WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:02.420 Welcome to the Church Digital Podcast. 00:00:03.380 --> 00:00:07.260 Through this podcast, we'll talk about the technological innovations within the church. 00:00:07.620 --> 00:00:11.060 But more than tech for tech itself, we'll address deeper questions. 00:00:11.700 --> 00:00:13.300 Is disciple making possible digitally? 00:00:13.760 --> 00:00:15.760 How should we approach the digital mission field? 00:00:16.060 --> 00:00:18.620 Can a biblically grounded church operate in digital space? 00:00:19.060 --> 00:00:22.940 Oh, and where does the metaverse and artificial intelligence fit into all of this? 00:00:23.660 --> 00:00:25.840 Whether you're a big or small church, 00:00:25.840 --> 00:00:30.680 the Church Digital's goal is to help churches like yours learn to be a multiplying church, 00:00:31.040 --> 00:00:32.520 digitally and physically. 00:00:32.880 --> 00:00:34.680 And now here's your host, Jeff Reed. 00:00:35.180 --> 00:00:37.560 Hey, it's episode, I'm just going to start over, y'all. 00:00:37.840 --> 00:00:38.780 Sorry to be you. 00:00:38.920 --> 00:00:40.640 Hopefully I'll be a little more streamlined this time. 00:00:40.940 --> 00:00:45.520 Hey, episode 320, episode 320 of the Church Digital Podcast. 00:00:45.640 --> 00:00:49.400 This is the last podcast episode recording for the year. 00:00:50.200 --> 00:00:51.760 2024 has been a great year. 00:00:51.760 --> 00:00:57.040 We are taking a little break on the podcast. 00:00:57.620 --> 00:01:02.720 We've got a lot of changes coming up in 25. 00:01:02.940 --> 00:01:05.360 Now, if you know me, it's like, dear God, Jeff, more changes? 00:01:05.560 --> 00:01:07.520 Yes, more changes. 00:01:08.300 --> 00:01:17.880 And it's a lot of fun right now seeing a team that gets excited and can run 00:01:17.880 --> 00:01:21.240 and is excited about some of the paths that we're on 00:01:21.240 --> 00:01:25.540 and even partnering with other people that want to come on board with this. 00:01:25.720 --> 00:01:28.780 And so there's a lot of fun right now. 00:01:30.280 --> 00:01:34.280 24 has been a great year for us. 00:01:36.660 --> 00:01:39.540 You know, we've made some changes in leadership along the way. 00:01:40.540 --> 00:01:47.940 January 1st, 2024, Bernie Mapili was in the leader position of the Church Digital. 00:01:48.060 --> 00:01:51.260 In 23, as you may recall, taking a break, really, from leadership. 00:01:51.480 --> 00:01:56.660 Had stepped back from the Church Digital on a couple of my other fractional leadership jobs 00:01:56.660 --> 00:02:02.660 and basically took a sabbatical of sorts in 24, in 23. 00:02:03.560 --> 00:02:15.100 And Bernie stepped in to lead the organization, and he and Andy did a great job maintaining the org in my absence 00:02:15.100 --> 00:02:17.960 and really keeping the seat warm for me to come back. 00:02:19.100 --> 00:02:24.840 24, I did come back, and it's been a sprint of sorts ever since, 00:02:25.560 --> 00:02:32.280 you know, bringing on probably the best acquisition I've ever done in the history of ever. 00:02:33.380 --> 00:02:40.080 At least the most impact was bringing on Barbara Carnero into the Church Digital fold here in 24 January, 00:02:40.620 --> 00:02:46.700 which was an awesome pickup, communications and connections from a strategic standpoint. 00:02:47.540 --> 00:02:53.920 Barbara is revolutionary, you know, and really, she's... 00:02:55.560 --> 00:03:02.100 I respect when people push back on me, you know, because I know I'm a type A guy. 00:03:02.240 --> 00:03:03.280 I'm kind of a... 00:03:03.280 --> 00:03:04.140 I'm not a bully. 00:03:04.260 --> 00:03:11.240 I used to be a bully, but, you know, I can railroad a situation through if I gunned in my head if I had to. 00:03:12.840 --> 00:03:14.700 And when somebody pushes... 00:03:14.700 --> 00:03:15.960 This is the secret to Jeff Reed. 00:03:16.980 --> 00:03:20.900 When somebody pushes back on me, oh, I listen. 00:03:22.600 --> 00:03:27.620 Because they're impassionated enough about the idea to, like, stand up to me and be like, 00:03:27.680 --> 00:03:29.200 hey, yo, Jeff, you're missing it here. 00:03:30.060 --> 00:03:32.940 And Barbara's done that several times. 00:03:33.080 --> 00:03:33.700 And you know what? 00:03:33.720 --> 00:03:35.420 When she's done it, she's been right. 00:03:35.840 --> 00:03:37.920 And so that falls away from me. 00:03:38.660 --> 00:03:44.320 Picking Barbara up and bringing her into the Church Digital, her and the Word Revolution team 00:03:44.320 --> 00:03:49.180 really set us off for an incredible adventure for 24. 00:03:51.500 --> 00:03:55.180 Latency, seeing what he's doing in the relationships, connecting. 00:03:57.080 --> 00:03:59.720 Andy, the stuff that he's been doing with asynchronous. 00:03:59.720 --> 00:04:04.180 You've got to realize, in 24, we launched a new website. 00:04:04.320 --> 00:04:05.340 We launched into Discord. 00:04:05.920 --> 00:04:07.980 And we launched into WhatsApp, both in 24. 00:04:08.180 --> 00:04:10.040 We were not in either of these communities. 00:04:10.160 --> 00:04:13.120 We were in that community we do not speak of, Mighty Networks. 00:04:14.280 --> 00:04:16.220 That, you know, Mighty Networks. 00:04:16.280 --> 00:04:18.500 That may have not have been that good for us, Mighty Networks. 00:04:18.500 --> 00:04:25.400 But that being said, the move into Discord has been, from an engagement standpoint, has been phenomenal. 00:04:26.840 --> 00:04:30.880 And WhatsApp, believe it or not, has been, like, six weeks. 00:04:31.740 --> 00:04:33.520 Like, it's brand spanking new. 00:04:34.020 --> 00:04:39.040 And so we're already seeing success on those platforms moving forward. 00:04:39.340 --> 00:04:44.140 And so we're really excited about the road of 24. 00:04:44.200 --> 00:04:45.980 And I haven't even gotten to the secret of J-Mo. 00:04:47.220 --> 00:04:48.500 But, hey, that's 24. 00:04:49.640 --> 00:04:54.380 And with this podcast, as we're wrapping up the year of 24, this is not really a celebration for 24. 00:04:54.520 --> 00:04:57.180 As much as it is, five things. 00:04:57.680 --> 00:05:01.040 Five things that you can expect from the Church Digital in 2025. 00:05:01.520 --> 00:05:06.680 Where is the Church Digital going in 2025? 00:05:08.560 --> 00:05:09.600 Well, that's a great question. 00:05:09.740 --> 00:05:13.100 Now, you all are the streamers. 00:05:13.200 --> 00:05:14.880 You're the podcast listeners. 00:05:15.060 --> 00:05:22.040 You're the people that are taking the time to watch me ramble on for an hour or so. 00:05:22.160 --> 00:05:23.240 So good for you. 00:05:23.940 --> 00:05:30.620 But the flip side of that is, yeah, I'm known to say some things before they should be public. 00:05:31.220 --> 00:05:34.400 And Barbara has always wanted to say, Jeff, you don't want to say that yet. 00:05:34.440 --> 00:05:37.180 And it's like, yeah, I really, I really, I really do. 00:05:37.940 --> 00:05:41.500 And so, look, I'm looking at my little list here. 00:05:41.580 --> 00:05:45.620 My little notepad on the Apple app. 00:05:45.960 --> 00:05:47.960 And I've got five things. 00:05:48.420 --> 00:05:52.560 Now, three of them may be like a bomb drop, like a mic drop here. 00:05:52.720 --> 00:05:56.840 Like there may be a surprise when we're saying some of this. 00:05:56.840 --> 00:06:06.640 So, this is either going to be a really awesome, oh my gosh, I can't believe Jeff's, you know, the Church Digital, I can't believe they're doing this. 00:06:07.120 --> 00:06:09.560 Or it may be, I don't know. 00:06:09.620 --> 00:06:10.220 We'll see what happens. 00:06:10.320 --> 00:06:11.820 We'll see how the spirit leads. 00:06:11.900 --> 00:06:16.400 We'll see what mood that I'm in here as we're getting further along that. 00:06:16.500 --> 00:06:17.280 But hey, here we go. 00:06:19.500 --> 00:06:24.200 Five things to expect from the Church Digital in 2025. 00:06:25.380 --> 00:06:26.420 Let's go number one. 00:06:27.200 --> 00:06:28.320 We're just, we're getting into it. 00:06:28.380 --> 00:06:31.880 Number one, we're going to expect YouTube to crash on me. 00:06:31.980 --> 00:06:32.240 No. 00:06:32.520 --> 00:06:35.800 Well, yes, you can probably expect YouTube to crash on me because it's been going to do that. 00:06:35.840 --> 00:06:37.540 But no, seriously, that was a throwaway. 00:06:38.080 --> 00:06:41.900 Number one, we, the Church Digital, we're going global. 00:06:42.880 --> 00:06:45.840 And we're actually on the road of that right now. 00:06:45.840 --> 00:06:55.660 Like, so funny, I was sitting down with a friend this morning for breakfast and he's like, you know, is there anybody else from that lasagna conference? 00:06:56.580 --> 00:07:00.960 Lausanne, Lausanne, Lausanne conference, Congress. 00:07:01.140 --> 00:07:01.500 Yeah, okay. 00:07:02.500 --> 00:07:13.640 If the Lausanne conference wasn't enough, if the Church Digital being exposed as a digital missionary sending agency to 5,000 global leaders in Seoul, South Korea, 00:07:13.640 --> 00:07:38.720 and another, you know, 15,000, 20,000, 21,000 watching online, yes, there is a huge opportunity to see the Church Digital getting exposed and getting light and getting these ideas out into other continents, other regions, other people, groups. 00:07:38.720 --> 00:07:45.980 And so, um, empowering people with the ability to reach, engage, engage, and disciple people in digital space. 00:07:46.100 --> 00:07:50.580 Like, oh my gosh, that is such a beautiful opportunity. 00:07:51.420 --> 00:08:01.080 Now, I'm, I, I, I'm going to be honest with you, we're, we're, we're already doing it and, and you don't, you don't even realize it. 00:08:01.080 --> 00:08:12.720 And so this is, this is probably leak number one, um, and, and some of my Discord friends, I'm sorry, but we've been running a beta behind your back. 00:08:14.460 --> 00:08:21.240 So I, I said J-Mo earlier, and some of the stuff that he's been doing, well, this is the stuff he's been doing. 00:08:21.240 --> 00:08:38.560 You know, Jason, earlier this year in 24, he was working to develop a digital discipleship process because as a church planting organization, we needed our own discipleship program and, uh, to help disciple potential planters. 00:08:38.680 --> 00:08:55.840 And that was the plan, well, as we really were going through the material and as we were talking to planters and digital missionaries and normies, um, they didn't need a discipleship program. 00:08:56.160 --> 00:09:04.340 I can remember, I was talking to the head of, uh, navigators in, uh, in the Nigeria. 00:09:04.340 --> 00:09:05.300 I think it was Nigeria. 00:09:05.760 --> 00:09:11.620 Uh, it was an African country, by the way, navigators has an incredible discipleship process. 00:09:11.620 --> 00:09:15.780 Their, their discipleship process is better than anything we could come up with on our own. 00:09:16.520 --> 00:09:26.480 And, um, and, and he was talking to me, not about like being discipled, um, shoot, he could teach me a thing or two about being discipled. 00:09:26.480 --> 00:09:34.200 What he was looking for, um, was coaching centered around and help to be a digital missionary. 00:09:34.200 --> 00:09:39.920 He wanted me to empower the church digital, to empower his team, to be digital missionaries. 00:09:40.820 --> 00:09:49.040 And, and really he became the, the kind of the paramount example for us of, we're getting it, we're getting it wrong. 00:09:49.680 --> 00:09:54.420 Like we're trying to help people plant churches, but a lot of the people that are coming to us aren't, aren't planters. 00:09:54.740 --> 00:10:00.880 Um, we're, we're trying to, um, disciple people that don't need to be discipled. 00:10:00.980 --> 00:10:02.440 Now, discipleship is hugely important. 00:10:02.520 --> 00:10:06.420 It's part of it, but really they're not looking for just exclusive discipleship. 00:10:06.420 --> 00:10:14.820 They're looking for equipping and that can be like spiritually equipping, or that can be technically equipping, or that can be strategic tactical equipping. 00:10:14.820 --> 00:10:19.120 And so we really started wrestling with the idea of theological, technical, and tactical. 00:10:19.460 --> 00:10:27.260 Well, this is what it looks like to, to, uh, to equip theologically, technically, or tactically, um, towards that. 00:10:27.820 --> 00:10:38.840 And so I, I challenged JMO, Hey dude, I want you to create a, um, equipping digital missionaries course, cohort. 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:46.120 We need to strategically equip digital missionaries. 00:10:46.920 --> 00:10:53.680 If we are pivoting to a digital missionary model, which we decided to do, then, then our paradigm is to equip them. 00:10:53.760 --> 00:10:55.200 Remember the framework for the church digital. 00:10:55.420 --> 00:11:03.000 We're connecting with digital missionaries where people were inviting them into communities within those communities. 00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:11.980 We invite them to become digital missionaries, we invite them to become digital missionaries, we show them the opportunity of what's involved with that, and then we equip them to be digital missionaries. 00:11:11.980 --> 00:11:17.300 And that's really the, the cohort is the, um, is the front door. 00:11:18.360 --> 00:11:20.900 And in my man, JMO, he did it. 00:11:21.560 --> 00:11:26.880 Now I, I could actually show you the first draft of, of his equipping digital missionary course. 00:11:26.880 --> 00:11:31.800 Cause I think the dude's head exploded on a Google doc. 00:11:32.180 --> 00:11:48.020 Like it was just, um, I, I think the technical term is logoria, like word explosion on a Google document, everything that was in this guy's head. 00:11:48.500 --> 00:11:54.700 Uh, which if you know, Jason incredibly smart, JMO is probably the smartest guy I know in digital church space. 00:11:54.880 --> 00:12:00.460 And he put it all on that Google doc and it was convoluted. 00:12:00.460 --> 00:12:01.860 It was disorganized. 00:12:01.880 --> 00:12:04.420 It was shambled, but it was beautiful. 00:12:04.580 --> 00:12:17.320 If you've ever watched, uh, Russell Crowe in a beautiful mind, when that dude gets on a chalkboard and starts to like, uh, you know, um, map out the world or mathematic equations or whatever. 00:12:17.320 --> 00:12:20.620 Um, that's what his Google doc was. 00:12:21.260 --> 00:12:28.360 And so it took me a couple of days to sit down, um, and, and map it up, but we did, we created, uh, an equipping digital missionaries course. 00:12:28.780 --> 00:12:30.840 And then we said, Hey, we're going to, we're going to beta this. 00:12:31.300 --> 00:12:35.700 We're going to beta this to like, you know, six people, keep it small, keep it simple. 00:12:36.100 --> 00:12:38.520 Let's do one beta in 24. 00:12:39.280 --> 00:12:41.700 Just, we can get our, our, our feet under us. 00:12:41.860 --> 00:12:43.520 We get some experience with it. 00:12:43.740 --> 00:12:47.080 And then we're going to, we're going to roll this thing out publicly in, in a big way. 00:12:47.880 --> 00:12:50.620 And, uh, something really interesting happened. 00:12:52.120 --> 00:12:58.640 We went to, we went to Seoul and we started talking face to face with missionaries. 00:12:59.660 --> 00:13:00.680 And it was interesting. 00:13:00.680 --> 00:13:06.100 We weren't, we weren't going to talk about, um, the course. 00:13:06.920 --> 00:13:07.840 And I did it. 00:13:08.080 --> 00:13:13.800 The first person I talked with, I talked about the cohort equipping digital missionaries. 00:13:14.280 --> 00:13:18.240 And the second person I talked with, I talked to, I said, equipping digital missionaries. 00:13:18.240 --> 00:13:20.800 And then he caught on and he started talking about it. 00:13:20.860 --> 00:13:25.340 And, oh my gosh, all we did at this cohort was, all we did at the Congress was talking 00:13:25.340 --> 00:13:26.680 about equipping digital missionaries. 00:13:27.420 --> 00:13:30.000 And there was so much interest in doing this. 00:13:31.340 --> 00:13:34.860 And Jason looks over at me a couple of days in and he says, Hey, you know, that quiet beta. 00:13:35.260 --> 00:13:35.620 Yeah. 00:13:36.380 --> 00:13:39.680 That quiet beta of like six is not going to be a quiet beta of six. 00:13:39.920 --> 00:13:43.340 It's like, oh yeah, yeah, we're, we're, there's no way we're getting that quiet beta. 00:13:43.740 --> 00:13:50.680 And, and that, that quiet beta is, is launching, um, uh, you know, we've had almost 70 people 00:13:50.680 --> 00:13:57.400 at this point register, um, to learn how to be a digital missionary through the church digital 00:13:57.400 --> 00:14:00.540 70 people across six continents. 00:14:01.820 --> 00:14:08.860 And that's the beta, like a literally it's, it's multiple people groups. 00:14:08.860 --> 00:14:13.700 And, and the beautiful thing is like the people that are, that are wanting to do this. 00:14:13.700 --> 00:14:19.160 They're wanting to contextualize it in their own, in their own language, in their own, to 00:14:19.160 --> 00:14:24.320 reach their own people groups, to reach the areas, uh, people from, from India and Southeast 00:14:24.320 --> 00:14:31.640 Asia, people from Oceania and the Pacific region, people from the Middle East, people from Africa. 00:14:31.640 --> 00:14:38.300 Uh, I told, I told you to pay, I was like, my gosh, we've got like, uh, seven or eight people that are just 00:14:38.300 --> 00:14:42.980 from Nigeria that that's in, in, um, uh, you know, you to pay Simon. 00:14:43.260 --> 00:14:44.380 We had so many people. 00:14:44.380 --> 00:14:48.240 I was like, Hey dude, I, you know, I need you to step up and teach this course. 00:14:48.360 --> 00:14:50.100 This course doesn't even exist yet. 00:14:50.100 --> 00:14:50.520 That's cool. 00:14:50.580 --> 00:14:52.500 We'll get you the material and enough time for you to see it. 00:14:52.580 --> 00:14:56.900 We're still developing it, but like, it's, we need you to teach this and they're, they're, 00:14:56.900 --> 00:14:57.560 they're doing it, man. 00:14:57.560 --> 00:15:02.060 They stepped up, we're, we're offering, um, equipping digital missionaries. 00:15:03.080 --> 00:15:05.660 Actually, I don't even know how many courts, uh, courts we're offering. 00:15:05.820 --> 00:15:07.220 We're doing two in America's. 00:15:07.760 --> 00:15:08.200 Okay. 00:15:08.960 --> 00:15:12.820 Um, the third is going to be, uh, uh, Africa. 00:15:12.820 --> 00:15:14.420 The fourth is going to be Europe. 00:15:14.580 --> 00:15:21.960 The fifth is going to be the middle East and, um, the middle East and India. 00:15:23.860 --> 00:15:24.900 I think that's it. 00:15:25.220 --> 00:15:27.560 And then there is eventually will be a six. 00:15:27.680 --> 00:15:31.020 We'll, we'll launch into Oceania in January of 25. 00:15:33.480 --> 00:15:34.320 It's crazy. 00:15:34.320 --> 00:15:41.740 Like it's, it's been, it's been beautiful to see these ideas of digital mission work go 00:15:41.740 --> 00:15:49.340 globally and to see global people get excited about the potential of reaching, engaging and 00:15:49.340 --> 00:15:55.840 discipling people in digital space, you know, all the, all the friction that we see in America. 00:15:55.840 --> 00:16:01.280 And, and I just smile because, you know, I know the U S church, I told up my friend today 00:16:01.280 --> 00:16:06.380 at breakfast, I was like, yeah, I, I don't have as much credibility here, even in my own 00:16:06.380 --> 00:16:09.680 backyard in Miami as I do globally. 00:16:10.140 --> 00:16:16.280 Um, there's a, there's a lot more respect for what I'm doing outside of the U S and that's 00:16:16.280 --> 00:16:20.200 sad, it's frustrating, but at the end it's rewarding because, you know, I finally found 00:16:20.200 --> 00:16:25.360 the audience that's receptive towards this and, uh, man, it's going to be so great when 00:16:25.360 --> 00:16:32.900 we get, uh, 70 digital missionaries and empower them and mobilize them in a, in a global space. 00:16:32.900 --> 00:16:35.240 So stay tuned for that five things to expect. 00:16:35.240 --> 00:16:43.680 Number one, equipping digital missionaries is going to the cohort is going to take the 00:16:43.680 --> 00:16:44.740 church digital global. 00:16:45.040 --> 00:16:50.880 Now, um, Hey, I'm, I'm interested in more information on equipping digital missionaries. 00:16:51.920 --> 00:16:55.700 Check out our website, the church.digital slash EDM. 00:16:56.020 --> 00:17:02.080 That's where there's some information on the course overall, as well as in our internet's 00:17:02.080 --> 00:17:06.740 beta form, as well as a form you can sign up for the form is these cohorts are closed. 00:17:06.880 --> 00:17:08.100 I hate to do that to you. 00:17:08.440 --> 00:17:10.520 They are closed. 00:17:10.800 --> 00:17:17.200 We are not taking any on anybody else on, um, unless you can write a five figure check. 00:17:17.200 --> 00:17:21.540 At what point I may reconsider doing a special invitation for you. 00:17:21.540 --> 00:17:27.080 I'm not kidding, but we're not going to bring anybody else in, uh, into, into these cohorts. 00:17:27.640 --> 00:17:30.980 Um, but if you fill out the form, we'll get you on the waiting list. 00:17:31.180 --> 00:17:33.820 We will be ramping up and doing these in January. 00:17:34.080 --> 00:17:38.300 And we're going to, we're going to see this, the, the idea of equipping digital missionaries 00:17:38.300 --> 00:17:40.500 flourish moving forward. 00:17:40.500 --> 00:17:41.420 So be a part of that. 00:17:41.520 --> 00:17:48.780 Check out the church.digital slash E D M E D M is a short for equipping digital missionaries 00:17:48.780 --> 00:17:52.500 and not which I always hear in my head. 00:17:52.520 --> 00:17:56.680 Anytime I say EDM, to be honest, I hear that in my head all day long, whether or not I'm 00:17:56.680 --> 00:17:59.740 talking about equipping digital missionaries or just life. 00:18:00.420 --> 00:18:01.600 All right. 00:18:01.620 --> 00:18:01.840 All right. 00:18:01.840 --> 00:18:02.380 Moving on. 00:18:02.720 --> 00:18:05.240 Number one, the church digital is going global. 00:18:05.240 --> 00:18:13.100 Number two, uh, the church digital is going accountable, um, as in, in our going into a digital 00:18:13.100 --> 00:18:19.620 missionary sending agency, we're also pivoting into a nonprofit model, uh, which puts me, 00:18:19.620 --> 00:18:25.280 uh, the founder and currently president of the church digital, uh, in a, in a position 00:18:25.280 --> 00:18:32.400 of, of accountability where basically I now have a group of people who I have said have 00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:34.060 permission to fire me. 00:18:34.740 --> 00:18:39.600 Like I have a board of directors over me and, and, and over the organization. 00:18:40.120 --> 00:18:46.220 Um, and to be honest, that has been some of the most, I think the word is cathartic, uh, 00:18:46.220 --> 00:18:53.640 that has been so freeing and very welcome from a, from an organizational, from a leadership 00:18:53.640 --> 00:18:54.260 standpoint. 00:18:54.980 --> 00:19:02.140 Like I have loved the fact that I have a board of directors now and they are excited 00:19:02.380 --> 00:19:06.100 about the potential they're on board with what we're doing. 00:19:06.480 --> 00:19:10.820 Um, I have a high level of trust with the, who we have now. 00:19:10.820 --> 00:19:17.020 And we're even, uh, I've got five, uh, people, uh, men and women that are, that are coming 00:19:17.020 --> 00:19:18.180 on board with us. 00:19:18.620 --> 00:19:22.600 Uh, and there's another, there's another group that we're going to be onboarding probably within 00:19:22.600 --> 00:19:24.060 the next three or four months as well. 00:19:24.060 --> 00:19:31.200 Like we want to see the board grow international, grow global, um, towards that. 00:19:31.200 --> 00:19:36.100 We've got, it's mostly a U S I say that it's, it's an international crowd, but they're, they're 00:19:36.100 --> 00:19:37.060 U S based. 00:19:37.060 --> 00:19:44.600 They're mostly here in Miami, uh, with the, the board at this point, but the board holds 00:19:44.600 --> 00:19:48.700 me accountable, like, Hey, Jeff, where are we with this? 00:19:48.760 --> 00:19:50.000 You said you were going to work on this. 00:19:50.040 --> 00:19:50.800 Where, what happened? 00:19:51.020 --> 00:19:53.360 What's, and I'm not kidding. 00:19:53.520 --> 00:20:01.040 They, uh, contractually in our bylaws, they have the ability to fire me, which means we 00:20:01.040 --> 00:20:01.640 got to do stuff. 00:20:02.160 --> 00:20:07.020 Like this isn't just a, a, a sit around and talk about it. 00:20:07.020 --> 00:20:15.420 This is not waxing, uh, on digital ministry or waxing, even, you know, theological, um, we 00:20:15.420 --> 00:20:18.940 are not a, a digital mission advocacy group. 00:20:18.940 --> 00:20:20.620 We're a sending agency. 00:20:21.120 --> 00:20:25.340 We've got us be sending people out to do digital missions. 00:20:25.340 --> 00:20:26.560 Well, how are we equipping? 00:20:26.560 --> 00:20:27.480 How are we sending? 00:20:27.480 --> 00:20:28.580 How are we connecting? 00:20:28.960 --> 00:20:30.260 What's the community look like? 00:20:30.260 --> 00:20:34.940 Our funnel's got to be operating at all, all four levels for us to be effective. 00:20:35.240 --> 00:20:38.780 And, um, is it, where does it need to improve? 00:20:38.780 --> 00:20:39.740 Where does it need to tighten? 00:20:41.180 --> 00:20:47.440 But more than that, what I'm finding by having a board is, Hey, Jeff, do you know who this 00:20:47.440 --> 00:20:48.000 person is? 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:49.220 You should really connect with them. 00:20:49.280 --> 00:20:51.320 They'd be a great relationship for you to have. 00:20:51.380 --> 00:20:52.640 Hey, Jeff, have you met this person? 00:20:53.040 --> 00:20:56.700 Uh, this is a potential donor who, you know, I've been talking with them and they love the 00:20:56.700 --> 00:20:57.720 idea about what you're doing. 00:20:58.480 --> 00:21:06.980 Um, like the, the positive payoff has far outweighed the negative payoff, the negative 00:21:06.980 --> 00:21:09.180 connotation surrounding having a board. 00:21:09.600 --> 00:21:10.580 I, it's funny. 00:21:10.680 --> 00:21:15.920 I was actually very negative towards the idea of a board. 00:21:15.980 --> 00:21:16.480 I'll be honest. 00:21:16.680 --> 00:21:21.880 Like, I just, I, I say, I don't want, I don't want the board telling me what to do. 00:21:23.960 --> 00:21:28.460 And it's still early, but at this point, the board's not telling me what to do. 00:21:28.460 --> 00:21:34.640 The board is giving me, um, they're holding me accountable to what I want to do. 00:21:35.940 --> 00:21:38.740 It's, it's almost like, Hey Jeff, well, how do you see things going? 00:21:38.960 --> 00:21:39.860 Okay, let's do that. 00:21:39.900 --> 00:21:40.620 How can we help? 00:21:41.360 --> 00:21:46.260 Um, and then is it working or is it not working and what do we need to do to fix it? 00:21:46.980 --> 00:21:48.140 Um, you know, it's funny. 00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:55.140 There was the first time I ever launched, this is going to be a weird story. 00:21:55.140 --> 00:21:55.580 Sorry. 00:21:55.780 --> 00:22:00.140 The first time I launched a multi-site campus, this is this way back. 00:22:00.200 --> 00:22:01.840 This is like, Oh six. 00:22:02.940 --> 00:22:10.560 And, uh, we were launching it in Homestead, Florida off of Christ fellowship, Miami, very early in the multi-site process. 00:22:10.560 --> 00:22:12.420 And it was a, it was a setup and tear down. 00:22:13.220 --> 00:22:13.560 Okay. 00:22:14.520 --> 00:22:22.640 And, um, it was, it was, it was, uh, a school, um, Cafetorium. 00:22:23.320 --> 00:22:26.420 Like it was basically, we converted a school cafeteria. 00:22:26.920 --> 00:22:42.480 So it was, it was like taken, you know, we had this 1100 person worship center in, in Palmetto Bay, Florida, beautiful facility, IMAG screens, like, you know, state of the class, state of the art technology in 20, 2006. 00:22:43.700 --> 00:22:48.320 So people were used to go in the church in that building, plush seats. 00:22:48.640 --> 00:23:07.580 And instead we take them down to, uh, you know, piece of garbage school Cafetorium where elementary kids eat food, um, with horrible acoustics and a 10 foot roof and 150 foot long, 30 foot wide. 00:23:07.580 --> 00:23:11.660 Like it was a nightmare to engage in. 00:23:12.580 --> 00:23:14.100 And that's the worship environment. 00:23:15.340 --> 00:23:20.180 And, and there were people that loved it because it was missional and creating something new. 00:23:20.620 --> 00:23:27.060 And then there are people that hated it because they were consuming it and they were looking at not as a mission opportunity, but consuming. 00:23:27.880 --> 00:23:35.020 And, uh, the product that they were consuming in, in the homestead campus was not as good because the facility wasn't as good. 00:23:36.400 --> 00:23:42.460 And I just, I remember I would get people chewing my ear off, um, you know, from a consumerist perspective. 00:23:42.460 --> 00:23:43.880 Well, it's better here. 00:23:43.880 --> 00:23:45.660 Why, what, how can we make this better? 00:23:45.720 --> 00:23:46.360 How can we do this? 00:23:46.360 --> 00:23:47.200 How can we do this? 00:23:47.860 --> 00:23:49.820 And, um, you know, this is the problem. 00:23:50.240 --> 00:23:51.180 And it was funny. 00:23:51.180 --> 00:24:01.280 I, I, I, I, I, I said at the time as one person was, was chewing my ear off in particular at the setup and tear down, uh, I was loading the trailer. 00:24:02.860 --> 00:24:16.400 Literally, I, I, I, I had to drive in a trailer every day, every Sunday worth of hundreds of thousands, tens of thousands dollars worth of gear and just put it into a trailer and drive it back and forth an hour between campuses. 00:24:16.400 --> 00:24:30.400 And, and, uh, uh, anyway, at the end of it, I was, as I was doing this, I looked at this person and was like, Hey, if you really want to complain and have it mean anything to me, complain while loading the trailer. 00:24:31.980 --> 00:24:45.840 And, um, it was funny, the person did not, they were actually offended and I actually got yelled at by, uh, by a pastor by, for, um, offending the person and not, uh, you know, accusing them. 00:24:45.840 --> 00:25:00.940 Um, but the, the reality was rude or not, um, complaints mean a lot more when you got, you know, some shoulder grease involved in it, when you got dirt underneath your fingernails. 00:25:01.680 --> 00:25:11.800 And, um, I am looking forward to having a board, to having people, um, that are gonna get dirt under the fingernails. 00:25:12.680 --> 00:25:17.820 Leadership means more from people that have dirt underneath their fingernails. 00:25:17.900 --> 00:25:24.680 And so I would challenge a lot of you as you're looking at 25, who can you involve in those conversations? 00:25:24.680 --> 00:25:29.920 Who, how, and who can you invite to get dirt under their fingernails? 00:25:30.140 --> 00:25:39.020 Dirt's weird with digital ministry, but you know what I'm saying, who can you involve in this process, um, that can make your ideas better? 00:25:40.480 --> 00:25:44.860 Like I, I, so often when I, I talk with digital missionaries and digital planters. 00:25:47.800 --> 00:25:53.240 Like that's the thing I I've, I've, I've said this dozens of times, hundreds of times, probably. 00:25:53.860 --> 00:26:06.720 Um, if you can't, if you can't get someone, you know, to come with you on this journey, then how are you going to ever convince a stranger to join you in that journey? 00:26:07.760 --> 00:26:20.920 Like the people, you know, are going to be far more loyal to you, um, build on that, uh, and, and listen to them as they're figuring out because they, they have a unique perspective. 00:26:22.580 --> 00:26:27.080 Accountability company, uh, is, is a great thing to look forward to. 00:26:27.080 --> 00:26:36.240 And, and we're going to be getting into this in, uh, in, in 25, number three, partnerships and projects. 00:26:36.240 --> 00:26:43.140 Five things to church digital, uh, five things to expect from the church digital in 25 partnerships and projects. 00:26:43.360 --> 00:26:48.940 Um, let's call that number three, maybe that's three, a, and, and three B, uh, oh my gosh. 00:26:49.140 --> 00:26:59.360 And this is some of the stuff even building up with Luzon and after Luzon, um, so many conversations, um, involving, uh, global organizations. 00:26:59.360 --> 00:27:12.540 At this point, um, some of the people that we have coming into this equipping digital missionaries cohort, uh, at a global level is very exciting. 00:27:13.120 --> 00:27:18.140 You know, we're kind of like the new kid on the block a little bit where it's the first time in that space. 00:27:18.320 --> 00:27:23.520 And so a lot of these areas, everybody knows everybody and Ooh, what's this guy working on? 00:27:23.600 --> 00:27:25.720 What, what are, what are they offering and how does it fit in? 00:27:26.040 --> 00:27:34.720 And so we've got some, some key partnerships that are under, uh, development, let's say at this point. 00:27:35.240 --> 00:27:40.200 And so we're going to be really excited, uh, when some of this stuff comes out. 00:27:40.200 --> 00:27:44.360 And I can't, I probably can't leak anything here. 00:27:44.440 --> 00:27:52.400 I really want to, I really, really want to, but this, a lot of the partnerships is maybe a little too soon. 00:27:53.320 --> 00:28:06.040 Um, now some of the projects we're working on, uh, we're working on, on a research project with Luzon talking about the effectiveness of digital community for discipleship, evangelism and discipleship. 00:28:06.040 --> 00:28:09.280 And that's, um, that's beautiful. 00:28:09.420 --> 00:28:18.740 We're talking with, um, uh, man, if you guys have not met a Nash yet, and Nash hangs out with us in, um, YouTube and discord, I believe. 00:28:18.980 --> 00:28:24.420 I see him more in YouTube and, uh, I'm sorry, discord and, uh, WhatsApp, but I see him more in WhatsApp. 00:28:25.280 --> 00:28:28.680 Uh, but he's been coming on and helping us do some research work. 00:28:28.900 --> 00:28:33.680 Um, and he's actually, he's going to be helping us get started in India as well. 00:28:34.020 --> 00:28:36.440 Uh, working alongside some of the team in India. 00:28:39.440 --> 00:29:04.720 Um, that's just one of the projects we're working on and partnering with some of the global organizations, uh, to create best practices, uh, and not only best practices, but, uh, stats and stories, uh, quantitative and qualitative research for how, uh, community is effective for, uh, discipleship and, uh, evangelism in digital space. 00:29:06.720 --> 00:29:08.980 And the beauty is that wasn't my idea. 00:29:09.620 --> 00:29:17.980 Like this was, uh, a group, uh, from Lausanne that sat around that was on one, two, three, four, four continents. 00:29:17.980 --> 00:29:21.040 I think maybe five, uh, five continents. 00:29:21.200 --> 00:29:21.260 Sure. 00:29:21.280 --> 00:29:23.820 We can count that guy five continents. 00:29:24.080 --> 00:29:28.220 Uh, and they come up with the idea of, of, of this. 00:29:29.320 --> 00:29:31.800 And, um, oh, it's so exciting. 00:29:32.080 --> 00:29:33.820 Some of the stuff that that's happening there. 00:29:34.340 --> 00:29:38.560 There's some other projects where we're talking to different organizations about coming on board. 00:29:38.560 --> 00:29:44.820 And I'm going to get into one of the projects here in a little bit, not quite time yet, but, um, 00:29:48.220 --> 00:29:52.920 when I look at, at 05, 25, I see opportunities, man. 00:29:53.620 --> 00:30:06.260 25 is, um, COVID is over asterisk. 00:30:06.260 --> 00:30:12.260 It's still a thing, but in America, we're trying to go back to the way that it was. 00:30:15.260 --> 00:30:23.880 What's interesting is there's hundreds of countries around the world that aren't going back to the way that it was. 00:30:24.200 --> 00:30:26.380 They're recognizing, Hey, there's some shifts. 00:30:26.500 --> 00:30:27.700 Things are different here. 00:30:28.120 --> 00:30:32.080 And how we were operating pre COVID is different. 00:30:33.160 --> 00:30:37.200 Um, and they're, they're adapting to a different strategy. 00:30:38.640 --> 00:30:45.200 And with the church digital, I've always said, we need to go with the goers. 00:30:45.260 --> 00:30:48.600 I was just talking about this with Craig Whitney and the podcast a couple, a couple of weeks ago. 00:30:49.260 --> 00:30:50.400 We want to go with the goers. 00:30:50.540 --> 00:30:52.160 We want to, we want to do it doers. 00:30:52.580 --> 00:30:55.160 Um, this is not sit around and wait. 00:30:55.300 --> 00:30:59.360 This is, uh, be active, um, and going. 00:31:00.200 --> 00:31:08.500 And, you know, if the, if the U S church wants to, to go to the buildings, okay. 00:31:09.500 --> 00:31:15.840 Um, there's still things they need to learn, but the church digital aspect, we will be focused 00:31:15.840 --> 00:31:22.160 through the church digital on helping the church did on helping digital missionaries be effective. 00:31:22.740 --> 00:31:26.140 And if there's some U S based digital church missionaries, awesome. 00:31:26.340 --> 00:31:27.980 We're going to go with them and help them. 00:31:28.040 --> 00:31:29.980 Some of them, you're all watching this dream right now. 00:31:30.500 --> 00:31:36.420 Um, however, if there's some that are outside of that, that, that are global, that, that want 00:31:36.420 --> 00:31:37.240 to be encouraged. 00:31:37.580 --> 00:31:38.360 It's beautiful. 00:31:38.920 --> 00:31:39.980 I've talked about this. 00:31:40.080 --> 00:31:46.420 There there's actually the U S based missionary that we have been working with and the international 00:31:46.420 --> 00:31:48.140 based missionary that we're discovering. 00:31:48.580 --> 00:31:53.000 There's two different personas, forgive me if I've said this before, I don't think I've 00:31:53.000 --> 00:32:01.640 said this on the stream, the, um, United States, the United States persona, the people we've 00:32:01.640 --> 00:32:06.200 met were the people that understood digital ministry. 00:32:07.420 --> 00:32:09.560 They had some awareness of technology. 00:32:12.280 --> 00:32:18.460 It was more of like a digital marketer or a gamer, somebody that knew how the process 00:32:18.460 --> 00:32:25.520 worked, but did not, and wanted to do things with that knowledge for Christ. 00:32:26.500 --> 00:32:32.700 But when they would talk with their U S church or their U S pastor, they were, they did not 00:32:32.700 --> 00:32:35.320 give permission to the idea. 00:32:35.580 --> 00:32:43.420 Like they would not, uh, embrace the idea, therefore frustrating the, the digital, the U S 00:32:43.420 --> 00:32:44.180 digital missionary. 00:32:45.920 --> 00:32:47.920 I mean, I've had hundreds of those conversations. 00:32:48.460 --> 00:32:49.680 Um, that's the persona. 00:32:50.240 --> 00:32:52.820 And, and, and a lot of those people are in our discord. 00:32:55.980 --> 00:32:59.260 So what we do for years, it was validation. 00:32:59.840 --> 00:33:01.220 Hey, your idea is not bad. 00:33:01.260 --> 00:33:01.560 That's it. 00:33:01.560 --> 00:33:02.400 That's a great idea. 00:33:02.500 --> 00:33:02.680 Yeah. 00:33:02.700 --> 00:33:04.880 I mean, so some of their concerns can be answered here. 00:33:05.200 --> 00:33:05.920 You're doing that. 00:33:05.980 --> 00:33:07.800 Just be a, uh, you know, recognize that. 00:33:07.800 --> 00:33:08.900 And Hey, you know what? 00:33:08.900 --> 00:33:12.040 You probably should talk to so-and-so they're doing something similar to you. 00:33:12.080 --> 00:33:13.060 Maybe you two could work together. 00:33:13.100 --> 00:33:13.600 Would you like me? 00:33:13.660 --> 00:33:14.400 Oh, you want me to introduce? 00:33:14.480 --> 00:33:14.660 Okay. 00:33:14.700 --> 00:33:14.800 Yeah. 00:33:14.800 --> 00:33:16.080 Let's let me introduce you to them. 00:33:17.600 --> 00:33:18.980 That was the U S persona. 00:33:20.700 --> 00:33:21.540 Globally. 00:33:22.640 --> 00:33:28.360 The persona is not a digital person that wants to do missions work globally. 00:33:28.360 --> 00:33:36.580 It's missionaries that want to do digital people that already have a calling to be a missionary, 00:33:36.580 --> 00:33:38.620 but are now understanding. 00:33:38.620 --> 00:33:43.620 If I can adopt and understand how to utilize digital, I can extend my reach. 00:33:43.740 --> 00:33:48.280 I can connect with that village that's in their rural area where they have cell phones. 00:33:48.280 --> 00:33:52.480 I can go beyond the physical reach of my car or my bicycle. 00:33:52.480 --> 00:33:59.160 I can, I can multiply the ideas beyond what I, as a person of capable of doing, like it's 00:33:59.160 --> 00:34:02.460 not use my giftings for Christ. 00:34:02.460 --> 00:34:04.300 It's I've been called to do this. 00:34:04.380 --> 00:34:06.020 I need to learn new skillset. 00:34:07.180 --> 00:34:12.980 And it's really interesting to see how those personas kind of combats, not the right word, 00:34:12.980 --> 00:34:22.200 but how we can consistently message to both of those personas, how we have, um, the one 00:34:22.200 --> 00:34:27.960 that's a digital savvy and one that's a mission savvy personnel. 00:34:28.800 --> 00:34:34.420 And I haven't just talking to us and global mindset, like there's, there's a lot of bifurcated 00:34:34.420 --> 00:34:37.380 different categories when you look at those two next to each other. 00:34:38.420 --> 00:34:44.700 And so that's what, as some of the opportunities that we've got with the church digital, trying 00:34:44.700 --> 00:34:46.340 to reach a bifurcated mindset. 00:34:47.700 --> 00:34:51.640 So number three, a lot of our partnerships and projects we've got coming up, stay tuned 00:34:51.640 --> 00:34:52.140 on that. 00:34:52.200 --> 00:34:53.140 It's a big deal. 00:34:53.580 --> 00:34:58.440 Um, as we, we continue to take these ideas global number four. 00:34:59.120 --> 00:35:03.460 Five things to expect from the church digital in 2025. 00:35:03.760 --> 00:35:06.760 Number four, let's go ahead and do two things here. 00:35:07.720 --> 00:35:12.440 Expect a lot of YouTube and expect, expect a lot of WhatsApp. 00:35:13.880 --> 00:35:17.900 Um, I, I, I've said this before we talk about YouTube. 00:35:17.980 --> 00:35:19.020 Let's talk about WhatsApp first. 00:35:19.480 --> 00:35:26.880 I said this before, um, WhatsApp will be the platform of choice for the church digital. 00:35:26.880 --> 00:35:32.200 Um, I, I, I believe that, um, wholeheartedly. 00:35:32.340 --> 00:35:39.680 I love discord and, and I wish discord was more viable internationally. 00:35:40.180 --> 00:35:50.080 Uh, unfortunately it's not, um, discord is a very, um, bandwidth heavy platform. 00:35:50.080 --> 00:35:57.560 Um, and a lot of our international friends really struggle to engage with, um, with discord. 00:35:58.140 --> 00:35:59.240 Oh my gosh. 00:35:59.240 --> 00:36:06.160 From a, from a, from a, just from a strictly like operational standpoint, I wish that was 00:36:06.160 --> 00:36:07.280 not the case. 00:36:08.280 --> 00:36:15.540 I, from, from a, from a feature standpoint, the ability to stream into a, into a discord 00:36:15.540 --> 00:36:23.540 room or, uh, to be able to like the, this discord stage or to do, uh, uh, uh, an online call 00:36:23.540 --> 00:36:28.160 with a dozen people in, in a discord room with the tic-tac-toe grid, uh, grid Brady bunch 00:36:28.160 --> 00:36:28.620 per grid. 00:36:30.620 --> 00:36:33.000 The discord platform is so powerful. 00:36:33.000 --> 00:36:34.240 It is so rich. 00:36:34.300 --> 00:36:38.480 It is so everything that I would ever want in an asynchronous platform. 00:36:38.480 --> 00:36:39.260 It is perfect. 00:36:40.300 --> 00:36:42.300 Except for the fact that it's a bandwidth hog. 00:36:42.860 --> 00:36:49.360 And somebody that's running 4G in a, in a, you know, third world country struggles to engage 00:36:49.360 --> 00:36:50.780 in that, in that platform. 00:36:51.900 --> 00:36:58.480 And we can't ignore the person that's trying to engage in the third world country. 00:37:00.360 --> 00:37:08.860 And so I can either have the, uh, feature heavy platform that doesn't work internationally, 00:37:10.140 --> 00:37:18.120 or we can choose the platform that already has 2 billion with a B, 2 billion people internationally 00:37:18.120 --> 00:37:19.360 active using it. 00:37:19.360 --> 00:37:24.840 Literally 25% of the world's population has this already installed on their cell phones, 00:37:25.480 --> 00:37:25.720 WhatsApp. 00:37:26.740 --> 00:37:30.260 Um, guys, we didn't think long about that. 00:37:30.380 --> 00:37:32.240 WhatsApp is, is the platform of choice. 00:37:32.400 --> 00:37:39.000 And so all of our leadership conversations are already happening on WhatsApp. 00:37:39.340 --> 00:37:45.500 We've got subgroups that are running entirely on, on WhatsApp. 00:37:46.460 --> 00:37:49.620 And so we're going to continue to build out WhatsApp. 00:37:49.960 --> 00:37:53.340 We'll continue to build out discord and discord right now. 00:37:53.460 --> 00:37:55.700 I mean, we're close to 500. 00:37:55.860 --> 00:38:00.560 Like I would love to get to discord 500 by the end of the, by the end of the year. 00:38:00.980 --> 00:38:02.940 And, and I think that's, that's reasonable. 00:38:03.120 --> 00:38:04.220 So discord's at 500. 00:38:05.120 --> 00:38:09.020 WhatsApp, I want to say it's probably a hundred, 150, maybe I haven't looked at that number 00:38:09.020 --> 00:38:15.400 recently, but there's, there's viability, um, in discord. 00:38:15.740 --> 00:38:17.140 That's not going away. 00:38:17.300 --> 00:38:20.560 I, you know, and, and as far as we're concerned, I'm concerned. 00:38:20.640 --> 00:38:24.100 Like, I, I think we run both those, those communities simultaneously. 00:38:24.100 --> 00:38:30.540 I'm, I, we're not, we're not, we're not sunsetting discord far from it. 00:38:30.540 --> 00:38:33.980 Like let's, let's let it thrive on, on what it is. 00:38:34.540 --> 00:38:41.980 Um, but when you look at the U S potential and the global potential and the success that 00:38:41.980 --> 00:38:49.840 we're seeing globally and the hunger that we're seeing globally, WhatsApp is going to, um, 00:38:49.900 --> 00:38:53.200 thrive for us in, in, in a big way. 00:38:53.920 --> 00:38:57.620 I literally, I, I joke about it's, it's gun power on a flame, man. 00:38:57.620 --> 00:39:00.260 That's going to explode in any, any minute now. 00:39:00.560 --> 00:39:06.900 And so, uh, gasoline on a flame, maybe a little, well, that's pretty violent too, actually. 00:39:07.300 --> 00:39:11.400 But that's, that's the heart of this thing, man, is, is that asynchronous is going to, and 00:39:11.400 --> 00:39:13.200 that's exactly what you want. 00:39:14.680 --> 00:39:19.480 Asynchronous solves that mid funnel problem where you're connecting with a lot of people, 00:39:19.480 --> 00:39:24.820 but in order to get them in a, in a community, uh, in order to, to really get to the bottom 00:39:24.820 --> 00:39:27.800 of the funnel, you need to utilize community to get them down. 00:39:28.480 --> 00:39:38.880 And so for us, WhatsApp was the perfect mid funnel solution to get missionaries to our 00:39:38.880 --> 00:39:40.800 equipping digital missionary course. 00:39:42.100 --> 00:39:46.540 Like when we're all done with this, I'll share some of the stats and numbers of, of where we 00:39:46.540 --> 00:39:46.920 are. 00:39:47.500 --> 00:39:54.800 Um, but it was, it was ridiculous how well WhatsApp performed for us and helping us 00:39:54.800 --> 00:40:00.020 get people plugged into the equipping digital missionary course that we're offering right 00:40:00.020 --> 00:40:00.720 around the corner. 00:40:01.300 --> 00:40:04.640 So WhatsApp, 2 billion people globally. 00:40:05.740 --> 00:40:07.920 That's one of our things to expect in 25. 00:40:08.780 --> 00:40:11.540 The other thing that I said for number four was, was YouTube. 00:40:12.100 --> 00:40:15.500 And if there's a dark horse in this game for us, it's YouTube. 00:40:15.500 --> 00:40:20.140 Now, first off YouTube, you know, second largest search engine on the planet. 00:40:20.560 --> 00:40:23.780 Um, YouTube, you know, shorts YouTube. 00:40:23.780 --> 00:40:27.400 Um, we want to, we want to hack. 00:40:27.520 --> 00:40:31.480 We want to own, we want to take over the church digital wants to take over YouTube. 00:40:31.780 --> 00:40:36.080 By the way, if you're not following us, please, the church dot, or no, youtube.com slash the 00:40:36.080 --> 00:40:38.700 church digital subscribe. 00:40:39.040 --> 00:40:39.780 Be nice. 00:40:40.440 --> 00:40:42.960 We've got almost a thousand subscribers at this point. 00:40:43.060 --> 00:40:45.540 Barbara told me the other day, it was her goal to get to a thousand subscribers. 00:40:45.540 --> 00:40:50.880 By the end of the year, she's developed a pretty rich strategy, uh, for how to do that. 00:40:50.880 --> 00:40:52.680 And excited to see that come to fruition. 00:40:53.400 --> 00:40:58.460 Um, YouTube's where we meet the next generation of digital planters where it's already how we're 00:40:58.460 --> 00:40:59.260 meeting them now. 00:41:00.080 --> 00:41:05.620 Um, people, I mean, I can't tell you how many times I've heard the story where people will, 00:41:05.620 --> 00:41:09.420 uh, go to their pastor, ask for permission to do something. 00:41:09.420 --> 00:41:14.040 The pastor says, no, they go on Google to try to find somebody else that's doing it. 00:41:14.040 --> 00:41:19.160 And then they find some YouTube video of me talking about something about it. 00:41:19.160 --> 00:41:23.520 And then all of a sudden they're in our community, they're in our discord, they're in our WhatsApp, 00:41:23.680 --> 00:41:25.560 they're talking face to face, they're watching a stream. 00:41:25.560 --> 00:41:29.080 And next thing you know, they're in an EDM course, the equipping digital missionary course. 00:41:29.080 --> 00:41:34.000 Literally that's one, two, three, four of the people that are in EDM. 00:41:34.220 --> 00:41:34.880 That's their story. 00:41:35.420 --> 00:41:38.980 Uh, it's close to 10%, 6%. 00:41:38.980 --> 00:41:45.600 Um, and so there's some vibe that I'm sure many more have been affected by YouTube as well, 00:41:45.600 --> 00:41:52.500 but YouTube is, is the, is the way for us to, to connect in, in the future. 00:41:52.500 --> 00:41:56.220 YouTube right now, the algorithms are favoring YouTube. 00:41:56.220 --> 00:42:00.500 The search engines are favoring right now where it's interesting digital missionary. 00:42:01.300 --> 00:42:07.200 Um, if you Google digital missionary, we, the church digital, we should be ranking number 00:42:07.200 --> 00:42:15.780 two organically, all organically, uh, right now you'll see, I believe a blog that I wrote 00:42:15.780 --> 00:42:17.440 on what is a digital missionary. 00:42:17.740 --> 00:42:19.500 Uh, I believe that's ranking second. 00:42:19.940 --> 00:42:26.760 And then on, uh, on some of our YouTube videos, I think we're ranking two and three and sir, 00:42:26.760 --> 00:42:34.800 one and two, um, and so like, it's the, the algorithms are really favoring YouTube content 00:42:34.800 --> 00:42:35.580 for whatever the reason. 00:42:36.760 --> 00:42:45.760 So, um, we're gonna, we're gonna own YouTube, but the dark horse, the thing that I was talking 00:42:45.760 --> 00:42:52.200 with Andy about today, the thing that I cannot wait for, and, and, and I think it's coming 00:42:52.200 --> 00:42:58.220 in February, YouTube's coming out with a asynchronous community. 00:42:59.860 --> 00:43:07.260 If you Google, uh, YouTube, a new community, they announced it back in, uh, September, actually 00:43:07.260 --> 00:43:12.760 when we were in Lausanne, uh, maybe early October when the actual announcement came out, 00:43:12.760 --> 00:43:16.900 but they've YouTube's got a blood fish, a blog where they talk about it. 00:43:17.380 --> 00:43:19.480 They are coming out with an asynchronous community. 00:43:19.600 --> 00:43:24.280 In my opinion, I think YouTube's going after Twitch and discord. 00:43:26.280 --> 00:43:31.840 YouTube already is getting more, um, views obviously than Twitch. 00:43:32.620 --> 00:43:39.280 Um, you know, Twitch is another, uh, technologically heavy bandwidth, heavy platform. 00:43:39.280 --> 00:43:42.600 A lot of our international users really can't use Twitch. 00:43:43.180 --> 00:43:46.960 Um, like there's one situation of a guy I know in the middle East that was trying to 00:43:46.960 --> 00:43:52.060 watch this stream, not this stream, but a stream like this on Twitch wasn't working. 00:43:52.060 --> 00:43:55.900 And so he clicked over and actually started watching it on YouTube and then everything 00:43:55.900 --> 00:43:56.680 was, was fine. 00:43:57.220 --> 00:44:02.260 And so like from a bandwidth perspective, YouTube, uh, is much lighter than that. 00:44:02.620 --> 00:44:08.200 And so the reach of, of what it's doing, but YouTube has always been community light. 00:44:09.160 --> 00:44:09.520 Yes. 00:44:09.520 --> 00:44:10.740 There's some community features. 00:44:10.740 --> 00:44:11.080 Yes. 00:44:11.080 --> 00:44:16.480 It's kind of behind a, um, um, you know, it's, you gotta get to a certain level to get 00:44:16.480 --> 00:44:19.600 there, but in the grand scheme of things, it's not real community. 00:44:19.600 --> 00:44:25.140 It's like, it's Facebook 1.0 is more community than what, what YouTube is. 00:44:25.720 --> 00:44:28.640 It's YouTube's much more about content than community. 00:44:29.740 --> 00:44:34.120 And they've come out and said that, and they've started giving some details that YouTube's 00:44:34.120 --> 00:44:35.980 coming out with asynchronous community. 00:44:37.220 --> 00:44:44.720 And when YouTube's asynchronous community comes out, if it's any good, if I were a digital 00:44:44.720 --> 00:44:52.940 church and I had one platform that could be my content and my community, unless I was doing 00:44:52.940 --> 00:44:56.300 specifically for gamers, I would choose YouTube or discord. 00:44:56.660 --> 00:45:03.700 If it was apples to apples comparison, if it was, um, I don't know what a lesser apples to 00:45:03.700 --> 00:45:09.040 the tomatoes, like it's, if it was at least in the ballpark, oh my gosh, the, the, the, 00:45:09.040 --> 00:45:13.840 the solidity of, of YouTube and what it means for other platforms through algorithms. 00:45:14.660 --> 00:45:15.840 Yeah, I would move that way. 00:45:16.900 --> 00:45:24.440 And so be what, be on the watch out for YouTube, a lot of you that are doing ministry in this 00:45:24.440 --> 00:45:32.320 space, um, there's opportunities to capitalize on what YouTube is doing and the, and the little 00:45:32.320 --> 00:45:37.860 bit that you're investing now is going to pay off dividends down the road as this, as this 00:45:37.860 --> 00:45:38.620 expands out. 00:45:39.940 --> 00:45:42.400 Like it was funny. 00:45:42.660 --> 00:45:48.080 I actually, I say this, I'm not going to tell you the number, but I own, I own Apple stock. 00:45:50.220 --> 00:45:58.320 When I was, um, I'm trying to put a number on this 22. 00:45:59.660 --> 00:46:07.380 Um, I graduated 21 when I was 21 years old in the year, what would I have been? 00:46:09.660 --> 00:46:14.100 Uh, 99 in the year, 1999, pre, pre Y2K. 00:46:15.520 --> 00:46:18.740 I bought, uh, 10 shares of Apple stock. 00:46:20.500 --> 00:46:26.040 Now let's, let me, let me date what that meant. 00:46:29.040 --> 00:46:37.040 Apple stock, 1999, Steve jobs is not CEO of Apple. 00:46:37.040 --> 00:46:38.040 He had been excommunicated. 00:46:39.040 --> 00:46:43.440 He was not, he was trying to do whatever he was doing with a corporation called next. 00:46:43.840 --> 00:46:49.520 Next he was running, uh, a small little startup nobody had heard of at the time called Pixar. 00:46:50.220 --> 00:46:54.060 He was, uh, doing a bunch of other stuff. 00:46:54.060 --> 00:46:59.220 Pixar actually spun off of, uh, Lucas, um, Lucas's deal. 00:46:59.640 --> 00:47:02.240 Um, then Steve jobs bought it from George Lucas. 00:47:02.520 --> 00:47:04.140 You could really get into this. 00:47:04.220 --> 00:47:09.000 The Pixar story is crazy, but, um, Steve jobs was not around. 00:47:09.780 --> 00:47:13.400 The best technology, this is way before iPhone. 00:47:13.540 --> 00:47:14.840 This is way before iPad. 00:47:15.060 --> 00:47:16.360 This is before Apple watch. 00:47:16.580 --> 00:47:27.020 This is like, um, I max were, were the, like the triangle that would sit with the CRT monitors. 00:47:27.720 --> 00:47:33.360 Um, these were, uh, well, man, those are crazy, man. 00:47:33.480 --> 00:47:34.660 Don't, don't sell on Apple. 00:47:35.540 --> 00:47:43.460 Um, uh, Phantom just put in that Berkshire Hathaway is selling, uh, seeking a lot of, uh, selling a lot of their Apple holdings. 00:47:43.520 --> 00:47:44.440 No, don't sell an Apple. 00:47:45.640 --> 00:47:49.580 Apple's got legs and they got, they got what nobody else has is cash right now. 00:47:49.640 --> 00:47:50.980 Everybody's broke except for Apple. 00:47:51.820 --> 00:47:56.940 Um, but dude, they were selling like Bondi blue. 00:47:57.940 --> 00:48:03.640 I max and they just expanded into indigo blue and candy apple red. 00:48:03.640 --> 00:48:11.740 And like that was, and it was apple shares were at like $8, $10. 00:48:13.480 --> 00:48:16.000 And, you know, I just, I was out of college. 00:48:16.060 --> 00:48:17.120 I didn't have much money. 00:48:17.660 --> 00:48:22.380 My mom's like, oh, here's whatever, like buy some stock just almost as an experiment. 00:48:23.280 --> 00:48:34.940 And so I did, I bought, I bought a bunch of Apple and then like a year later, Apple came out with the iPod, which was a revolutionary idea. 00:48:34.940 --> 00:48:45.820 And then I can't even tell you how many splits, how many, whatever, but I looked up the other day, how much, uh, how much stock I have in Apple right now. 00:48:45.820 --> 00:48:50.700 I'm not, I'm not retiring off of Apple yet. 00:48:51.500 --> 00:48:53.060 I've, I've, I've, I've nowhere in the realities. 00:48:53.200 --> 00:49:01.820 I'm, I'm nowhere near that at this point, but dang, I wish I invested more than like a hundred dollars in the Apple at the time. 00:49:02.680 --> 00:49:03.520 It was funny. 00:49:03.580 --> 00:49:09.220 I bet I bought like 10 stocks and to be honest, I bought, I bought Intel. 00:49:10.160 --> 00:49:13.980 Um, I bought, um, I bought some other tech companies. 00:49:14.780 --> 00:49:20.040 It was, um, by far Apple was the best investment. 00:49:20.340 --> 00:49:25.460 Some others I did not, did not perform as well as my Apple friends did. 00:49:27.920 --> 00:49:31.560 But that's, that's the, I have no idea why I was telling that story. 00:49:31.560 --> 00:49:40.480 Uh, I went to Macworld in San Francisco in the year 2000 and got my charcoal iMac, a DV 15 gigs a few months later. 00:49:40.540 --> 00:49:40.680 Yeah. 00:49:40.780 --> 00:49:41.440 Tall, skinny Kiwi. 00:49:41.780 --> 00:49:46.000 Anytime I tell an old grandpa story, tall, skinny Kiwi has to, has to up me. 00:49:47.740 --> 00:49:50.220 White beard would have to up me as well if he were around. 00:49:50.620 --> 00:49:51.200 So it's funny. 00:49:51.260 --> 00:49:56.880 Like the two of them just, it's, I feel like I was in a, I was in a call the other day. 00:49:58.660 --> 00:49:59.480 Tall, skinny Kiwi. 00:49:59.580 --> 00:50:01.120 Is that a call the other day with you and white beard? 00:50:01.560 --> 00:50:05.800 Um, that was the two of you guys were in the room together. 00:50:05.800 --> 00:50:06.520 I want to say, right? 00:50:06.860 --> 00:50:07.620 Oh my gosh. 00:50:07.640 --> 00:50:13.680 That was like, I, if I could be in a room with two of those guys, um, I would just be a fly on the wall. 00:50:13.820 --> 00:50:15.060 Just listen to their stories. 00:50:15.480 --> 00:50:16.540 Um, there'd be a lot of fun. 00:50:18.280 --> 00:50:19.320 Don't sleep on YouTube. 00:50:20.640 --> 00:50:27.960 Um, and if you all are not considering WhatsApp, you should be considering WhatsApp moving forward. 00:50:28.480 --> 00:50:31.860 Uh, for some of the opportunities, especially in global space. 00:50:41.600 --> 00:50:42.320 All right. 00:50:42.400 --> 00:50:42.980 Hey, Melanie. 00:50:44.100 --> 00:50:44.940 We're picking up. 00:50:46.660 --> 00:50:47.180 All right. 00:50:47.940 --> 00:50:49.540 Five things to expect in 25. 00:50:49.800 --> 00:50:53.160 Number one, church digital is going global. 00:50:54.160 --> 00:51:04.080 Number two, um, Hey, we're getting some accountability, um, towards that, bringing on a board, involving more and more people to hold us accountable. 00:51:04.460 --> 00:51:12.500 And, and, and really the best way to hold us accountable is to, to get some dirt under your fingernails and, uh, and, and join us in our, in our work. 00:51:12.500 --> 00:51:17.960 Um, look, um, look and see where God is moving and join us, um, um, in his work, Henry Blackaby. 00:51:18.640 --> 00:51:24.100 Number three, we've got a huge number of partnerships and projects we're negotiating through now. 00:51:24.240 --> 00:51:24.920 Stay tuned. 00:51:26.920 --> 00:51:29.720 Number four, uh, YouTube and WhatsApp. 00:51:30.620 --> 00:51:36.500 Um, there's going to be a lot more YouTube and there's going to be a lot more WhatsApp coming soon. 00:51:36.500 --> 00:51:42.120 Coming soon to the church digital as, as we move these ideas globally. 00:51:42.960 --> 00:52:04.160 And number five for the church digital, um, this is the one, this is the one that I'm like, I, I, this is the big one. 00:52:06.500 --> 00:52:15.400 And so, um, I have, I have like, um, little birdie angels and demons on me right now. 00:52:16.420 --> 00:52:22.860 The, uh, the, the birdie, the, the angel is, uh, is white beard. 00:52:23.420 --> 00:52:24.480 Don't say it, Jeff. 00:52:24.640 --> 00:52:25.420 Don't say it. 00:52:25.640 --> 00:52:27.500 Barbara is the other birdie next to white beard. 00:52:27.600 --> 00:52:28.340 Don't say it, Jeff. 00:52:28.400 --> 00:52:28.980 Don't say it. 00:52:30.520 --> 00:52:35.200 And the other one is me saying, Oh, say it, Jeff, say it, say it. 00:52:35.200 --> 00:52:37.840 Like I, I, I'm my worst enemy on, on this stuff. 00:52:39.760 --> 00:52:44.680 The reality is flat cap with the sticker. 00:52:44.760 --> 00:52:45.280 It's beautiful. 00:52:45.280 --> 00:53:01.740 Hey, look, the reality is, is that, well, I've, I've said this before, you know, Barbara comes on the church digital and, uh, and, you know, when we started the church digital, it was, um, I was trying to be everything for everyone. 00:53:03.360 --> 00:53:10.300 And the only way to make everyone happy is to sell ice cream, which is ironic. 00:53:10.860 --> 00:53:17.000 Um, there's some stories centered around that, but that's, that's what my, uh, executive pastor and friend used to always tell me. 00:53:17.040 --> 00:53:18.840 If you want to make everyone happy, Jeff sell ice cream. 00:53:19.640 --> 00:53:26.880 And so, um, um, we found, um, Barbara helped us focus down to this digital missionary rate. 00:53:27.260 --> 00:53:38.240 And, and, and as we, and as we focus down the digital missionary, well, our open rates on like our, is an example, our open rates on our email skyrocketed. 00:53:38.480 --> 00:53:54.140 Like we've been much more successful with engagement now that we've, we fine tuned down the digital missionary at the same time, a complimentary statistic, our unsubscription rates have gone through the roof. 00:53:54.740 --> 00:54:04.800 So like we are, uh, we're a lower, um, we're a higher open rate and a higher, we're not interested in any more rate as well simultaneously. 00:54:05.640 --> 00:54:19.320 Because we really had two different audiences that we were reaching at the same time, the church digital pre-barber 23, we had digital missionaries and digital planters and we had physical church doing digital ministry. 00:54:20.460 --> 00:54:37.160 Uh, and 24 has been really about aiming and creating that digital missionary framework, connect community equipping and mobilization and helping get that aimed at the, the digital missionaries through the church digital. 00:54:37.860 --> 00:54:40.940 And it's been very effective. 00:54:41.600 --> 00:54:44.500 Like I am not complaining here. 00:54:44.500 --> 00:55:04.840 Like, ooh, the year 24 has been really good, uh, towards, uh, connecting with people, getting them invited into community, building relationships, establishing trust, um, even to the point of equipping them to be a digital missionary now through EDM and, and what we'll soon find is mobilization. 00:55:04.840 --> 00:55:06.940 We'll get more mobilization next year. 00:55:07.700 --> 00:55:14.080 But the, um, like the, the framework is, is in process for our digital missionary friends. 00:55:14.500 --> 00:55:25.960 And so we, the church digital, we're in beta with it, but you know, we can see how the sausage is made and, and like, we're going to run that playbook for, uh, our digital missionaries. 00:55:27.860 --> 00:55:41.280 But we've got this whole other sector, this whole other audience group, this whole other section of people with the church digital that are, that are hungry, that are looking for something. 00:55:42.740 --> 00:55:48.260 Um, and, and, and, and it's these, these physical church ministry people that are doing digital ministry. 00:55:48.920 --> 00:56:01.200 It's the digital pastors and that are, that are doing ministry in a physical space who are the lead pastor doesn't understand what they do, where, um, you know, budget is limited. 00:56:01.760 --> 00:56:14.060 And, and, and, and, uh, uh, uh, vision fluctuates because there's not a clear priority in what they're, what they're doing. 00:56:14.960 --> 00:56:26.840 Like there's still an opportunity to do it, to help a physical church understand how to utilize digital well. 00:56:30.760 --> 00:56:41.220 But it's not through the church digital because the church digital needs to stay focused on digital missionary work. 00:56:41.880 --> 00:56:52.940 You can't make everybody happy, but we've got digital missionaries has its focus, but there's this opportunity and welcome to the quandary of me for the past six months. 00:56:52.940 --> 00:57:01.780 Um, because it's like, uh, we're having success with one arm, but I'm alienating a completely other are a completely other group here. 00:57:02.180 --> 00:57:03.280 So what do we do? 00:57:04.040 --> 00:57:06.300 What do we do? 00:57:06.620 --> 00:57:08.540 What do we do? 00:57:12.640 --> 00:57:13.120 Okay. 00:57:13.200 --> 00:57:14.060 So we did something. 00:57:15.340 --> 00:57:17.920 And I'm not going to tell you what it is. 00:57:18.880 --> 00:57:19.960 You're going to have to wait. 00:57:20.220 --> 00:57:21.680 Now I may come back. 00:57:21.740 --> 00:57:22.720 We may do some streams. 00:57:22.860 --> 00:57:26.240 We may make some announcements during the Christmas break. 00:57:27.080 --> 00:57:31.620 Um, you may see me early January and say, Hey, everything changed. 00:57:31.620 --> 00:57:32.820 But no, I really do. 00:57:32.880 --> 00:57:36.000 We've, we've, we've got a, a solid plan in place. 00:57:36.720 --> 00:57:37.600 Here's the deal. 00:57:37.660 --> 00:57:43.900 What I would tell you, you know, I talk a lot about the, the, the digital framework. 00:57:44.600 --> 00:57:52.920 The people we connect with physically or digitally, we want to invite them into a digital community. 00:57:53.660 --> 00:57:57.180 And within that digital community, we have build relationships. 00:57:57.180 --> 00:57:58.460 We establish trust. 00:57:58.600 --> 00:58:01.820 Evangelism works best even in, in community. 00:58:01.820 --> 00:58:11.440 But through that community, we start to equip them through discipleship and, but ultimately equip them to the goal of accomplishing something. 00:58:11.440 --> 00:58:22.680 And whether that's for the, the, um, the, for our digital mission, I work, that's it's mobilizing and mobilizing, sending people out on, on the journey for a physical church. 00:58:22.680 --> 00:58:25.000 Now that, you know, bottom funnel may look different. 00:58:25.000 --> 00:58:31.980 It may be like how to, um, how to incorporate or how to integrate in digital into their, their strategy better. 00:58:31.980 --> 00:58:42.300 But the framework of connecting to community, to equipping, to whatever, like that is a very solid framework. 00:58:43.740 --> 00:59:06.480 And if you can clone that, if you can copy and paste that, it's almost like, oh man, I can almost run a completely separate version of the same playbook, but aimed at a, at a different audience and have the same successes by running an established, proven, successful framework, just in a different context. 00:59:09.280 --> 00:59:13.600 It's the goal of, is it better to be a million person church or a hundred thousand churches of 10? 00:59:13.820 --> 00:59:24.680 I would always say a hundred thousand churches of 10, because you can get an established framework, copy and paste it, that can give you a different context. 00:59:25.340 --> 00:59:53.200 And so I would almost invite you to even look at your own ministry and how you are, um, connecting, how you're, uh, how you're connecting, how, what, what a community looks like, how using that community for a purpose of equipping or discipleship or, and then through those, through the relationships that are developed through the equipping, what's, what's the end game at the bottom of the funnel? 00:59:53.400 --> 00:59:58.740 How are we using the community for it to solve the mid funnel problem to get to whatever the bottom is? 01:00:05.240 --> 01:00:06.900 We're going to have some fun in 25. 01:00:09.340 --> 01:00:20.420 Whether you're a digital missionary, whether you're a physical church doing digital missionary, uh, physical church doing digital ministry, uh, 25 is going to be a great kingdom year. 01:00:21.180 --> 01:00:28.760 Um, that being said, Jesus has come, we're going to come back, uh, you know, in the next 48 hours to save America from the election. 01:00:28.880 --> 01:00:29.280 No, I'm kidding. 01:00:29.740 --> 01:00:30.580 Not really though. 01:00:31.080 --> 01:00:36.580 Um, you know, it's funny. 01:00:36.620 --> 01:00:42.000 We were even talking about, uh, it's just a, this is a, this is the post credit scene in the church digital. 01:00:42.000 --> 01:00:53.540 We were, we were, we were talking about, um, you know, we, we've actually worked very hard to not be political in this, in this U S season, uh, of, of, of that. 01:00:53.540 --> 01:00:59.880 And, and, and, um, and guys, in the grand scheme of things, I am not a politically minded person. 01:00:59.880 --> 01:01:04.420 Like, I, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't put much stock in that. 01:01:05.220 --> 01:01:13.260 Um, but I do know in Romans that, uh, all leadership was installed by God. 01:01:16.720 --> 01:01:36.980 So either that was a contextualized comment at the time and is not relevant to where we are today or the electoral college process in the United States operates outside of the purview of God or God's in control. 01:01:36.980 --> 01:01:39.080 And whatever is going to happen will happen. 01:01:44.000 --> 01:01:48.720 I tell you what, I know how, I know how I would want to look at that situation as a Christian. 01:01:52.800 --> 01:02:00.200 Anyway, be praying for your country, even if you're overseas, we'll be praying. 01:02:00.320 --> 01:02:01.460 I say that that was negative. 01:02:01.580 --> 01:02:01.960 That was bad. 01:02:02.000 --> 01:02:06.960 I'm sorry to mean it that way, but regardless America or not, like be praying for your country. 01:02:06.960 --> 01:02:12.200 Um, I, I've, I've told this story. 01:02:12.300 --> 01:02:14.640 My daughter came up to me several, my daughter is 16. 01:02:14.740 --> 01:02:24.480 Now, I don't think she would remember the story, but she came up to me when she was, um, she was probably eight. 01:02:25.180 --> 01:02:27.200 Like it's been, it's been a minute since this story. 01:02:27.240 --> 01:02:28.640 We were living in Austin at the time. 01:02:30.100 --> 01:02:35.520 And she says to me, now you got to realize my daughter's sophomore in college. 01:02:35.520 --> 01:02:38.820 She's taking college, she's taking college level, sophomore in high school. 01:02:39.140 --> 01:02:40.900 My daughter is a sophomore in high school. 01:02:41.340 --> 01:02:56.360 Um, she's valid, she will be valedictorian of her school as long as she doesn't like to do something stupid or crash. 01:02:56.600 --> 01:02:59.080 Um, but she's incredibly smart and gifted. 01:03:00.080 --> 01:03:05.320 Um, and, and, and, and, and so she looked at me, you know, perplexed, like, you know, an eight-year-old girl would let her father. 01:03:05.420 --> 01:03:08.480 And she says, daddy, when I grew up, I want to be the president of the United States. 01:03:09.980 --> 01:03:13.420 And I did a very un-daddy like thing. 01:03:15.660 --> 01:03:19.620 I laughed in her face and said, oh God, I hope not. 01:03:20.200 --> 01:03:21.580 That was my knee jerk reaction. 01:03:22.420 --> 01:03:31.140 Um, and, and, and so she looked at me, you know, perplexed, like, you know, an eight-year-old girl would let her father who just laughed at her. 01:03:31.960 --> 01:03:38.160 And, and, and I was like, well, sweetie, um, that's a really hard job. 01:03:39.120 --> 01:03:49.000 Um, and, and, and I think you can do it, but there's so much stress and there's no way to succeed at that job anymore. 01:03:49.900 --> 01:04:00.540 Um, our leaders need to be prayed for, regardless of who's in what seat or who's in what power, 01:04:00.540 --> 01:04:08.100 or who has what ahead of them or behind them or what amendment was voted on or who's in what chair. 01:04:08.940 --> 01:04:16.200 Um, you know, what, who was it? 01:04:16.280 --> 01:04:22.340 It was Elijah and the Kings, the prophet who's like, you don't need a prophet. 01:04:22.500 --> 01:04:25.140 You need God, but you want to, you, you don't need a King. 01:04:25.200 --> 01:04:26.960 You need a, you need to, you need God. 01:04:27.340 --> 01:04:31.420 But since you don't want to listen to God, fine, here's your King, Saul. 01:04:32.440 --> 01:04:34.800 Um, all right. 01:04:34.860 --> 01:04:35.500 You want a King? 01:04:37.280 --> 01:04:38.120 Take your pick. 01:04:39.900 --> 01:04:49.700 Get out there and vote and pray for whoever God installs as president or whatever your position is globally. 01:04:51.060 --> 01:04:51.540 Samuel. 01:04:51.700 --> 01:04:52.420 I'm hearing it. 01:04:52.480 --> 01:04:52.860 Samuel. 01:04:53.760 --> 01:04:54.600 Who did I, who did I say? 01:04:54.760 --> 01:04:55.500 I think I said Samuel. 01:04:56.720 --> 01:04:57.160 Yeah. 01:04:57.240 --> 01:04:59.220 I'll pretend I am not. 01:04:59.300 --> 01:05:10.060 I'm not the old Testament scholar, but a lot of my, um, disdain is too strong of a word. 01:05:10.300 --> 01:05:12.080 I said, Elijah, I'm sorry. 01:05:12.160 --> 01:05:12.540 You're right. 01:05:13.340 --> 01:05:24.120 Um, a lot of my disdain for politics is centered around that is, um, I just, we deserve a God. 01:05:24.180 --> 01:05:25.100 We don't deserve a King. 01:05:26.020 --> 01:05:30.120 And, and so much of our world is now wrapped up in our Kings. 01:05:30.660 --> 01:05:32.560 We should be more focused on our God. 01:05:35.340 --> 01:05:42.380 And on that note, I think we are going to wrap up episode 320 of the church digital podcast. 01:05:42.380 --> 01:05:46.040 And therefore all podcasts for 2024. 01:05:47.620 --> 01:05:52.200 You're keeping score at home five tips, five things to expect from the church digital in 2025. 01:05:52.720 --> 01:05:54.480 Hey baby, we go on global. 01:05:54.960 --> 01:05:57.340 Hey, we are getting accountability. 01:05:57.400 --> 01:06:01.160 And with that accountability, somebody is going to one day fire me, which is awesome. 01:06:01.280 --> 01:06:02.420 I cannot wait for that day. 01:06:02.680 --> 01:06:09.580 But ultimately, if you want to, if you want to be, be accountable, pick up and get some dirt under your nails and help me load the trailer. 01:06:10.200 --> 01:06:16.920 Um, there's a lot of partnerships and there's a lot of projects we've got coming up through the church digital that are very exciting. 01:06:16.920 --> 01:06:23.660 At a global scale, YouTube and WhatsApp, if you're buying stock at home, invest in those two. 01:06:24.100 --> 01:06:24.580 Yes. 01:06:24.660 --> 01:06:25.000 Okay. 01:06:25.000 --> 01:06:30.220 As long as meta Facebook does not screw up WhatsApp, it's going to take over the world. 01:06:31.180 --> 01:06:32.820 Hopefully it don't do anything stupid. 01:06:32.820 --> 01:06:37.020 And number five physical church is doing hybrid. 01:06:38.140 --> 01:06:39.020 Stay tuned. 01:06:39.560 --> 01:06:41.840 More coming very soon. 01:06:42.500 --> 01:06:44.120 And with that, we're going to land the plane. 01:06:44.520 --> 01:06:46.520 I have been Jeff with the church digital. 01:06:46.720 --> 01:06:47.660 Enjoy 2024. 01:06:48.380 --> 01:06:50.600 If you're American, eat some turkey around the world. 01:06:50.860 --> 01:06:52.300 Celebrate Christmas. 01:06:52.580 --> 01:06:55.220 Uh, love on some family and, uh, stay tuned. 01:06:55.460 --> 01:06:56.760 I'll be doing some more streams. 01:06:56.840 --> 01:07:08.080 I'll be hanging out in the communities and open offices like normal, but the podcast, we're done for the year and look for, uh, a coming back in 2025. 01:07:08.460 --> 01:07:18.200 For everybody in the room, tall, skinny kiwi, whoever else has been hanging out with us, flat cap, ukulele, starlet, uh, phantom, just scrolling through the list here real quick. 01:07:18.260 --> 01:07:19.120 I think that was it. 01:07:19.280 --> 01:07:20.580 Lewinson was here for a while. 01:07:21.280 --> 01:07:23.680 Thanks for being a part of this for everybody else. 01:07:23.740 --> 01:07:25.440 Thanks for being a part of 24 with us. 01:07:25.920 --> 01:07:26.840 We'll see you in 25. 01:07:27.040 --> 01:07:27.600 Y'all have a good one. 01:07:27.600 --> 01:07:28.000 Bye.