WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.560 Episode 59 of the Church Digital Podcast, powered by Stadia Church Planning. 00:00:04.700 --> 00:00:05.880 I love that. 00:00:06.260 --> 00:00:10.480 Stadia has got some awesome stuff coming out in the next several weeks 00:00:10.480 --> 00:00:17.400 that is going to help you, church leader, understand how to do church online better. 00:00:17.540 --> 00:00:19.380 Now, I'm not talking about broadcast. 00:00:19.860 --> 00:00:22.760 Broadcast is the front door to something far greater, 00:00:22.760 --> 00:00:26.080 something far more interesting towards the future of the church. 00:00:26.360 --> 00:00:30.500 And so all I'm asking you to do, listening audience out there, is stay tuned. 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:34.620 We've got some awesome things that we're going to be announcing here in the next week or so, 00:00:34.760 --> 00:00:36.700 and you are going to want to be a part of it. 00:00:36.720 --> 00:00:37.980 So keep your ears open. 00:00:38.560 --> 00:00:44.240 Be checking your mobile phones a lot because we're going to get the info coming to you real quick. 00:00:45.080 --> 00:00:51.360 All right, so here with Episode 59, we are talking with a good friend of mine, Ben Stapley. 00:00:51.360 --> 00:00:55.540 Now, Ben is the Weekend Experience Director at Christ Fellowship Miami. 00:00:55.900 --> 00:01:03.740 He oversees everything from worship to production to creative communications to online to guest services. 00:01:04.260 --> 00:01:07.820 Basically, manages everything from the streets to the seats to the screens. 00:01:08.240 --> 00:01:11.660 You would think he would figure out a better way to have them all rhyme together, 00:01:11.820 --> 00:01:14.640 but, you know, he really has been a busy guy. 00:01:15.140 --> 00:01:22.600 So part of the conversation that we wanted to dive in here is, what are we, as a church, what are we communicating in this season? 00:01:22.940 --> 00:01:26.260 How do we communicate in this season? 00:01:26.760 --> 00:01:29.540 And who are we really communicating to? 00:01:30.400 --> 00:01:34.400 You see, somewhere along the past couple weeks, in case you didn't notice, and I'm pretty sure you noticed, 00:01:34.680 --> 00:01:36.180 the rules changed on us. 00:01:36.500 --> 00:01:36.900 Everything. 00:01:37.280 --> 00:01:38.500 Everything changed on us. 00:01:38.980 --> 00:01:43.220 And as a result of that, all the playbooks, all the strategy books, 00:01:43.340 --> 00:01:47.640 all the plans that we had worked so hard to develop got thrown out the window. 00:01:47.860 --> 00:01:48.880 It's kind of interesting. 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:50.420 You want to make God laugh, make plans? 00:01:50.540 --> 00:01:53.040 Well, you know, God brought this coronavirus in. 00:01:53.080 --> 00:01:56.800 I hate to tell you, he was aware of it, and nothing's surprising him in this season. 00:01:57.300 --> 00:02:02.560 And as a result of it, we, the church, are scrambling to try to figure out how to adjust 00:02:02.560 --> 00:02:05.680 and how to plan for what's next. 00:02:06.140 --> 00:02:10.060 And really, that's what Ben addresses so well in this podcast. 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:16.420 Helping us, helping the church figure out how to plan, how to strategize, 00:02:16.520 --> 00:02:22.040 how to revisit what's important in our communication process. 00:02:22.500 --> 00:02:25.460 So this isn't as much church online as maybe some other things. 00:02:25.500 --> 00:02:29.480 And we dance around some church online stuff, dance around some social media things. 00:02:29.480 --> 00:02:34.180 But all in all, it's a great conversation that I think is good for leadership to hear right now 00:02:34.180 --> 00:02:40.180 as we're wrestling with how to help the church strategize and plan for what's next. 00:02:40.740 --> 00:02:43.200 So I'm bringing in, obviously, Ben Stapley, 00:02:43.520 --> 00:02:45.800 Weekend Experience Director of Christ Fellowship Miami. 00:02:46.600 --> 00:02:51.920 The guest host, of course, or co-host, I should say, Ray DeArmas from 00:02:51.920 --> 00:02:55.700 Christ Fellowship Miami, who actually works for Ben as the digital pastor, 00:02:55.840 --> 00:02:58.000 which is an interesting dynamic in this podcast. 00:02:58.400 --> 00:03:00.220 And myself, Jeff with the Church Digital, 00:03:00.780 --> 00:03:04.840 in a conversation that I'm calling Church Communications During Coronavirus. 00:03:05.820 --> 00:03:07.120 Okay, everybody, here you go. 00:03:07.620 --> 00:03:10.880 Yeah, so I'll give a quick synopsis of what I do, what I did, 00:03:11.220 --> 00:03:13.280 and then how I've had a pivot since then. 00:03:13.380 --> 00:03:17.220 So I serve on the executive team at Christ Fellowship Miami, 00:03:17.400 --> 00:03:22.520 oversee the worship production online and creative departments, guest services as well. 00:03:22.560 --> 00:03:23.820 Don't want to forget about them. 00:03:24.240 --> 00:03:28.100 And so that was my role beforehand, basically making sure that we got a great experience 00:03:28.100 --> 00:03:33.420 going from the seats, from the streets, to the seats, to the screen. 00:03:34.420 --> 00:03:37.340 Since then, really quickly, we've eliminated that first, right? 00:03:37.420 --> 00:03:42.980 From the first two things, from the screens, no guest services, to the seats. 00:03:43.140 --> 00:03:46.800 We don't have auditoriums in which are putting on experiences, to the screens. 00:03:47.020 --> 00:03:48.800 Now it's all just screens. 00:03:49.040 --> 00:03:53.600 So I've basically taken my whole work week, a third, a third, a third, or oversight, 00:03:53.700 --> 00:03:56.700 a third, a third, a third, and we've pushed everyone into that last third. 00:03:57.100 --> 00:04:02.100 How do we make this great experience exclusively online for our screens, 00:04:02.340 --> 00:04:04.700 disregarding the seats and the streets? 00:04:04.880 --> 00:04:07.960 So that's how things have radically changed in the last two weeks. 00:04:09.380 --> 00:04:14.080 Yeah, and I know during this season, I hear lots of times talking with churches 00:04:14.080 --> 00:04:18.420 about how, man, they don't even know what to communicate. 00:04:18.620 --> 00:04:25.020 Like, let's just even talk about, okay, so right now, you have whole departments of church 00:04:25.020 --> 00:04:29.880 that were previously basing their success on getting people parked, 00:04:30.180 --> 00:04:35.200 getting them through guest services, getting them in the room, in the audience, on stage, 00:04:35.300 --> 00:04:38.640 and all of that is, all that's essentially gone. 00:04:38.640 --> 00:04:43.640 Like, that is completely ineffective, and the government is basically saying, 00:04:44.120 --> 00:04:44.960 you're not allowed to gather. 00:04:45.180 --> 00:04:49.720 I just got a text from somebody telling me that there was some church somewhere 00:04:49.720 --> 00:04:53.320 where they were still meeting in Louisiana, and they got shut down 00:04:53.320 --> 00:04:57.200 because they're not even allowed to do that, and 1,800 people were potentially exposed 00:04:57.200 --> 00:04:58.380 because there was an issue, blah, blah, blah. 00:04:58.680 --> 00:05:01.640 So, like, there's a reason why we're not allowed to gather, 00:05:01.820 --> 00:05:03.480 why the government doesn't want us to gather, 00:05:03.580 --> 00:05:06.460 why we are not going to gather in this season. 00:05:06.860 --> 00:05:11.900 But now we're learning how to utilize the screen side of this better. 00:05:12.400 --> 00:05:16.220 And that's really what I kind of wanted to focus in here on the podcast with you 00:05:16.220 --> 00:05:19.360 because when it comes to communication and how you communicate, 00:05:19.500 --> 00:05:21.680 you are so, so good at this. 00:05:22.140 --> 00:05:25.600 And honestly, you know, I just even sit back from afar just while watching. 00:05:25.720 --> 00:05:28.600 It's like, dang, Ben really knows what he's doing here. 00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:30.520 And so thanks for jumping on the podcast. 00:05:30.520 --> 00:05:35.760 And with Ray, really just wanted to talk about what communication, 00:05:35.900 --> 00:05:37.600 what church communication looks like. 00:05:37.680 --> 00:05:42.520 How does the church find its voice in the midst of this coronavirus season? 00:05:42.680 --> 00:05:44.880 Just initially, what thoughts do you have kind of on that? 00:05:45.280 --> 00:05:46.020 Two things. 00:05:46.100 --> 00:05:48.240 First of all, identify your audiences. 00:05:48.800 --> 00:05:50.660 So you have two main audiences right now. 00:05:50.740 --> 00:05:52.100 You have your congregation. 00:05:53.140 --> 00:05:55.060 Actually, you really have three main audiences. 00:05:55.680 --> 00:05:57.480 I'll start concentric circles here. 00:05:57.740 --> 00:05:59.880 You have your staff, you have your congregation, 00:05:59.880 --> 00:06:01.600 and then you have your larger community. 00:06:01.820 --> 00:06:03.600 So those are the three circles that you need to think through. 00:06:03.900 --> 00:06:07.320 I'd say the majority of churches are doing a great job on that middle one. 00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:10.340 They're thinking about how to communicate to their congregation. 00:06:11.120 --> 00:06:13.520 They're forgetting about the inner one, how to communicate to their staff, 00:06:13.760 --> 00:06:16.460 who need to be super nimble during this time. 00:06:16.960 --> 00:06:21.560 And sometimes the staff is getting the last news and hearing about a new plan. 00:06:22.280 --> 00:06:23.600 They're finding out on social media. 00:06:23.900 --> 00:06:26.740 They're not finding out through official communication channels. 00:06:26.900 --> 00:06:28.980 So don't forget about that inner circle of the staff 00:06:28.980 --> 00:06:31.400 and then that outer circle of the community. 00:06:31.640 --> 00:06:36.140 So in the past, we knew that there would be some non-believers 00:06:36.140 --> 00:06:40.640 and people who are far from Christ in our auditoriums listening to our message. 00:06:41.340 --> 00:06:42.940 That has radically changed. 00:06:43.380 --> 00:06:46.440 Now the whole world is outside looking at it. 00:06:46.440 --> 00:06:47.480 We've gone to the outside. 00:06:47.620 --> 00:06:48.780 We're no longer saying, come to us. 00:06:48.820 --> 00:06:50.480 We've gone to them with our experiences. 00:06:50.680 --> 00:06:52.000 We are on all the platforms. 00:06:52.140 --> 00:06:54.160 And we're encouraging our people to share it. 00:06:54.300 --> 00:06:57.300 And because of that, your communication needs to look radically different 00:06:57.300 --> 00:06:59.880 because you have that much larger, we always had it. 00:06:59.920 --> 00:07:00.680 First of all, let's be honest. 00:07:01.080 --> 00:07:02.300 We're just more aware of it. 00:07:02.300 --> 00:07:03.680 And the impact is much larger. 00:07:04.180 --> 00:07:07.040 And there's ramifications top down in terms of how we communicate 00:07:07.040 --> 00:07:08.140 and think of them. 00:07:08.360 --> 00:07:12.880 And dare I say, even prioritize them higher than our congregation. 00:07:13.100 --> 00:07:14.700 The outsider before the insider. 00:07:15.400 --> 00:07:16.880 That reality was always with us. 00:07:16.940 --> 00:07:18.860 It's just being like ramped up to 11 at this point. 00:07:19.600 --> 00:07:21.920 So that's the first thing, your audiences. 00:07:22.480 --> 00:07:26.020 And then in terms of like basic communication best practices, three things, 00:07:26.440 --> 00:07:29.920 over-communicate, cluster communicate, and deadline communicate. 00:07:30.080 --> 00:07:31.680 So over-communicate, we kind of hit on this, right? 00:07:32.080 --> 00:07:33.680 Well, I'll call it out. 00:07:33.940 --> 00:07:36.880 Here at Christ Fellowship Miami, we are still playing catch up with staff. 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:41.640 They're still saying, how do I get current news on a timely matter through what avenues? 00:07:42.140 --> 00:07:45.000 We are in such scramble mode that we haven't nailed that yet. 00:07:45.280 --> 00:07:45.900 We're two weeks in. 00:07:46.280 --> 00:07:47.180 We haven't nailed that yet. 00:07:47.360 --> 00:07:48.600 So you need to over-communicate. 00:07:49.500 --> 00:07:51.080 You need to cluster your communication. 00:07:51.520 --> 00:07:54.040 At this point, people are being bombarded. 00:07:54.240 --> 00:07:57.500 Not just from you as a church, but from their school, from the government official. 00:07:57.960 --> 00:08:00.600 They're getting multiple, they're getting communication from different forms. 00:08:01.140 --> 00:08:04.480 So as best as you can do is cluster your communication, just trickle it out to your people. 00:08:04.620 --> 00:08:05.600 You're going to keep their attention. 00:08:05.720 --> 00:08:11.660 Because if you're giving them an update every hour on the hour, or even every day, 00:08:11.900 --> 00:08:14.200 that's probably a little too much, and they're going to tune out. 00:08:14.400 --> 00:08:19.340 So maybe it's a, hey, you know what, church or staff, every Sunday at noon and Wednesday 00:08:19.340 --> 00:08:23.700 at noon, we're going to let you know what the plan looks like for this week, on Sunday. 00:08:24.020 --> 00:08:25.680 And then if it's modified, we're going to tell you on Wednesday. 00:08:25.760 --> 00:08:30.580 We're going to cluster our communication so that it's not a death by a thousand cuts. 00:08:31.020 --> 00:08:33.840 And then the last thing for us is deadline communication. 00:08:34.280 --> 00:08:37.660 So you might not know what your decision is right now. 00:08:37.860 --> 00:08:38.480 That's fine. 00:08:38.920 --> 00:08:40.700 But let people know when you will know. 00:08:40.700 --> 00:08:46.760 A great question for this, being for us, where we are now, what is it, 17 days before Easter? 00:08:47.380 --> 00:08:51.060 I have an internal clock counting down and getting me in panic. 00:08:51.420 --> 00:08:52.780 17 days before Easter. 00:08:53.800 --> 00:09:00.360 We haven't publicly made the call yet, but whether or not that's going to be exclusively online. 00:09:01.040 --> 00:09:04.500 But we've told people that word is going to go out this coming Monday. 00:09:04.500 --> 00:09:08.240 So we don't know now, but you will know by this deadline. 00:09:08.620 --> 00:09:12.980 Over-cluster and deadline communication are essential during these new shifting times. 00:09:14.180 --> 00:09:15.580 That's awesome. 00:09:16.980 --> 00:09:26.280 So what information, I'm just curious because you said it, like what information, and today's Friday, March 27th. 00:09:26.280 --> 00:09:27.180 Thank you for the reminder. 00:09:27.360 --> 00:09:28.200 I need those PSAs. 00:09:28.400 --> 00:09:28.740 I need those. 00:09:28.740 --> 00:09:28.920 Yeah. 00:09:29.240 --> 00:09:32.440 And just, well, you know, the podcast recording, this will debut sometime later. 00:09:32.760 --> 00:09:37.820 But it's four days between now and the Monday when you make this declaration. 00:09:38.760 --> 00:09:48.480 And I'm just curious from a leadership standpoint, what information do you think is going to open up that could swing it one way or another on Monday? 00:09:48.700 --> 00:09:50.300 Like, so you don't want to make it today. 00:09:50.380 --> 00:09:52.220 You're going to make a deadline decision on Monday. 00:09:52.360 --> 00:09:57.180 Like, what are you expecting to find out that's going to influence that decision? 00:09:58.800 --> 00:09:59.980 For us, it's a couple things. 00:10:00.260 --> 00:10:09.300 We're trying to wait to the last minute to make that call because the last thing we want to do is, and I'd say things have probably changed pretty drastically in the past couple days. 00:10:09.420 --> 00:10:16.680 But we didn't want to make that call too early, and then things clear up, and then we have to re-communicate. 00:10:16.820 --> 00:10:18.840 And every time you have to re-communicate, you lose audience. 00:10:19.060 --> 00:10:29.120 And so for us, let's figure out where the farthest deadline is that we can make that call and still have, I think it's 12 days come Monday, 12 days to communicate that. 00:10:29.120 --> 00:10:31.540 We feel that's a decent amount of time to get the word out. 00:10:31.960 --> 00:10:34.060 And so we picked that date about two weeks ago. 00:10:34.340 --> 00:10:38.360 We're going to wait until this day to publicly make the call because we still can get it done. 00:10:38.740 --> 00:10:42.060 But we don't want to make, you know, we're looking two weeks before when this all started to happen. 00:10:42.440 --> 00:10:43.540 We don't want to make the call now. 00:10:43.700 --> 00:10:45.660 And this appeared to be an overpanic. 00:10:45.740 --> 00:10:46.600 It's not an overpanic. 00:10:46.720 --> 00:10:47.840 We're clear about that at this point. 00:10:48.320 --> 00:10:50.000 But that was some of the decision-making process. 00:10:50.440 --> 00:10:54.000 What's the least amount of time that we need, and then let's make the call then. 00:10:54.960 --> 00:10:55.900 Yeah, sorry. 00:10:56.000 --> 00:11:06.860 That makes a lot more sense, just kind of piecing together and seeing the thought process where two weeks earlier, you picked a strategic arbitrary day of saying, hey, we're going to make the decision here. 00:11:07.060 --> 00:11:10.160 And then you're watching things kind of roll out within that. 00:11:10.620 --> 00:11:21.100 Well, and at least by picking the strategic day, you then now know, okay, this gives staff time to swing and do what they need to do to be able to still manage it to execute for Easter. 00:11:21.920 --> 00:11:25.680 There's also a fascinating thing here in terms of, we talk about communication. 00:11:25.980 --> 00:11:28.320 How do we communicate well as a larger church? 00:11:28.600 --> 00:11:33.140 So when we reopen the doors, and I'd love to think, you know, ask you guys, you guys have talked to more people than I have. 00:11:34.260 --> 00:11:36.620 How do we do this well as a capital C church? 00:11:36.940 --> 00:11:44.340 So in other words, some people are saying, well, you know, as a cynic, if I open my door sooner, I might get a bigger flock. 00:11:45.080 --> 00:11:51.660 If I'm the only person who's open, from a very cynical perspective, someone could say that I don't have that perspective. 00:11:51.780 --> 00:11:53.720 I think that's unwise for a number of factors. 00:11:55.160 --> 00:12:00.960 And then on the flip side, if I stay closed for too long, am I being over cautionary? 00:12:00.960 --> 00:12:11.780 I think we as a church have an opportunity to say, gather around with people in your community who would be most locally affected and say, hey, guys, let's try to, as best as we can, pick a Sunday, pick a weekend that works for the majority of us. 00:12:11.880 --> 00:12:30.760 And we can come out as a unified front and saying, hey, church is open May 1st, April 15th, whatever the date is, as we get closer towards it, I think churches have an opportunity to work amongst themselves and to communicate on a unified front, which is fascinating for us to be unified that way, which we usually don't do that well, let's be honest. 00:12:30.960 --> 00:12:38.760 Yeah, it'll be what church looks like post-coronavirus is going to be fascinating. 00:12:39.140 --> 00:12:59.620 And culture's response to even gathering in large areas versus their desire to stay distant and afar and watch from the outside economically, what businesses are even functioning, just even hypothesizing restaurants aren't, I don't think restaurants are going to be open to the place of having in-dining. 00:13:00.240 --> 00:13:15.160 I picture businesses like Uber Eats having far more popularity where restaurants basically become kitchens with two or three tables in them, and it's just now getting delivery into the homes and things like that. 00:13:15.220 --> 00:13:18.520 But I'm kind of an alarmist guy in general, so you can either buy into that or not. 00:13:18.520 --> 00:13:19.340 I know you're a prepper. 00:13:19.420 --> 00:13:20.140 I know you're a prepper. 00:13:20.640 --> 00:13:22.160 Oh, yeah, totally, totally. 00:13:22.620 --> 00:13:26.740 But hey, so it's important in this season, and I don't want to digress too far off. 00:13:26.840 --> 00:13:27.140 Squirrel! 00:13:27.700 --> 00:13:34.080 But let's talk about not only how we're communicating, but what are we communicating in this season? 00:13:34.620 --> 00:13:38.720 Because I've talked to some churches, honestly, and they're like, Jeff, I don't know what to say. 00:13:39.920 --> 00:13:47.320 I've even had a couple, you know, this is more of a church planner side that's like, Jeff, I don't even, I'm just, I'm going to take two or three months off. 00:13:47.400 --> 00:13:53.600 We're going to delay the launch of the church just because I don't know what I can contribute in this season. 00:13:53.600 --> 00:14:00.660 And so for somebody who understands communication, as well as you do, Ben Stapley, what do we communicate? 00:14:00.860 --> 00:14:04.920 What can we, the church, what should we, the church, communicate in this coronavirus season? 00:14:05.620 --> 00:14:12.300 Yeah, that's unique towards each local ministry, right, to obviously contextualize what you feel God's calling you towards. 00:14:12.300 --> 00:14:23.020 The thing that I feel he's been calling me, calling Christ Fellowship, and the one, you know, I had like three talking points for other churches, or words even, is hope, pivot, and merge. 00:14:23.380 --> 00:14:32.860 So hope, you need to get as much of that from Jesus as you can, desperately, because each day has its own unique challenges. 00:14:33.060 --> 00:14:40.700 And your people, again, looking at those concentric circles, your staff, your community, your congregation, and your community, desperately need that during this time. 00:14:42.140 --> 00:14:48.140 Colin Powell had a quote, I used to love it, never underestimate the power of a positive attitude. 00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:51.100 And people desperately need that. 00:14:51.300 --> 00:14:52.600 So come in with hope. 00:14:53.220 --> 00:14:54.300 The second thing is pivot. 00:14:54.480 --> 00:14:56.360 I'm picturing that scene from Friends with a couch. 00:14:56.440 --> 00:14:56.960 I think we all know it. 00:14:57.020 --> 00:14:57.200 Pivot! 00:14:57.460 --> 00:14:57.740 Pivot! 00:14:58.100 --> 00:14:58.380 Pivot! 00:14:58.880 --> 00:14:59.060 Pivot! 00:14:59.060 --> 00:15:01.960 I think I've heard pivot a lot of times. 00:15:04.160 --> 00:15:07.060 Along with out of an abundance of caution. 00:15:07.160 --> 00:15:09.820 Those are the two phrases I've heard a lot during the season. 00:15:09.980 --> 00:15:10.840 Pivot and that. 00:15:11.180 --> 00:15:14.120 And so churches, make sure to pivot as much as you can. 00:15:14.560 --> 00:15:19.740 Whatever your game plans were, be willing to throw them out the window and to come back to the drawing board. 00:15:20.500 --> 00:15:22.880 We've been doing this with our community engagement. 00:15:23.560 --> 00:15:26.340 All of our programming, kids, students, and adults. 00:15:26.460 --> 00:15:28.580 I know we've talked to some of our other staff about that. 00:15:28.780 --> 00:15:34.300 But basically saying, let's go back to the drawing board and let's completely pivot from what we've done to what we now need to do. 00:15:34.680 --> 00:15:47.400 And then the last communication, like what we should be saying is to put the, to identify the elephant in the room and to call it out and to be mature about it is to talk about the merger. 00:15:48.440 --> 00:15:53.720 The merger needs during this, not even during this upcoming season, now. 00:15:54.520 --> 00:16:00.840 There are a lot of churches across this nation who are on the financial fence and who are on the financial bubble. 00:16:01.440 --> 00:16:12.940 And this will, this shock to their giving, shock to the economy, and then the shock to their giving, it may make, may no longer make them financially viable. 00:16:13.740 --> 00:16:27.420 Those churches in that circumstances, my, my encouragement, my counsel, as lovingly as I can say it, is to look around at other churches in your area and to start, look for other ones that you admire, that you esteem, that you agree with theologically. 00:16:27.920 --> 00:16:32.960 And you were saying, if we, if we had to close our doors, hopefully not, hopefully not. 00:16:33.120 --> 00:16:39.980 But if we had to, how can the work of God through another church continue to operate on our facilities at our campus? 00:16:40.160 --> 00:16:44.300 And those are conversations, that is thoughts that need to be happening now for lead pastors across this nation. 00:16:44.660 --> 00:16:47.120 And those are conversations that need to take place now. 00:16:47.500 --> 00:16:51.380 First of all, if nothing else, other than to reach out to another church and say, can you help me? 00:16:51.780 --> 00:16:52.840 We're really struggling here. 00:16:53.020 --> 00:16:53.900 You're doing something well. 00:16:53.980 --> 00:16:54.640 How can you help me? 00:16:55.120 --> 00:16:59.000 And then worst case scenario, if doors had to be closed, you know what? 00:16:59.280 --> 00:17:03.000 I'd love to pass the baton off to you guys for this foreseeable future. 00:17:03.620 --> 00:17:08.260 These are conversations that are tough, but we need to be mature enough to have them now. 00:17:09.060 --> 00:17:10.300 And talking about resourcing. 00:17:11.380 --> 00:17:13.020 So those are the three words. 00:17:13.500 --> 00:17:15.380 I'll do a quick shout out for my church as well. 00:17:15.920 --> 00:17:21.100 We talked about having to potentially help churches down the road with merger opportunities. 00:17:21.460 --> 00:17:28.980 Before we even get there, church, how can you help your local churches do ministry well in this new time? 00:17:29.640 --> 00:17:31.700 What can you uniquely offer towards them? 00:17:31.800 --> 00:17:34.200 For us, we have been blessed with a broadcast facility. 00:17:34.400 --> 00:17:37.140 We've got cameras, we've got a stage, we have that on hand. 00:17:37.500 --> 00:17:45.920 And so we've publicly put the word to Miami pastors, hey, if you want to do a road trip, even beyond, to come on down to our facilities, use our stage. 00:17:45.980 --> 00:17:46.540 We have its slots. 00:17:46.640 --> 00:17:49.120 I think the bit.ly link is record your message. 00:17:49.600 --> 00:17:53.200 If you go to that, you can schedule a time with us now to record. 00:17:53.760 --> 00:17:58.420 And we will make our facilities and our staff available for you to get that content if you can't do it yourself. 00:17:58.800 --> 00:18:02.520 So that's how we have been uniquely blessed and how we are blessing others. 00:18:03.240 --> 00:18:07.680 Churches across the nation need to be thinking about this, how we can support each other's and get us through this time. 00:18:08.340 --> 00:18:09.240 That's awesome. 00:18:09.460 --> 00:18:15.400 And I love the fact that you guys are opening up and the production teams that you guys have are helping to produce messages for others. 00:18:15.560 --> 00:18:21.000 I've known churches locally here in Miami that have taken advantage of that kind of in this coronavirus season. 00:18:21.240 --> 00:18:22.960 I want to bounce an idea off you. 00:18:23.340 --> 00:18:25.760 And the merger aspect, I love it. 00:18:26.320 --> 00:18:34.160 You know, and even just in some of the conversations, and this is all forecasting and hypothetical, and maybe it's this number, maybe it's worse. 00:18:34.320 --> 00:18:37.000 But, you know, I've heard as much as 20%. 00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:40.600 I've heard higher numbers, but 20% seems to be the consistent one. 00:18:41.060 --> 00:18:45.820 20% of churches aren't going to reopen their doors out of this season, especially if it extends on. 00:18:47.120 --> 00:18:50.720 And so, you know, the challenge, there's a lot of church planners that listen to this, 00:18:50.720 --> 00:18:54.680 and the challenge for church planners to fill in, you know, working with Stadia, 00:18:54.780 --> 00:18:58.740 the challenge for us to reinforce and to fill in some of those gaps, 00:18:58.780 --> 00:19:04.540 even to gird up at your level what you're talking about of, hey, don't shut down. 00:19:05.020 --> 00:19:05.820 Consider a merger. 00:19:05.960 --> 00:19:06.920 Consider something else. 00:19:07.040 --> 00:19:10.800 Multi-site churches being able to absorb some of that weight as well. 00:19:10.840 --> 00:19:13.700 I think we're all going to play different roles in that. 00:19:13.880 --> 00:19:16.220 I was actually, I was talking to a small church. 00:19:16.240 --> 00:19:18.300 I just would love your idea on this, your take. 00:19:19.080 --> 00:19:23.580 And it's basically going back to the Life.Church network model, 00:19:23.740 --> 00:19:29.820 where there was a network of churches where content was shared, but not necessarily the full merger of that. 00:19:29.880 --> 00:19:36.360 And this may be a curveball from left field, but I was talking with a small church pastor out in the Midwest, okay? 00:19:36.880 --> 00:19:39.840 And it's a friend of mine, and he's like, Jeff, you know what? 00:19:39.840 --> 00:19:49.660 I really think there's an opportunity for bigger churches to share content, to be able to resource some smaller churches, even in this season. 00:19:49.920 --> 00:19:51.920 Maybe it's not the full discipleship. 00:19:52.020 --> 00:19:55.460 Maybe it's not the full congratulations, you're now a campus of this. 00:19:55.460 --> 00:20:04.760 But even if it's just sharing some content to allow the smaller churches to gain a foothold until it can kind of recoup. 00:20:05.160 --> 00:20:07.880 I'm just curious, kind of your take on something like that. 00:20:08.020 --> 00:20:09.600 What would that look like? 00:20:09.980 --> 00:20:16.480 A network of churches connected out of a larger mega multi-site church, something like that. 00:20:16.540 --> 00:20:20.840 You know, it's already happening in relationship to how Life.Church has had for years, the open resource. 00:20:21.420 --> 00:20:27.820 I wasn't even aware of this, but they have complete kids programming now available for you to download and plug and play. 00:20:28.220 --> 00:20:31.140 And you can take as much of it as you want or as little. 00:20:31.520 --> 00:20:33.800 And so maybe you don't have the bandwidth to create that yourself. 00:20:33.900 --> 00:20:38.420 So you just have your kids director appear on the iPhone and say, hey, welcome to our experience. 00:20:38.500 --> 00:20:40.060 We got a great teaching from you today. 00:20:40.660 --> 00:20:41.520 Let's jump in. 00:20:41.600 --> 00:20:43.120 And so you can do a mishmash of that. 00:20:43.120 --> 00:20:47.700 But that content is out there for churches who are looking for it, who say, I can't do this myself. 00:20:48.920 --> 00:21:04.160 And I would, I hear what you're saying, Jeff, I guess I would leave it to the kind of crudely put, I think there's going to come out of this some, and there already have been, some top content creators who are out there. 00:21:05.200 --> 00:21:13.600 Stellar stuff, theologically down the middle, that majority of people feel comfortable using, production level high, plug and play. 00:21:13.780 --> 00:21:16.160 And so I think that content is there and I think that will continue to go. 00:21:16.160 --> 00:21:21.980 So I don't know if the vast majority of mid-sized churches need to get in that game. 00:21:22.220 --> 00:21:29.460 I think it's, I think we got experts doing it at the top of their game and we allowed them to do that and we figure out how we contextualize that in our local congregation. 00:21:29.620 --> 00:21:38.020 So like to answer your question, I think there just needs to be like five players in that, in that arena and then to knock it out of the park and for the rest of us to borrow it as we need to. 00:21:38.800 --> 00:21:45.060 Yeah. And there's a humility aspect to that too, right, Ben? Because that means that a lot of churches who are used to creating their own stuff, it's like, no, you know what? 00:21:45.080 --> 00:21:48.660 We're willing to outsource that for the sake of being good at what we're supposed to be good at. 00:21:49.040 --> 00:22:03.880 Yeah. Yeah. I would say that it's funny. I have friends up in the meeting house up in Toronto, Ontario. And like I've, I've encouraged, you know, they've looked at that and they, they ultimately had to, they've done it for years, make their own kids content just because the regional accent is so different. 00:22:04.400 --> 00:22:20.140 You know, if you're not, you're not getting out and about and you're not saying the A's then, hey, as a Canadian, I need to, I need to hear that. I need to hear my accent. So there, there are uniquenesses there that won't play regionally. Like if you've got a Southern accent and that video is trying to play in the Midwest or on the West coast, it's not going to, it's not going to play. 00:22:20.140 --> 00:22:26.980 So I think there are uniquenesses there that regional churches can play a role in that in terms of creating content. 00:22:27.220 --> 00:22:45.100 That's good. Ben, you do such a great job. And, and I think you're great at leading us through how to stay on message through multiple platforms. And to me, the best way that you do that is by leveraging Google docs with us as a team. To me, it's just so practical. It's, it's unique to you. I've never been led by a leader who's done this. 00:22:45.480 --> 00:22:55.600 Um, and so can you kind of break that down for a lot of folks? Cause it's a free, easy tool that can help all to me. It would just change the way that so many people operate. If they would leverage this platform in a way that you have. 00:22:56.100 --> 00:23:12.760 Yeah. I don't want to, maybe this is like a lot of your audience already knows this. So I apologize if they don't, but, um, this is a great advice for Ray. If there's like one thing on my tombstone, like I would like to see when I die is like that people lovingly joked with me is the, if you can't pass it down until you write it down. 00:23:12.820 --> 00:23:24.280 Um, so, um, like, especially now living on oral tradition and, and verbal communication is going to get degraded very quickly as it gets through the chain of, of commands. 00:23:24.460 --> 00:23:28.840 So that's, so I, I write down literally everything so I can pass it down. 00:23:28.840 --> 00:23:35.720 Um, I use Google docs on this for a couple of very basic reasons. If I'm using word, if it's not an active living document. 00:23:35.720 --> 00:23:49.400 Um, so people don't see the updates as I give them kind of no brainer there. It's, um, it's cloud based. So whatever platform you're on, it'll will work for you. You don't need to have that piece of software. You just need to have access to the internet and then you can access it. 00:23:49.980 --> 00:23:58.880 The other really nice feature about this is the commenting. So I can, I can write out a document, give action steps, and then I can attach people to it in the comment section. 00:23:59.180 --> 00:24:09.620 And assign tasks for them. And then when they're done that, they can resolve the tasks. So we can all see who's doing what and where the progress is. It's, it's, it's, it's like, you know what it is. It's a quick and easy. 00:24:09.920 --> 00:24:20.660 Um, project management tool. Now it's not, it's a quick and easy one. It's not the best, but there's great project management tools, but if you need to get the process started, it's a great starting point. 00:24:20.840 --> 00:24:29.520 Especially if you haven't got your whole church up onto base camp or sauna or Trello or whatever project management software you want to use. You can start with this before you get there. 00:24:30.080 --> 00:24:36.500 Uh, that's super helpful for people moving along, but that's how I see it. But right. You're, you're also a user. What do you, what have you found to be the benefits? 00:24:36.560 --> 00:24:47.420 So, especially with keeping message message across the board, the same, because there's so many different platforms through which to communicate through for creatives, right? Whether it's, Hey, we're doing mass text or we're doing Instagram posts, we're doing this. 00:24:48.020 --> 00:25:01.220 This to me has been to make sure that we all stay on message and that there's not variances of the message that it's as simple as copy paste, even to the point where Ben's done such a good job of breaking out. All right. So here's the main communication. 00:25:01.400 --> 00:25:13.420 And then we're going to shrink that down to 140 characters so that it fits within a text so that it fits within a tweet so that for our communications director, she can come back to this and say, okay, so this is what the email copy looks like. 00:25:13.680 --> 00:25:19.040 copy paste church online guy me i can make sure that that's an opinion comment or that our chat 00:25:19.040 --> 00:25:24.960 hosts are armed with the same communication um for our social media directors they now have access 00:25:24.960 --> 00:25:31.040 to that same document so that the same message there's no variances in date time or even just 00:25:31.040 --> 00:25:36.080 suggestive comments there's no variances there because that's where communication to me really 00:25:36.080 --> 00:25:41.040 starts to break down is everybody's operating in their own space and then they're all just even a 00:25:41.040 --> 00:25:45.360 fraction off and the next thing you know people are asking questions and and the communication 00:25:45.360 --> 00:25:52.080 gets convoluted yeah the other thing for helpful for us right um and and jeff is we once this crisis 00:25:52.080 --> 00:25:57.040 started we just created a you know virus response and it had literally had like you know the first 00:25:57.040 --> 00:26:01.760 day we're doing this and then it was the next week underneath that and we we're now going week to week 00:26:01.760 --> 00:26:06.800 because the plan has changed so much so what what students was doing last week is not the same but as 00:26:06.800 --> 00:26:10.640 this week what community engagement is doing now this week is not going to be the same as next week 00:26:10.640 --> 00:26:15.680 and so for us that's a hub where all of our core staff goes towards and say what's happening this 00:26:15.680 --> 00:26:21.440 week um how do i get a quick synopsis ah it's all here we're all up to up to speed so if you're 00:26:21.440 --> 00:26:26.480 a church and you haven't done that yet um write it down so you can pass it down it's good and especially 00:26:26.480 --> 00:26:30.960 for us and and this is me on the practical side speaking to somebody who works with and underneath ben 00:26:30.960 --> 00:26:35.600 those three concentric circles i can say that it's helped develop that first one in terms of the staff 00:26:36.320 --> 00:26:41.520 making sure that we're all on the same page because so often once again if we were back 00:26:41.520 --> 00:26:45.920 in our oral tradition so much gets lost between hey we had a tuesday meeting and now it's time for 00:26:45.920 --> 00:26:51.360 thursday execution so much gets lost in between there that if it wasn't written down you know 00:26:51.360 --> 00:26:57.120 translation would be completely different in terms of the message yeah so how upset are you going to be 00:26:57.120 --> 00:27:03.760 when christ fellowship it says hey we're abandoning google instead going to microsoft could you do it 00:27:03.760 --> 00:27:08.880 on microsoft like yeah that wouldn't can you yeah yeah so busy the collaboration and the tasks and 00:27:08.880 --> 00:27:14.240 yeah the cloud oh i'm gonna convert you i'm gonna i'm gonna convert you jeff oh no listen i i i'm 00:27:14.240 --> 00:27:19.040 i'm a google guy through and through i've been doing it for decades um i i actually brought christ 00:27:19.040 --> 00:27:26.000 fellowship to google in like 2000 probably 2003 and and like stadia being on board with them they're 00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:31.520 like hey we use microsoft office and i'm like dear god no please i don't know not word no i don't know 00:27:31.520 --> 00:27:37.520 this stuff and so i'm having to reprogram i am so used to the to the google stuff it's crazy so anyway 00:27:37.520 --> 00:27:42.560 i don't think maybe i don't get anything i think i personally might set a building on fire if we went to 00:27:42.560 --> 00:27:49.040 office 365 as opposed to google docs i think i would take care of that for him yeah i actually i reached 00:27:49.040 --> 00:27:53.120 out i reached out to the it guy because every time i try to save something in the cloud the file ends 00:27:53.120 --> 00:27:59.040 up getting corrupted and i'm like okay i'm a smart guy like i should be able not to have files automatically 00:27:59.040 --> 00:28:03.520 get corrupted anytime i try to save it into the cloud but maybe that's just a jeff problem which 00:28:03.520 --> 00:28:08.960 is cool it probably is um but let's let's kind of i'm digressing oh once again squirrel let's kind 00:28:08.960 --> 00:28:14.080 of stay on on task here with with with the podcast here and keep rolling which ironically gets us to 00:28:14.080 --> 00:28:19.280 the next topic i wanted to hit on which is this idea of keeping people on mission and so this is so 00:28:19.280 --> 00:28:25.280 this is a conversation the question that i ask a lot these days like what is the what's the purpose 00:28:25.280 --> 00:28:30.480 of church in this coronavirus season um beyond just the services great we worked really hard to get 00:28:30.480 --> 00:28:35.200 the services online we're doing that that's awesome there's got to be something else just like 00:28:35.200 --> 00:28:39.520 any church any given sunday there's more to just a physical even the physical church ministry before 00:28:39.520 --> 00:28:47.520 coronavirus it was more than just that one hour on sunday so like how do we keep as a church how do 00:28:47.520 --> 00:28:53.680 we get how do we keep our people on mission and arguably even in contextualized with that what is our 00:28:53.680 --> 00:28:59.600 mission what's the why why are we keeping people on mission and why is the church what is the church on 00:28:59.600 --> 00:29:05.520 mission yeah what does that even mean i'll break it down to two groups internally and and externally so 00:29:05.520 --> 00:29:10.160 how do you how do you keep your staff on mission and then how do you keep your congregation and community 00:29:10.160 --> 00:29:15.760 on mission so first of all again low hanging fruit but if you if you haven't utilized some of the video 00:29:15.760 --> 00:29:20.000 based communication tools out there like we're using right now zoom google hangouts is another great 00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:25.920 one it's a free service already embedded in google calendar as a default for all of your meetings um 00:29:25.920 --> 00:29:30.480 utilize those for a couple reasons first of all i can get little nuance through a text or an email 00:29:30.480 --> 00:29:35.440 through the written word i can get a little more through hearing your voice i can hear the tone 00:29:35.440 --> 00:29:39.920 and the emotion behind it i get a lot more when i see your face and i see you engaging with me or i see 00:29:39.920 --> 00:29:45.840 you disengaging with me so um if you're a church staff and you haven't leveraged video conferencing yet 00:29:45.840 --> 00:29:52.080 do it asap because your staff desperately needs to see again the optimism that you as a lead pastor or 00:29:52.080 --> 00:29:56.960 executive pastor have that we are going to get through this christ is still on the throne i believe 00:29:56.960 --> 00:30:01.600 in him more importantly not what i believe he believes in us he believes that he's empowered us to 00:30:01.600 --> 00:30:07.520 accomplish his your your staff need to see that desperately so leverage these video video tools to 00:30:07.520 --> 00:30:13.120 communicate that to them uh internally and then the next thing internally is keep some type of regular 00:30:13.120 --> 00:30:19.520 it's going to be a new normal a new rhythm for you guys but develop a new rhythm everybody needs 00:30:19.520 --> 00:30:25.040 parameters and consistency to flourish so what is that consistency for your staff so you may have 00:30:25.040 --> 00:30:28.960 you know five meetings in the course of your week whatever it was maybe it's maybe it's reduced down to 00:30:28.960 --> 00:30:34.000 two or even just one stick to that stick to that regular pattern where your staff knows you're gonna 00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:37.520 they're gonna meet with you they're gonna hear from you more importantly they're gonna see you 00:30:37.520 --> 00:30:42.480 and they're gonna know what the game plan is for the upcoming week that's vital to keep your your 00:30:42.480 --> 00:30:48.640 staff keep going on um and then the next thing is and i'll call this out i've been bad at this um 00:30:48.640 --> 00:30:54.560 i've been running and gunning and i have not given the pastoral support my staff needs 00:30:54.560 --> 00:30:59.440 it's all being it's all being strategy it's all being logistics it's all being execution 00:30:59.440 --> 00:31:06.240 and the the relational the spiritual the pastoral component has fallen to the bottom the bottom of 00:31:06.240 --> 00:31:10.480 my priority list right now and it's it's embarrassing to call myself out in it because 00:31:11.200 --> 00:31:17.440 we desperately need that i desperately need that they desperately need that um so i'll i'll challenge 00:31:17.440 --> 00:31:22.240 other leaders to give that to their people as well not just marching orders but give them the 00:31:22.240 --> 00:31:27.600 spiritual shepherding they need during the season as well myself included so that's internally 00:31:28.160 --> 00:31:34.320 then externally how does the church still be the church uh don't just promote what you are doing 00:31:34.320 --> 00:31:40.320 don't just become an ad agency for the next foreseeable future this is happening this is happening this 00:31:40.320 --> 00:31:46.640 is happening um give people avenues in which they can jump in and participate so don't just give them 00:31:46.640 --> 00:31:51.200 experiences hey we have a we have another live experience that's great i'm not diminishing that live 00:31:51.200 --> 00:31:57.120 experiences are awesome they're looking for avenues to participate as well that may be reduced because 00:31:57.120 --> 00:32:03.520 of the social distancing but they are still out there we still can text and call and facetime and 00:32:03.520 --> 00:32:09.760 meet via small groups there's still plenty of opportunities ones we have yet to even think of yet 00:32:09.760 --> 00:32:15.600 out of how to minister in this new reality don't just become an experience uh church at this point 00:32:15.600 --> 00:32:21.760 um be be an experimental church that you're trying new things and be ones in which you're still 00:32:21.760 --> 00:32:28.080 engaging your community don't be an experienced church be an experimental uh tweet that wow i know 00:32:28.080 --> 00:32:34.320 listen i have i have a running joke on the podcast um if something is is if something is really 00:32:34.320 --> 00:32:40.160 impactful i would consider i would consider tattooing that quote in the person's name on my body and ben 00:32:40.160 --> 00:32:45.840 stapely you are now tattoo worthy that right there was phenomenal you can't pass it down if you don't 00:32:45.840 --> 00:32:51.200 write it down it's it's on my back and holding it in its talons and now that's going to be tattooed 00:32:51.200 --> 00:32:55.440 on on just back so he can be able to pass it down as it's no man that's that's like on the cheek i'm 00:32:55.440 --> 00:33:00.640 putting them right here on the right cheek are you gonna go right by the teardrops the teardrop 00:33:02.480 --> 00:33:08.640 good good stuff there ray any thoughts on that yeah um ben you know and it's funny i know ben's 00:33:08.640 --> 00:33:13.040 being really hard on himself in terms of the pastoral side but one of the things that he's been really 00:33:13.040 --> 00:33:18.560 good at in terms of the season especially with me is helping me understand how i can democratize 00:33:18.560 --> 00:33:23.120 some of the things that i'm doing so that i don't become a stopgap i don't become a lid on the 00:33:23.120 --> 00:33:28.160 organization so often especially in creative communities or whatever else especially when 00:33:28.160 --> 00:33:31.920 percentages shift as far as like how much we're relying on certain platforms or whatever else we 00:33:31.920 --> 00:33:36.960 think well if i can't do it nobody else can and so ben has done a good job at helping me 00:33:36.960 --> 00:33:42.240 brainstorm okay so what can i hand off or even just challenging me in a good way not not in a 00:33:42.240 --> 00:33:46.160 threatening way not in a hey you know that we need this done like yesterday kind of a thing way 00:33:46.160 --> 00:33:50.160 but even just thinking through how can i hand off some of those things so that the organization overall 00:33:50.160 --> 00:33:57.600 can benefit in this time because as a leader like i can't die on the vine either and ben's did a good 00:33:57.600 --> 00:34:03.360 job of saying well what resources can we open up and even advocating for us in this moment and saying hey 00:34:03.360 --> 00:34:07.920 what resources can we can we open up because our team is working through some extra stuff and that's 00:34:07.920 --> 00:34:12.800 helped us uh both thrive in this time because granted every creative or every digital strategist 00:34:12.800 --> 00:34:15.440 that i've talked to in this time and if you're out there and you're listening you're probably 00:34:15.440 --> 00:34:20.400 with us where it's like you're working 24 7 right now and you're thinking to yourself like when you're 00:34:20.400 --> 00:34:24.720 not in front of a computer screen creating new graphics or thinking through stuff you're probably 00:34:24.720 --> 00:34:29.440 dreaming about them at this point or thinking through did i send that email did i send that text message 00:34:29.440 --> 00:34:34.320 in the middle of the night so right now if in the least if in your teams you can help challenge 00:34:35.120 --> 00:34:39.760 challenge and help think through okay so some of our staff members aren't necessarily using as much 00:34:39.760 --> 00:34:44.080 of their time right now how can i help hand off some of this stuff so that the staff overall can win 00:34:44.640 --> 00:34:49.920 that's benefited me um personally ben and you've done a great job in championing that how would you help 00:34:49.920 --> 00:34:54.160 other creatives to think through all right so challenge your teams thinking through how you can 00:34:54.160 --> 00:35:01.360 democratize some of your areas as well right now yeah i had a conversation with gosh a staff member 00:35:01.360 --> 00:35:07.040 at uh life church a couple of years ago and they were talking about how they had two graphic designers 00:35:07.040 --> 00:35:12.800 to hire and they had a you know kind of a b level talent uh and then an a level talent and they told me 00:35:12.800 --> 00:35:16.880 yeah we're gonna put the b level talent to work on graphics for the weekend and then the a level 00:35:16.880 --> 00:35:23.120 talent to work on graphics for the week and my i was puzzled i said wait wait wait but if the 00:35:23.120 --> 00:35:27.920 weekend is the most important thing false premise by the way um the weekend is the most important thing 00:35:27.920 --> 00:35:33.840 why are you putting and they said no no why leverage your best talent for one hour why don't you leverage 00:35:33.840 --> 00:35:39.760 them for the other 167 and my mind was kind of blown and since then uh i've been trying to figure out 00:35:39.760 --> 00:35:46.800 how to move staff from the weekend to the week in terms of those resource allocations uh during this 00:35:46.800 --> 00:35:52.160 season to answer your question from doing a roundabout here ray um to answer your question we've been 00:35:52.160 --> 00:35:58.000 looking at as a whole organization so saying we've had some staff members um some campus pastors 00:35:58.000 --> 00:36:03.200 we're saying i've done as much uh follow-up i can with my people i still have additional time well 00:36:03.200 --> 00:36:09.920 guess what i i have graphic design in my toolbox how can i help out um or i know i i know how to shoot 00:36:09.920 --> 00:36:15.280 content how can i help out and so we've been finding unique skill sets in our staff that were kind of 00:36:15.280 --> 00:36:21.120 hidden talents that have come to the surface and we're reallocating those resources as a as a staff 00:36:21.120 --> 00:36:27.200 to make sure that we are getting as as many people working towards our exclusively online content 00:36:27.200 --> 00:36:31.680 only at this point so if you haven't done that as a church i strongly encourage you to do that 00:36:31.680 --> 00:36:36.880 that's one one way to change in this new reality that's really good and that's not something that 00:36:36.880 --> 00:36:42.000 i'm hearing from anywhere else is how you know they're shifting leaders to make sure and allocate 00:36:42.000 --> 00:36:45.360 things properly for this time and it's such a crucial time in church history where we don't 00:36:45.360 --> 00:36:48.640 want to lose that engagement right we don't want to lose that week-to-week conversation 00:36:49.600 --> 00:36:54.560 and you're and you're also saying right for this time spoilers i think this is going to be the new 00:36:54.560 --> 00:36:59.840 reality i don't think this is just for a season we're going to ultimately open our doors again but 00:37:00.960 --> 00:37:05.680 one of the lessons we need to learn church is the the resourcing we've put online it cannot be an 00:37:05.680 --> 00:37:11.040 mass exit of those resources back solely to our physical i don't think it needs to go back i don't 00:37:11.040 --> 00:37:15.040 need it doesn't need to say where it's at but we need to find some sweet spot in the middle there 00:37:15.040 --> 00:37:20.560 because we've we've learned this lesson we can create spiritual disciples through digital 00:37:20.560 --> 00:37:27.760 platforms let's not lose this tool in our toolbox as we march forward let's continue to use it in a 00:37:27.760 --> 00:37:32.640 very robust way no but uh ben and just kind of thinking through that what are some of the communication 00:37:32.640 --> 00:37:37.200 things that you think are going to hang around from from what we're dealing with right now because 00:37:37.200 --> 00:37:44.240 as a church i feel that we've for sure ramped up the wave of communication and so what do you 00:37:44.240 --> 00:37:49.040 think is going to hang around right now in terms of uh even when we exit the season when the doors open 00:37:49.040 --> 00:37:53.920 up and we can do you know saturday night and sunday morning services again in person what do you think 00:37:53.920 --> 00:37:59.760 is going to stay as far as what we term the 167 like communicating during the week yeah it's a couple 00:37:59.760 --> 00:38:03.920 things simple again the video conferencing model like just from a work efficiency standpoint i'm listening 00:38:03.920 --> 00:38:08.160 like to podcast about this that like this is going to be the new normal one of the things most people 00:38:08.160 --> 00:38:12.880 hate about the job is their a commute be their commute see their commute they don't they hate their commute 00:38:12.880 --> 00:38:16.720 people have now loved the fact that they've gained back an hour of their day because they don't have 00:38:16.720 --> 00:38:21.440 to commute so that is not going away that is a those are going to be a part of our new reality uh the 00:38:21.440 --> 00:38:28.560 other thing too in terms of content is the the live con the the midweek um morsels of content that we 00:38:28.560 --> 00:38:34.800 that we provided people and we've seen continued in growth engagement on that um and then also in terms of 00:38:34.800 --> 00:38:40.320 the the style that we've been talking about offline offline right the style of the communication has 00:38:40.320 --> 00:38:47.200 moved from uh from authority to authenticity because it's easy literally when you are on an elevated 00:38:47.200 --> 00:38:52.960 platform to stand in front of people and to speak at them with an authoritative tone thus saith the lord 00:38:52.960 --> 00:38:58.480 and again that's not a that's not a bad thing but if it's our only style of communication is a bad thing 00:38:58.480 --> 00:39:04.640 we've supplemented that with authenticity where we've told people i'm struggling i'm having a hard 00:39:04.640 --> 00:39:11.040 time during this crisis i'm trying to manage a staff i got kids that i'm homeschooling i got parents that 00:39:11.040 --> 00:39:16.160 have their health threatened i know somebody with the disease or i anticipate someone will die with the 00:39:16.160 --> 00:39:22.080 disease and i'm gonna have to bury them in a couple of weeks um i've now shown as a lead pastor 00:39:22.080 --> 00:39:30.000 a greater degree of authenticity and use you see how god has worked in me which will encourage the work 00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:36.080 of him in your life that is a beautiful thing and that is something we cannot give ground on as we 00:39:36.080 --> 00:39:41.920 reopen our doors church we have yet to really figure out it's funny we just recently published an article 00:39:41.920 --> 00:39:50.000 from um uh soul care mindy calaguire she's a executive over at glue but she runs a counseling center 00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:57.280 has been well published uh author when it comes to um you know the psychology of of the therapy that's 00:39:57.280 --> 00:40:03.120 involved and she's really passionate about pastoral soul care and ministry soul care uh and so she's 00:40:03.120 --> 00:40:10.640 talked a lot about um for through us writing some blogs about the the condition of our people the 00:40:10.640 --> 00:40:18.080 condition of the uh our audience our listeners our members our attenders our community ben using your word 00:40:18.080 --> 00:40:24.240 the community around us and church we've yet to really even scratch the surface of of where this 00:40:24.240 --> 00:40:30.320 is at i've got friends i've got friends that are burying right now not as a result of coronavirus but 00:40:30.320 --> 00:40:37.280 just in general they're burying people people that have died in the past week situations how do you grieve 00:40:37.280 --> 00:40:44.080 in a situation like that you can't gather together uh you can't hug people how do you grieve a loved one 00:40:44.080 --> 00:40:50.240 that's now dead what what is this what is situations like this psychologically doing to us and we don't 00:40:50.240 --> 00:40:56.080 we don't know and which is one of the reasons you know like what does it mean to to be on mission 00:40:56.080 --> 00:41:02.640 how are we as a church functioning um here and to bend to what you just said you know it's i can guarantee 00:41:02.640 --> 00:41:07.920 you one thing i don't know what the answer is but i guarantee you it's not hey let's just keep doing status quo 00:41:07.920 --> 00:41:15.040 yeah because where status quo took us pre-coronavirus that's going to completely be ineffective during 00:41:16.080 --> 00:41:21.680 um and inarguably afterwards because i think culture is going to shift as a result of this in in big 00:41:21.680 --> 00:41:28.320 ways in the church addressing more of of this experimental asking questions even in the posture of 00:41:29.040 --> 00:41:33.840 i had somebody tell me this and this wasn't even context of coronavirus but it's better to ask questions 00:41:33.840 --> 00:41:39.200 to make statements and in in this season the more that we can engage the more that we can listen to 00:41:39.200 --> 00:41:44.160 people learn where people are at that that's really the power of the internet it's not a one-way 00:41:44.160 --> 00:41:50.080 communication uh billy graham did broadcasted a message to a billion people back in the 90s 00:41:50.080 --> 00:41:55.680 bounced it off 37 satellites translated multiple languages is awesome the power of the internet gives 00:41:55.680 --> 00:42:02.240 us a two-way in the conversation with an individual and so the ability for us to engage and listen to 00:42:02.240 --> 00:42:07.520 people as individuals uh and do ministry to them that's man that's the future of that and and what 00:42:07.520 --> 00:42:13.280 you're talking about and how we're we're connecting with the community engaging and listening to them 00:42:13.280 --> 00:42:21.920 at that individual level that is awesome so hey man uh ben ray man thanks for jumping on this podcast 00:42:21.920 --> 00:42:27.360 i i and i've said this many times you know ben coming down at christ fellowship miami a church 00:42:27.360 --> 00:42:33.520 that's near and dear to my heart watching how he's led and and functions within that that that church 00:42:33.520 --> 00:42:39.280 and how what the difference he's making within the staff uh in the just the overall direction of the 00:42:39.280 --> 00:42:44.720 church i don't know that i would want another person to have the job that he has and watching him lead 00:42:44.720 --> 00:42:49.840 at the capacity as it's been awesome it's been a bigger it's this has been so invigorating let's call 00:42:49.840 --> 00:42:55.600 that out as well this we've we've had a chance we've had a chance to take the rule book and the playbook 00:42:55.600 --> 00:43:01.600 out and to hopefully throw it out the window right and it's exhausting i'll call that out it's exhausting 00:43:01.600 --> 00:43:06.720 but this is exhilarating this is exhilarating times to be a part of the church i have not seen the 00:43:06.720 --> 00:43:13.600 opportunity for us where we've been forced to rethink how we do everything phenomenal time to be alive i love 00:43:13.600 --> 00:43:19.280 it awesome you know i you know exhilarating is a better word i was saying man this is fun but then 00:43:19.280 --> 00:43:23.840 like people are dying and then it's like awkward because i'm saying the fun word exhilarating i think 00:43:23.840 --> 00:43:29.280 is a good a good word i'm gonna i'm gonna copy that yes um awesome and so i'm gonna learn how to say 00:43:29.280 --> 00:43:34.160 it with a canadian accent maybe while eating some canadian bacon and that'll just give me the full 00:43:34.160 --> 00:43:37.600 ben stapley experience so don't stereotype my people 00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:45.440 so hey um ray as as we're landing the plane any closing thoughts yeah you know so much of what ben 00:43:45.440 --> 00:43:50.800 said is is right about having to throw out the playbook and if you've got to rewrite a new playbook 00:43:50.800 --> 00:43:54.880 right now i would encourage you to do the things that he said at the beginning to make sure and over 00:43:54.880 --> 00:43:59.360 communicate to cluster communicate and then what was the last one ben i wanted to make sure and the 00:43:59.360 --> 00:44:04.640 the wording right deadline communicate deadline communicate that's been so important for us as 00:44:04.640 --> 00:44:09.360 an organization but not just that not this isn't like a now thing like what ben was saying that's 00:44:09.360 --> 00:44:14.080 moving forward in terms of making sure that your congregation stays informed you know christ 00:44:14.080 --> 00:44:19.760 fellowship you know we're seven thousand some odd people on a service on the weekend you know before 00:44:19.760 --> 00:44:24.560 all this hit and then we were reaching much more online like many of your churches are right now 00:44:24.560 --> 00:44:29.600 but the big thing is is do they understand do they know and do your staff members have a clear 00:44:29.600 --> 00:44:35.120 understanding your staff members like the congregation they're good they're a wonderful litmus test but 00:44:35.120 --> 00:44:39.440 if your staff can't articulate to you what your current communication is if they can't repeat it back to 00:44:39.440 --> 00:44:44.080 you then something is wrong something is missing and those three things are key they've been key for us 00:44:44.080 --> 00:44:51.520 and i hope they're key for you moving forward awesome well well said there uh ben any any closing thoughts 00:44:51.520 --> 00:44:57.120 as we're landing the plane one last question ray and jeff is it four or five because i know it's not six 00:44:57.120 --> 00:45:01.440 is it four or five hours of sleep that you've been getting each night because again i know it's not 00:45:01.440 --> 00:45:08.400 six is it good hours are we talking is it four hours or is it five hours because i know it's not six how 00:45:08.400 --> 00:45:13.360 many hours of sleep have you been getting on average each night four or five since i started watching 00:45:13.360 --> 00:45:18.720 tiger king my concerns have grown so it's maybe about four knowing that there are people like that 00:45:18.720 --> 00:45:25.280 in miami-dade county in my backyard it's maybe three and a half that's awesome you know what i'm gonna 00:45:25.280 --> 00:45:32.640 give true i'm gonna just give true testimony right here i'm six uh i have um it was for a stretch it was 00:45:32.640 --> 00:45:40.240 three um and and i hit and just you know i'll i'll call it out i i hit a wall um i don't know about a 00:45:40.240 --> 00:45:47.280 week ago today from the recording so probably like somewhere around march 20th uh and it was like okay i can't 00:45:47.280 --> 00:45:53.520 keep doing this um you know my family's like jeff you can't keep doing this um my dog's looking at me with 00:45:53.520 --> 00:45:58.880 why don't you love me anymore eyes just because i was i was the guy stuck in front of a laptop or on a 00:45:58.880 --> 00:46:06.800 phone or staring at a web camera you know so much and and so i kind of i paused enough to in and ben 00:46:06.800 --> 00:46:12.880 this is kind of giving some credence to to your to your some of your earlier stuff but uh i brought some 00:46:12.880 --> 00:46:21.440 stadia team around me some of the guys that that work regionally and was okay this is this is what i do 00:46:21.440 --> 00:46:27.280 these are the questions that you should be asking um this is some resources here's some online things 00:46:27.280 --> 00:46:32.160 and they started on their own reading blogs listening to podcasts starting to understand 00:46:32.160 --> 00:46:37.440 more of the church online and what was phenomenal for me coming out of that was instead of me being 00:46:37.440 --> 00:46:42.400 the only guy within the entire organization that was passionate about church online all of a sudden 00:46:42.400 --> 00:46:48.720 i had like um very intelligent minions kind of running around working with churches talking church 00:46:48.720 --> 00:46:54.320 online now i don't know that they understand all the philosophical stuff but dude they can throw 00:46:54.320 --> 00:46:59.760 down and get dirty and answer some of the the basic questions on on this at the level they are now 00:47:00.400 --> 00:47:06.720 and that enabled me to kind of step back i still get even in the context of of like random phone 00:47:06.720 --> 00:47:11.600 calls and things and we'll talk about it later i just got a text from a guy i haven't talked to in a 00:47:11.600 --> 00:47:18.320 decade uh and he's like jeff i'm desperate i need to talk to you asap and so like it's some of that's 00:47:18.320 --> 00:47:22.560 still coming that that's great and there's plenty of there's always going to be opportunities to do 00:47:22.560 --> 00:47:28.400 things but i mean here's so there's a season where you gotta burn it even in my own life in christmas 00:47:28.400 --> 00:47:36.160 season i mean i'll call it out there were years where i worked 96 98 102 hours a week leading into like 00:47:36.160 --> 00:47:42.640 the the palm sunday to easter sunday work as a production guy totally not healthy totally not 00:47:42.640 --> 00:47:50.080 the right thing sometimes you just gotta gotta play it but in seasons like this where you've got staff 00:47:50.080 --> 00:47:56.240 who may not i think ben you used the word like job descriptions are out the window or they're destroyed 00:47:56.240 --> 00:48:03.040 or they're invalid because at this point nothing that we do um is what it was when we created these 00:48:03.040 --> 00:48:09.120 things um take the time and this is this is my lesson take the time to have the conversation with 00:48:09.120 --> 00:48:15.840 the person has no clue what they're doing and train them because oftentimes it's better to at least to have 00:48:15.840 --> 00:48:24.400 a a compadre a friend along the ride at best another representative that now allows to multiply 00:48:24.400 --> 00:48:29.120 what you're doing across two and three there's that old adage right you can have control or you can have 00:48:29.120 --> 00:48:33.280 growth but you can't have both and this is an opportunity especially people who are overseeing 00:48:33.280 --> 00:48:40.480 creatives and digital assets to release control to have greater growth yep and even then a helpful 00:48:40.480 --> 00:48:45.680 tool for me that's worked out well that once again i mean this is a lot of ben's leadership was 00:48:45.680 --> 00:48:51.200 writing manuals on on google docs and then sharing them um it's something as simple as that even from 00:48:51.200 --> 00:48:57.840 everything from here's where to upload video here's our style guide uh you know and handing a lot of 00:48:57.840 --> 00:49:02.560 that off you know lovingly like walking people through the dock but handing a lot of that off 00:49:02.560 --> 00:49:07.920 this way and then going back and refining the manuals in in case anything wasn't clear uh these 00:49:07.920 --> 00:49:13.200 are good things that if you've got all the knowledge over your ministry then you're a lid you're a lid like 00:49:13.200 --> 00:49:17.680 there's no other way to say it you're a lid on what else can happen and especially in this era and so it's 00:49:17.680 --> 00:49:23.520 important as much as possible to write it down so you can pass it down right then heck yeah tattoo 00:49:23.520 --> 00:49:29.040 that jeff i know i'm more interested in the control grok i say that all the time somebody else told it 00:49:29.040 --> 00:49:34.720 to me so their name gets but was it was a gross show is it yeah yeah yeah craigism man okay craigism 00:49:35.440 --> 00:49:40.560 craig gets like he's got like four or five credits on my back somewhere so i might have to give it to 00:49:40.560 --> 00:49:44.960 somebody else someone else told me the quote so i'm going to give them credit and it wasn't been safely but 00:49:44.960 --> 00:49:50.240 i love the fact that ben said it hey so we're going to land the plane this has been awesome i mean i i 00:49:50.240 --> 00:49:56.800 love uh spending time with these guys ben if and i know ben you are uh using your online platforms 00:49:56.800 --> 00:50:00.880 as well to help communicate and help churches out there so if somebody wanted to keep up with what 00:50:00.880 --> 00:50:07.200 you're doing how do they find you yeah go to ben stately dot info uh you can find information 00:50:07.200 --> 00:50:13.760 there about me uh or follow me on social media i'm on all the platforms um i think at this point yeah 00:50:13.760 --> 00:50:18.160 subscribe to my man's youtube channel look look for ben stately on youtube let's get him let's 00:50:18.160 --> 00:50:23.840 get him a thousand plus subscribers uh you know let's get it going you don't even give that endorsement 00:50:23.840 --> 00:50:30.080 for me you're giving it to ben of course i gotta try and embrace this across the board i'm trying to 00:50:30.720 --> 00:50:36.240 get this multi-platform thing down and i want people to engage this podcast that's the thing that i push 00:50:36.240 --> 00:50:42.160 the most but when it comes to but but here's the big thing uh and ben is trying like he's done a good job of 00:50:42.160 --> 00:50:47.680 moving his content over there a lot of that content it needs to be visual specifically because of the 00:50:47.680 --> 00:50:51.440 hosting moments um i think that's where especially for those of you who are listening to us to do a 00:50:51.440 --> 00:50:56.960 lot of church online and you're not production oriented like me you will learn a lot from how to 00:50:56.960 --> 00:51:01.040 everything from engage the camera to how to make sure that there's enough distance between you and 00:51:01.040 --> 00:51:05.120 your co-host there's so many practical nuggets in there that you need to unearth and there's a lot of 00:51:05.120 --> 00:51:09.360 short videos in there that you can take some you can binge watch a bunch of them and then even 00:51:09.360 --> 00:51:13.840 send them to other people for instruction manuals so make sure and leverage that i'm glad you said 00:51:13.840 --> 00:51:20.320 that i in 30 seconds ben fastest question you've ever answered in your life stadia asked me to ask 00:51:20.320 --> 00:51:27.760 you this question and i failed to how long should a sermon be online 18 minutes ted talks eight 18 00:51:27.760 --> 00:51:33.440 minutes that's what you're going with i'll say this i'll say this caveat ted talks are designed to hit 00:51:33.440 --> 00:51:39.520 the head our our sermons or devotionals or teachings should hit the head heart and hands give you something 00:51:39.520 --> 00:51:45.920 to think about make you feel and an action step head heart and hands so i say 18 i say about 25 all in 00:51:45.920 --> 00:51:51.840 to accomplish those two things for me has been the sweet spot and and let me tell you jeff our teaching 00:51:51.840 --> 00:51:57.680 team actually received the coaching and adapted to it if our lead communicator uh you know our former 00:51:57.680 --> 00:52:02.960 lead communicator he's now he's still a member of our teaching team he went from typical 45 minute 00:52:02.960 --> 00:52:09.680 message he went down to 24 and a half last week wow i mean he did it he took the coaching i'm telling 00:52:09.680 --> 00:52:18.720 you pastors you can do this you can wow like there's there there's like 40 years of training that you've 00:52:18.720 --> 00:52:26.240 undone kind of retaught to it so you know if i was wearing a hat proverbially if you're watching this 00:52:26.240 --> 00:52:31.840 on youtube you know i'm not wearing one thank you ray hats off well done thank you everybody for that 00:52:31.840 --> 00:52:36.560 hey this has been a great podcast if you are not following ben follow ben he is an awesome resource 00:52:36.560 --> 00:52:42.320 for you guys for ben for ray this is jeff with the church digital thanks for jumping on this podcast 00:52:42.320 --> 00:52:45.680 we'll see you next time uh here at the church digital podcast you have a good day