WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:04.480 Episode 91 of the Church Digital Podcast, powered by State A Church Planning. Jeff here. 00:00:04.860 --> 00:00:10.100 Okay, this guy, this guest, I bring him in all the time. He holds the record. We'll do a test 00:00:10.100 --> 00:00:14.860 right now. He holds the record for the number of guest appearances on the Church Digital Podcast. 00:00:15.040 --> 00:00:18.860 Okay, ready, go. All right, it's Tyler Sansom. You probably knew that because you clicked on the 00:00:18.860 --> 00:00:23.660 link to open up the podcast. So I've just literally wasted 30 seconds of your life. That's great. 00:00:23.860 --> 00:00:26.440 Hey, so we're bringing Tyler Sansom in and we're going to have a conversation. 00:00:26.440 --> 00:00:30.900 A lot of changes happening. Tyler Sansom, Church Anywhere, First Capital Christian. 00:00:31.340 --> 00:00:36.000 First Capital Christian used to have an online ministry called Church Anywhere that was broadcasting 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:41.880 services and doing things. But in this COVID season, they learned kind of some things about maybe how 00:00:41.880 --> 00:00:46.840 the online broadcast and the services weren't as effective as doing some other ways. And they've 00:00:46.840 --> 00:00:53.100 broken off, First Capital has, the Church Anywhere. Instead of being their online broadcast, it's 00:00:53.100 --> 00:00:58.040 actually now a sister church under the same umbrella. And Tyler talks about it. But 00:00:58.040 --> 00:01:03.280 essentially, it's now a separate church entity. Different strategy, different vision, different 00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:11.440 mission. And Tyler is now the leader, the lead pastor of this Church Anywhere movement. Some 00:01:11.440 --> 00:01:17.460 really, really exciting, incredible things are coming from it. And because they've broken off, 00:01:17.460 --> 00:01:26.580 now they've got freedom to do digital missions, to do digital ministry, to do things digitally instead 00:01:26.580 --> 00:01:32.140 of being locked into the way that you do things at the physical building. And what's happening as a 00:01:32.140 --> 00:01:38.480 result of that, now they're asking questions and having conversations centered around how to influence 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:44.740 people, how to build that influence, and maybe from that influence, get people connected to Christ. 00:01:44.740 --> 00:01:49.040 And so they're doing, listen, this conversation, this podcast, here's what I need you to do. 00:01:49.500 --> 00:01:53.820 I need you to think outside the box. Like, don't be thinking, well, no, that's not what we do in the 00:01:53.820 --> 00:01:58.740 physical church building. Physical and digital, they operate differently. Most times, they're actually 00:01:58.740 --> 00:02:05.920 backwards. They do it completely opposite. And so for a little bit here, I want you to start thinking 00:02:05.920 --> 00:02:12.040 outside the box and start wrestling with this idea of, if I didn't have the building, how could I be 00:02:12.040 --> 00:02:16.700 effective in doing ministry? Because this is really the question that Tyler's wrestling with and that 00:02:16.700 --> 00:02:23.420 we're talking with in the podcast. We're talking kids, students, TikTok, man, all Twitch, all sorts 00:02:23.420 --> 00:02:29.460 of crazy stuff that pre-COVID, like nobody was having these conversations. And Tyler and Church 00:02:29.460 --> 00:02:33.760 Anywhere is really leading the way and digging into some of this. So here's where we are. We're bringing 00:02:33.760 --> 00:02:38.880 into the conversation, of course, Tyler Anywhere, Tyler Anywhere. That's his new name. Tyler Sansom, 00:02:39.340 --> 00:02:43.540 lead pastor, Church Anywhere. We're bringing in Ray the Armist, digital pastor, Christ Fellowship 00:02:43.540 --> 00:02:49.360 Miami. Myself, Jeff, with the Church Digital and Stadia Church Planting in a conversation that I'm calling 00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:56.060 Building and Using Influence as a Digital Missionary. Okay, everybody, tell us a little bit, 00:02:56.140 --> 00:02:59.660 what's going on in Church Anywhere? Give us an update. 00:02:59.660 --> 00:03:06.240 Yeah, man, we've launched a whole digital church, which is crazy. And it doesn't necessarily look 00:03:06.240 --> 00:03:12.540 like what you think of when you think of church. But we've got four staff members now on our digital 00:03:12.540 --> 00:03:17.680 Church Plant team, our Church Anywhere team. I'm actually sitting in one of our office spaces. So 00:03:17.680 --> 00:03:23.300 we have a studio, like a community office space, and then like a recording area for audio. 00:03:24.820 --> 00:03:31.820 And yeah, it's been amazing to watch how God has worked through that so far. So I think today, 00:03:31.900 --> 00:03:35.240 we're going to get into some of the strategies that we're doing. So I won't talk too much about 00:03:35.240 --> 00:03:41.480 that yet. But we've got a family ministries online pastor, an engagement pastor for online, 00:03:41.820 --> 00:03:46.280 an office admin who kind of handles all of our database and things like that. And then I get to 00:03:46.280 --> 00:03:48.400 be the lead of that. So very exciting stuff. 00:03:48.400 --> 00:03:54.680 That's awesome. So you've actually got a team. Like 99% of churches in America today, there's 00:03:54.680 --> 00:04:00.860 somebody who's like, my gosh, could somebody else love, care about, think about online ministry. But 00:04:00.860 --> 00:04:06.140 you, you've got a team that's helping you with that. That's awesome. So tell me a little bit. Let's 00:04:06.140 --> 00:04:13.840 just back up. Like you used to be First Capital Christian online ministry. And now are you guys, 00:04:13.840 --> 00:04:19.700 are you still connected with First Capital? Like, are you a completely digital only separate church 00:04:19.700 --> 00:04:24.000 with a separate team? Like, talk to me a little bit just about that transition. Because people, 00:04:24.180 --> 00:04:28.520 people know First Capital, they knew you guys as part of that. But now you're something different. 00:04:28.860 --> 00:04:35.740 Yeah. Yes, and no. So we think of it this way, if there's like a big umbrella over top, 00:04:35.860 --> 00:04:39.640 that'd be First Capital Ministries. So instead of First Capital Christian Church, 00:04:39.640 --> 00:04:43.780 it'd be like First Capital Ministries. And you got two branches of that. So you've got the 305 00:04:43.780 --> 00:04:47.860 branch, which is our street address here in our physical location. So we got First Capital 00:04:47.860 --> 00:04:53.540 Christian Church at 305. And then you have church anywhere. So we have different target audiences, 00:04:53.720 --> 00:04:58.180 but we're still existing under the same vision of helping people find and follow Jesus. So 00:04:58.180 --> 00:05:02.800 basically like sister churches with the same vision, just totally different target audiences 00:05:02.800 --> 00:05:04.340 and different approaches to ministry. 00:05:04.340 --> 00:05:11.420 I love that language, different target audiences. Maybe unpack that a little bit. What's the target 00:05:11.420 --> 00:05:16.380 audience of the physical location there in Cordon, Indiana? What's the target audience of what you're 00:05:16.380 --> 00:05:17.120 trying to do online? 00:05:17.500 --> 00:05:23.100 Yeah, a target audience for our physical location for a long time has been a 35-year-old male in 00:05:23.100 --> 00:05:29.720 Harrison County, Indiana. We believe that if we can get the young family's father to come to church, 00:05:29.780 --> 00:05:36.120 then the family will come. Not that we're not trying to reach children and moms and teens and all of that. 00:05:36.240 --> 00:05:40.320 But most of the time when the dad comes, the whole family comes. So that was our target audience. 00:05:41.260 --> 00:05:48.340 Online though, our target audience is the world. I mean, we don't have to pinpoint Harrison County, 00:05:48.460 --> 00:05:51.920 Indiana. We want to reach people in Harrison County, but we also want to reach people 00:05:51.920 --> 00:05:54.640 in Pakistan and we want to reach people in Australia. 00:05:54.880 --> 00:06:01.820 And so the target audiences are a little different. And online, we can be very specific with content and 00:06:01.820 --> 00:06:08.060 community strategies for really specific target audiences. So we can literally target like 18 00:06:08.060 --> 00:06:15.400 to 20-year-old females who go to Yale. We probably wouldn't do that one, but that's just the example 00:06:15.400 --> 00:06:18.680 that I randomly thought of and I'm not sure how I got there. 00:06:18.900 --> 00:06:23.560 That's really interesting. The whole 18 to 20-year-olds at Yale, that's maybe a little creepy, 00:06:23.840 --> 00:06:32.220 but we'll move beyond that one and go to. But just even with the target audience, I'm curious, 00:06:32.460 --> 00:06:37.280 like, you know, because I have conversations with some digital planners, digital-only church 00:06:37.280 --> 00:06:43.500 planners where they have a specific niche. Like I was talking with a guy in the Philippines. His name 00:06:43.500 --> 00:06:50.000 is Philip. Philip from the Philippines. And he wanted to plant a digital-only church in the 00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:58.440 Philippines, but was aimed at creatives. And it's like the motion graphics guys, the graphic artists, 00:06:58.620 --> 00:07:03.260 the video editors, like that particular group, because that was his one. That was the group that 00:07:03.260 --> 00:07:09.120 he was passionate about. With Church Anywhere, do you have a... And we talk about the one kind of like 00:07:09.120 --> 00:07:14.580 your... The institutional one, like your model that you're going after, the 35-year-old males 00:07:14.580 --> 00:07:23.160 from that. Do you have a one for the digital that you're going after? Or is it more broad at this 00:07:23.160 --> 00:07:30.220 point? It's more broad, but we've broken it down demographically and generationally. So we use a 00:07:30.220 --> 00:07:36.960 funnel system and I can send you the PDF if you want to link that to this podcast. But there's a whole 00:07:36.960 --> 00:07:42.660 funnel system to where we have like preschool age kids, and then elementary age kids, then middle 00:07:42.660 --> 00:07:51.100 school, high school, then college age beyond, and then like Gen X plus. Online, there's not a whole 00:07:51.100 --> 00:07:57.300 lot of strategy for reaching boomers that wouldn't be the same as like Gen X. And so we kind of stopped 00:07:57.300 --> 00:08:04.720 there. But each of these funnels have like a broad base at the top. So there's lots of different things 00:08:04.720 --> 00:08:09.340 that we put online that could reach different interest groups within that age bracket, and they 00:08:09.340 --> 00:08:17.320 all funnel down to community. So the target audiences are not necessarily like one audience, but we've 00:08:17.320 --> 00:08:23.100 got specific niches within these generations. So for example, like we use video games to reach high 00:08:23.100 --> 00:08:29.240 school and middle school age kids. But we wouldn't do that for like Gen X people because they're not 00:08:29.240 --> 00:08:35.360 nearly as much on video games. So we use YouTube to reach Gen X and Facebook, things like that. And so 00:08:35.360 --> 00:08:41.520 not like necessarily one specific target audience, like a 35 year old male, but broken down into 00:08:41.520 --> 00:08:45.180 demographics with more specific targets within those demographics. 00:08:45.720 --> 00:08:52.540 What's the difference between how you would do ministry when you were under First Capital 00:08:52.540 --> 00:08:57.220 Christian? Now that you're a digital only church, you got some different strategies. 00:08:58.240 --> 00:09:04.940 What's the big difference? Give me an overarching view between how it used to be when you were under 00:09:04.940 --> 00:09:06.220 First Capital and now? 00:09:06.340 --> 00:09:12.020 Yeah, it's probably the biggest difference is probably the tethered to part. So everything we did online 00:09:12.020 --> 00:09:17.400 before was tethered to what we were doing in person for the most part. And now we don't have to be. 00:09:18.680 --> 00:09:23.140 Obviously, we still like to use things that we do in person. We still like to have the same 00:09:23.140 --> 00:09:28.000 communicators on the screen. We still like to, if we do an initiative in person, that's a challenge 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:33.740 for our people. We want to try to replicate that online, but we don't have to anymore. So not only do 00:09:33.740 --> 00:09:40.520 we get to supplement what we do in person, but we get to create new avenues now, which before didn't 00:09:40.520 --> 00:09:45.020 make a whole lot of sense if it was just First Capital. But now we have First Capital plus Church 00:09:45.020 --> 00:09:45.320 Anywhere. 00:09:45.920 --> 00:09:50.700 Now that you're separate, so you're able to have some freedom, you're able to do some things 00:09:50.700 --> 00:09:54.940 different than what's in the building. Give me some examples. Now that you've got that freedom, 00:09:55.300 --> 00:10:00.900 how are you utilizing the freedom? What does it look like to operate and to do ministry more digitally 00:10:00.900 --> 00:10:04.180 without having the tethered physical building in place? 00:10:04.360 --> 00:10:12.300 Yeah, right now we're doing weekly Bible studies. And the cool part about this, like in person, 00:10:12.460 --> 00:10:16.180 if you did a Bible study, you'd have people sign up for maybe like a six-week class and you'd all 00:10:16.180 --> 00:10:22.640 meet together on like a Wednesday night at seven. Online, you can utilize things like YouVersion or 00:10:22.640 --> 00:10:28.120 like creating your own curriculum to where it's asynchronous communication. So people can do it whenever 00:10:28.120 --> 00:10:32.460 they want, which means that people from all over the world can join in on these Bible studies. 00:10:33.200 --> 00:10:40.040 And because there's so much resources out there, we can change up the subject every single week. 00:10:40.580 --> 00:10:45.240 And so even though it might be the same 50 people that are doing the Bible study, we're also adding 00:10:45.240 --> 00:10:49.780 three or four more that maybe didn't want to sign up at the first of the month, but can do it the 00:10:49.780 --> 00:10:54.880 second week of the month and they haven't missed anything. So it's not necessarily long drawn-out 00:10:54.880 --> 00:10:59.000 studies, but right now we're doing like a seven-day study and then a seven-day study and a seven-day 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:04.920 study. And it's seen steady growth throughout. And it's both people that are in our area and then 00:11:04.920 --> 00:11:08.100 people as far away as like London, England. So that's really cool. 00:11:08.660 --> 00:11:15.200 You mentioned this idea of kids and students and the different funnels and we'll put that in the 00:11:15.200 --> 00:11:23.700 show notes. What does it look like to through... Because sometimes when I talk digital-only church or even 00:11:23.700 --> 00:11:31.600 micro-locations or house churches and kids, the parenting, the parent of somebody that I'm talking 00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:38.660 with will say like, creep factor, stay away from my kids. Yeah, I'm not even sure. I want people 00:11:38.660 --> 00:11:46.260 doing that online. What's that tension? How do you guys kind of regulate, moderate that? How have you 00:11:46.260 --> 00:11:51.020 addressed that in this idea of reaching kids through a digital expression of church? 00:11:51.020 --> 00:11:56.740 So whenever I was a kid, which wasn't that long ago, I haven't had my 10-year high school reunion yet. 00:11:56.860 --> 00:12:02.540 So I still can consider myself not that far off from high school. Growing up, going to church, 00:12:03.500 --> 00:12:08.700 I think back at the things that we did within like Sunday school and Wednesday nights and things like 00:12:08.700 --> 00:12:15.000 that. And I don't want to downplay the stuff. It was fine, but I don't think I would have watched 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:21.740 or participated in any of that had I not been at church. Like the only reason I would have watched 00:12:21.740 --> 00:12:27.360 things like that they showed us or read things that we were supposed to read was because I was 00:12:27.360 --> 00:12:32.220 at the building. And that's what we did when we went to church. And like, we still kind of have that 00:12:32.220 --> 00:12:38.800 model. I think that the stuff that people put out for children within like a worship context for kids 00:12:38.800 --> 00:12:43.240 is great stuff. I'm not sure they're super interested in watching that outside of being 00:12:43.240 --> 00:12:49.900 at the church building though. So when COVID hit, a lot of people just tried to use that same model 00:12:49.900 --> 00:12:54.080 and just like put it online and assume kids would just be interested in watching it. And we found out 00:12:54.080 --> 00:12:57.420 that they're just not. Like they're not super interested in watching that kind of stuff. 00:12:57.480 --> 00:13:04.020 So our philosophy is more of like an influencer kind of thing to where we're trying to find the apps and 00:13:04.020 --> 00:13:09.800 platforms that these kids are actually on and produce content that they would be interested in 00:13:09.800 --> 00:13:15.600 watching in hopes that we can make connections with them to be able to disciple them relationally 00:13:15.600 --> 00:13:23.840 rather than through content. For example, like our online family pastor, Patrick, he's doing some 00:13:23.840 --> 00:13:30.140 Twitch streaming. And right now he's working with our in-person student pastor as like a partnership. 00:13:30.660 --> 00:13:36.100 And they're literally just saying, you can challenge us to anything and we will take you on in 00:13:36.100 --> 00:13:41.960 anything. So we've had kids that are challenging them to like video games. So they'll like capture this 00:13:41.960 --> 00:13:47.140 challenge and post it on YouTube as like challenge number one. Yesterday, they did one with a local kid 00:13:47.140 --> 00:13:51.380 who challenged them to soccer. And like neither one of our people are good at soccer. So they got like 00:13:51.380 --> 00:13:55.720 killed by this 12-year-old girl in soccer, but they've been capturing that and putting it on YouTube 00:13:55.720 --> 00:14:00.800 to engage with other students that way. So that's just some of the stuff that he's trying to do. 00:14:00.940 --> 00:14:06.200 He's being an influencer on YouTube with content that kids are interested in in hopes to share the 00:14:06.200 --> 00:14:10.200 gospel with them relationally. That's pretty cool. And YouTube has been the main platform that you guys 00:14:10.200 --> 00:14:12.640 have seen success with that. Twitch, like guys have been a mix. 00:14:13.080 --> 00:14:16.420 Twitch and Instagram have been the ones that he's really focusing on. 00:14:16.740 --> 00:14:23.240 That's cool. And this approach with platform, have you seen it lead to like relational exchange? Have 00:14:23.240 --> 00:14:26.680 you seen it kind of move forward in that? Because when I think of that, I think of, all right, 00:14:26.720 --> 00:14:28.840 internet celebrity, but I don't necessarily think of connection. 00:14:29.320 --> 00:14:36.220 Yeah. It has been, it's been a slow build. We're confident in the strategy and we've made some 00:14:36.220 --> 00:14:42.160 connections. I'm speaking specifically for youth. Weirdly, the adult side of the strategy has been like 00:14:42.160 --> 00:14:47.440 super successful so far and like kind of exploded and we can get into that in a little bit. 00:14:47.900 --> 00:14:54.740 I think kids are a little bit more tech savvy and can find broader things than adults can on the 00:14:54.740 --> 00:14:59.960 internet. And so there's just so much to pick from that it's been a slow build, but we have seen some 00:14:59.960 --> 00:15:06.600 success from it. So we're seeing kids who are viewing the devos he's posting every single week because 00:15:06.600 --> 00:15:12.120 they found him through Twitch or through the video game stuff. And we're seeing, well, these challenges 00:15:12.120 --> 00:15:15.700 are working. Like kids are actually challenging them to things, which is good. So. 00:15:16.100 --> 00:15:22.140 Is the traffic on that, is it, is it local to cut in Indiana where you are? Is, is it outside of that 00:15:22.140 --> 00:15:26.460 with, with the kids, the devos, the, the challenges? Like what's, what's the footprint? 00:15:26.460 --> 00:15:31.660 Yeah. It's a mix of both. Um, we realized that the easiest way to start specifically with teens 00:15:31.660 --> 00:15:36.500 because nobody's like trailed this before, um, would be to start locally because we have name 00:15:36.500 --> 00:15:41.800 recognition within our community and the surrounding areas. So he's targeting local. Um, but the by-product 00:15:41.800 --> 00:15:47.700 of that now is beyond local, um, which on the adult side, we kind of went the opposite way. So we 00:15:47.700 --> 00:15:53.020 targeted worldwide and the by-product has been some local people have been involved. Um, we just had 00:15:53.020 --> 00:15:58.600 the advantage on the adult side that we've been doing online ministry for a while, whereas we haven't 00:15:58.600 --> 00:16:04.200 had online kids and teen ministry, um, up until recently. So, yeah, I mean, let's, let's, let's talk 00:16:04.200 --> 00:16:10.240 about on the adult side. So you've got challenge me and you're getting schooled by a 12 year old 00:16:10.240 --> 00:16:15.920 kid, the girl playing soccer. Awesome. Um, you know, what, what, what are you doing on the adult 00:16:15.920 --> 00:16:21.260 side? Are you trying to like playing darts? Like what, what's the challenge? What's the hook, um, 00:16:21.260 --> 00:16:26.660 on, on, on the adult side? Is it, is it typical Bible stuff, church stuff, or what is, what is 00:16:26.660 --> 00:16:31.760 building that influence? So me and the engagement pastor are both take, we call it digital missionary 00:16:31.760 --> 00:16:37.520 strategy. And that's what we've, um, we've labeled this part of our strategy. And so I'm a digital 00:16:37.520 --> 00:16:42.840 missionary to YouTube. That's, that's been my, my platform. She's a digital missionary to TikTok. 00:16:42.840 --> 00:16:49.740 That's her platform. So for my YouTube channel, um, my background is in music. And so, um, 00:16:49.740 --> 00:16:53.560 I've been singing for a long time. I play lots of instruments. And so I'm using those talents 00:16:53.560 --> 00:17:00.260 to, um, like build an audience. So I've been posting like Broadway music covers. Um, 00:17:00.860 --> 00:17:05.720 I'll post like one of those a week. And then I'll also post like either a devotional, um, 00:17:05.720 --> 00:17:11.940 which is like five minutes or so, or a vlog with like a Devo content in it or a spoken word 00:17:11.940 --> 00:17:16.840 devotional, like a poem. Um, so I've done all three of those in the last six months, like on 00:17:16.840 --> 00:17:22.840 some form of weekly basis. And, um, like the, the covers are a really good way of introducing 00:17:22.840 --> 00:17:27.800 people to my channel. And then, uh, the devos are a really good way of introducing people 00:17:27.800 --> 00:17:28.360 to Jesus. 00:17:28.640 --> 00:17:32.120 I'm sorry, Tyler. How big did that Hamilton cover go for you, man? 00:17:32.340 --> 00:17:37.800 The Hamilton cover is at like eight or 9,000 right now, but I did, I did a wicked cover, 00:17:37.800 --> 00:17:44.700 um, uh, for the, uh, the defying gravity, like the main song. And it's at like 130,000 views 00:17:44.700 --> 00:17:51.840 right now, which is crazy. So like it's, it's nuts. If like YouTube, if you just are consistent 00:17:51.840 --> 00:17:56.280 and have like good content, spend time making it like, it's easy to build an audience. Um, 00:17:56.280 --> 00:18:02.620 so I had like 300 followers when we started this, um, kind of, or subscribers when we started this 00:18:02.620 --> 00:18:07.620 digital missionary strategy and I have like almost 2,500 subscribers now, and that's been 00:18:07.620 --> 00:18:13.580 three and a half months. Um, so the cool part about once you get past like a thousand subscribers, 00:18:13.800 --> 00:18:19.080 YouTube unlocks a community tab. So you can post, um, updates like you would on Facebook or Twitter 00:18:19.080 --> 00:18:23.760 or whatever. And so I'm posting like the link to my weekly Bible study. So I'm having people from my 00:18:23.760 --> 00:18:28.960 YouTube community who are doing Bible studies with me now. Um, I'm became friends with them on 00:18:28.960 --> 00:18:33.700 Facebook. So I like have like private messages with these people who have only, um, met me through 00:18:33.700 --> 00:18:39.880 YouTube, which is crazy. Um, and so that, that's the kind of stuff that we're doing. The girl that's 00:18:39.880 --> 00:18:46.120 doing TikTok is very similar, except she has made her niche, um, mental health. She struggles with 00:18:46.120 --> 00:18:51.140 anxiety. Um, and so she started a blog about mental health issues and how to get over those. 00:18:51.700 --> 00:18:59.520 And she makes these silly TikTok videos that direct people to her blog. Um, and this is crazy guys. 00:18:59.520 --> 00:19:07.180 She's been praying with about six to eight families weekly, um, just through TikTok. Um, so she had 00:19:07.180 --> 00:19:13.420 like, she did this one blog where she held her glasses up to her phone, um, and focused through 00:19:13.420 --> 00:19:18.340 her glasses and then took the glasses away. And basically it was like, now you can see what I see 00:19:18.340 --> 00:19:23.600 and it's real blurry. And then she wrote a blog post about how we don't often look through other 00:19:23.600 --> 00:19:29.860 people's viewpoint. Um, whenever we talked to them, genius idea, but it had like 200,000 hits on TikTok 00:19:29.860 --> 00:19:34.940 because it was a clever idea. And then that led people to her blog posts. So now she's like one-on-one 00:19:34.940 --> 00:19:40.300 discipling these people and like praying with them through private messages, um, over an 11 second 00:19:40.300 --> 00:19:46.680 video and a blog post. Crazy stuff. That's amazing. Like, like even just mentally processing 00:19:46.680 --> 00:19:53.200 through that to a, uh, an 11 second video, incredible idea with the glasses, but, but through 00:19:53.200 --> 00:20:00.320 that, getting it connected into, um, you know, a blog post where they're, where they're digesting 00:20:00.320 --> 00:20:07.680 more content on your website, brand new website, leads them to, to, uh, to a relationship getting 00:20:07.680 --> 00:20:12.340 to the point where they're, where they're praying together and dialoguing through that. That's 00:20:12.340 --> 00:20:12.800 incredible. 00:20:12.800 --> 00:20:16.420 It was like the Superbowl. The first time she texted the rest of the team and said, I just 00:20:16.420 --> 00:20:19.960 prayed with someone through TikTok. All of us were like, this is the best day of our lives. 00:20:20.540 --> 00:20:23.840 I mean, this is where we're seeing fruits of this. You're seeing other, do you have any other 00:20:23.840 --> 00:20:25.020 stories? Any other examples? 00:20:25.500 --> 00:20:32.940 When we started talking about potentially, um, starting a fully digital church, um, my main, 00:20:32.940 --> 00:20:40.840 like meat behind my argument for my eldership was the screenshot that I had taken from a guy 00:20:40.840 --> 00:20:46.860 I went to high school with. And, uh, on the screenshot, he had put, um, a Facebook post 00:20:46.860 --> 00:20:51.620 that said, if heaven is filled with Christians in quotation marks, then I don't want to be 00:20:51.620 --> 00:20:57.940 there. And it like, it broke my heart. Cause I grew up with this guy and I was like, man, 00:20:58.640 --> 00:21:03.760 there's no reason that Christians should be the reason this guy doesn't want to go to heaven 00:21:03.760 --> 00:21:08.360 and have a relationship with Jesus. Like we should not be, um, the reason for that. 00:21:08.360 --> 00:21:12.980 So I brought that to our eldership and said, like, this is the type of person we can reach 00:21:12.980 --> 00:21:17.480 on the internet that we're never, ever going to reach by him coming to a physical building. 00:21:17.480 --> 00:21:21.300 Like period. Like it's very clear what he just said. He's not going to come to a building. 00:21:21.780 --> 00:21:25.280 And, uh, so we, yeah, we were like, yeah, that's great. So we started this online campus. 00:21:26.020 --> 00:21:33.280 Um, my Devo spoken word poem from two weeks ago, I got posted it on YouTube and that same 00:21:33.280 --> 00:21:37.840 guy commented on it and said, you got, you have no idea how much the videos that your 00:21:37.840 --> 00:21:42.440 church has been impacting my life. I've been really struggling with my faith for years. 00:21:42.440 --> 00:21:47.920 I was locked up in prison for seven years after high school and I've just felt so lost. 00:21:47.920 --> 00:21:50.760 And you have no idea how much of an impact you guys have made on me. 00:21:50.900 --> 00:21:54.920 Literally the same guy that had posted this Facebook post. That was the reason we started 00:21:54.920 --> 00:22:02.500 this campus. Um, and that was like the absolute affirmation that our team needed, um, for us 00:22:02.500 --> 00:22:06.720 to be like, okay, God, um, you're a lot bigger than we think you are. And I think we're doing 00:22:06.720 --> 00:22:12.000 the right thing. So just you take it and run with it. And since then it's like the, the floodgates 00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:14.760 have opened specifically with people on YouTube and TikTok. 00:22:15.260 --> 00:22:19.820 You know, we, we talk a lot about this idea of, of creating, connecting relationships and 00:22:19.820 --> 00:22:23.420 building relationships. And we actually had you on a podcast, I don't know, maybe 00:22:23.420 --> 00:22:28.140 somewhere in this COVID season, you know, talking about this and that relationship piece. And you, 00:22:28.200 --> 00:22:32.960 you dropped the line. I've never heard an online pastor say it. My, my literal job description says 00:22:32.960 --> 00:22:38.800 I need to know a hundred people digitally. And so like you interacting with your, your former high 00:22:38.800 --> 00:22:45.440 school, uh, buddy here that that's great. You've, you've got the, the girl praying. Um, you know, 00:22:45.720 --> 00:22:51.600 some people would say maybe that's not a real relationship, uh, praying through TikTok. 00:22:51.800 --> 00:22:56.460 It's not in physical space. Maybe prayer only works. Holy spirit only works if you're breathing 00:22:56.460 --> 00:23:02.460 air molecules. Like we can get sarcastic on that maybe, but, um, like talk to me about the 00:23:02.460 --> 00:23:07.980 relationship level because people connect to community before they connect to Christ often 00:23:07.980 --> 00:23:13.860 in online and digital spheres. We see that here in 2020 in this COVID season. So that relationship 00:23:13.860 --> 00:23:19.580 component is key for us to be really effective in reaching. How was digital church being effective 00:23:19.580 --> 00:23:24.240 in creating these relationships? I think the accessibility is probably the easiest, uh, 00:23:24.240 --> 00:23:31.100 or the, the best part of online ministry. Um, yesterday I connected with, um, one of our 00:23:31.100 --> 00:23:34.640 church anywhere. I would, I'm not going to say members cause we don't have membership, but 00:23:34.640 --> 00:23:40.480 one of our regular church anywhere people, um, who lives in Missouri. And it was easy for us 00:23:40.480 --> 00:23:45.420 to connect about an issue that had happened to her at work that day. Um, even though she's 00:23:45.420 --> 00:23:51.480 like a different time zone, it was late in the evening. Um, but because we have built a relationship 00:23:51.480 --> 00:23:56.880 through, um, Facebook messenger, after we had connected through a worship service, um, I was 00:23:56.880 --> 00:24:01.960 able to, to pray with her over this issue she was having, um, said, try to counsel her the 00:24:01.960 --> 00:24:06.960 best that I possibly could in like a pastoral way. Um, but because the relationship we built 00:24:06.960 --> 00:24:10.720 through just Facebook messenger, I've never seen her in person. I felt like I was talking 00:24:10.720 --> 00:24:17.140 to an old friend, um, even though we've never actually met. So the accessibility and ease 00:24:17.140 --> 00:24:20.040 of connection is unlimited on the internet. 00:24:20.360 --> 00:24:24.840 Yeah. It's funny because it sounds like your church, Tyler has not just a lot of different 00:24:24.840 --> 00:24:31.220 lines in the water, but, but like a specific line to each platform and then almost drawing 00:24:31.220 --> 00:24:36.080 them in to the same hub in terms of getting connected with church anywhere on almost all 00:24:36.080 --> 00:24:40.160 platforms. Like how, how are you guys like utilizing some of that? Cause it seems like 00:24:40.160 --> 00:24:44.960 it's very methodical, you know, as, as you talk about it, I'm like, man, it's pretty cool. 00:24:45.040 --> 00:24:48.660 They got somebody for Tik TOK. They got some, they got you for YouTube. They got, but then 00:24:48.660 --> 00:24:52.220 you're drawing them into this community that's much larger than just the platform. 00:24:52.520 --> 00:24:57.180 Yeah. We are. And you'll, when you see the PDF, I'll send Jeff, you've got these big 00:24:57.180 --> 00:25:01.040 funnels, which are the broad, like Tik TOK, YouTube, Instagram, whatever, but they're 00:25:01.040 --> 00:25:06.320 all funneling down to this community. And we've got a discord, um, community for like 00:25:06.320 --> 00:25:14.400 teenagers. Um, we've got a Facebook group, um, for adults. And then, um, beyond that, we've 00:25:14.400 --> 00:25:18.840 got our individual YouTube community, which once you get past a certain amount of subscribers, 00:25:18.840 --> 00:25:23.400 you have this community tab and like people are on YouTube all the time. And so if you 00:25:23.400 --> 00:25:28.700 post a, how can I pray for you today? Um, status update, you're getting like 20, 30 comments 00:25:28.700 --> 00:25:32.660 of people from all over the country who are wanting you to pray with them. And that's when 00:25:32.660 --> 00:25:35.680 you have an opportunity to say, well, let me send you a friend request on Facebook so 00:25:35.680 --> 00:25:39.420 we can continue to pray for each other. Um, that's when you say, let's exchange emails 00:25:39.420 --> 00:25:44.440 so we can stay connected beyond just this YouTube thing. And so while the funnel might 00:25:44.440 --> 00:25:48.880 be really broad at the top, once it narrows down to leading them to either a Facebook group 00:25:48.880 --> 00:25:54.180 or our website, um, where the blog is being held for Instagram or for Tik TOK or this discord, 00:25:54.340 --> 00:25:58.140 we have them like we've, we've captured their information to continue the relationship. 00:25:58.140 --> 00:26:03.860 I was having a conversation with, um, Jason Morris, Westside family, global innovations 00:26:03.860 --> 00:26:08.840 pastor, whatever he's been on the pockets a lot. We all, we all know Jason. Uh, he, he used 00:26:08.840 --> 00:26:15.420 the term with me, uh, the, the phrase, uh, Facebook is just another neighborhood. Um, and it was 00:26:15.420 --> 00:26:22.600 really, and it's talking about how for, uh, for Westside, like his goal is to unleash volunteers 00:26:22.600 --> 00:26:28.520 on each individual platform. And instead of trying to move people from Facebook to watch 00:26:28.520 --> 00:26:33.820 this YouTube video to go over here for that, it's like, no, utilize the Facebook tools and 00:26:33.820 --> 00:26:38.560 just create community in there. It was just transparently, I've, I've gone back and forth 00:26:38.560 --> 00:26:45.520 in that. Um, and, uh, but I hear from you this, Hey, like, yeah, I'm, I'm the YouTube guy. 00:26:45.520 --> 00:26:51.800 I've got somebody who's a TikTok girl who's, who's in that. Um, what, what's, what's your 00:26:51.800 --> 00:26:56.360 mentality? Talk, walk me through a little bit here, the process of keeping kind of everybody 00:26:56.360 --> 00:27:02.580 within that platform, doing church in that space, being church in that space. Like what 00:27:02.580 --> 00:27:04.440 was your mindset kind of with that breakup? 00:27:04.760 --> 00:27:09.920 Yeah. Um, well the, the TikTok girl was by accident. She just posted the, uh, the, the 00:27:09.920 --> 00:27:13.400 glasses video and it blew up and she had a bunch of followers. So I was like, Hey, maybe 00:27:13.400 --> 00:27:17.040 you should just focus on TikTok. And so it was predestined. Yeah. That worked really 00:27:17.040 --> 00:27:23.220 well. Um, YouTube we knew was the second biggest, uh, search engine in the world. And 00:27:23.220 --> 00:27:26.780 so we knew some, we had to get on there somehow and figure out a way to reach people. And it 00:27:26.780 --> 00:27:31.600 wasn't going to be just sermon clips every single week. Um, like I love our senior 00:27:31.600 --> 00:27:36.320 pastor and I get to preach too, but neither one of us are Andy Stanley and neither one of 00:27:36.320 --> 00:27:40.060 us are Steven Furtick and we don't have any kind of name recognition beyond that. Um, so 00:27:40.060 --> 00:27:43.200 people probably aren't searching for first capital Christian church or church 00:27:43.200 --> 00:27:47.100 anywhere on YouTube, but they might be searching for this cover video. And then I might have 00:27:47.100 --> 00:27:51.720 a chance of relationally building with them. So I don't necessarily tell people to stay 00:27:51.720 --> 00:27:56.320 in their lane and be only on this platform. It just happened to be, that's the platform 00:27:56.320 --> 00:28:02.480 that each of us, um, know how to use the best. Um, and so we wanted to focus on what we do 00:28:02.480 --> 00:28:05.640 well, um, within this season of like launching this church. 00:28:05.640 --> 00:28:11.840 Are boomers connecting with this? Um, I'm curious, like, is there, is there, is there a line where 00:28:11.840 --> 00:28:16.560 an influencer approach, is it too soon to tell? Like what, what, what are you finding there? 00:28:16.700 --> 00:28:21.400 Yeah, it's a, I think it's a little too soon to tell. Um, and I don't like I'm 27. I don't really 00:28:21.400 --> 00:28:28.100 tailor my anything towards boomers. Um, just because I like on YouTube, you have to be yourself. 00:28:28.160 --> 00:28:33.800 People appreciate authenticity. And so like, I don't, I don't know how to be anything but a 27 year 00:28:33.800 --> 00:28:40.980 old. Um, but maybe in the future, uh, we, we might have, uh, like a YouTube channel dedicated 00:28:40.980 --> 00:28:45.520 specifically for, um, things that, that boomers would like. I don't know. 00:28:45.520 --> 00:28:49.200 No, but I think, I think that's important. And I think that's, that's the right mindset. 00:28:49.540 --> 00:28:53.440 You know, too often folks try to act outside of their age range or try to be who they're not. 00:28:53.600 --> 00:28:58.580 And we keep talking about internet in an age of authenticity. And yet we keep finding more and 00:28:58.580 --> 00:29:03.560 more folks are inauthentic online. How are you encouraging your leadership to stay true to who 00:29:03.560 --> 00:29:09.160 they are as opposed to trying to be that big communicator? Because so often I'm finding that 00:29:09.160 --> 00:29:13.380 leadership wants to push forward, man, we want to grow to that status. Well, you're not Mike Todd 00:29:13.380 --> 00:29:19.420 and I don't want you to be. Yeah. It's man, that's tough. And like, I always tell my wife, 00:29:19.420 --> 00:29:23.200 I would hate to be a teenager growing up today because of the comparison game that they play 00:29:23.200 --> 00:29:29.220 on social media, but that's not just teenagers. Adults do it all of the time. Um, specifically now 00:29:29.220 --> 00:29:33.960 we have the leaders who have been leading, leading pastors that have been 20, 30 years at the same 00:29:33.960 --> 00:29:38.740 church. And now they're seeing their church attendance in person, like non-existent. 00:29:39.040 --> 00:29:44.000 And they don't know how to cope with it because church has been this way for so, so long that, 00:29:44.000 --> 00:29:49.200 um, they're comparing themselves to not only the past, but they're now comparing themselves 00:29:49.200 --> 00:29:53.520 to other churches that are struggling, but still might be a little bit bigger than, than we are. 00:29:53.620 --> 00:29:58.060 So like the church down the street might have 400 people and we might have 300 people and we might 00:29:58.060 --> 00:30:01.920 have both used to have 1500 people, but there's still the comparison game being played. 00:30:02.700 --> 00:30:11.080 So that mindset is not just online. We have been really, really, um, diligent in trying to like 00:30:11.080 --> 00:30:17.140 carve our own path on the online stuff. And that's why I'm doing Broadway covers. Like I'm not very good 00:30:17.140 --> 00:30:23.240 at anything else. So like I can't sing lots of other types of music. And so I try to do what I can do. 00:30:23.240 --> 00:30:29.840 Um, but I realized not everybody can do that, but everybody can do something well. And so if, 00:30:29.880 --> 00:30:34.460 if we could get past the comparison and get past what we think it's supposed to look like and focus 00:30:34.460 --> 00:30:40.620 on people and telling people about Jesus, the only way that we can, um, I think that we could start 00:30:40.620 --> 00:30:47.700 all using the internet more efficiently. Um, I think we're learning through quarantine that church doesn't 00:30:47.700 --> 00:30:52.860 necessarily have to look like three songs and a message. Uh, church can look like finding 00:30:52.860 --> 00:30:57.940 connection through a YouTube video that leads to a weekly Bible study that leads to baptism. 00:30:57.940 --> 00:31:03.420 I'm curious a year from now, if for, for whatever God forsaken reason, if we're still stuck in this 00:31:03.420 --> 00:31:09.820 situation, how do you see some of church online evolving? Uh, particularly for you guys, I know you can't 00:31:09.820 --> 00:31:13.760 necessarily speak for everybody, but particularly for you guys in terms of continuing to build 00:31:13.760 --> 00:31:16.340 on the community that you guys have already started to create. 00:31:16.340 --> 00:31:21.960 Yeah, we're starting, we're starting this, uh, soon. Our, our big theme for the fall for at least 00:31:21.960 --> 00:31:26.580 for, um, church anywhere and for first capital, hopefully we're figuring out how to mesh these 00:31:26.580 --> 00:31:31.760 together, um, is to empower our people. Like historically church anywhere, we've been really 00:31:31.760 --> 00:31:36.520 good at empowering people to lead like through micro sites and things like that, but that's been more 00:31:36.520 --> 00:31:41.200 difficult in quarantine. So now we're trying to figure out initiatives to mobilize people 00:31:41.200 --> 00:31:46.680 more. Um, one that's coming out soon is something called I am church anywhere. And we've reached out 00:31:46.680 --> 00:31:51.280 to several of our church anywhere regulars across the country. Like all four of us have reached out 00:31:51.280 --> 00:31:56.820 to 10 people and they've sent videos back with them telling their testimony video. Um, so we're going 00:31:56.820 --> 00:32:03.660 to blast social media with testimony videos from people all over the world. Um, and then challenge other 00:32:03.660 --> 00:32:09.460 people on each of these posts to also share their story. So we'll give them a way to upload their 00:32:09.460 --> 00:32:14.620 video, um, like through email or through our church anywhere website, and we'll continue to share their 00:32:14.620 --> 00:32:18.620 story. So it could be like a two or three week initiative. Um, but we're at least going to be 00:32:18.620 --> 00:32:24.580 sharing 40 to 50 stories of these people and how God has moved in their lives. But that, that mobilizes 00:32:24.580 --> 00:32:30.700 people to act and do something. So our whole fall is based on these actions. We're trying to work on, um, 00:32:31.040 --> 00:32:36.500 teaching them how to be generous beyond just like weekend services, uh, teaching them how to share their 00:32:36.500 --> 00:32:38.440 stories. Um, things like that. 00:32:38.440 --> 00:32:45.300 Is, is the, is the end game of, of something like this? Is it, is it depth as in the four of you want to get 00:32:45.300 --> 00:32:53.340 as many followers, subscribers as possible for, for the influence? Is it, is it width where you want to 00:32:53.340 --> 00:32:59.700 multiply yourself into other potential and we all have the potential to be, uh, spiritual influencers? 00:32:59.980 --> 00:33:03.800 Like what, what's the end game with, with your, your approach here? 00:33:03.800 --> 00:33:08.960 Yeah. One of the things this fall we're working on is a content creation team, but we wouldn't be 00:33:08.960 --> 00:33:13.360 having them probably create content from church anywhere. We would be encouraging people that we 00:33:13.360 --> 00:33:20.400 are, um, personally mentoring, um, on how to do some of the stuff that we're doing. Um, so that could be like 00:33:20.400 --> 00:33:26.080 a lay person, a volunteer who may be like really good at pottery. So why not make pottery YouTube 00:33:26.080 --> 00:33:30.520 videos and hit that niche of people in order to hopefully share Jesus with the people that share 00:33:30.520 --> 00:33:35.380 the interests that they share? Um, so that content team this fall, we're really going to work on 00:33:35.380 --> 00:33:40.480 teaching them how to do video stuff, teaching them how to be good on social media, and then like 00:33:40.480 --> 00:33:42.900 unleashing them to kind of do what we're already doing. 00:33:43.600 --> 00:33:48.520 I mean, alongside of other stuff too, that's not our like biggest focus we have, but that's one of the 00:33:48.520 --> 00:33:53.000 things we're trying to do for this mobilization piece. So Ray, to answer your question a year from 00:33:53.000 --> 00:33:57.940 now, I hope that church anywhere has been mobilized to share the gospel on the internet and not just 00:33:57.940 --> 00:33:59.580 consume content that we put out. 00:33:59.900 --> 00:34:06.320 What is that act? So if we're not just consumers, what is, what is that action? Um, we talk about this 00:34:06.320 --> 00:34:09.900 a lot online to offline. The gospel that we hear in the online world has to affect our offline 00:34:09.900 --> 00:34:16.620 relationships. James 1, 22, don't just be hearers of the word online, do what it says in the real 00:34:16.620 --> 00:34:24.120 world. I'm just curious, what has that action that do in the real world peace, um, have, have you seen 00:34:24.120 --> 00:34:30.600 some of that? You're seeing engagement with, uh, subscribers. We're getting opportunity to pray. 00:34:30.960 --> 00:34:35.800 Uh, have, have we seen it get to this place yet where it's now driving action in the, in the 00:34:35.800 --> 00:34:36.300 physical realm? 00:34:36.300 --> 00:34:40.480 Yeah. I got a text yesterday. Uh, this is super exciting. I'm really excited to share this. I got 00:34:40.480 --> 00:34:45.680 a text yesterday that said, Hey, what, what does church anywhere have to offer for me for mobile 00:34:45.680 --> 00:34:50.680 baptisms? And I was like, well, tell me more about it. And they said, well, I just shared Jesus with 00:34:50.680 --> 00:34:55.460 a coworker and I need to be able to baptize her. And I was like, dude, I will, I will buy you a pool 00:34:55.460 --> 00:35:00.900 if that's what it takes. And so, um, yeah, we're going to be able to provide her with like a horse 00:35:00.900 --> 00:35:06.080 trough to baptize this person in their parking lot, um, of on like Sunday afternoon at their 00:35:06.080 --> 00:35:11.040 workspace. Um, and so that, that would be one of the things that's driving action. Like I hope to 00:35:11.040 --> 00:35:16.800 be the outfitter. Um, basically if they text me and they need like, like I just shared Jesus with 00:35:16.800 --> 00:35:21.160 somebody, but I have a question about this. I hope to be able to be the person that gives them the 00:35:21.160 --> 00:35:25.620 answer to send to the other person rather than just saying, okay, we'll tell them to come to church 00:35:25.620 --> 00:35:30.100 and I'll tell them myself, if that makes sense. Yeah. We, we've, we've talked a lot about it in 00:35:30.100 --> 00:35:35.880 podcasts. This idea is church's platform where, um, what if the church didn't actually do the 00:35:35.880 --> 00:35:41.420 service, the church service, but instead empowered other people with the gospel and let them do the 00:35:41.420 --> 00:35:47.200 evangelism, the disciple making it, doing actions through it. Like companies like Uber and Airbnb are 00:35:47.200 --> 00:35:52.080 revolutionizing their industries, but they don't actually provide the services as much as empower 00:35:52.080 --> 00:35:58.220 others to do that. And by doing it, it's become more, more scalable, um, and reproducible. And 00:35:58.220 --> 00:36:01.380 they're getting a much larger reach than they would, which you're describing. Here's a great 00:36:01.380 --> 00:36:05.880 example of that where somebody is like, Hey, uh, I just brought somebody to Christ. I have no idea 00:36:05.880 --> 00:36:11.740 how to baptize them. Can you, can you help me with that? And, and, and being a horse trough in a 00:36:11.740 --> 00:36:17.660 parking lot. Was that, is that in Corden? Is that somewhere else? Like an hour where is an hour 00:36:17.660 --> 00:36:23.300 away? Yeah. So you're, you're helping somebody figure out a horse trough an hour away. Well, 00:36:23.300 --> 00:36:27.820 and they're connected with our microsite. That's a, that's an hour away as well. So like they'll 00:36:27.820 --> 00:36:32.100 already have a community of believers to go and like physically be with after this, which is awesome. 00:36:32.300 --> 00:36:36.640 That's interesting. We didn't, we haven't talked about the microsite piece. So you had, uh, 18, 00:36:36.980 --> 00:36:43.260 19, 47. How, where are you up to now? 21. It changes everything. 21. I really think last time we 00:36:43.260 --> 00:36:48.700 talked is 20. So every time we talk, there's just another one popping up. Um, Hey, so like, 00:36:48.740 --> 00:36:54.660 is that part of it where it's digital that, that grows physical? What, what role does physical play 00:36:54.660 --> 00:36:58.860 in a digital only church anywhere? I don't know. That's the beauty of it. It's, it's awesome. It's 00:36:58.860 --> 00:37:03.680 ever evolving. So like this person that's getting baptized in the horse trough is going to be able 00:37:03.680 --> 00:37:09.060 to physically connect with this group because we already have them there. Um, but hopefully like 00:37:09.060 --> 00:37:13.920 ideally somebody would find a video I put out on YouTube and then like a year later they're 00:37:13.920 --> 00:37:18.300 leading their own microsite. That would be awesome. Um, but I just don't know yet. It's, 00:37:18.300 --> 00:37:23.140 it's still a little too early to tell how exactly they fit together. Um, we're all for people being 00:37:23.140 --> 00:37:27.340 in physical communities if it works for their demographic and where they like geographically 00:37:27.340 --> 00:37:30.500 live. How's that working out right now? And I'm, forgive me if you guys went over this earlier, 00:37:30.500 --> 00:37:34.380 but how's that working out right now as far as the microsites meeting and all that is all of 00:37:34.380 --> 00:37:38.840 that like completely, Hey, digital right now. And if so, are you looking for a plan for them to come 00:37:38.840 --> 00:37:41.240 back? It's like 10 or less or some of that. Like, how does that work? 00:37:41.580 --> 00:37:48.020 Some of them are working well. Um, like some of them in homes, like that's up to the people that 00:37:48.020 --> 00:37:52.340 own the home. Like they can, they can do whatever they feel comfortable with. And so those have been 00:37:52.340 --> 00:37:57.440 fine. Like the, the, the home side has been the cause-based ones where they're more institutional 00:37:57.440 --> 00:38:02.880 have really been based on what, uh, the places will let us. I will tell you this, our low, um, 00:38:02.880 --> 00:38:09.080 one of the jails that we're in brought me in to design a sound system behind a plexiglass wall 00:38:09.080 --> 00:38:14.080 that they were going to put in, um, in order for us to continue doing church anywhere and for other 00:38:14.080 --> 00:38:19.340 people to come in. So they, they finished installing yesterday. It's like a giant plexiglass wall 00:38:19.340 --> 00:38:23.940 where the volunteers will stand on one side and the inmates on the other side. And there's a 00:38:23.940 --> 00:38:28.520 two-way microphone system so we can still communicate. There's like two giant screens 00:38:28.520 --> 00:38:33.400 where we can still watch the same things. Um, so it's been really cool to see these institutions 00:38:33.400 --> 00:38:39.920 buy into the idea of doing ministry in their places and then figuring out creative ways, uh, 00:38:39.920 --> 00:38:45.420 to actually make it happen. So that's a very safe way. There's like no germs being passed at all, 00:38:45.420 --> 00:38:50.580 but we can still come in and do those. So those start back next week. Um, it's really just case 00:38:50.580 --> 00:38:54.440 by case for these microsites on what can meet and what can't meet. 00:38:54.440 --> 00:39:03.080 If somebody wanted to do this, like, uh, influencer model, um, you, you started with 300 on YouTube, 00:39:03.080 --> 00:39:07.580 like how did, how did, how would they do that? Like what, what advice would you give to somebody 00:39:07.580 --> 00:39:08.840 who's wanting to go down this road? 00:39:08.960 --> 00:39:15.240 I think we, we tend to overthink everything and we plan things out until we're blue in the face. 00:39:15.240 --> 00:39:19.620 And then we end up never doing anything. A lot of the times like that's, that's been, 00:39:20.440 --> 00:39:24.420 that's been probably one of my pet peeves since starting in full-time ministry eight years ago, 00:39:24.420 --> 00:39:29.820 as it's just been this, like we put all this effort into the pre part of it. And then we get so 00:39:29.820 --> 00:39:35.380 exhausted that it never comes to fruition. Um, the best time to start YouTube was probably last year, 00:39:35.380 --> 00:39:40.560 but the second best time is right now. So just do it, um, figure out what you like or what you're 00:39:40.560 --> 00:39:45.400 good at and just start making videos like people make them with cell phones. Um, and if your end 00:39:45.400 --> 00:39:54.140 goal is trying to build relationship with people, then, um, I think whatever you do, um, like focus 00:39:54.140 --> 00:40:00.760 it in on that goal and just start doing it. That's probably the worst advice ever, but just do 00:40:00.760 --> 00:40:03.200 something I think is, is the way I would go with that. 00:40:03.520 --> 00:40:09.360 You, you started with YouTube. You had the followers on there. Megan stumbles into TikTok and, 00:40:09.360 --> 00:40:14.200 and discovers it. Um, talk to me a little bit about kind of finding that, that strategy. 00:40:14.200 --> 00:40:18.580 Uh, YouTube is the second largest search engine. If you separate it from, from Google, 00:40:18.580 --> 00:40:21.940 like, is, is that the place to go? If I was wanting to do this influencer, 00:40:21.940 --> 00:40:25.660 how, how do, what, tell me the strategy for, for what, how to get started? 00:40:25.900 --> 00:40:32.320 Yeah, I think, I think YouTube is probably the, um, YouTube has a really large audience. 00:40:32.500 --> 00:40:39.260 It's also not the easiest one to get started on. Um, it, there's just such a broad base of 00:40:39.260 --> 00:40:45.060 videos. It's hard to get noticed right off the bat. Whereas TikTok is 11 to 13 second 00:40:45.060 --> 00:40:50.960 videos. Um, you can be really goofy and find what's trending and build a following probably 00:40:50.960 --> 00:40:56.640 quicker. But I think TikTok is harder to do ministry on than YouTube is. Um, so there's 00:40:56.640 --> 00:41:02.200 benefits to both and there's cons to both. Um, for my own, like I don't have a TikTok. Um, 00:41:02.200 --> 00:41:06.840 I don't really have much interest in that. And so that's why I picked YouTube. There wasn't like 00:41:06.840 --> 00:41:12.900 a big strategy behind it. Whereas she already has a TikTok. She has interest in that. Um, 00:41:13.200 --> 00:41:20.560 like there's a, I think you, you and, uh, Dave Adamson did the 10 commandments to YouTube. Um, 00:41:20.560 --> 00:41:25.020 that's a, that's a great video. Like go watch that and then just start a YouTube channel and do what 00:41:25.020 --> 00:41:31.560 he says. Uh, I feel like that's a microcosm for Christianity. I heard, uh, Francis Chan one time 00:41:31.560 --> 00:41:36.540 Matt passion. Um, and he, he literally just opened the Bible and said, okay, here's how to be a 00:41:36.540 --> 00:41:40.520 Christian. Just like open this up and do what it says. And we like to make it a lot harder sometimes. 00:41:40.720 --> 00:41:45.400 Well, for YouTube, like go find a video that explains how YouTube works and then just go do it. 00:41:45.700 --> 00:41:51.140 There's a bunch of those YouTubes out there. I'm just curious, like is Twitch is something that's 00:41:51.140 --> 00:41:56.480 becoming more and more prevalent. You know, I think they just shut down Mixer, which was little 00:41:56.480 --> 00:42:01.300 known. And so a bunch of the Mixer people kind of jumped on, on Twitch and it seems to be 00:42:01.300 --> 00:42:08.400 picking up, um, you know, broadcast audience kind of mindset. Ray is, as well. Is, is Twitch on, 00:42:08.460 --> 00:42:14.800 on either of your guys, um, roadmaps, awareness? Like are you tracking with Twitch at all? 00:42:14.800 --> 00:42:20.020 Yeah, that's, that's our online, uh, family pastors doing a lot with Twitch. Um, especially 00:42:20.020 --> 00:42:24.380 like these video game challenges and stuff to be able to stream those on Twitch. Lots, lots 00:42:24.380 --> 00:42:28.660 of teenagers are on that, um, platform. I've been trying to get our students guys to really 00:42:28.660 --> 00:42:33.980 focus in on Twitch. They've done a good job of kind of going after the gaming community, similar how 00:42:33.980 --> 00:42:38.800 Tyler's talked about how each of their folks have gone after like a different platform. Some of them 00:42:38.800 --> 00:42:43.860 tried, like they, they specifically assigned certain folks to be keen on NBA 2K, some on Call of Duty 00:42:43.860 --> 00:42:49.260 and some on like Animal Crossing, and then kind of put up a schedule on our Instagram, you know, 00:42:49.260 --> 00:42:53.660 to try and engage students in some of those platforms. And they found some success there. Twitch 00:42:53.660 --> 00:42:58.880 is one of those things. And we, we, we've seen a lot of folks, uh, really spread the gospel in some of 00:42:58.880 --> 00:43:04.160 the, on Twitch and, and do this kind of a thing. It's just like YouTube where if you're consistent 00:43:04.160 --> 00:43:09.440 with it and stick with it and know it and understand it, you really can grow something 00:43:09.440 --> 00:43:13.780 positive. It just takes somebody who's minded towards it. Unfortunately, we haven't found anybody 00:43:13.780 --> 00:43:18.860 to really stick with it on, on, on our, on our end. Well, I tell you what, Ray, I'm totally going to put 00:43:18.860 --> 00:43:22.800 you on the spot here and I wasn't even thinking I was going to ask this question, but you know, 00:43:22.860 --> 00:43:28.880 he's talking about an influencer approach, which is atypical physical ministry. You are actually 00:43:28.880 --> 00:43:35.480 a physical church, digital pastor. Like what, what headaches, what challenges, some of this 00:43:35.480 --> 00:43:41.520 influencer approach of how he's doing it, what would it take to do that at a physical church, 00:43:41.520 --> 00:43:44.520 or at least in a church that's used to doing physical ministry? 00:43:44.520 --> 00:43:49.880 I think the first thing is that you have to, you have to really help some of your pastors and some 00:43:49.880 --> 00:43:55.960 of your people understand the importance of the fact that this is a real audience that you can have 00:43:55.960 --> 00:44:00.840 real influence over. Um, and really even understanding what an influencer is. I mean, 00:44:00.900 --> 00:44:05.780 Tyler, feel free to butt in and disagree at any point. Um, because some of them, they have such a 00:44:05.780 --> 00:44:09.820 negative view of what it means to be an influencer at this point. Like, like they look at it and they 00:44:09.820 --> 00:44:13.260 see a lot of people involved, involved in multi-level marketing schemes who are just trying to like 00:44:13.260 --> 00:44:17.940 sell stuff or, or whatever else. So when they first think influencer, they think of it as kind of a 00:44:17.940 --> 00:44:22.860 selfish thing. Like, Oh, I'm going to grow my platform or I'm trying to get popular and not 00:44:22.860 --> 00:44:28.720 necessarily trying to elevate Jesus in a particular area or something along those lines. We did have 00:44:28.720 --> 00:44:33.260 a campus pastor who I'm not going to name right off the bat. Uh, and he actually did in a positive 00:44:33.260 --> 00:44:38.080 light. He actually found a bit of his voice early on in COVID and really started keying in on the 00:44:38.080 --> 00:44:42.520 subject of anxiety, kind of like how Tyler had somebody in his group do that and really was doing 00:44:42.520 --> 00:44:45.580 a good job. And it's funny. He messaged me about two weeks ago, like, Hey, I want to start building 00:44:45.580 --> 00:44:51.280 this up again. And I said, man, you did such a great job at the beginning. Don't, don't lose your 00:44:51.280 --> 00:44:55.780 voice in this. And he said, yeah, I just started. And this is the key, I think for a lot of pastors 00:44:55.780 --> 00:45:03.360 and where they struggle. He started to get discouraged on the view count because we measure what matters. 00:45:03.360 --> 00:45:08.440 And the minute that the metrics start to dip, all of a sudden we think I've lost influence. 00:45:08.620 --> 00:45:13.460 I've lost hope. Nobody's interested. And so he stopped doing it. And I tried to encourage him 00:45:13.460 --> 00:45:17.640 and I tried to send him a podcast and other folks. I'm like, listen, you got to do this because you 00:45:17.640 --> 00:45:23.780 love this. And because you really believe God has called you to voice, to give you a voice in this 00:45:23.780 --> 00:45:28.580 specific area. Tyler, what are your, what are your thoughts there on that? Yeah, I agree. And that kind 00:45:28.580 --> 00:45:33.400 of goes back to that comparison game trap that we can fall into of, well, my views have gone down, 00:45:33.460 --> 00:45:38.500 but this person's views have gone up. But we're all trying, if, if, if it's the same category, 00:45:38.500 --> 00:45:43.020 we're hopefully all on the same team trying to reach the same goal. So stop comparing yourself to 00:45:43.020 --> 00:45:47.820 other people's views. And the way the internet works is like, you're going to fluctuate on like 00:45:47.820 --> 00:45:52.960 view counts and things like that. One video could be viral and have a ton of views and the other one 00:45:52.960 --> 00:45:57.780 could have like four or 500, but that doesn't mean you're any less effective. If you can, 00:45:57.840 --> 00:46:01.980 if you can get past the view count and focus on the audience that you're building and the community 00:46:01.980 --> 00:46:06.740 aspect of what you're trying to do relationally, then things kind of change in your mind like that. 00:46:06.740 --> 00:46:10.660 I also think it's a leap for a lot of pastors in physical churches to move from, 00:46:11.480 --> 00:46:15.800 I need the church's platform to elevate my voice as opposed to building my own platform. 00:46:16.040 --> 00:46:20.520 Because so many of them want to get on the church handles thinking that, oh man, 00:46:20.640 --> 00:46:24.140 this is how I am able to be heard. And I've heard this from other churches as well, 00:46:24.200 --> 00:46:27.420 where it's like, oh, well, all of a sudden our campus pastors want to be in the church online 00:46:27.420 --> 00:46:31.460 broadcast, or they want to do announcements in this specific area because they're so used to the 00:46:31.460 --> 00:46:36.040 church's platform, elevating their voice instead of establishing their own. And that's where I would 00:46:36.040 --> 00:46:41.300 encourage them. This isn't meant to be discouraging in any kind of light. It's meant to be encouraging of 00:46:41.300 --> 00:46:47.160 God gave you a voice, use your voice, as opposed to thinking that the only way that your voice can get 00:46:47.160 --> 00:46:49.720 elevated is through at your church handle. 00:46:49.720 --> 00:46:54.820 Yeah. I've had that conversation with some of my staff, some of the staff members on the physical 00:46:54.820 --> 00:47:02.720 side of what we do early on, who struggled with the idea of us being, we call it digital missionaries, 00:47:02.820 --> 00:47:08.140 but it's a social media influencer because of the pride issue of it, of, oh, you're trying to just 00:47:08.140 --> 00:47:14.140 build your name up. You're trying to do this, trying to do this. What we got, we have to remember that 00:47:14.140 --> 00:47:18.100 like when we're wrapped up in our like church bubble, like our Christian bubble, like we know 00:47:18.100 --> 00:47:22.580 all these churches, like we know what North Point is, you know what Elevation is, but like a majority 00:47:22.580 --> 00:47:26.560 of people that we're going to see on the internet, they don't have a clue who Elevation Church is. 00:47:26.620 --> 00:47:31.340 They don't have a clue who North Point is. They may know who Andy Stanley or Stephen Furtick is, 00:47:31.480 --> 00:47:36.560 but like those are name recognition things for Christians. If we're trying to reach non-Christians, 00:47:36.740 --> 00:47:41.880 they're not like super trusting of institutions in the first place and definitely not searching for 00:47:41.880 --> 00:47:49.180 churches specifically. So we came up with this, like we got down to the fact that we think we can reach 00:47:49.180 --> 00:47:56.060 more people as a person rather than a church handle. And that was really hard for people to grasp at the 00:47:56.060 --> 00:48:01.660 beginning. So you have to have some form of like, like why you have to have the why behind it to be 00:48:01.660 --> 00:48:04.180 able to back up why you're trying to do what you're trying to do. 00:48:04.520 --> 00:48:09.420 And the great irony of all that to me, Tyler, is when I listened to Craig Rochelle in his leadership 00:48:09.420 --> 00:48:13.740 podcast, when I listened to Andy Stanley, it's very apparent that they're not going after the 00:48:13.740 --> 00:48:17.960 church community. They're going after business leaders. They're going after people outside of 00:48:17.960 --> 00:48:22.280 their circle that they're trying to pull in for the sake of the gospel. And that's the interesting 00:48:22.280 --> 00:48:25.720 thing to me is that even though those folks get accused of trying to build their voice in the 00:48:25.720 --> 00:48:29.440 Christian community, what they're really after is they're looking at it through an evangelistic 00:48:29.440 --> 00:48:33.420 approach. And that's why they started a lot of those platforms was to go reach out to people 00:48:33.420 --> 00:48:36.900 instead of reaching around to the same people that they're normally reaching. 00:48:37.440 --> 00:48:43.140 Yeah. Love, love everything about this. If, if we're, if you're a physical missionary, you're going to 00:48:43.140 --> 00:48:48.680 move to another country and you're going to build relationships. You're going to connect with those 00:48:48.680 --> 00:48:54.120 people. And through that relational influence, that's how you start to spread Christ. And so you want to 00:48:54.120 --> 00:48:59.100 go as many people as possible. You want to share Christ as much as possible to build up the church. 00:48:59.440 --> 00:49:05.020 What I love about this model of influence is it's not influence for influence sake. It's influence 00:49:05.020 --> 00:49:10.340 for the sake of the kingdom that leads somewhere. And so understanding it's not about the number of 00:49:10.340 --> 00:49:13.620 YouTube subscribers, just like it's not the number of butts and seats that we're watching 00:49:13.620 --> 00:49:18.120 in our physical service, as well as our online services. It's, it really comes down to whatever 00:49:18.120 --> 00:49:23.660 that next step is getting people connected into your discipleship pathway, funnel process, whatever, 00:49:24.160 --> 00:49:29.300 towards getting people connected to the gospel, to the greater understanding of Christ. And so whether 00:49:29.300 --> 00:49:33.120 that's done, you know, we use this language a lot at Stadia, it doesn't matter if it's physical, 00:49:33.360 --> 00:49:38.540 it doesn't matter if it's digital, but those are not the end. It's means to the end that developing a 00:49:38.540 --> 00:49:44.640 person to become a disciple maker, great commission, that, that should be the end. And so whatever the 00:49:44.640 --> 00:49:49.960 process is, is to do that, let's do it. I love this influencer idea and I'm going to be excited 00:49:49.960 --> 00:49:55.600 to, to kind of see how this, this grows and develops. And of course, I think Tyler has holds the 00:49:55.600 --> 00:49:59.700 record for number of times to appear on the church digital podcast. So we will, of course, 00:49:59.740 --> 00:50:04.060 bring them back at some point. Uh, several of them are the top as well. Just, just kind of calling 00:50:04.060 --> 00:50:08.460 them out here a little bit there, but, um, actually, uh, it's, it's been a really interesting couple 00:50:08.460 --> 00:50:11.860 months here for the podcast. That's a later conversation, but we're going to land right 00:50:11.860 --> 00:50:17.240 here. Time's a thing. Hey, listen, Tyler, thanks for jumping on this. Love the fact that you're 00:50:17.240 --> 00:50:21.440 innovating, um, digging into things and taking a different approach. Love seeing what's 00:50:21.440 --> 00:50:25.140 happening at church anywhere and what's coming up. For Tyler, for Ray, this is Jeff with the 00:50:25.140 --> 00:50:28.240 church digital and stated church planning. Thanks for being here. And we'll see you next time 00:50:28.240 --> 00:50:29.800 here at the podcast. Y'all have a good day.