Reed with the church digital, uh, in a public case, in a conversation I'm 00:06:51.040 --> 00:06:59.300 calling the new, the church digital. Here you go. All right. So Jeff here, let's dig into episode 00:06:59.300 --> 00:07:05.260 276, the new, the church digital. That may be repetitive. The new church digital, the new, 00:07:05.260 --> 00:07:10.500 the church digital, the new TCD. Let's, let's go with that. We, um, so it took a break. Like 00:07:10.500 --> 00:07:15.300 we talked about, uh, on the podcast, uh, took a little vacation, you know, I'd been a, I haven't 00:07:15.300 --> 00:07:20.000 had a sabbatical in, um, well, ever, you know, I'd work in all these churches and they would talk 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:25.220 about sabbaticals and never actually, you know, experienced one. And so kind of forced myself to, 00:07:25.260 --> 00:07:31.000 to take a little break. Um, and it's awesome because you got this like organization. I won't 00:07:31.000 --> 00:07:35.320 call myself a massive organization, but there was a lot of stuff that was moving. There was a lot of 00:07:35.320 --> 00:07:39.600 moving parts and it's like, you know, I got to step away. I got to take some time, but what, 00:07:39.600 --> 00:07:46.820 what are we going to do? And, and it was, it was beautiful to see this team come together. 00:07:46.820 --> 00:07:50.300 And so we're going to talk about, you know, some of the pieces, but, but right here, the two guys 00:07:50.300 --> 00:07:56.640 that I've got in this interview, in this conversation right now, uh, Bernie Mapili and Andy Mage, man, 00:07:56.720 --> 00:08:01.820 both of them stepped up, uh, in, in, in a big way. Like we were already having conversations about 00:08:01.820 --> 00:08:07.680 bringing these two guys, uh, into, into leadership. And, uh, well, just to be honest, it was like, 00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:12.520 hey, you know, we were going to like onboard you guys slowly and, uh, forget that. Like, let's, uh, 00:08:12.520 --> 00:08:17.540 let's, uh, accelerate the timeline a little bit because that's, that's just the way that I roll. 00:08:17.600 --> 00:08:21.940 And so Bernie, Andy, y'all, thanks for jumping here on the podcast. 00:08:23.380 --> 00:08:24.860 Welcome to the deep end, I guess. Right. 00:08:25.580 --> 00:08:27.800 Yeah. Awesome. Well, that was weird. 00:08:27.800 --> 00:08:29.340 Oh, crowd. Let me in. 00:08:29.420 --> 00:08:36.100 So Andy's, Andy's been on the, the show three, four, five times. I feel like you've co-hosted 00:08:36.100 --> 00:08:36.580 this thing. 00:08:36.780 --> 00:08:40.080 I've co-hosted. We did an entire run on Twitch. 00:08:40.820 --> 00:08:42.540 Oh, that's right. Oh, that's right. You were all over that. 00:08:42.780 --> 00:08:47.800 Yeah. And then I was on a couple of times before that. And then, I don't know. I've been 00:08:47.800 --> 00:08:52.860 in and amongst TCD and DCN for a couple of years now, I think. 00:08:53.700 --> 00:08:58.420 Yeah. Do we say DCN anymore? Like, I'm not, I'm not totally. No, no. We'll talk. We'll talk. 00:08:58.420 --> 00:09:02.260 We'll get there at some point. I'm sure. Don't want to, don't let the cat out of the bag 00:09:02.260 --> 00:09:06.100 too much. Cause we are talking about the new, the church digital. So there's gotta be 00:09:06.100 --> 00:09:13.960 something old that is, is going out with that. But thanks for that. And Bernie, Bernie's a new 00:09:13.960 --> 00:09:17.800 to this, to this concept, new to the podcast, at least new to the, to the public facing. 00:09:19.260 --> 00:09:27.380 So Bernie, I'll set the stage. I'll tell the story. Bernie, this is maybe April of 23 reaches 00:09:27.380 --> 00:09:32.780 out to me. Maybe it's May, June, somewhere second quarter and says, Hey, let's jump on a call. 00:09:32.780 --> 00:09:38.360 And I've met Bernie once in my life, maybe had five words conversation with him. Really not, 00:09:38.360 --> 00:09:44.460 not deep, but Bernie's like, Hey, like I'd like to talk with you. And so, um, I think we met on 00:09:44.460 --> 00:09:50.180 discord because Bernie lives on discord. And, uh, and so jump, jump on this discord call with Bernie 00:09:50.180 --> 00:09:53.880 and, and Bernie who I've, like I said, never really met before. He says, Jeff, you and I are the exact 00:09:53.880 --> 00:09:59.380 same person, just in different space. That's scary. And, uh, and so like, I'm looking at Bernie and I'm 00:09:59.380 --> 00:10:03.680 like, you don't really look like me. You don't have the long goatee. Well, I don't have much of 00:10:03.680 --> 00:10:07.220 a goatee left anymore. If you're watching on YouTube, you know that, but, um, you know, at the 00:10:07.220 --> 00:10:13.240 heart and just, so we started like having this conversation and really digging in. And, um, I 00:10:13.240 --> 00:10:18.500 couldn't believe, like, I would say, honestly, and I'll say this publicly, Bernie Mapilli is the 00:10:18.500 --> 00:10:24.980 closest person I've ever met to understanding like the digital strategies and the concepts and the 00:10:24.980 --> 00:10:30.160 things that, that, um, that I'm talking about, like the ability for me to trust a person at 00:10:30.160 --> 00:10:35.800 the drop of a hat, um, and his, his posturing on, on everything. I don't want to make myself 00:10:35.800 --> 00:10:42.820 like, uh, egotistical here, but oh my gosh, he's so easy to work with and so aligned in strategy. 00:10:42.820 --> 00:10:47.080 Like it's, it's been a beautiful thing. So, all right, Bernie, thanks for jumping on the 00:10:47.080 --> 00:10:49.320 podcast. We're not going to talk to you anymore for the rest of the show. 00:10:49.320 --> 00:10:54.780 No, I'm later. Nice, nice conversation. Great talk. Um, Bernie, tell us a little bit 00:10:54.780 --> 00:10:59.220 about, cause they, they know Andy. Andy was co-hosting through like all of season five. 00:10:59.420 --> 00:11:04.480 The Andy's been around, um, uh, Bernie talk, talk to us a little bit. Tell, you know, tell 00:11:04.480 --> 00:11:09.920 them a little bit about who you are, man. Yeah. Uh, Bernie, I go by Romans on the internet 00:11:09.920 --> 00:11:17.540 and, uh, I am your business guy who loves Jesus. And I think that's the way I'm currently 00:11:17.540 --> 00:11:23.600 pitching myself to the internet world, uh, that, uh, yeah, I think the secret ability 00:11:23.600 --> 00:11:28.120 that God has given me is to understand how businesses work in many different environments. 00:11:28.200 --> 00:11:34.420 And for the past six plus years, I love things digital. I've been diving deep into it. I got 00:11:34.420 --> 00:11:41.140 a strong lean into the video gaming space, but anything on the internet is definitely my jam 00:11:41.140 --> 00:11:47.040 these days. And yeah, I saw, I saw Jeff making all these waves and everywhere I'd go, he was 00:11:47.040 --> 00:11:51.360 there and not just there as an attender, like I was, but he was like a guy in the background, 00:11:51.360 --> 00:11:58.240 make things happen. So I just wanted to get to know Jeff and see what you're up to. Uh, 00:11:58.240 --> 00:12:05.340 and I'm definitely not a guy to usurp or take someone's position. I just wanted to come alongside 00:12:05.340 --> 00:12:12.240 and learn with you. And then you wanted a vacation. So then it was like another example of like men in 00:12:12.240 --> 00:12:16.480 black where I thought I'd, maybe I'll make a partner. Maybe, maybe I'll make some friends 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:22.800 and no agent K was looking for retirement or in this case a vacation. And he was like, 00:12:22.800 --> 00:12:30.080 I'm just agent. I'm not even an agent yet. I'm just a guy. Andy's already agent J and then I'm 00:12:30.080 --> 00:12:34.800 guy below him. I don't even know. I'm like one of those aliens walking around in the background and 00:12:34.800 --> 00:12:38.560 like, you know, Andy's over here shooting dudes with his tiny little baby gun. 00:12:39.120 --> 00:12:41.280 You're in the back smoking a cigarette going, Zuga! 00:12:43.840 --> 00:12:47.680 So I just wanted to join the party, but, uh, you know, I'm here to serve the Lord and, 00:12:47.680 --> 00:12:50.460 and here I am. So glad to be here. 00:12:50.460 --> 00:12:55.200 You know, it's beautiful, Bernie. Back when we, back when I started the church digital in 2018, 00:12:55.420 --> 00:13:02.600 2017, um, like I literally, I remember buying the domain name, uh, 2017 at a push pay conference 00:13:02.600 --> 00:13:11.820 in a downtown Disneyland and, uh, and, and just had this vision of, um, doing, uh, creating an 00:13:11.820 --> 00:13:17.760 organization, a comp company that was, was centered around digital discipleship. And, and, and honestly, 00:13:17.920 --> 00:13:22.620 like some of the immediate feedback I got from people that were in the spaces, Jeff, why are you 00:13:22.620 --> 00:13:27.760 calling it the church digital? Call it Jeffrey.com. Like, you know, make it about you and make it about 00:13:27.760 --> 00:13:33.540 promoting yourself. And, you know, immediately it was, that's, that's not what I'm doing. Like this 00:13:33.540 --> 00:13:40.480 thing, this thing has grounds and potential to be bigger than me. This is not just Jeffrey.com. This 00:13:40.480 --> 00:13:47.600 is the opportunity to represent what the church can and should look like and will look like in digital 00:13:47.600 --> 00:13:54.200 space and metaverse and, you know, everything else that that's down the road. And so, you know, 00:13:54.260 --> 00:13:59.580 for me, it was not about elevating and positioning and, and, and trying to get to the, to the higher 00:13:59.580 --> 00:14:04.720 run myself. And, and it's, you know, over, over time, it's tried to been, okay, how can I help 00:14:04.720 --> 00:14:10.700 others get in positions? How can I help, uh, platform others and make other ideas better? Whether 00:14:10.700 --> 00:14:18.000 it's co-writing a book with Dr. John, uh, with that one, or whether it's, it's helping others through 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:23.240 blogs and podcasts and creating a podcast network and, and even looking and seeing, okay, what are my 00:14:23.240 --> 00:14:28.740 strengths and weaknesses as a leader? And how can I find people around me that, that can, 00:14:28.860 --> 00:14:33.460 that can compliment and fill in the, fill in the gaps? Um, I've run, you know, I'm a serial 00:14:33.460 --> 00:14:38.800 entrepreneur. I've, I've run, well, shoot at this point, I probably have started seven, eight businesses 00:14:38.800 --> 00:14:44.440 and nonprofits in, in my life. And, and, um, to be honest, like I'm a great starter. I'm a horrible 00:14:44.440 --> 00:14:50.420 maintainer. And so coming along with somebody like business acumen, like, like Andy, or excuse me, 00:14:50.420 --> 00:14:56.040 like Bernie, uh, to, to be able to maintain that and elevate that beyond what I'm capable 00:14:56.040 --> 00:14:59.860 of. It's like, why, why would I not want to involve myself with somebody like that? Or even 00:14:59.860 --> 00:15:04.640 some of the, some of the quality work that, that Andy and guys like Tom, what they're creating and 00:15:04.640 --> 00:15:12.500 producing, they're able to move into that space and are able to start to elevate ideas that now I don't 00:15:12.500 --> 00:15:17.140 have to, I can start to be more niche and targeted at what I'm saying, knowing that there are others 00:15:17.140 --> 00:15:22.840 that, that are complimenting the overall work that I could do by myself and are able to cover a much 00:15:22.840 --> 00:15:29.000 larger base. And so working with guys like, like Bernie, I look at the screen, Bernie, and I see 00:15:29.000 --> 00:15:33.580 Romans like to the left on the screen. And so I keep wanting to say Romans, but it's Bernie, uh, 00:15:33.580 --> 00:15:39.960 Bernie and Andy, uh, totally and completely. And so like we, we, we, the plan was, uh, was that I was 00:15:39.960 --> 00:15:44.680 going to be the, the, the founder, the, the organizational leader of, of the church digital. 00:15:45.420 --> 00:15:51.880 And, um, with that Bernie was going to be coming on as, as an integrator of sorts, uh, as a, as a, 00:15:51.880 --> 00:15:56.080 you know, a CFO, the financial guy, we were jokingly calling him the director of revenue, kind of making 00:15:56.080 --> 00:16:01.660 him, you know, some, some of the, the, the, the money piece of that. Um, and then, you know, uh, 00:16:01.660 --> 00:16:07.460 operations, uh, would, would fall under Andy. And then when, when I had the, the break in the 00:16:07.460 --> 00:16:11.640 situation was like, all right, I need, I need a break. I need to disconnect. I did. I let go of 00:16:11.640 --> 00:16:18.140 the organization and with it, Hey, Bernie, how'd you like to run this thing? Um, and honestly, 00:16:18.140 --> 00:16:23.560 the conversation probably was not much different than that. It was, uh, very much, Hey, looking 00:16:23.560 --> 00:16:27.380 around the table, like there was a stint where even Andy was, was trying to manage some of that, 00:16:27.440 --> 00:16:31.120 but with everything else that, that Andy was doing, uh, it, it didn't make sense. And so Bernie 00:16:31.120 --> 00:16:36.460 stepped in to, to lead the church digital and amongst of all of this change. We'll get into it 00:16:36.460 --> 00:16:42.040 in a little bit. But seriously, just up front, it's been a pleasure working with these two guys 00:16:42.040 --> 00:16:46.080 that are here and the other leaders that we've brought into space that we'll get into 00:16:46.080 --> 00:16:49.240 here in a little bit. So any thoughts on that? 00:16:51.320 --> 00:16:56.560 Bernie was right guy, right place, right time. And a quick little story. I had no clue who Bernie 00:16:56.560 --> 00:17:06.920 was. I knew of Romans 10 v 12, 10 v 2, sorry. Yeah, 10 v 12, 10 v 2 through various and sundry 00:17:06.920 --> 00:17:10.560 different. I don't know what 10 verse 12 is. Sorry, man. I can probably look it up. 00:17:10.780 --> 00:17:11.160 10 v 9. 00:17:11.880 --> 00:17:19.680 Yeah, 10 v 9. I know. The interesting thing is so Expo, let me paint a picture for you. 00:17:19.680 --> 00:17:26.540 I'm a theater of the mind type things. We are at Exponential 2022. I am hanging out with a 00:17:26.540 --> 00:17:32.740 bunch of crazies from Lux Digital Church and from a number of other digital enterprises. 00:17:32.740 --> 00:17:39.200 Jeff is holding his pre-conference powwow for the Church Digital. We're doing a whole bunch 00:17:39.200 --> 00:17:43.140 of stuff, bunch of keynote speakers, bunch of things. And then all of a sudden, this guy, 00:17:43.740 --> 00:17:49.020 Bernie, shows up at this dinner that Jeff has in downtown Orlando. I was like, oh, who's this 00:17:49.020 --> 00:17:54.020 guy? And all of a sudden, our good buddy, Mark Lutz, walks over and gives him a hug. And 00:17:54.020 --> 00:17:57.600 they start chatting. And I was like, cool. So I sat down with Bernie at a table and we talked 00:17:57.600 --> 00:18:02.640 for like an hour. And it was like, oh, this guy's pretty rad. The next night, literally, 00:18:02.640 --> 00:18:07.980 we get done with like this marathon session. And all of a sudden, we're driving to Bernie's 00:18:07.980 --> 00:18:12.800 house in the middle of the woods in a swamp in Florida. And it's like, first of all, am I 00:18:12.800 --> 00:18:17.280 going to die? Second of all, like, no, I got there. And it's like, no, this house is pretty 00:18:17.280 --> 00:18:22.140 rad. And then we did like a live church service from Bernie's house. And all of a sudden, 00:18:22.140 --> 00:18:27.840 Jeff rocks up without a voice because he'd been talking for 72 hours straight. And we're 00:18:27.840 --> 00:18:32.060 all like being friends. And it's like, cool. That was right there. If you guys look back 00:18:32.060 --> 00:18:36.360 at it, those were the seeds of this podcast. That was what, nine months ago? That was the 00:18:36.360 --> 00:18:39.680 seeds of everything that we're doing right now. And it was pretty awesome. 00:18:40.440 --> 00:18:44.560 Yeah, that was March, April 23, not 22. But the heart of that and everything else was accurate. 00:18:44.760 --> 00:18:53.320 And it's funny, like, that's the camaraderie. That's the heart of what digital network, church 00:18:53.320 --> 00:18:58.460 network was supposed to be and wanted to be and what the church digital will be. It's the 00:18:58.460 --> 00:19:04.460 unification of ideas and the united of crazies, the uniting of crazy people together towards the 00:19:04.460 --> 00:19:10.880 common cause of Christ and empowering and strengthening and platforming them to do what God has called 00:19:10.880 --> 00:19:17.480 them to do. And so like, to me, that was, that was another I would totally agree. And, and, you 00:19:17.480 --> 00:19:23.680 know, I'm going to build off what you just said. The best part of that 96 hour period that was 00:19:23.680 --> 00:19:30.560 exponential 2023 was by the end of it. I didn't have a voice. I mean, literally, I could not talk 00:19:30.560 --> 00:19:36.580 more than 15 seconds in a row. And so it was not the Jeff. I mean, once again, quite literally, 00:19:36.580 --> 00:19:42.440 it was not the Jeff Reed show. It was other people stepping up and speaking in because my voice was 00:19:42.440 --> 00:19:47.900 literally gone. It was funny. I actually left the conference early because I had to go catch a plane. 00:19:47.980 --> 00:19:53.420 I was going on a trip to Israel, which is ironic in this moment. But the, the, the fact was, was that 00:19:53.420 --> 00:19:58.740 I didn't even finish it off. I handed the notes to, to Joey Santos and I had Mark do some things and 00:19:58.740 --> 00:20:03.000 others. And I was like, Hey guys, I need you to land the plan on this conference. And so once again, 00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:08.880 it wasn't about me, it was about empowering others and equipping others to get into it. And I think 00:20:08.880 --> 00:20:13.140 that's a, it's a very important lesson for it, for a leader to be able to build something beyond even 00:20:13.140 --> 00:20:17.920 what they can do here. And I love, and that's one of the reasons I love working with these two is 00:20:17.920 --> 00:20:25.080 because Andy, Bernie, like they see that, um, and, and how we can empower other leaders to come 00:20:25.080 --> 00:20:29.500 alongside us. And even, you know, some of the other leadership team, Jason Morris and, and, and 00:20:29.500 --> 00:20:36.760 Layton and, uh, and Roz and Nicole and so many others are, are involved, uh, Stunami, uh, so many 00:20:36.760 --> 00:20:41.640 others are, are involved in this thing from day to day, Tom. And so having them doing what they're 00:20:41.640 --> 00:20:47.560 doing and contributing is such, such a good thing. So, all right, well, let's, let's get into this a 00:20:47.560 --> 00:20:52.960 little bit. I want to, want to talk about maybe what some of the church digital is, is coming and 00:20:52.960 --> 00:21:00.060 what's, what it's evolving into. So, Hey, we've got this, we've got this new brand maybe. Yeah. 00:21:00.100 --> 00:21:04.860 I know we'd have a new brand. It's there, right? Like we can say that we have a new brand and it 00:21:04.860 --> 00:21:14.100 is somewhere that sits on my desk as I stall for time to pull it back up because I had closed the 00:21:14.100 --> 00:21:19.140 thing. You see, we should have rehearsed this and we didn't rehearse it. That's, that's on me. We 00:21:19.140 --> 00:21:23.280 should have. All right. On, on, on three, do you want to give me like a, like a drum roll or 00:21:23.280 --> 00:21:32.080 something? Drum roll? Yeah. There it is, ladies and gentlemen, the new, the church digital. Now 00:21:32.080 --> 00:21:41.480 what's awesome is this is a podcast, so no one can actually see this. You're not wrong. Oh crap. 00:21:41.480 --> 00:21:48.600 Well, it'll be in the show notes too, right? If you're watching this on YouTube, you're happy. If 00:21:48.600 --> 00:21:51.880 you, if you're not watching this on YouTube, swing over to YouTube or check out the show 00:21:51.880 --> 00:21:55.920 notes. We'll put a link in the show notes. I've just been doing, I've been doing so many 00:21:55.920 --> 00:22:03.760 YouTube shows lately, man. Oh gosh. Awesome. So, Hey, no, we're excited to roll out the, the, 00:22:03.760 --> 00:22:10.240 the new brand of the church digital. And so we've got a new website that's in works. Um, and 00:22:10.240 --> 00:22:16.320 we're hopefully going to see this launch very soon, but more than just a pretty new cross 00:22:16.320 --> 00:22:21.300 and a little more eight bit digitized look, as opposed to what I'm told is the more dated 00:22:21.300 --> 00:22:27.080 podcast symbol look that we had before. Um, I do, there may be a little sarcasm in that. 00:22:27.140 --> 00:22:30.500 We may want to dig into that. I've got to, I got to let go of some stuff. Maybe, maybe a 00:22:30.500 --> 00:22:34.120 little bit. I just, I'm going to diagnose myself in that moment. That was a little more 00:22:34.120 --> 00:22:38.280 jaded than I meant it to come out of my mouth, but, um, no, I do. I'm excited about the new 00:22:38.280 --> 00:22:44.720 look. I love change. And if, if we need to adjust some things to be able to get more relevant 00:22:44.720 --> 00:22:49.600 and try to get in front of more people, um, man, with some of the stuff that God's opening 00:22:49.600 --> 00:22:53.820 up this year, shoot, if I got, if I got to let go of a logo, let go of a logo, who gives 00:22:53.820 --> 00:22:59.920 a crap? Um, so it's, it's, it's a great thing. Uh, but more than the leadership, man, like 00:22:59.920 --> 00:23:05.360 there's, there's a new perspective towards doing things. Like I know, uh, man, I'm really 00:23:05.360 --> 00:23:11.480 excited about some of the stuff that, that, um, Jason Morris, J Mo is commonly known here 00:23:11.480 --> 00:23:15.640 within New York. Uh, some of the stuff that he's doing with the movement system, um, we're, 00:23:15.640 --> 00:23:20.460 we're, we're unifying and creating our discipleship process. You know, it's been a great relationship, 00:23:20.460 --> 00:23:24.820 uh, with new thing network and, and how they're utilizing the movement system and the church 00:23:24.820 --> 00:23:30.640 digital is really starting to, uh, continue that on and, and build it out and modify it 00:23:30.640 --> 00:23:36.040 to work better in, in digital and, in metaverse space. And so, you know, I know Andy, Bernie, 00:23:36.040 --> 00:23:41.560 I mean, you guys have taken some of that with, um, with J Mo here and gone through that man. 00:23:41.620 --> 00:23:45.300 Any, any feedback or thoughts from you on, on what that movement system's looking like? 00:23:45.900 --> 00:23:52.540 It is so interesting stepping into something like new thing and stepping into established 00:23:52.540 --> 00:23:57.940 things that new thing has, because you look at, you look at everything that they have done 00:23:57.940 --> 00:24:01.180 for however many years, new things been around what, nine, 10 years, something like that. 00:24:01.480 --> 00:24:06.960 And they have some pretty established patterns, but this digital thing, this is kind of the, 00:24:06.960 --> 00:24:13.940 the wild, wild west. It's the new frontier and empowering people like Jason Morris, empowering 00:24:13.940 --> 00:24:19.760 people like Layton, empowering the people that, that really have their, their fingers in the 00:24:19.760 --> 00:24:24.960 dirt on this one is really cool because there's a, there's a lot of innovation happening there. 00:24:25.060 --> 00:24:30.500 There are literally meetings that are happening. Well, essentially every other week where we're, 00:24:30.500 --> 00:24:35.300 we're hashing out, not like, Oh, what platform should we use? But instead, how do we reach 00:24:35.300 --> 00:24:41.300 more people for Jesus? We'll let the chips fall where they may. And we are strictly focused on the 00:24:41.300 --> 00:24:45.880 discipleship aspect of it. And I think Jeff, to your point, you know, starting this back in 2018, 00:24:45.880 --> 00:24:50.040 yeah, that was, that was the idea at the very beginning of the church digital, empowering people 00:24:50.040 --> 00:24:55.480 to make more disciples, to continue on to reach, you know, reach all nations. But I think it took us 00:24:55.480 --> 00:25:01.640 up till this point as a church community, like as God's capital K kingdom to realize that the tools 00:25:01.640 --> 00:25:06.280 are there and the tools are pretty ubiquitous. And we no longer have to have the conversation of how to 00:25:06.280 --> 00:25:10.160 get a stream up or how to do this or that, because that's, that's pretty much everywhere. Now we get to 00:25:10.160 --> 00:25:15.240 actually do the fun work of, okay, how do I take people from where they were to meeting Jesus to now 00:25:15.240 --> 00:25:20.280 turning into actual disciples? And that right there, I credit Jason and I credit Layton for everything 00:25:20.280 --> 00:25:26.120 that they're doing under the church digital sort of banner to really propel this forward. And I'm super, 00:25:26.120 --> 00:25:31.720 super stoked for the next three to six months, uh, with everything that they are developing. And then, oh, 00:25:31.720 --> 00:25:37.640 by the way, with some of our partnerships that we're able to ship a lot of that, that mindset into people 00:25:37.640 --> 00:25:42.360 like glue, people like, uh, start church, even we were just talking about them and some other sort of, uh, uh, 00:25:42.360 --> 00:25:49.800 assorted responsibilities around that we're able to give this, this, this contextual information to 00:25:49.800 --> 00:25:53.320 and say, okay, go into your communities and make disciples. Here you go. 00:25:53.320 --> 00:25:59.240 Andy said, there's actually what I took from the class is he contextualize it. I think the longest 00:25:59.240 --> 00:26:04.680 time I'll go through seasons of running Bible study groups in and out, but it felt more like I was a 00:26:04.680 --> 00:26:11.960 caveman who didn't understand what fire was. And I'm just like, oh, warm, warm. And, and, and so we'd 00:26:11.960 --> 00:26:16.360 enjoy the fire that's there. And sometimes the fires are sometimes, uh, but now, and I run it tonight 00:26:16.360 --> 00:26:20.920 will be the first night. I got three guys that I've discipled and I haven't discipled in probably four 00:26:20.920 --> 00:26:25.640 or five years that we're going to reconnect, go through some discipleship stuff or go through some 00:26:25.640 --> 00:26:31.640 Bible study stuff. But whether they know it or not, they're going through the program that JMO, 00:26:31.640 --> 00:26:36.680 that JMO is teaching and, and we'll see where they stand. Cause I don't think they necessarily 00:26:36.680 --> 00:26:41.720 want to do it, but they all want to be, they all want to elevate their Christian game, if you will. 00:26:41.720 --> 00:26:46.520 And that's why they're meeting not only just for the fellowship, but I could see them very well in short 00:26:46.520 --> 00:26:55.240 order, uh, having all three of these guys going from, uh, consuming the Bible to participating and 00:26:55.240 --> 00:26:57.240 running a group of their own. 00:26:57.240 --> 00:27:04.520 I love that. Um, you know, it's, it's one of the podcasts we're working on right now 00:27:04.520 --> 00:27:09.880 is, um, you know, I'll, I'll give away one of the punchlines. It's, uh, Matt Welty. He's been 00:27:09.880 --> 00:27:13.400 on the podcast a couple of times. He's director of technology at Crossroads. Crossroads is a 00:27:13.960 --> 00:27:19.080 big church, Ohio. Are they Cincinnati? Andy, do you know somewhere outside of Cincinnati? 00:27:19.080 --> 00:27:22.680 I think just outside of Cincinnati, multi-campus. I know they're in Kentucky as well. Like they're, 00:27:22.680 --> 00:27:27.400 they're kind of multi-sided all over the place. Um, but I saw him speak at the church it network 00:27:27.400 --> 00:27:32.520 here. It was in West Palm beach, maybe back in November. And, um, and I, so I'm, I'm forgetting 00:27:32.520 --> 00:27:38.120 the exact stat, but the heart of what the stat that he quoted was, was that they actually documented, 00:27:38.120 --> 00:27:44.200 um, I mean, essentially what it was, was that everybody misses, nobody attends church for, 00:27:44.200 --> 00:27:50.120 for weeks a month, you know, a hundred percent anymore. Um, and so like of the people, 00:27:50.120 --> 00:27:57.960 when they miss church, those that watch online and, and engage in digital relationships, 00:27:57.960 --> 00:28:01.960 they actually scored it out. And I'm going to get Matt on cause I actually want him to say the exact 00:28:01.960 --> 00:28:09.960 words here. But those that engage online had a higher level of discipleship within their life 00:28:09.960 --> 00:28:15.640 than those that only engaged in physical space. Like if you're, if you're only looking at physical 00:28:15.640 --> 00:28:19.800 church involvement, uh, like if you're a physical church, I'm not talking digital church planting, 00:28:19.800 --> 00:28:26.760 but if you're a physical church doing ministry, um, complimenting and adding digital to that physical 00:28:27.480 --> 00:28:32.600 will help your people score higher. And it's not that it's a checklist, but it will get them 00:28:32.600 --> 00:28:39.000 to have a deeper understanding of Christ and the gospel than if you just isolated and depended on 00:28:39.000 --> 00:28:45.000 doing it in, in physical space. And what's amazing, I, I said on LinkedIn, I guess maybe a couple of 00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:50.040 months ago that, you know, it felt like 2023, that was the year that the rest of the world fought 00:28:50.040 --> 00:28:55.640 against the disruptors. Yep. Because I'm looking at the, the, the, this, the, the virtual reality, 00:28:55.640 --> 00:29:00.760 the decrease in that blockchain and crystal crypto, the decrease in that artificial intelligence is the 00:29:00.760 --> 00:29:04.920 savior. And it's the antichrist both at the same time. Like, you know, there's been so much, 00:29:04.920 --> 00:29:09.000 at least from a technological standpoint, everybody's got to get back in the, in the, in the office 00:29:09.000 --> 00:29:14.280 building, no, no more remote work. Um, you know, the disrupt 23 has been the year of fighting against 00:29:14.280 --> 00:29:23.000 a disruptor and, and the, all those disruptions potentially can bring good things and can help. 00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:27.720 It can compliment what's happening. It doesn't have to, uh, disrupt from that. And so we're talking 00:29:27.720 --> 00:29:32.600 about discipleship systems and, and doing that, like adding something like the movement system or 00:29:32.600 --> 00:29:38.520 even a discipleship where, Hey, you know what, we're gonna, we're gonna teach you and you're gonna teach 00:29:38.520 --> 00:29:43.320 somebody else. We were talking earlier about kicking people out of the nest, making them do 00:29:43.320 --> 00:29:48.760 their own thing and, and, and equipping them to, to multiply and to tell others. Now, what a, what a 00:29:48.760 --> 00:29:54.680 beautiful idea, uh, as we wean people off, you know, biblically wean them off the milk and get them 00:29:54.680 --> 00:29:58.760 on, you know, stakes, digital stakes or whatever we're calling it. Maybe that's what we need to call it. 00:29:58.760 --> 00:30:03.400 I love a digital stake, digital stake. Um, that's gotta be cheaper than a physical stake, right? 00:30:03.400 --> 00:30:08.440 Probably right now. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Um, and so, you know, I'm buying it, 00:30:11.480 --> 00:30:16.680 but you know, Andy teased, uh, some things that are happening with glue, uh, and, uh, man, we're, 00:30:16.680 --> 00:30:22.120 we're really excited. We're going to do a podcast here in a couple of weeks on this, but how to take the 00:30:22.120 --> 00:30:29.000 movement system and how to pair it and connect it, how to take discipleship and get it connected into 00:30:29.000 --> 00:30:34.120 what's happening with a lot of the Explorer campaigns that glue's running, like he gets us and some of 00:30:34.120 --> 00:30:38.680 the other things that are coming up. And, uh, and we've been working with, uh, Megan Carter over at, 00:30:38.680 --> 00:30:43.960 uh, church, um, church anywhere, first capital Christian Tyler. I think Megan's been on the podcast. 00:30:43.960 --> 00:30:50.040 Uh, Tyler's yeah, Megan's been on. Um, but, um, and, and, uh, Andy's been doing some things. 00:30:50.040 --> 00:30:54.200 We'll talk about that in a little bit, but, um, you know, Megan and some of the things that, 00:30:54.200 --> 00:31:00.040 that she brings, uh, into the process, uh, some of her, her wisdom from, um, from a mental health 00:31:00.040 --> 00:31:03.960 capacity. Uh, she's currently been trained, recently trained by the American association 00:31:03.960 --> 00:31:09.960 of Christian counselors, bringing that into the digital space, into, um, what we've been doing 00:31:09.960 --> 00:31:14.600 with, he gets us, you know, I, I, I don't want to tease it, but I'm just gonna, I'm going to say it 00:31:14.600 --> 00:31:21.560 like we're literally launching a program. The church digital is, uh, where we're helping people 00:31:22.120 --> 00:31:27.320 that want to be digital missionaries within. He gets us. You see, historically you've had to work 00:31:27.320 --> 00:31:32.360 with churches to, to get access to. He gets us. He gets us. It's this campaign marketing campaign 00:31:32.360 --> 00:31:35.640 where they take people who have spiritual questions and get them connected to, to God, 00:31:35.640 --> 00:31:40.680 right. And answer those spiritual questions. And so you've got explorers, people that have spiritual 00:31:40.680 --> 00:31:45.800 questions that are exploring the idea of Christ and the, the, the glue would connect churches, 00:31:45.800 --> 00:31:51.080 uh, and then the church would recruit responders to answer the spiritual questions. So an explorer 00:31:51.080 --> 00:31:57.240 would ask a question to a responder. And, um, well, what's, what's happened is, is that there are all 00:31:57.240 --> 00:32:05.080 these churches all over the, the, the country, but the demand of explorers is far greater than what 00:32:05.080 --> 00:32:10.200 the churches are. Um, and especially because churches are primarily interested in like 20 00:32:10.200 --> 00:32:14.760 miles around their physical location. And so if you look at the United States, the heat map of where 00:32:14.760 --> 00:32:20.360 all the explorers are in just the quote unquote, little dots, hundreds of dots, thousands of dots, 00:32:20.360 --> 00:32:25.560 but little dots, because they're only interested in the physical proximity of those that can attend 00:32:25.560 --> 00:32:30.920 the church physically on Sunday morning, like the, the platform, um, the concept really struggles. 00:32:31.720 --> 00:32:36.520 And so the church digital coming alongside saying, Hey, we know how to like make disciples and have 00:32:36.520 --> 00:32:42.520 conversations. We can talk about evangelism digitally. We can use our thumbs to, to text, 00:32:42.520 --> 00:32:49.080 to type, uh, to, to engage people, to pray with people, to, to help them even at a digital level, 00:32:49.080 --> 00:32:54.120 get connected to and answer spiritual questions and get them routed to a, to a physical church in 00:32:54.120 --> 00:32:57.960 their area, or maybe even a digital church that doesn't care where they live and can reach them, 00:32:58.440 --> 00:33:02.920 reach them anywhere. Well, the people that glue got really excited about that. And we, 00:33:02.920 --> 00:33:07.080 the church digital, we're really excited about that as well. And so we're going to be teasing that 00:33:07.080 --> 00:33:12.200 here in, in, in a couple of weeks. Um, I was not planning on, on announcing that right here, 00:33:12.200 --> 00:33:17.560 but dang, I'm so excited about that. It's like, what the, I got, if you're going to do the church 00:33:17.560 --> 00:33:20.680 digital, Hey, you know, what's the church digital, the church digital is right there, man. 00:33:20.680 --> 00:33:25.160 Yep. We're, we're, we're creating a movement grounded in the movement system, 00:33:25.160 --> 00:33:32.040 um, within arguably one of the largest, uh, marketing campaigns for Christ on the planet 00:33:32.040 --> 00:33:38.600 today. And so guess what? I don't even listen. I can't even tell you what the URL is that I want 00:33:38.600 --> 00:33:43.800 to drive you to, uh, look for it in the show notes, but if you're interested in this, we'll be talking 00:33:43.800 --> 00:33:47.000 about it. We're going to make a lot of noise, believe me coming up, but we're going to 00:33:47.000 --> 00:33:51.560 have, uh, more information for you on help you all get connected. If you're, whether your church wants 00:33:51.560 --> 00:33:57.080 to or not, uh, if you're interested in getting connected, uh, and, and helping answer spiritual 00:33:57.080 --> 00:34:03.640 questions and doing digital ministry, um, we want you come on board and come be a part of what we're 00:34:03.640 --> 00:34:12.520 doing through the church digital. Um, awesome. And so listen, that's been a lot of what JMO's, uh, 00:34:12.520 --> 00:34:18.600 been up to, um, Bernie, you've been working a lot with, um, with flat cap with Layton. 00:34:18.600 --> 00:34:21.000 You want to talk a little bit of maybe it was some of the stuff he's been working on. 00:34:22.680 --> 00:34:30.280 Layton is, he's connecting a lot of dots. Just recently, he spoke to, uh, some folks, 00:34:30.280 --> 00:34:36.600 I'm getting his story confused. It's another story heard today, but his was folks overseas 00:34:37.160 --> 00:34:45.880 where they can only talk about Jesus digitally because any other means can lead to arrest and 00:34:46.840 --> 00:34:51.800 you can lose everything if they, if you do it in person. Uh, and we've heard this story a couple 00:34:51.800 --> 00:34:55.640 of times. Uh, we've met with some other folks, Jeff and I have met with some other folks where 00:34:56.280 --> 00:35:00.680 they, that's their whole ministry because in the country in the Middle East that they operate in, 00:35:00.680 --> 00:35:06.920 it's illegal to evangelize and you have to already be a Christian to talk about Jesus things. 00:35:07.720 --> 00:35:12.120 So then the question is, how do you tell new people about Jesus? Well, it's illegal. You can't 00:35:13.160 --> 00:35:20.440 unless you're digital. So digital is the only way to do it safely. And, uh, if you do the right 00:35:20.440 --> 00:35:24.200 ways through VPN, if you're in that country, it gets real tricky. If you're still in that country, 00:35:24.200 --> 00:35:29.400 it's still kind of risky to do evangelization, even if you're digital, but the folks that Lane 00:35:29.400 --> 00:35:35.640 were talking to, they, they need us. They need a digital solution because they want to tell people 00:35:35.640 --> 00:35:43.000 about Jesus. They, they, they feel the call and they don't want to lose. Uh, and it's not just like 00:35:43.000 --> 00:35:46.280 losing a little bit. It's like, they don't want to lose everything. They don't want to be thrown in jail. 00:35:47.160 --> 00:35:52.440 Uh, to, to just talk about Jesus's name. So digital solutions can do that. 00:35:52.440 --> 00:35:58.680 And then they don't have to be afraid. Um, they can be as open as they want. So, uh, that, 00:35:58.680 --> 00:36:02.360 that's one piece that Lane's talking to. And then the other part is Layton, he's on, 00:36:02.360 --> 00:36:08.120 he's on the campaign trail to, to hear people let him speak on how churches can stream on the internet 00:36:08.120 --> 00:36:13.720 from a baseline perspective. So Layton's, uh, changing his content. You'll see soon where he's 00:36:13.720 --> 00:36:20.360 going to be openly telling folks, uh, about how to baseline industry standardization of how to do digital 00:36:20.360 --> 00:36:26.600 things for the church, uh, for your church or outside of your church. But his target is mostly 00:36:26.600 --> 00:36:34.520 going to convince churches to, uh, join, join the digital frontier and more than from what COVID 00:36:34.520 --> 00:36:40.280 made you do, but do it from more than, uh, uh, the baseline expectation of doing things digital 00:36:41.000 --> 00:36:46.840 has moved up since COVID. But a lot of folks assume that's gone down or doesn't exist anymore. 00:36:46.840 --> 00:36:52.840 And actually it's, it's continuing to rise and that's going to be Lane's job is to reach that baseline expectation. 00:36:53.320 --> 00:36:57.560 Of course, all those folks who want to go above that, uh, it takes more than what Layton will 00:36:57.560 --> 00:37:02.920 be throwing out there generally because everyone's, uh, context and city and people group is different. 00:37:02.920 --> 00:37:06.600 Uh, but, uh, Layton will be, uh, hot on the trails in that. 00:37:09.160 --> 00:37:15.320 Yeah. Layton, it was so interesting. Layton blew me away the other day, um, where he, uh, he put in 00:37:15.320 --> 00:37:21.320 discord with that. He, he connected with a friend of mine, uh, Simon Dirks. Um, and it's like, 00:37:21.320 --> 00:37:25.640 hey, and, and, you know, shared some of the stuff that Simon's working on. What was so interesting, 00:37:25.640 --> 00:37:29.960 um, is, is that, you know, I've never, I've never met Simon. Uh, Simon lives in Germany. 00:37:30.680 --> 00:37:37.000 And so, you know, Layton relationally, digitally without me introducing connected with a guy that 00:37:37.000 --> 00:37:43.320 I knew sermon Simon. And so I've been talking with Simon, um, for, for a couple of years now over 00:37:43.320 --> 00:37:48.280 different things. And, and, you know, there, I didn't realize this, but, you know, Simon's planting, 00:37:48.920 --> 00:37:53.960 uh, and starting, uh, uh, uh, network for, for digital churches. Essentially Simon's doing the 00:37:53.960 --> 00:37:58.520 thing that we did through digital church network. And, uh, and then Layton, and we're going to have 00:37:58.520 --> 00:38:02.680 Simon on the podcast. I've been trying to get him and another guy on the, on the podcast for 00:38:03.400 --> 00:38:07.240 six months or a year. Like we just haven't, it's been a year now, but we haven't been able to 00:38:07.240 --> 00:38:11.960 figure out time zones, believe it or not. Like time zones is the hardest thing. But, um, you know, 00:38:11.960 --> 00:38:14.680 the, the, you know, the fascinating thing is Layton's like, Hey, why don't we, 00:38:15.240 --> 00:38:19.960 why don't we work together? Like, can, can, can we, the church digital, can we resource and help and, 00:38:19.960 --> 00:38:25.880 and be an aid to this, to this network that's starting up in Germany? And, and, you know, I actually, 00:38:25.880 --> 00:38:30.120 I don't run the organization anymore, so I don't have like the authority to actually say yes, but 00:38:30.120 --> 00:38:34.120 heck yeah. Well, like, why, why aren't we, why should, why should we not like, let's, 00:38:34.120 --> 00:38:39.880 let's get a kingdom win globally and come alongside some of our other brothers who think crazy and 00:38:39.880 --> 00:38:45.160 sisters, uh, that are on another continent. How can we help the digital church expand in, in Germany? 00:38:45.160 --> 00:38:51.480 Or how can we, how can we help digital churches reach some of, um, some of the areas where you 00:38:51.480 --> 00:38:56.200 cannot have, have physical churches meeting? Like what would it, what would it look like in Iraq and 00:38:56.200 --> 00:39:02.760 Iran and Afghanistan and in China, if we started to, to see churches exist digitally because there's so 00:39:02.760 --> 00:39:10.360 much, uh, pressure and train strain and, and actually like murder, like they will kill you, uh, if in, 00:39:10.360 --> 00:39:17.000 in Iraq. And so digital is the way to make that happen. And how, why, how can we start to resource 00:39:17.000 --> 00:39:23.480 and help people in that space to understand more of what digital can be? And so like the future of 00:39:23.480 --> 00:39:29.240 the church digital, uh, for us, not only to, to create movements here in America, but resource 00:39:29.240 --> 00:39:34.840 and vision, uh, resource and vision people outside of the U S globally and come alongside them of what's 00:39:34.840 --> 00:39:41.960 happening, man, it's starting to really look beautiful. What 20, 24 can be. Okay. So we've been 00:39:41.960 --> 00:39:45.960 talking about the Avengers. We've not been talking about the Avengers, but we've been talking about 00:39:45.960 --> 00:39:52.280 this idea of doing digital Avengers and about how the team that we've been building through the, 00:39:52.280 --> 00:39:59.000 through the church digital, how it can start to step in and maybe avenge something. I don't know. 00:39:59.000 --> 00:40:02.680 The analogy probably breaks down, but Bernie, the Avengers is your heart, man. You want to talk a little 00:40:02.680 --> 00:40:12.440 bit about that? Well, as a nerd of things, uh, yeah, I, I always love the idea and I think Andy helped, uh, 00:40:12.440 --> 00:40:20.600 form this as well. I just, I love the idea of calling us Avengers, I guess. Um, well, I don't, I don't know who, 00:40:20.600 --> 00:40:25.160 Andy, did you choose who you would be? I get, I, you did. I don't recall who it was. Who was it? 00:40:25.160 --> 00:40:28.200 I want to say for the record, we've been saying Avengers, but it's really X-Men. 00:40:28.840 --> 00:40:32.360 Well, like somehow we, we, we all tailored towards the X-Men side. 00:40:32.360 --> 00:40:33.960 Yeah. I think that's just because of 00:40:34.600 --> 00:40:39.240 awesomeness and plus like they're the Avengers are played out. Like don't at me, anybody that's 00:40:39.240 --> 00:40:43.800 listening. The Avengers are played out. Oh no. Come on. You just lost viewers ever. 00:40:43.800 --> 00:40:47.000 Uh, yeah, that's fine. Uh, I think I ended up being something like 00:40:48.200 --> 00:40:51.400 either Cyclops or Gambit maybe. Is that what I heard? 00:40:52.120 --> 00:40:56.840 Oh, I like the Cyclops. I think you're like a really good leader. You're like the leader guy. 00:40:57.640 --> 00:41:03.720 I don't know about that. I can see Gambit is a kind of a not so, not such a good guy, right? He's, 00:41:03.720 --> 00:41:04.600 is he a good guy? 00:41:06.680 --> 00:41:11.000 I don't know. You keep talking. I'm going to look up exactly what I am. Cause now I'm curious. 00:41:11.560 --> 00:41:15.960 I just, I'm pretty sure Gambit isn't exactly the role model. He's like, he's kind of like... 00:41:15.960 --> 00:41:21.320 No, yeah, no. He, he kind of, he kind of sucks. Let's just put it that way. 00:41:21.320 --> 00:41:25.000 I think he has a movie coming out soon. So we'll see what they think. But last I checked, 00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:28.040 Gambit isn't the, isn't the best role model, but... 00:41:28.040 --> 00:41:31.160 Oh, okay. Here's what I, here's what I got. Somebody gave me 00:41:31.160 --> 00:41:38.200 with Doctor Strange, which I can see, uh, or Thor, which I don't know if I get Thor. Cause I have 00:41:38.200 --> 00:41:46.200 no hair. I'm not tall. I'm definitely not Norwegian. I'm Polish. Uh, and yeah. So I think I like the 00:41:46.200 --> 00:41:51.320 Doctor Strange one though. That's pretty fun. You do the crossfitting though. I do do crossfit. 00:41:51.320 --> 00:41:59.400 That's true. That is very Thor-like. Um, yeah. Yeah. Well, while you, uh, I, I assume we just 00:41:59.400 --> 00:42:08.040 got on a Thor subject. So I'll let you figure that out. Wow. Oh my gosh. That was, 00:42:08.040 --> 00:42:11.800 that was painful even for me. I hate it. Which superhero does that jokes? That's my guy. 00:42:11.800 --> 00:42:18.920 Um, but anyways, at the end of the day, I, yeah. Ooh, wow. He, he does go. He has nice nails. 00:42:18.920 --> 00:42:26.440 He tells good jokes. Uh, but, um, uh, rip, uh, for the Avengers ideas that each of us would be a 00:42:26.440 --> 00:42:30.920 standalone. I think that's, that's the difference between the X-Men. And I think the Avengers, 00:42:30.920 --> 00:42:35.880 the Avengers usually each one is iconic in their own right. X-Men is usually always been about the team. 00:42:35.880 --> 00:42:41.400 Uh, each one X-Men usually gets their butt kicked on their loans, except for maybe Wolverine, but he 00:42:41.400 --> 00:42:45.640 gets his butt kicked all the time because he has a healing factor, kind of like plot armor. 00:42:46.760 --> 00:42:50.840 But the idea is that each of our leaders would be standalone in their own right, would be someone 00:42:50.840 --> 00:42:57.640 respected in the space that they want to speak Jesus into. Uh, so, uh, like Leighton, we, he would 00:42:57.640 --> 00:43:04.520 be the guy who would be the one for baseline showing churches, how to get into the digital realm 00:43:04.520 --> 00:43:10.360 in a not so embarrassing way or above what they think is the baseline. Cause the baseline expectation 00:43:10.360 --> 00:43:16.200 is if I stream on Facebook, we're now digital. And that, that is, that is just not the baseline 00:43:16.200 --> 00:43:20.600 expectation anymore. That barely scratches the surface. Everyone's doing that. That's, that, 00:43:20.600 --> 00:43:25.640 that's not really reaching anyone other than checking off a box that we did something digital. 00:43:25.640 --> 00:43:32.200 Um, so Leighton is paving the way to speaking into that space because he's been streaming for 00:43:32.200 --> 00:43:36.280 quite a few years now, probably as long as you, Andy, or you're probably a little bit longer than 00:43:36.280 --> 00:43:40.600 him. You guys are somewhere, you guys are somewhere, uh, within a year or so of each other, but that 00:43:40.600 --> 00:43:47.640 there's so much institutional knowledge, uh, from hardware, software, and just how to do it 00:43:47.640 --> 00:43:55.400 consistently day in, day out, not go through burnout and how to find ways to make it redeeming the Lord 00:43:55.400 --> 00:44:01.560 in the process that it's not just you, uh, glamorizing self, but glamorizing Christ. And then you have 00:44:01.560 --> 00:44:08.120 someone else, like I'm looking at the list, um, Stacy, who has a, has a big heart for the grieving 00:44:08.120 --> 00:44:14.680 space and more than like, when you hear grieving, you probably assume some type of loss of like a loved 00:44:14.680 --> 00:44:23.320 one. But, uh, in just one hour conversation with Stacy, she, she is just so attuned to all the 00:44:23.320 --> 00:44:28.040 things that can cause grieving like job loss. And I didn't have the notes, but there's like seven other 00:44:28.040 --> 00:44:32.920 types of loss. And she's going to go through and really own that space. Cause she, for some, some, 00:44:32.920 --> 00:44:37.640 you know, we're all different parts of the body of Christ, but somehow she gets power by dealing with 00:44:37.640 --> 00:44:42.280 such a painful place. And I think the one lesson I learned from Stacy is you never really get over 00:44:42.280 --> 00:44:47.240 loss. Like me losing my mom, uh, five or six years ago. You know, I would, I would tell people, 00:44:47.240 --> 00:44:51.160 oh, it took me four years to get over it. And something in talking with Stacy is you don't 00:44:51.160 --> 00:44:56.040 actually get over it. What happens is you learn to accept it and it becomes a part of you. 00:44:56.680 --> 00:45:01.400 And then you, you just live with it, but you don't live with it in a way that it drags and holds you 00:45:01.400 --> 00:45:08.040 down, but it becomes a part of it. It's almost like it merges into your being and you move on as a, 00:45:08.760 --> 00:45:13.720 and you move on with it instead of it being this on this elephant under the rug that blurt. 00:45:13.720 --> 00:45:16.680 And cause if you don't deal with grief, it'll come out on its own terms, 00:45:16.680 --> 00:45:20.840 which is just something you learn as you grow older, that if you don't deal with grief, 00:45:20.840 --> 00:45:25.240 it'll hit you when you don't want it to hit you. You won't be in control of it. You could be in a 00:45:25.240 --> 00:45:29.080 restaurant. And I told her one funny story. Cause I thought it was cute. Is every once in a while, 00:45:29.080 --> 00:45:33.240 I'll see a small little Asian woman. I'm like, oh my God, that's my mom. And, and she said, 00:45:33.240 --> 00:45:37.720 Oh, those are, those are, I think she called them echoes or something, but she had some kind of name 00:45:37.720 --> 00:45:41.640 for it. And like, she, she's like giving me context to understand what's happening that that little 00:45:41.640 --> 00:45:45.880 Asian lady, she actually does look like my mom. If you put a photo next to the two, you'd be like, 00:45:45.880 --> 00:45:51.880 Oh my gosh, like same small little stature, same hairstyle and all that. And it's just a, 00:45:51.880 --> 00:45:57.400 I forgot how she, you know, I got to have more Stacey sessions, I guess, to, to understand it in a, 00:45:57.960 --> 00:46:04.280 in a grieving expert way. But, um, it's just so nice. She has all these cool terms to give you 00:46:04.280 --> 00:46:08.280 context and know what you're experiencing. So you're not always like, for me, I just thought it was a 00:46:08.280 --> 00:46:13.480 cute little moment. Like every couple of years there'd just be some random lady. I'm like, oh my gosh, 00:46:13.480 --> 00:46:16.360 I would have to look away. Cause it just makes me think of my mom too much. I gotta like, 00:46:16.360 --> 00:46:19.960 Ooh, I gotta go somewhere else. Cause that's she's the, the mannerisms are too similar. 00:46:20.680 --> 00:46:25.640 Um, and I dare, she, she dare not speak. And then actually sound like my mom. I like burst into tears. 00:46:25.640 --> 00:46:32.600 This is just so cute. Um, and then other experts that we have in the room. Uh, you got Jayma, who 00:46:33.160 --> 00:46:40.360 is like the, uh, discipleship expert, if you will. So coming up with some cool titles for the new website, 00:46:40.360 --> 00:46:47.960 but his goal is, is, is perfecting this, uh, training manual of how disciples make disciples digitally. 00:46:47.960 --> 00:46:52.920 And that it's not just a thing you have to do. It's a thing you want to do. And you have the tools and 00:46:53.800 --> 00:46:57.800 and of how to do it. And it's so easy. I think the one thing I got from Jamo sports is that it's so 00:46:57.800 --> 00:47:03.960 easy to do as long as you're intentional about it. And I think a lot of us were very unintentional 00:47:03.960 --> 00:47:08.040 about the great commission. We wait for moments to happen. Assuming we're not a pastor like Andy, 00:47:08.040 --> 00:47:13.480 where it just happens being a pastor, but for us, non pastors, you kind of just wait for it to present 00:47:13.480 --> 00:47:19.400 itself. But through Jamo's course, it shows you there's intentionality where it's not like you're 00:47:19.400 --> 00:47:25.080 always on, but you're tuned to moments that are, are open doors. And maybe you should walk through 00:47:25.080 --> 00:47:29.800 those doors. Whereas before you're like, yeah, that's for that's some, that's Andy's job. He's the 00:47:29.800 --> 00:47:35.320 pastor. Go get it. And I think that's like, so the wrong mentality of Christians today. It's not 00:47:36.120 --> 00:47:40.600 the pastor is just a guy like everyone else. It's not his job to do all the Jesus things. 00:47:42.600 --> 00:47:49.480 It's our job as Christians. Um, so there you go. Yeah. So I think it's going to be interesting 00:47:49.480 --> 00:47:54.200 as we start to build out this Avengers team, not only of, of, of thought leaders. I mean, 00:47:54.200 --> 00:47:59.160 cause we can listen, you can read a Jamo article all day long. Like some of, some of his concepts 00:47:59.160 --> 00:48:03.320 and perspective is, is incredible. And so like there's, there's thought leaderships, but there's 00:48:03.320 --> 00:48:10.600 also, um, like consultants, like how can, um, Layton come in and develop that, that base will help 00:48:10.600 --> 00:48:16.760 your church develop that baseline for what, um, digital needs to be. How can you elevate your 00:48:16.760 --> 00:48:22.040 game to get to that, to even just the beginning level? How do you move beyond just streaming? 00:48:22.040 --> 00:48:28.280 And how do you really streaming of a church service and start to really utilize streaming to reach 00:48:28.280 --> 00:48:32.440 people in, in digital space? And these are just some of the questions they're getting into, whether 00:48:32.440 --> 00:48:38.200 it's, um, whether it's, it's Layton, whether it's, it's, uh, even some of Bernie with some of the 00:48:38.200 --> 00:48:42.040 financial things he's bringing Andy from, from a content or from a ministry perspective. 00:48:42.520 --> 00:48:48.200 Like there's, there's such a, an opportunity, um, Roz coming along from communications and I'm, 00:48:48.200 --> 00:48:52.840 we're being very casual, um, you know, talking about some of these names, but just look for, 00:48:52.840 --> 00:48:56.600 look for this opportunity to, to come alongside. We won't call it Avengers. Cause you know, 00:48:56.600 --> 00:49:00.440 I'm pretty sure Marvel's got that term copyrighted. I'm willing to be. 00:49:00.440 --> 00:49:07.880 We can't license. I'm pretty sure I don't want to have jail time over this. And, um, my, my dogs are 00:49:07.880 --> 00:49:11.720 currently barking and going crazy. I don't know if you can hear that, but never get two dogs. One 00:49:11.720 --> 00:49:16.680 dog's fine. Two is, is, is the worst if you do content online, but there's, there's an incredible 00:49:16.680 --> 00:49:22.840 opportunity for us to come alongside the church. Um, and, uh, and now we've got also, we mentioned 00:49:22.840 --> 00:49:29.720 earlier, some of these, uh, partnerships, you know, we're, we're talking to, uh, glue or we're doing a 00:49:29.720 --> 00:49:35.080 lot of work with glue already through, he gets us and, and the explorers program and expanding into 00:49:35.080 --> 00:49:38.760 other things. And we're, we're already talking with some, some other partners, start church and 00:49:38.760 --> 00:49:45.640 others that are, are, you know, doing, um, ministry and digital space and coming alongside and kind of 00:49:45.640 --> 00:49:49.800 helping with that. And so that's where, Hey, like, you know, some of these organizations, 00:49:49.800 --> 00:49:53.560 missional organizations, global organizations, how can we help? What are you looking for? What 00:49:53.560 --> 00:49:57.960 are you struggling with? And, and so, you know, I don't know if agency is the right word, but, 00:49:57.960 --> 00:50:05.080 um, you know, especially with glue, we've been doing, uh, a lot towards this idea of how to equip 00:50:05.640 --> 00:50:11.880 responders better. And so it would be, it'd be who of me of right now, Andy, you want to talk about, 00:50:11.880 --> 00:50:18.280 uh, FTT and really get into, uh, from texting the testimony and, and, and what that has, 00:50:18.280 --> 00:50:23.560 has, uh, has, uh, has looked like so far. Yeah. Uh, there, the partnership with glue has been 00:50:23.560 --> 00:50:29.160 awesome. Uh, they have, they have drastically expanded their footprint in digital ministry in 00:50:29.160 --> 00:50:34.920 the last, I'd say two years, but in particular, the last year, everybody remembers the, he gets us 00:50:34.920 --> 00:50:44.440 ad from the Superbowl, uh, in 2023 and it kind of lit the Christian social media sphere on fire for a 00:50:44.440 --> 00:50:48.680 couple of days, which I think was really cool. And that actually helped improve in, in good and bad 00:50:48.680 --> 00:50:54.760 ways as everything with Christianity does. Um, and that actually helped improve the standing of what 00:50:54.760 --> 00:51:03.800 glue was trying to do, which is really become the premier technical platform for Christianity, uh, 00:51:03.800 --> 00:51:08.360 utilizing all sorts of different partnerships and kind of a big wealth of database knowledge and, 00:51:08.360 --> 00:51:14.760 you know, a unique team of engineers, they have been able to plug certain pieces in to really, uh, 00:51:14.760 --> 00:51:22.280 hone in on people that are exploring faith. And we actually, um, partnered with glue to help out 00:51:22.280 --> 00:51:26.760 that Explorer program. And so we kind of had this first step, which was creating a series of videos 00:51:26.760 --> 00:51:31.720 based off of actually part of what we're doing with our discipleship program. We had Dr. John Harris, 00:51:31.720 --> 00:51:37.320 uh, really delivering some key kind of things, talking about, uh, the, the blessed practices from 00:51:37.320 --> 00:51:42.360 sharing Jesus online and everything that was that, that kind of came from that. But out of that sprang 00:51:42.360 --> 00:51:49.640 a deeper partnership. And we were given the remit to create a show, uh, some sort of unique podcast 00:51:49.640 --> 00:51:55.960 show stream something that was designed to do three things. Number one, it was designed to be entertaining, 00:51:55.960 --> 00:51:59.320 of course, because you don't just want to have a bunch of people sitting staring at a camera for a 00:51:59.320 --> 00:52:02.520 couple of hours or a couple of minutes because nobody's going to watch that. It doesn't matter 00:52:02.520 --> 00:52:07.000 where you put it. So it wanted to be entertaining. Number two, it had to be insightful, uh, meaning 00:52:07.000 --> 00:52:13.320 there had to be actual real experts doing actual real things. And number three, it had to tie into 00:52:13.320 --> 00:52:21.480 what glue was doing specifically with its Explorer program. And so out of that came this brainchild that 00:52:21.480 --> 00:52:26.520 I, and kind of some members of our team developed called from text to testimony. And from text to 00:52:26.520 --> 00:52:32.200 testimony is essentially a show that is all three of those things. I'd like to think we're entertaining. 00:52:32.200 --> 00:52:36.200 You guys don't have to agree with me. Uh, I think we've got a really good chemistry myself 00:52:36.200 --> 00:52:40.680 and, uh, John Pyle, who is like my blood brother and I've never met the dude, but you want to talk 00:52:40.680 --> 00:52:45.480 about a digital relationship, like me and that guy, we're homies. Uh, and then the amazing Megan 00:52:45.480 --> 00:52:50.120 Carter, who we've already talked about, and we are the three amigos on from text to testimony. 00:52:50.120 --> 00:52:56.040 And essentially what the show does is it walks through our real life experiences using the glue 00:52:56.040 --> 00:53:01.800 explorer platform. There's a lot of things that glue is tying together, but one of the main things 00:53:01.800 --> 00:53:12.280 is using a free texting service to help reach people that are in need of care, of love, of conversation, 00:53:12.280 --> 00:53:17.240 of community, of all sorts of things that we know that we really have that core gut feeling that we 00:53:17.240 --> 00:53:22.600 need from text to testimony addresses a lot of the holes that are currently in that program. 00:53:22.600 --> 00:53:27.480 A lot of things that we have seen, a lot of the experiences we had, a lot of the conversations, 00:53:27.480 --> 00:53:32.920 and then out of that, we draw practical learning and practical tips. And it's been a lot of fun 00:53:32.920 --> 00:53:36.440 to produce. It's been a lot of fun to be on. It's been a lot of fun to present to glue. 00:53:36.440 --> 00:53:41.800 Uh, you can check us out actually on our church digital YouTube page. Also glue is going to be 00:53:41.800 --> 00:53:45.080 marketing that as well. So if you're ever in touch with anything that glue is doing, 00:53:45.080 --> 00:53:50.440 please do us a favor and click the FTT link. I don't care if you watch it, just click the link, 00:53:50.440 --> 00:53:54.200 make us, you know, give us a little, a little boost there with glue. Uh, that's, 00:53:54.200 --> 00:53:57.800 that's called viral marketing, right? We're allowed to do that. Uh, that, that show, 00:53:57.800 --> 00:54:02.280 by the way, is going to continue. Uh, we are blogging about it. We're posting about it. We are 00:54:02.280 --> 00:54:08.040 doing the thing and I have had a ton of fun getting a chance to just talk with Megan and with John and 00:54:08.040 --> 00:54:13.400 really get into some of what people are actually struggling with things like anxiety and depression 00:54:13.400 --> 00:54:19.880 and mental health and grief and loss. And, um, we talk about power rangers and then we loop that 00:54:19.880 --> 00:54:24.600 right into, you know, mental health conversations cause it does happen and all sorts of things in 00:54:24.600 --> 00:54:30.760 there. So check it out from text to testimony. It's a lot of fun. Yeah. I, I just want to contribute 00:54:30.760 --> 00:54:39.640 here. Um, that show is incredible. Um, the, the entertaining, yeah, no, I'm kidding. It's 00:54:39.640 --> 00:54:44.840 entertaining. Thanks Jeff. But the, the, the heartfelt conversations, uh, digging into topics, 00:54:45.400 --> 00:54:50.680 um, uh, for people, for digital missionaries and people that, that are, are sharing Jesus digitally 00:54:50.680 --> 00:54:58.600 on social media or via texting, like, like we're doing it for glue aimed at glue. Um, people that are 00:54:58.600 --> 00:55:05.080 part of the explorers program, people that are responders and active into that. But beyond that, 00:55:05.080 --> 00:55:11.240 uh, if you are, are currently doing any sort of digital ministry, like hands-on in the weeds, 00:55:11.240 --> 00:55:19.640 interacting with people directly, um, like that is your show. These are your people and, and what 00:55:19.640 --> 00:55:25.880 they're doing to practically equip on how to handle mental health issues and, and other challenges that, 00:55:25.880 --> 00:55:31.720 that, that you're facing with the, the explorer program and otherwise like it, it's a, it's a very 00:55:31.720 --> 00:55:37.320 good resource for, for people that, that are in the midst of that. And so, um, I mean, really it's 00:55:37.320 --> 00:55:43.320 become one of the, one of the kind of flagship things that we've been doing here with the church 00:55:43.320 --> 00:55:48.920 digital. Like there's, um, that the, my podcast obviously is coming back, but that has stepped up in, 00:55:48.920 --> 00:55:55.480 in, in a big way. Um, I'm going to be doing some things over with our, our friends over at, um, 00:55:55.480 --> 00:55:59.320 um, Rezzy and, and, and push pay. And you'll see some of that. We'll talk about more of that in, 00:55:59.320 --> 00:56:04.680 in the future. Um, but even like, I don't know if we get, can, can we get Tom Pounder on the phone? 00:56:04.680 --> 00:56:08.840 Like, is, is he available? Let me have him. Yeah. We're going to have him call in in just a few 00:56:08.840 --> 00:56:11.800 minutes. Is he going to, is he going to sneak in? Yeah. Man, some, some of the stuff, 00:56:11.800 --> 00:56:17.400 like, I, I just, I want to, as he's coming in, I want to say this before he actually jumps on 00:56:17.400 --> 00:56:25.880 because Tom Pounder is freaking incredible. Yeah. The stuff that he generates for you, 00:56:25.880 --> 00:56:34.720 for the kingdom, um, is, is incredible. And the dude's been doing it for years. Like I think between 00:56:34.720 --> 00:56:41.560 YM sidekick, TCD sidekick, uh, the stuff that he was doing all secondhand, cause he was all doing, 00:56:41.560 --> 00:56:46.680 he was at the, at the church and still is like, he's been doing this for eight or nine years. 00:56:46.680 --> 00:56:54.040 Easy. Um, writing content, writing blogs, doing podcasts, uh, just trying to, to help people on 00:56:54.040 --> 00:57:01.480 the front lines of churches and him coming alongside, uh, the church digital and, um, and, and contributing 00:57:01.480 --> 00:57:07.640 and being the sidekick of the church digital and contributor to the TCD podcast network and really 00:57:07.640 --> 00:57:12.840 overseeing a lot of the content overall, man, it's been really fun to, to work with him at a more 00:57:12.840 --> 00:57:18.520 direct level, uh, and, and see what God's been doing with him in this space. So is this going to be 00:57:18.520 --> 00:57:22.200 like that, that, that Michael Scott thing where he's like, I would never say that to his face. 00:57:22.200 --> 00:57:25.240 Like you're just, you're just never going to tell him all of these glowing compliments. 00:57:25.880 --> 00:57:29.320 I'm totally going to bust his butt for coming on late, even though we told him five o'clock 00:57:29.320 --> 00:57:32.920 and not whatever time it's supposed to be. So no, I wouldn't, I would never say this. He'll 00:57:32.920 --> 00:57:36.120 listen to it. It'll be like, oh, that's sweet. And then I'll totally deny I said it. 00:57:37.240 --> 00:57:41.720 Hey, you know, for, for years, I'll just be, be honest right here for years. I wasn't sure Tom, 00:57:41.720 --> 00:57:52.760 uh, was actually a real person. I thought he was a Russian spam bot because I would never actually see 00:57:52.760 --> 00:57:57.400 him. I knew all of his friends, his friends would tell me cause I would see his friends all the time, 00:57:57.400 --> 00:58:01.720 but Tom never went to conferences. He never aligned the things and, and like, you know, 00:58:01.720 --> 00:58:07.800 he just couldn't get out. And so I wasn't sure Tom was an actual person. Um, in many ways now, 00:58:07.800 --> 00:58:12.600 I've seen Tom, we've, we've been able to like be in physical space once or twice. I think, um, 00:58:12.600 --> 00:58:17.160 I now feel that I'm not about John Pyle, by the way. I'm not sure John Pyle's a real person. He, 00:58:17.160 --> 00:58:20.360 I think he's just really good. I don't think he is either. I think he's like, uh, one of those like, 00:58:20.360 --> 00:58:25.880 um, V tubers. I think he's a V tuber. Like he's just, he's just a, he's like Hatsune Mikko, 00:58:25.880 --> 00:58:29.720 just like somebody's voice in a background somewhere. He is. He's too good. Tom, 00:58:29.720 --> 00:58:32.680 we'll get to you in a second. It's okay. Sorry. We're chatting. We're chatting around. 00:58:32.680 --> 00:58:40.360 Pyle is too good. He is too good to be a real person. John, I love you, but you are too good to 00:58:40.360 --> 00:58:45.000 be a real person. You are too good. Um, his, his podcast, by the way, uh, he's doing a podcast 00:58:45.000 --> 00:58:49.720 season beyond church. What's, what's his podcast called inside? Yep. Better on the inside. Yep. 00:58:49.720 --> 00:58:55.000 Once again, like I know he's on a break right now. Um, it's, it was 2023 was a rough year for a lot of 00:58:55.000 --> 00:59:00.360 people, but my gosh, the stuff that he does in the conversations that, that, that John does is 00:59:00.360 --> 00:59:07.240 unbelievable. Well, we can talk about John later. Tom. Hey, we've got a Tom here. Hey, hi, Tom. 00:59:08.200 --> 00:59:14.280 Hi guys. I listen. Welcome in. You're wondering what you walked into. Why don't you have a seat over 00:59:14.280 --> 00:59:20.440 there? So we, we were, uh, you know what? Uh, Bernie just told me that I had to stop singing your 00:59:20.440 --> 00:59:24.920 praises cause it was like too appropriate for it, for the air and that I needed to like tone it back. 00:59:24.920 --> 00:59:28.920 So, so forgive me. You'll have to go back and listen to everything nice that I said about you, 00:59:28.920 --> 00:59:33.240 but Hey, why don't you talk a little bit about some of the stuff that's coming up with a TCD sidekick? 00:59:34.440 --> 00:59:41.000 Yeah. So if you don't know what this TCD sidekick is, it's a podcast I've been doing for a number of 00:59:41.000 --> 00:59:46.440 years where I bring on ministry leaders and we talk about how to do ministry more effectively in 00:59:46.440 --> 00:59:53.000 today's world. And today's world is really centered around this digital and online component. You know, 00:59:53.000 --> 00:59:58.360 I know that you talked about this a while back and I don't know if this is a four letter word or not, 00:59:58.360 --> 01:00:05.160 but the fidgetal ministry where you combine the digital with the in person. Um, and I, I really 01:00:05.160 --> 01:00:12.440 get ministry leaders on and really talk about how we can do use digital and online as tools to help us 01:00:12.440 --> 01:00:17.800 do ministry more effectively. And so I bring on all sorts of just ministry leaders, whether an executive 01:00:17.800 --> 01:00:24.280 pastor, a video guy, student minister, children's minister, whoever is doing ministry and incorporating 01:00:24.280 --> 01:00:29.480 those digital components, I'm bringing them on and talk about what they're doing so that we can all be 01:00:29.480 --> 01:00:33.720 encouraged to do ministry better and more effectively in today's world. 01:00:33.720 --> 01:00:43.080 Hmm. It's beautiful. Um, Stadia, I would like to formally apologize for using your trademarked word 01:00:43.080 --> 01:00:49.560 fidgetal. Uh, please don't sue me. Uh, next time we'll get permission before we do such a request. 01:00:49.560 --> 01:00:56.200 Tom, I thought we had this conversation. Um, yeah, I, I don't, I was funny. Like whenever I say fidgetal, 01:00:56.200 --> 01:01:01.160 I got, I've gotten so much crap over the years for saying fidgetal. Like people don't like the word 01:01:01.160 --> 01:01:08.600 fidgetal like it's, um, they, they equate it to what's, what's the word like, um, like fidget. There's, 01:01:08.600 --> 01:01:13.560 there's other words that, that, you know, when you say it, it's, it's like, that just sounds like a dirty 01:01:13.560 --> 01:01:17.720 word. Well, I don't, I don't like the word moist. I hate that moist. That's what I was trying to come 01:01:17.720 --> 01:01:22.840 up with moist. It's like word fidgetal and moist. It's like, you can't, you can't say words like fidgetal. 01:01:22.840 --> 01:01:28.280 Um, yeah, people are afraid. I'm like, I'm like, are you killing somebody? Do you think I'm killing 01:01:28.280 --> 01:01:33.320 somebody because I said fidgetal? I don't, I don't, I don't understand. Why don't you like tuna? 01:01:33.320 --> 01:01:40.920 I just, I just, I got, I have like a, I have a couple of bugaboo words, moist, tuna, and garbage. 01:01:40.920 --> 01:01:46.280 I don't like the word garbage for some reason. It's just, they make me just, anyway, keep going. 01:01:47.160 --> 01:01:53.960 That must be a, like a musician sound guy thing. Like you hate it. Garbage. Okay. Quick story. 01:01:53.960 --> 01:01:58.560 Garbage is one of those words that like, as a neurotic 12 year old or 11 year old, I was like 01:01:58.560 --> 01:02:03.240 trying to go to sleep and I have a terrible time sleeping all every year since I've been alive. 01:02:03.240 --> 01:02:07.840 I just can't fall asleep. My mind doesn't shut off. And so I was sitting there literally staring at the 01:02:07.840 --> 01:02:12.840 ceiling and it got caught. You ever get like get caught in a word and you just like think about the 01:02:12.840 --> 01:02:17.120 word and then you think about it and then you think about it. Well, that was garbage for me. 01:02:17.160 --> 01:02:24.600 And it was like garbage, garbage, garbage. And I did it for probably, it felt like an hour. It was 01:02:24.600 --> 01:02:28.680 probably only five minutes, but just kept, that word kept repeating. And I, I learned to hate it at 01:02:28.680 --> 01:02:31.880 that point. So we don't call it the garbage right here. We call it the trash. Take out the trash, 01:02:31.880 --> 01:02:40.440 please. I'm going to start the garbage podcast. Don't I'm unsubscribing right now. I'm going to, 01:02:40.440 --> 01:02:46.360 I'm going to subscribe and then unsubscribe just to stick it to you. Can you call it what the garbage 01:02:46.360 --> 01:02:53.720 by, uh, by, uh, by Romans 10, nine, that would be awesome. Um, would, would love that. So Tom, 01:02:53.720 --> 01:02:59.960 uh, man, uh, what, what, what, listen upfront and I was singing your praises earlier, even though 01:02:59.960 --> 01:03:05.960 Romans told me to shut up, uh, you're the heart that you've poured into the church digital with the, 01:03:05.960 --> 01:03:10.600 the content that you're, you're writing and complimenting and, and coming into. And when I 01:03:10.600 --> 01:03:17.160 took the break carried for six months, man, it is, it has been awesome. Um, and, and, and I've heard 01:03:17.160 --> 01:03:23.160 from, from many out there that it's benefited. And so thank you for doing the effort, for taking the 01:03:23.160 --> 01:03:27.960 time for, for carrying like, like you did. And Tom's not going anywhere. Uh, and we're looking 01:03:27.960 --> 01:03:31.400 forward to ramping even, even more up, but man, thanks for some of the work that you've done for 01:03:31.400 --> 01:03:37.080 the kingdom over the past six months or so. Well, thanks. I mean, uh, honestly, like here, 01:03:37.080 --> 01:03:43.480 here's the deal. Like again, when I started doing digital ministry, I was very much a self-taught 01:03:43.480 --> 01:03:48.200 guy. I didn't go to school for this. I didn't do training. I went to school for youth ministry. 01:03:49.000 --> 01:03:55.400 And so I had to learn all this stuff. So I would latch on to people that was, were doing this. So 01:03:55.400 --> 01:04:00.360 that's, again, that's how I first discovered who you were, Jeff, and then got connected with Andy 01:04:00.360 --> 01:04:06.680 and everybody else. And, but the reality is my heart is to really help it equip people and give 01:04:06.680 --> 01:04:13.160 them practical ability so that they can say, you know what, this isn't rocket science. I can incorporate 01:04:13.160 --> 01:04:18.600 digital stuff into my ministry. I can learn this stuff too. And, uh, I can be a digital 01:04:18.600 --> 01:04:22.920 missionary and encourage people in Christ, no matter where they live or what they're doing. 01:04:23.480 --> 01:04:29.880 And so that's really my heart is really to, to help raise up leaders that they, that they, 01:04:29.880 --> 01:04:33.640 that they think, Hey, I can do this. This is possible for me to do. 01:04:35.480 --> 01:04:40.520 Yeah. Love that. By the way, nobody, nobody was providing helps and aids, you know, 01:04:40.520 --> 01:04:47.080 with this back in like 2018, 2017, before then. Andy, when'd you start being digital pastor? 01:04:47.080 --> 01:04:56.200 So did like digital was June of 2019, 2019. Yeah, it was, it was 2019. It was Jay, it was me, 01:04:56.200 --> 01:05:04.120 it was Tom and it was maybe Dave Adamson, but Dave's been off and on, on, on what he's focusing 01:05:04.120 --> 01:05:09.960 on. I know he's got a lot of different focuses. Um, and so, yeah, it's, it was light. And honestly, 01:05:09.960 --> 01:05:16.840 Jay was the first person to interview me. And I think Tom heard me on Jay and that's when Tom 01:05:16.840 --> 01:05:21.480 reached out. And so those were really the first two to kind of circle around me and help me get 01:05:21.480 --> 01:05:27.000 started with that. And so hats off to Jay Cranda out there. Tom, Tom's Avenger is we have him as 01:05:27.000 --> 01:05:34.680 either Hank or Robin and some people might take offense to Robin, but like Tom is that dude without 01:05:34.680 --> 01:05:40.840 the weird Tom is no, not Robin Leach, Robin, like a Batman and Robin fame. 01:05:41.560 --> 01:05:41.560 Yeah. 01:05:41.560 --> 01:05:47.400 We're jumping like metaverses. We can't, I can't go from DC to Marvel. I didn't come up with it. Okay. 01:05:47.400 --> 01:05:54.600 I just, I just, I'm just saying you iron light. Can we Robin is like my favorite. I know the 01:05:54.600 --> 01:06:00.280 Avengers is Marvel. And so I'm okay with Hank, but when I, again, when I thought of sidekick, 01:06:00.280 --> 01:06:06.200 I'm thinking I'm, I'm the Robin of you all. And so I want to help you guys. And you know, 01:06:06.200 --> 01:06:11.640 that's, that's kind of where I figured I'd play in. Does Marvel actually have a good sidekick? 01:06:12.840 --> 01:06:14.760 Wait, what did you say? What'd you say, Bernie? 01:06:16.280 --> 01:06:21.000 There was a certain Robin that want, that did try to kill Batman or tried to. 01:06:21.000 --> 01:06:22.520 Yeah. That was in Batman. 01:06:23.080 --> 01:06:26.440 So there Dick Grayson is my favorite Robin. 01:06:27.160 --> 01:06:32.120 You know, he was, he was the original and he became Nightwing. So yes. Yeah. 01:06:33.240 --> 01:06:37.000 Yeah. Which are you trying to kill me, Tom? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. This just got ugly. 01:06:37.000 --> 01:06:41.480 Yeah. Tom, are you, are you trying to take me out? Well, no, no, no. You're taking Bernie. 01:06:41.480 --> 01:06:45.000 It's not Bernie's problem. It's not me. Yes. I'm clear. 01:06:45.000 --> 01:06:46.600 Sleep with one eye open, Bernie. 01:06:46.600 --> 01:06:50.440 Wait, wait. If we really think about it, that makes him the first Robin, 01:06:52.120 --> 01:06:55.000 you would be the third Robin, which would make me the fourth one. 01:06:56.600 --> 01:06:59.080 You're the little, you're the evil one. Yeah. He's evil. 01:07:00.680 --> 01:07:05.480 Right. Yeah. I'm David. Oh, I'm the, I'm the best one. Yeah. 01:07:05.480 --> 01:07:10.040 Well, are we sure about that? Yeah. That still remains to be seen. 01:07:12.440 --> 01:07:15.880 That's the equivalent of my DC knowledge right there. That's all I've got. Ladies and gentlemen, 01:07:15.880 --> 01:07:20.920 that's all you need. Hey, you'll notice one thing here. We've been talking a lot about the church 01:07:20.920 --> 01:07:26.360 digital and we've really not said anything except the passing joke about digital church network, 01:07:26.360 --> 01:07:33.240 DCN, the church planting organization that, uh, that we started or that I started. And, um, well, 01:07:34.040 --> 01:07:40.360 it got confusing. Like, I, I just, I don't want to like try to mince words on this. Uh, the idea of 01:07:40.360 --> 01:07:45.240 trying to market and communicate two separate organizations, uh, the, the, the weight and the 01:07:45.240 --> 01:07:51.000 burden, it just, it didn't make any sense. And, uh, as I started talking to people about how there were 01:07:51.000 --> 01:07:55.800 two separate, like people that knew what we were doing, honestly, people were telling me, Hey, Jeff, 01:07:55.800 --> 01:08:00.040 we have no idea what you're talking about. We just know it's you. We just see you talking about it. 01:08:00.680 --> 01:08:05.480 And so the idea of having the two separate organizations running one, the church digital 01:08:05.480 --> 01:08:11.640 as a for-profit aimed at helping establish churches and to digital church network, which is aimed at, at 01:08:11.640 --> 01:08:17.720 helping plant digital churches. The, the, the overlap just became where it didn't make sense to really 01:08:17.720 --> 01:08:25.320 separate them. And so we went through this process and it's taken six months or so, honestly, 01:08:25.880 --> 01:08:33.080 to combine the two together, the church digital and the digital church network. And, um, the, the cage 01:08:33.080 --> 01:08:39.880 match for which domain name would actually win, uh, went to the church digital. Um, uh, one of the 01:08:39.880 --> 01:08:45.320 reasons why is because it would kill me inside if we actually lost TCD, uh, change the logo fine. But, 01:08:45.320 --> 01:08:50.040 uh, I like, let's, let's keep that sucker going. Uh, I'm kidding. There's other reasons, but I do 01:08:50.040 --> 01:08:55.160 actually really love the idea of the church digital. So, um, you know, our, our dedication to church 01:08:55.160 --> 01:08:59.080 planting, uh, still there, if not stronger, it's tied into the movement system. And we're, 01:08:59.080 --> 01:09:04.360 you're going to see that ramp up, um, arguably exponentially as we start to get more, uh, leaders 01:09:04.360 --> 01:09:10.040 like Stunami and more leaders like Megan as we start to resource other organizations, like what's 01:09:10.040 --> 01:09:15.800 happening in Germany, which we'll get more into that later. And so, um, our, our, our passion to be, 01:09:16.520 --> 01:09:20.680 once again, the people that are dealing with the crazies, uh, that are helping resource the crazies. 01:09:20.680 --> 01:09:26.520 One crazy is, is a nut job. Two crazies is something to consider three crazies. Well, 01:09:26.520 --> 01:09:30.440 they're a force to be reckoned with. And so I think we're lining a bunch of crazies up, 01:09:30.440 --> 01:09:36.440 uh, Tom Pounder included trying to kill off Bernie. Uh, but what you're, I think you're going to see 01:09:36.440 --> 01:09:41.640 with the church digital in the future is, is going to be, uh, a powerful force to reckon with as we 01:09:41.640 --> 01:09:46.840 leverage digital discipleship, uh, to reach and empower people to what God has called them to do in 01:09:46.840 --> 01:09:53.160 physical and digital space. So I am so looking forward to what the future holds, uh, with this 01:09:53.160 --> 01:10:00.440 organization as, as it, as it continues to grow and expand. And so that may be all I have to say 01:10:00.440 --> 01:10:07.560 from a, from a podcast host perspective. Um, as we're landing the plane here, guys, 01:10:07.560 --> 01:10:11.000 and you know what? I haven't, I haven't wrapped up a podcast in like six months. I'm actually like, 01:10:11.240 --> 01:10:15.340 what am I supposed to do at this moment? Uh, as we're landing the plane, cause that's my catchphrase 01:10:15.340 --> 01:10:19.660 that I've said 275 times. Uh, Tom, any closing thoughts on your side? 01:10:20.780 --> 01:10:25.580 Happy to be here. I am really excited about what the new year is going to bring, uh, for the 01:10:25.580 --> 01:10:27.660 church digital and the digital church network. 01:10:30.380 --> 01:10:34.460 Tom, digital to violate things. That's two violations. 01:10:35.900 --> 01:10:37.420 We got fidgetal and DCN. 01:10:38.060 --> 01:10:43.020 Fidgetal and DCN in the same podcast. I don't even know. Um, all right. So we're very happy for 01:10:43.020 --> 01:10:45.420 what's coming in the church digital. Um, and happy new year. 01:10:46.780 --> 01:10:48.140 Need like the family feud X. 01:10:51.740 --> 01:10:53.660 You can just cut all of me out of this. 01:10:55.740 --> 01:10:57.820 Oh no, it's staying. It's staying, my guy. 01:10:57.820 --> 01:11:02.220 Every second of that saying that's, that's good. Andy, the person who should have shipped out the 01:11:02.220 --> 01:11:05.500 language guide has, who's going to hopefully get that out. Maybe Ross can put something together 01:11:05.500 --> 01:11:08.140 in the next couple of days. Um, what? 01:11:08.780 --> 01:11:11.900 Sounds like I got work to do on our branding guide. Uh, yeah. 01:11:11.900 --> 01:11:18.540 Awesome. 2024 is going to be rad. Uh, we've got some really cool partnerships. We've got a really 01:11:18.540 --> 01:11:23.660 cool team established and like for the first time in, I think hopefully since Jeff started this, 01:11:23.660 --> 01:11:31.420 there's a, there is a, a, uh, a lot of real, real, like big growth happening, not just being 01:11:31.420 --> 01:11:35.740 Jeff led, but being team led. And the only way this is going to succeed is if we can help 01:11:36.300 --> 01:11:41.180 Jeff really spearhead this. So I'm super stoked to be part of this team. And yeah, it's going to be, 01:11:41.180 --> 01:11:46.460 it's going to be a really, really cool year. Awesome. Bernie, any closing thoughts on your side? 01:11:47.260 --> 01:11:49.980 Nope. Bye. Good, good answer. 01:11:50.780 --> 01:11:56.540 Wow. That's, that's how he leads his meetings, by the way, the power of editing, the power of editing 01:11:56.540 --> 01:12:01.500 actually had a closing thing. It turns out I'm actually the third Robin, which is Tim Drake. 01:12:01.500 --> 01:12:08.700 Like that makes Andy, the bad boy, Robin, Jason Todd, who Joker kills, who then doesn't die, 01:12:08.700 --> 01:12:15.260 comes back for vengeance. So actually Andy's the bad Robin and Damien is the fifth one. And Tim Drake, 01:12:15.260 --> 01:12:18.940 I'm just the innocent one. I'm, I'm like Dick Grayson. I'm like Tom. We're just the innocent 01:12:18.940 --> 01:12:25.100 Robin sidekick guys. It's just good to be one of the good guys. All right. So Andy's officially 01:12:25.100 --> 01:12:30.700 red hood. Is that what we're saying? Okay. He's the guy who gets killed by the Joker. That's the, 01:12:30.700 --> 01:12:36.460 that's the part of that. Oh, an inauspicious end. I love it. Yeah. Nice work, Jeff. That's your 01:12:36.460 --> 01:12:40.460 fault. Awesome. Why did you let Joker live all these years? This is why I hang out in Marvel world 01:12:40.460 --> 01:12:47.420 because like it's, it's, it's, it's happier. It's, it's less gruesome. Yeah. Yeah. Just don't read 01:12:47.420 --> 01:12:52.700 anything Spider-Man related because apparently his, the real tagline is Spider-Man never gets anything 01:12:52.700 --> 01:12:59.900 nice. Huh? Yeah. The real Spider-Man, Peter Parker, they've decided to never let him have a happy ending. 01:12:59.900 --> 01:13:05.260 He will never be happy. Huh? Miles Morales and all the other spider people can have happy endings. 01:13:05.260 --> 01:13:10.700 Peter Parker cannot. Sorry. And then, and, and, and podcasts and pause. There we go. Yeah. Yeah. 01:13:10.700 --> 01:13:16.540 There we go. I mean, I want to say technically it's not your podcast because I'm the host, but you're my 01:13:16.540 --> 01:13:33.900 boss. So, Hey, on that end, we're going to land the plane. This is, this has been great. 01:13:33.900 --> 01:13:35.960 you