EP 326 - TOWN HALL MEETING 2025 - Why Do I Need theChurch.digital?

Welcome to the Church Digital Podcast.

Through this podcast, we'll talk about the technological innovations within the church,

but more than tech for tech itself, we'll address deeper questions.

Is disciple-making possible digitally?

How should we approach the digital mission field?

Can a biblically grounded church operate in digital space?

Oh, and where does the metaverse and artificial intelligence fit into all of this?

Whether you're a big or small church,

the Church Digital's goal is to help churches like yours learn to be a multiplying church,

digitally and physically.

And now here's your host, Jeff Reed.

All right. Hey, I think this is actually working. My mic is up.

Hey, you know what? We're going to go ahead and get started.

Because I totally, I totally fat fingered that.

Jason Morris jumped in the countdown.

I clicked the wrong button.

You know, I use Ecamm a lot.

Yeah, Jason's now laughing at me because I can hear him,

because I brought him on.

Mute your mic. I can mute you over here, bro.

I brought him on.

I was trying to make sure I knew what button.

But, you know, I use Ecamm a lot, but I don't use Ecamm to interview that much.

It's been a minute since, giving Tuesday, I think, actually.

It was the last time.

And so, dude totally, like, brought him up on the scene,

brought him up, but he's like, you know,

thankfully wasn't picking his nose or something.

And, hey, what a great start to the event here.

Hey, we're doing the town hall.

The first town hall, the Church Digital is doing in 2025.

We do one of these probably every quarter or so,

really trying to, hey, we want to listen to you first off.

But more than that, we want to learn what's working, what's not working.

But then also, we want to talk about how we can help you do better ministry,

be more effective in what you're doing.

And so there's a really fascinating conversation happening right now in chat.

Steve, my brother from another mother, what genre of music would you call this?

Steve, this is lo-fi.

I think someone is educating him in the process.

I'm seeing Simon Dirks is checking in.

Hey there, greetings from the other continent, the continent of Europe.

Glad to see this.

Andy Mage, jumping in, we call this lo-fi.

Thank you, Andy.

Lo-fi is, I named my new car Lo-fi Lola, as a matter of fact.

I love lo-fi.

My daughter loves lo-fi.

My wife hates it with the intensity of a thousand suns.

She actually banned lo-fi for the holidays.

True story, we were not allowed to listen to lo-fi music.

We actually had a lo-fi Christmas playlist.

It was just cycling over and over in iTunes.

My wife's like, no, that's enough.

We're good.

And so, yeah, Melanie's saying hi, which is a lot of fun there, too.

Steve, coming back in, lo-fi music is a genre of music

that deliberately incorporates elements of imperfection.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Listen, it's interesting.

That's a really interesting philosophy there.

Perfection's a limiter.

Perfection's a lid.

You know, it's Gitmo.

Good enough to move on.

Micah Bale's jumping on here.

A.K.A. Chills Beats to study to, definitely.

I would have done better in college had I had this.

By the way, Star Wars lo-fi is pretty legit.

That's news to me.

I'll have to look into that.

I mean, and to be honest, it's not that far away from the cantina music anyway, right?

That's kind of there.

Tom jumping on.

What's up, family?

Tall, skinny Kiwi from New Zealand saying hi from New Zealand.

That background music is really loud.

Man, everybody's telling me to turn it down.

Bible with the battles.

Doing it, too.

You know, fine.

I'll just, like, take it almost out.

Okay, we happy?

I'm not happy because I like my music.

But that's fine.

That's fine.

Whatever I need to do for you people is where we are.

So, hey, listen.

We're going to pivot and dive into this.

Stacey is saying let's do this.

And she's right.

So, let's go and get started here with the town hall.

Now, I'm going to be honest.

This is an interactive show.

If you all don't talk to me, it's going to be a long, boring couple hours.

Anish coming in from the West Coast.

Hi, all.

Love that.

Anish, great to see you.

Here's what I need you to do.

Zap that QR code with your phone.

Open up a new web browser.

Go to menti.com.

And type in the numbers, whatever it is.

I need you to engage with me here.

Because I want to ask some questions.

I want to get some interactions from you.

This is a town hall meeting.

This is a dialogue.

This is a two-way conversation.

And I want to hear from you on the screen as we're going through this.

Menti.com.

You can type in the number there or use the QR code that's on the screen.

And that would be great.

By the way, Melanie, maybe this is why YouTube sends me to Coffeehouse Jazz when you're...

Maybe, maybe I could totally see that being the logic of this.

You all should right now be frantically typing on those keyboards to get logged into Menti.

And so if you are not logging into Menti at this moment, yo, let's go.

Get logged into Menti.

Because here's the first question that I want to hear from you.

Where are you from?

We've already talked about Europe.

We've already talked about New Zealand.

I want to see on the screen.

Go ahead.

If you're logged into Menti, you should see the map on there.

Select on there where you're from.

And we should start seeing any minute now.

Some of these opportunities start to pop up.

Yeah, we're seeing some of that come in.

Excited to see that.

Yes, it's a weird-looking map.

The copyrights are a little unique centered around maps.

Like, you can't, like, put a map of the world on there.

But you can do a photo of the map of the world.

Crazy, right?

A photo of a map is a good thing.

So get kind of a little creative.

Let's start to see some of my Menti friends jump on here.

Where are you from?

I love that we're even across just America.

I know we're bigger than just America.

But I love to see that happen.

By the way, you know, Jason Morris here.

It's a digital map.

TCD it up.

Yeah, you're right.

I actually, one of the things that we're going to talk about in here, you know, somebody suggested to me the other day that the Metaverse is the eighth continent.

I kind of like that.

I like the idea of the continent of the Metaverse.

Yes, the Metaverse is over everything.

Maybe some people would actually consider the Metaverse another planet.

Like, it's like a Mars floating around almost above, superseding everything.

I know we've got some global friends on here.

By the way, global friends, you need to get on Menti as well.

In fairness, this is a U.S. broadcast time zone just because of the times of it.

And I'm sure our global friends will engage here on demand.

By the way, we're going to leave Menti open on demand.

So, feel free to engage and dive into it.

By the way, oh my gosh, Sunny.

Sunny, I sent you an email earlier today.

I hope things are well.

Snow, where's that lo-fi?

Maybe secretly notch one volume up at some point.

Sunny likes her lo-fi.

That's good.

Sunny, I'll be subtle here as we're running into this.

Let's get into some more questions.

We got to go, we got to go, we got to go.

Biggest challenge in digital missionary work today.

Biggest challenge.

What's facing you right now?

Please don't give me an essay.

Keep it short.

Keep it simple.

Want to hear from you.

What's the biggest challenges you're facing in digital missionary, in digital missions, in digital ministry, in digital church?

Whatever your context is, virtual, like what is it?

I want to start to see some of that pop up on the screen.

You know, there's like eight seconds delay here.

And so, it's funny.

I'm watching actually Jason Morris on the screen and he looks deep in thought.

He's very pensive about how to answer that question.

But some of it's starting to come up.

And oh my gosh, that is tiny print.

I did not plan this well.

Seriously, I can't read that right now.

Hold on.

Hold on.

Hold on.

There we go.

Finances.

Mentoring and developing leaders.

Training and environment.

Schedule when global.

Yeah, how to schedule stuff in global.

Reaching ladies to join online.

It's interesting.

There's not a lot of women in digital ministry.

We're going to be talking about that, the Church Digital Podcast soon.

Like that's, I mean, I don't want to say that's a crying, I know it is a crying shame.

But we've got to figure out how to overcome that.

What else do we have here on the screen?

Time for relationship building.

Oh my gosh, that one's covered up.

I can't read it.

Let me see if I can figure out how to make that go away.

Show joining instructions and QR code.

Yes.

Broadcast versus community.

Good call.

The tension between broadcast and community.

Branding and marketing.

Help with the top of the funnel.

How to connect and how to community.

We're going to get more into that here in a little bit.

Content creation and analytics.

How are you being successful?

We talk about, actually we're talking about that right now with equipping digital missionaries.

How do we measure success?

My cohort's actually in two hours, an hour and a half.

So coming up here right around the corner.

We don't understand IRL ecclesiology.

No comments.

No comments.

It's different strategies to reach different types of people.

IRL and online.

By the way, it was funny.

Actually, I made this comment.

I made this comment to Sunny.

She's doing a research project and was wrestling with the buildings and virtual reality.

She's doing a research project on virtual reality churches.

And I told her, I don't say IRL anymore.

I can't.

Because IRL implies that physical reality is real, but it also implies that virtual reality is not real.

Virtual reality is real.

And so to say that one is real implies that one is not.

And so IRL is no longer in my vernacular.

Actually, I think I talked about it in my book and you don't actually find it in references since then.

Okay.

Finding unique ways to engage your time online.

Let's pivot on.

Let's go to the next question.

What does the Church Digital do well?

What does the Church Digital do well?

I'm excited to see this.

Hopefully nobody says nothing because we want to essentially do something.

I hope we're doing something good.

When are we going to do a town hall in VR?

That coming in right now from Micah.

Stay tuned.

Did you see my slide deck?

Did my slide deck leak on this?

No, I'm kidding.

I may be kidding.

I'm not sure if I'm kidding.

Hang around, Micah.

You won't be surprised.

Bringing together the world.

It's exciting to me that we've got, you know, even just across the U.S., that's a win.

Uniting a country together.

We're now starting to bring in some of the other countries to their influence.

Communicating.

Hopefully training.

Yeah, I know that.

Sonny's giving a thumbs up.

Welcome.

One-on-ones.

Connecting.

Yeah, I think we do do a good job connecting up top.

And the challenge is maybe to not just be at the connection level, but to dig down deeper.

Bringing together the world.

Networking.

It is so exciting to me.

I had another conversation today with a potential ministry partner that we're thinking about bringing on.

And they're in South Africa.

Like, it's not a U.S.-based organization.

South African organization entirely.

And, I mean, within, I told my story, and then they started talking, and about three minutes into them talking, it was like, it was a match made in heaven.

It was like, it was perfect.

It was kismet.

I don't know if you know what kismet is.

It was like there was lo-fi music playing in the sky.

Like, it was just this beautiful moment.

It was like, oh, yeah.

We're going to work together.

And there's just so much possibility.

And that's what, it's exciting to me.

Like, you know, at least I feel this tension in the U.S.

I feel this tension in the U.S. where it's like nothing works together.

But there's an opportunity to do something different, to reach someone different.

And what's happening right now is that people are recognizing that.

Exposure is good with that, too.

Onboarding, hopefully that's even going to get better.

And that touching base is so good.

Jason Moore is saying right here, when we have Jesus, we have more in common than all our

other differences combined.

That's a line from Anne Bosarge.

Almost, you know, when in doubt preach Jesus, Jesus multiplies.

Jesus is scalable.

Like, you know, the theological and the practical differences.

No, it's all about Jesus.

That's so good.

I pray that what the church digital well is, is Jesus.

Well, let's do this.

By the way, keep on Minty.

I'm going to come back to Minty here in a little bit as we get more into this.

Let's talk about this.

What is the church digital?

What the church digital does not do well.

And this is going to be open confession hour from Jeffrey, founder of the church digital.

What the church digital does not do well.

Well, I'll give you a hint.

This TV show is from community, a USB TV show.

Hilarious, by the way.

But I feel like we do community well.

That's not what I'm hinting at by doing this.

I would say that that prayer has been a struggle.

Now, I'm going to be like, this is completely open, honest, transparent, Jeff, in this moment

right now.

Like, I'm a strategy guy.

I'm a get it done guy.

I'm a doer.

I'm an explorer.

I'm a driver.

I'm an experimenter.

And oftentimes, when crap pops up, prayer is not my default.

Prayer is not my first step.

And so as a result of that, you know, honestly, and I've been challenged by that, you know,

even this year, like I'm leading out of this place of drive and not out of brokenness,

not out of prayer, not out of prayer centric or even gospel centered.

And so as a leader in the organization, we're actually stepping back.

And I want to invite you at a global scale.

You're right.

And Steve says here, begin with prayer.

Steve's been reading the book, you know, sharing Jesus online.

Begin with prayer up front.

Melanie is doing the hands.

Like, that's, this is crucial for where we're going, which is why we're leaning towards Luke

10 to the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out his workers into the harvest field.

Now let's just imply, let's just apply this verse into our digital ministry, into what we're doing.

I cannot think of a better story, a better line for digital than the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

Like, we've talked about this in digital and metaverse.

We said this at Lausanne.

It was one of the largest unreached people groups.

And Jason and I were in Korea having conversations with hundreds of missionaries who were all grinning ear for ear.

Literally, I watched men cry at the idea of being trained to be a digital missionary because people are recognizing the harvest, the potential harvest in the digital and the virtual in the metaverse spaces.

The harvest is plentiful, right?

But the workers are few.

And that's what we're trying to do with the church digital is to challenge people like you to do the ministry that you're doing.

And so it's up to us to ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.

And so this is what we're doing.

And I want to invite you all to be a part of this.

We're starting a 1002 campaign with the church digital.

I've actually been doing this for a couple of weeks now, just in building up for it.

I've got on my phone right here.

I've got on my phone an alarm that goes off at 1002 a.m.

1002 a.m. every day.

Embarrassingly, I'll say this.

It's MC Hammer's Pray is the ringtone that comes up when 1002 comes around.

And it just reminds me in that moment.

Yes, MC Hammer's Pray.

You can at me.

Go ahead.

But it reminds me in that moment to stop and to pray.

Number one, there's the challenge to pray for the mission field.

Pray for those that can be reached in digital, in metaverse and virtual spaces.

1002 Luke 10.2 calls us to pray for the mission field.

But more than that, it calls us to pray for the workers that are managing the harvest.

And so I want to challenge all of you to set an alarm on your phones and at 1002 a.m.

To stop and to pray for the digital mission field and those that are working the harvest.

Pray for the harvest field and pray for those that are working the harvest.

Here's what I want you to do.

And by the way, like you can see it right here, 1002, excited about that.

Stop and pray.

Stop.

Listen, I've done it where I've literally stopped meetings when my phone goes off and

have said, hey, can we stop and pray for that?

Is that OK?

Like you're walking, stop and pray, listening to your iPhones.

You're in a meeting, invite people to come in.

You're driving.

OK, don't close your eyes if you're driving at 1002.

Keep them open unless you got, you know, the AI Tesla thing.

Not still engage in prayer.

It's a cause to stop and invite all of us to pray intentionally towards the digital mission

field and the workers that are in place.

By the way, all this is.

And let me ask, go ahead and do this now with love.

You know, as we're talking about praying for the mission field, you all are on the front

lines.

You are the missionaries that we want to pray for you and you and your friends and your

compatriots and your, you know, whatever the the term is, the people in this space, you

all need prayer.

So how can we how can the church digital?

How can our prayer team?

How can we as an organization, how can we as individuals pray for you right now?

Go ahead and hit that in in Minty.

Would love to to hear from you.

If you are now jumping on for the first time, go ahead and click on the QR code or, you know,

zap the QR code with your phone or there's instructions up at the top to join on.

Would love to continue to hear from you as we're doing this.

There's some other interaction points, but how can we be praying for you?

It's a hard question, right?

Tell you, I was kind of hoping for a little more interaction than this.

I'll give about 30 more seconds.

Finances.

It's funny.

Finances blows up big on the screen.

Money's hard.

God's bigger than money.

Ministry's bigger than money.

I said recently in a video, money is this is is not an excuse to do the ministry.

May we do the will of God.

Ears to hear discernment, patience, discernment, patience, endurance, patience coming up a couple

times, job security, wisdom, yeah, discernment seems to be a pattern here.

Pray for your digital community, marriage challenges.

Digital mission work is hard.

And let me tell you from someone who, like, honestly, I'll say this almost lost his marriage

as of the result of the work and some of the things.

God's not happy if you lose your marriage as a result of ministry.

That is not the idea of ministry to affect your marriage.

So I feel the pain of that.

By the way, we've got some some new people coming on.

Will, greetings from Latvia.

Awesome.

Love that.

And so and also we've got our friend Yatope coming on from Nigeria.

So we're extending out that global reach.

It's great to see you guys.

Thanks for thanks for jumping in.

So let's dig in.

Hey, here's what we're doing with this prayer initiative.

If you're signing up, if you're interested in making a commitment to pray at 10.02 a.m.

every day.

OK, listen, I skip Sundays.

That's embarrassing.

But I'm in church 10.02 and I don't want MC Hammer's like, you know, anthem pray playing

out on my phone in the middle of like a church service.

But, you know, I stop and pray as when I can that day.

But if you want to make a commitment to pray with us daily, churches and maybe even start

to interact with prayer requests that are coming in from the mission field, the church.digital

slash pray.

There's resources that that will send you via email.

Yeah.

You don't remember what email is.

There's a platform.

So we want to get you connected with called Seedling, where we're getting a bunch of our

prayer requests.

There's even an opportunity at the church.digital slash pray.

Maybe you don't want to make the commitment to pray, but you want to share prayer requests.

There's a link to our Seedling platform at that, the church.digital slash pray.

And so this is a great opportunity to connect with people and to pray for them and to engage

in even answering the prayer requests that come in.

So the church.digital slash pray.

But you know what?

We're not done with that.

That was one of the announcements, but that's just one of them that's coming up.

And so we've got more prayer coming up.

And so to do this, I'm going to bring on my friend Stacy, and hopefully, hopefully I'm going

to push the right button here.

Stacy.

Stacy!

Hey!

Hey, how you doing, Stacy?

You see me?

Good to see you.

Yeah, Stacy is, some of you may not know Stacy.

Crank her up a little bit.

Stacy is the, actually, we just came up with her title today.

She is the chaplain of the Church Digital, and so we're excited to have Stacy on board.

She's been doing a lot of work with us in mental health and in trying to make sure that

our missionaries are healthy and stable.

And so it's been, honestly, it's been a pleasure working with her a little bit as the kid just

kind of weighs back and forth in the background there.

I've always loved this, Jeff, and so let's move on.

Hey, you know what?

I don't have time for that one, unfortunately.

Stacy, let's talk a little bit about guided prayer, because I know this is something that

you're passionate about.

So maybe share a little bit of your story here.

Yeah, I've always really thoroughly, not just enjoyed, but connecting prayer, not just myself,

but in a community of prayer.

And I think that is vital when we establish, especially the foundation of our community

now with TCD.

So I'm excited.

It's guided prayer that we will be hosting.

I'll be hosting every other Wednesday starting tomorrow.

Tomorrow at 7.30 Pacific time, 7.30 Pacific time.

So yeah, flat cap.

Love it.

Love it.

Guided prayer.

You know, what that means is when we talk about guided prayer, it is bringing a topic,

subject, or even a liturgy or a written out prayer.

And then all of us individually who are in there, we'll have a time of silence.

And then perhaps, you know, God's leading you to pray out loud in agreement of what we're

talking about, what the theme is.

This is not the time for, you know, preaching 10 minute sermons, because this is only a half

hour.

It's not long.

If anything, you know, if you can only make 15 minutes, please join us for the first 15

minutes.

But this is a time for us to be in community, building each other up, if that's the topic,

or it could be specifically for a location, maybe a platform.

We've talked about that platform as place.

And it could be Twitch.

It could be praying for people in Twitch, in the metaverse, or any specific area.

And then also geographical, too.

We have outposts.

Maybe you've heard Jeff talk about our outposts and the leaders within TCD.

And so we want to make sure and be clear that we are grounded in prayer.

This is not about, oh, I have something, I have a 15 minute lesson to give or sermon to give.

But it is in agreement, all of us together to pray in agreement of what God is doing.

And we get to be part of that movement by joining in this community of prayer.

So any questions, Jeff?

Awesome.

No, I love it.

Excited about guided prayer.

It's going to be every other week on Wednesdays.

And then also the well.

If you've not seen or experienced the well, which is every Tuesday at like 10 Eastern, I think.

Both of these are incredible spiritual experiences.

I don't know what the right word is, but it's a beautiful opportunity to maybe come together, get refreshed, and gain focus and perspective.

You know, I've been, Alex is in my EDM group and really excited about some of the work that she's doing with the well.

And so both of these are opportunities.

In TCD, I would strongly invite you to lean into both of these.

You can see times for these on the church.digital slash calendar is a great way to get connected into that.

So, but Stacey, thanks for jumping on and digging in.

We're going to have to pivot.

So I'm going to kick you off this.

And so, yeah, she's here and she's gone.

Okay.

Okay, thanks.

It's great to be here as well.

Another Nigerian swinging in here.

And so, yes, Stacey is the best.

Excited for that.

I'm going to rush into this next one because I've got Jason Morris on.

And so, do I still have sound?

Can people hear me?

And he's back.

Okay, good.

Jeff Sound's back.

I misclicked a button for two seconds.

And so that was me over here.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

Joshua Easterson.

Great to see you too, sir.

All right.

Let's get going here.

We've talked about the idea of a digital missionary framework.

Connect community, quit mobilizing.

It's interesting.

I had my kids program a little square here with a cube.

Connect community, quit mobilizing.

It's the four gold squares.

But then multiplication, you can see where it starts to rotate around.

3D printing, incredible, right?

But this is what we talk about all the time.

It's this framework to do this.

So let me ask this as I'm bringing Jason Morris on the screen.

Using a digital missionary framework, connect community, equip mobilized.

Connecting with people at a digital level.

Hit the wrong button, JMO.

Sorry.

Connecting with people digitally, inviting them into a community, equipping them to be a digital

missionary, and then mobilizing and sending them out.

What are your strengths and what are your weaknesses?

Go ahead and give me some thoughts on that real quick.

Connect community, equip, mobilize.

Hey, Jason, as they're doing that and as they're thinking, I know your time's short.

You've got to run here like in 30 seconds or so.

Yeah.

Sorry, my friend.

I don't show up if you're getting well.

Talk to me a little bit about the experience of EDM so far.

We wrote Equipping Digital Missionaries.

You ran the first beta.

70 of them applied.

We could probably graduate 35 or so.

What, you know, how's it been for your group?

What are you seeing?

Like, what's the excitement level of this?

What I love about our group, and it sounds to me like a lot of the other cohorts are experiencing

the same thing, that there seems to have taken a turn around week eight, nine.

Where we're starting to become friends.

And that, to me, is the biggest indicator ever.

Because one of the big problems that digital doesn't do well, oddly, is deep friendships.

Like, we go broad really easily.

Going deep is harder.

And that's true not just of digital.

It's true of physical too.

But it seems to be magnified because the differential is so great.

And so one of the things that has been super encouraging to me is for us to share some of the things that we're struggling with.

And it came out of that mental health week that we did as a cohort together.

Yeah.

And just sharing how the struggles actually manifest themselves.

Not only in the people that we're ministering to, but also in us as wounded warriors out there getting the job done.

We're all broken people.

And being able to share what's going on and get help and support.

Wow.

That changed the dynamic of us working together as a team of friends on mission.

And so for me, I felt like, wow, this feels completely different now in the second half of the cohort and in the first half of the cohort.

And when we're talking about things like metrics and logistics and all of that, there is a whole other layer of friendship on top of those topics that completely changes the way that it feels.

Because we know that we've got each other's backs on this stuff and we're not alone.

And so for me, that's been the most encouraging.

Yeah, Stacey's adding to that idea.

And you said it, we're all broken people.

And operating that way digitally is so comforting and reassuring.

And honestly, it's the exact opposite of what is the culture of digital, which is one of the reasons why we coach it.

It stands separate from that.

And so it's been beautiful.

It's interesting, Jason, as we're even looking at, a lot of people are good at the community and the connect piece.

But the equipping and the mobilizing, that is a weakness right now.

And honestly, with the church digital, it's taken us kind of years to get the community and the connection in place to be able to really now get down and build out equipping and mobilization.

And the heart of what we're trying to offer with EDM is to create this opportunity to focus on the equipping piece and the mobilization.

And so, Jason, you'll appreciate this, Jeff.

You know, it's it's the it's the it's the actually, Jason, I thought about you and this with with the beard.

But, you know, it's Elmo working out, building those muscles.

I so love this Jeff, man.

But this this is the beauty of what we're doing with equipping digital missionaries.

Like we've had and this is including even the beta, too, that we're running.

We've had over one hundred and twenty people sign up for EDM like globally.

There's there's a I would say in six months.

And to be honest, we didn't even really broadcast that we're doing this.

We're having conversations with organizations that want to empower thousands of people to be digital missionaries.

Like there's there's a huge interest in exploring and empowering the space.

And so I'm going to let you in.

And this is this is this has a dated this is a dated announcement because EDM beta to we're going to close registration.

Today's Tuesday, the 11th.

We're going to close it Wednesday, the 12th, because we've got to launch this thing.

February 24th is when we're starting the next EDM beta.

It was a 13 week cohort.

We're making some changes, getting it down to a 10 week cohort.

We're connecting together a global community.

We've got at this point, I can tell you, we've got Oceania, we've got Nigeria, we've got America, the Americas.

That's three or four continents right there coming together to do this.

Some really interesting things.

And we're also rolling out some electives towards this in assessments from a past as well as true center.

Like we're really building into EDM in the heart of equipping digital missionaries.

And so you, too, can be like Elmo lifting the weights and being able to be all muscular like we all know Tickle Me Elmo is.

Jason, did you ever Tickle Me Elmo?

No.

No, you never had a Tickle Me Elmo?

No, I was in my kids, though.

I had a Tickle Me Elmo.

I'll make that confession.

I loved it, too.

I thought it was when I was like a high school kid.

Jason, you must be a lot older than I am.

I just, maybe that's all.

Maybe.

Did he just say that?

Can he say that?

Hey, if you want more information, it's thechurch.digital slash EDM, thechurch.digital slash EDM.

Seriously, beta 2, we're going to close in 24 hours, so sign up for that.

Jason, my friend, I know you need to go.

I appreciate you sticking around a little bit today and doing that.

But I'm going to let you go, and we're going to pivot to the next model here, which is Mobilize.

Stacey's a beast.

Love her heart.

I have no idea why that popped up.

I'm not saying that Stacey is not a beast.

Stacey is a beast.

But I think that got stuck in the programming.

Nicole Howard, so glad to be here.

Definitely.

Simon says nice.

Simon, I'm not sure what you're nice in, but I love the fact.

Listen, if Simon Dirks is happy, all goes well with the world.

And so, actually, Simon, we're right up your alley here with the Mobilize section.

By the way, this is not even the fun part of the show.

There's, well, we're going to get there, but stick around.

You don't want to go anywhere with this.

But let's talk about Mobilize.

Finding a GIF on Mobilization was hard.

Time to go mobile.

I don't know if you can relate to, is this Bane?

From the Batman series.

Like, I really don't do DC.

I'm much more of a Marvel guy.

But, I mean, it's Bane.

He's kind of bad looking.

So, and evidently, he's going to go mobile.

I think this is right before he jumps on the motorcycle and terrorizes Gotham.

Different story for a different day.

But really, for us, it's not about mobilization.

Like, going mobile.

Bye, Tom.

Good to see you, my friend.

It's much more about multiplication.

Thank you, Fred Flintstone.

It's all about taking these ideas, investing the idea of sharing Christ, the idea of discipleship, relational evangelism, relational discipleship, utilizing digital community as a community worthy of Christ, of gospel, and of the church.

It's all about seeing these ideas multiply out, which is the heart of what we're trying to do with the church digital in this mobilizing stage.

Which gets me to where it's ironic that Simon Dirks was on here, because Simon's a big part of this, which gets us to our outposts.

Outposts are these decentralized networks, regional networks that we've got in place that are designed to encourage digital missionaries to experiment, to explore, and to be empowered to do ministry.

Outposts will encourage digital missionaries to explore and experiment, essentially empowering them to do ministry.

And so we're very excited about these outposts.

Now, we've got maybe five or six of these popping up right now.

I know Simon is in Germany, but he's working in Europe at this point.

And Yatope's working in Southern Africa.

We've got Ebenezer, Ebby, who's working South Asia.

Josh, we're getting ready to launch into the middle.

I'm sorry, into Oceania.

We're having some conversations with some people that are in the Middle East area.

And so, like, we're building out these regional networks in such a way that if you are connected or if you're in those areas and you're interested in learning how to do ministry in those contexts, listen, I have no idea how digital works in Africa.

Like, forgive me, I'm not even going to try to pretend.

Yatope does.

And so far be it from me to tell Yatope what to do, I want to get you connected with Yatope.

Like, it's so funny, Sadiq here is like, you know, how do we connect?

That's my point, is that we want these people to connect with people in their context to learn how to do that.

And that's really what we're trying to do with our outposts or start to create these regional networks within WhatsApp or Discord, we're relevant, and trying to get people connected to the source.

Like, hey, let's get people in Europe, get them connected to Simon.

And so Simon can help them, and we can work through Simon, and Simon can help contextualize some of our training so it'll work in that context.

And same thing goes out with the other regions.

And so that's the heart behind what we're trying to do with our outposts.

Now, let me ask this question.

As digital missionaries, what do you need help with?

And this is where I'm curious, you know, is it the equipping?

Is it the, what are the numbers there?

Finding encouragement within your ministry.

Exploring new platforms and new ideas.

Experimenting with new techniques.

Or resources to empower you to do ministry.

As digital missionaries, what do you need help with?

Experimenting with new techniques.

Finding encouragement in your ministry.

Exploring new platforms.

And resources to empower you to do ministry.

This actually surprises me.

Experimenting with new techniques is in the lead.

I would not have said that.

That's good.

I mean, I love the fact that we are an adventurous sort.

And the ability to utilize the outposts to do experiments with.

To maybe talk through ideas of how better to experiment.

The idea of how to read the results that come in from that.

Resources to empower you to do ministry.

Resources to empower you to do ministry.

I did kind of feel like that one was going to be strong.

You know, it's, well, just to be honest, digital ministry, digital mission work can be alone.

There's not a lot of organizations that are doing it yet.

And to be honest, as a result of that, we, the Church Digital, are stepping into that space.

And to be able to help digital missionaries and people like you.

Now, what's funny is there's lots of organizations that I don't think I've had an organization yet tell me that I've approached, tell me they wouldn't help.

Now, most of them don't know how to help and don't know how to contextualize and don't know what it means.

And some of them think I'm crazy, but they're willing to, you know, throw down and help, you know, crazy Jeff do whatever Jeff's crazily wanting to do.

And so this is the opportunity, right?

As digital missionaries, we want to get you connected into an outpost to be able to provide you those resources to empower your ministry or to help you experiment with new techniques, exploring new platforms and new ideas.

And so love that, finding encouragement in your ministry.

Like we said, oh, I clicked the wrong button, boom, boom.

Our digital outposts, I think I said this, Europe is Simon, it's South Africa, Utope, South Asia, Ebenezer, Ebenezer, Ebay, Oceania and Asia Pacific, Josh.

We have a lot of, the Pacific Islands over there is a lot of interest in that.

The Americas, to be honest, I'm looking for a leader.

This is embarrassing, in my own country, I don't have a leader for an outpost.

But if you're interested in helping in the Americas, North as well as South, or we can break it up South and North, we're open to that.

We're looking for somebody that can step in and fill in that gap as a outpost leader in the Americas.

And so feel free to connect with me.

And so I just realized that page is not launched yet.

I was supposed to record a video and I didn't make my deadline.

So never mind going to that webpage.

You can if you want.

No, actually, you know what?

Don't do it.

Don't do it.

I refuse.

Don't go to the webpage.

Don't go to the webpage.

I just realized there's some stuff on there that's not quite ready.

By the way, if you go to the webpage, if you go to the webpage, you will not get the secret.

Like, your computer will automatically crash.

Don't go to that webpage.

Jeff, digital minister, Utope, is asking, oh my gosh, how can one connect to our TCD WhatsApp group?

That's a great question.

It's WhatsApp, spelled correctly, W-H-A-T-S-A-P-P, dot the church, dot digital.

WhatsApp, dot the church, dot digital.

I'm so mad I put that link on that page.

Now people are going to, like, that page is getting more hits now than anything else on the website.

Because people are like, I wonder, what's so secret over there?

No, it's kidding.

All right.

But hey, I've got a secret.

And I haven't, I don't know that I've said this publicly yet.

This one's been killing me.

I've really wanted to talk about this, and I haven't been able to.

So I'm excited to roll this one out.

Normally, I would, like, get people to give me a drum roll.

And so here, I know I can't hear you, but wherever you are, I want you to do the drum roll.

Like, go to your desk and give me a drum roll.

Hey, Pastor D.

Hey, I couldn't make it earlier, but I want you to check in.

It's Pastor D.

Hey, Pastor D, stick around.

Two minutes.

This drum roll is for you.

Kind of, sort of.

I want you to be a part of this, though.

Hey, drum roll.

Okay.

What are we drum rolling?

What's the secret, secret, secret?

Here we go.

You ready?

Oh, that just said.

Wrong button pushed.

You ready for this?

Boom.

The Church Digital is doing a digital missionary conference.

I repeat, the Church Digital is going to be doing a digital missionary conference.

And the crowd celebrate.

Yes, even Morgan Freeman is excited about the announcement in place.

We, the Church Digital, are going to be doing a digital missionary conference online.

And we'll get to that in a second.

Let's, let's walk through it.

The digital missionary conference.

Why?

We are equipping anyone to do digital ministry.

By the way, House of His Glory, Pastor D.

Yes, I came in just in time.

Yes, you did.

You can watch all of this, of course, on demand on YouTube and get caught up with the stuff

that you missed.

But this is, this is a big announcement.

This is a big part of it.

We're doing an online conference.

Why?

Because we want to equip anyone to do digital missionary work.

We want to equip anybody to do digital ministry.

Simon, on another continent, is doing the celebration.

Yatope, on another continent, is doing the hand clap.

Everybody is happy right now because we're doing a digital missionary conference.

It is Wednesday, April 2nd, 2 a.m.

Excuse me, April 2nd, 2025, 11 a.m. Eastern.

That is Eastern New York.

And so figure out the time zones towards that.

What we're going to do, keynote talks, as well as breakout sessions, where we're going to

be doing a digital broadcast and we're also going to be doing the conference in virtual

reality.

So here's the plan.

All right.

And I'm going to need some of your help to pull this off.

We are doing a conference complete with keynote speakers in Ultra Live, YouTube, cameras,

webcam, all of this.

Now, some of the speakers we've lined up for the broadcast campus, I mean, some of these,

I'm going to show you here in a little bit.

It's an incredible lineup.

And I'm excited even about the ones we haven't firmed up yet.

But we know that that virtual is different than physical, than digital.

If you're really doing virtual reality ministry, it's an avatar.

It's a completely different bird.

And so as a result of that, we're wanting to produce some of the broadcast conference will

go into virtual reality.

And then we're looking for specific speakers to speak just to virtual reality ministry.

So there will literally be exclusive content from the conference specifically designed for

virtual reality.

It's not like come into virtual reality and watch this video.

There's going to be a little bit of that from some, some qualified talks, but a lot of it's

going to be original and authentic to virtual reality.

How much are you talking to?

I mean, I give, I give stuff away.

All this is going to be free for participants.

Here is, I keep clicking the wrong button.

Speakers include David Nelms, founder of the Timothy Initiative.

By the way, the Timothy Initiative this year, David Nelms told me their goal was to train

180,000 people globally on missionary work.

Talk about starting a movement.

180,000 people to share the gospel globally.

Jay Cranda, online campus pastor at Saddleback.

By the way, on the down low, you know, I talk about JMO being one of the smartest people in

digital ministry.

Jay Cranda's in the top four.

And some of the stuff that he's doing in closed areas is ridiculous.

And so looking forward to him sharing a little bit about that.

Matthew Nierman, one of the leaders of the Lausanne organization, Billy Graham's missions organization

and director of research is coming on.

Matthew Nierman chaired the gospel.

What was it called?

The, oh my gosh, the gospel report.

Somebody's going to yell at me when they figure this out.

Literally, it was a 200 page report on, on the Great Commission report.

And it's maybe at 50, 60 pages on digital ministry.

Matthew Nierman is one of the strong reasons why the Lausanne has such a calling in love for

digital ministry.

Josh Packard, author of Church Refugees is coming on the show, by the way, Dr. John Harris and

Josh, Dr. John Harris, Dr. John is going to interview Josh Packard.

Really excited, really excited about this one.

Like this is going to be a great, a great interview.

Dr. John has been quoting Josh Packard on my podcast for years.

I'm not kidding.

And one day I was, I told Dr. John, I was like, Hey, if, if I, if I did a podcast and

I brought in Josh Packard, would you want to interview him?

I don't know who Josh Packard is, but I'll go find out.

And sure enough, I was able to find out, find him.

And he's coming to speak at the conference with Dr. John.

And this is just scratching the surface.

These are all the broadcasts.

We're still sealing up virtual reality speakers.

Now we've got a couple of broadcast speakers.

I think we're bringing on as well.

So listen, more information on the conference.

You want to go to missionary.digital, missionary.digital.

There's not much to see now.

In typical fashion with the church digital, we're building the plane while it's flying.

And so a lot of the details are getting rushed and, and put together right now.

Um, I will, uh, so missionary.digital and get on a mailing list.

We'll keep you up to date with what's going on with the conference.

And, um, we'll, as soon as registrations, official registrations open up, we'll get the

word out.

By the way, uh, one thing I feel like I need to say in this moment, um, this conference is

very, um, it's very, I'm going to put pressure on myself by saying this, this conference is

very, um, us centric based in, on time zones and delivery methods.

And, and some of that, um, that will not be that way in the future.

And so as, as I'm putting this one together, I don't know, um, we ran into some hurdles

because of deadlines and things, but as I look at our outposts, as I look at our global

relationships that we're building, it is very important for us to develop a, um, a global

approach to missionary equipping, which includes how we're doing our, our conferences.

As a matter of fact, it was, it was really, we, I started talking about this with, with

Barbara Carnero, uh, in a, in a meeting, I don't know, a week or so ago.

And I started casting vision for what I want to do with, um, you know, conferences in the

future.

And, uh, and, and she said, Jeff, for you to be able to successfully do that, you're going

to have to break the model of online conference, of digital conferences.

Like you're just going to break the model and do it a whole new way.

And she's not wrong.

So we're going to figure that out.

Add that to the list of things to do for late 25.

Oh, wait, did he imply there's going to be a second digital missionary conference in late

25?

Congratulations.

You got the inside scoop.

Okay.

So that was, that was the big announcement.

Okay.

But you know, in, in typical fashion, oh, there's one more thing that I want to get into.

And, uh, and so I, um, I, you know, I searched everywhere for a Steve jobs, Jeff saying one

more thing.

They don't make a Jeff of Steve jobs with one more thing.

Like I almost want to pull up old Apple footage and create it just so I can have it for myself.

Like, I cannot believe no one has this thing.

Like, like, no, if I love this guy, but this guy and Steve jobs saying one more thing.

So, all right, so I'm going to put on a hint here, uh, and, um, and I'm going to leave

this open for, for a while and I'm going to bring on, uh, my next guest, uh, who I wanted

to speak into, into this.

Now, I don't know what this means.

Actually, I know what this means.

You don't know what this means, but let's go ahead and, uh, and bring him on.

So I'm going to push my, my magic button here.

And hopefully this works.

Hey, there he is.

There's a, there's flat cap.

How you doing flat cap?

Doing well.

Are you muted where I can hear you?

No, there you go.

Enjoying it so far.

Yeah.

So, um, is that a new flat cap, flat cap?

I don't think I've seen that flat cap, flat cap.

No, I've got plenty back there.

I just picked a different one today.

All right.

I, um, that one, yeah, it's not the one that I normally see in.

So it kind of stole me for a loop and now I'm suddenly realizing I'm not wearing.

I have myself and the brightness of the blue is now washing me out where I look like I'm

a smurf.

And so it's a, it's a, I guess a good problem to beat.

So I tell you what, why don't we go ahead and let, let the cat out of the bag.

What are we announcing here with, um, this animated GIF?

Uh, it looks like gaming to me.

So we, uh, we've got a few people in, uh, the TCD sphere that, uh, spend a lot of time

in gaming.

Uh, some of us are on Twitch, some in other places.

And so we're going to be opening up the, one of the outposts is going to be gaming specific

outposts.

So I'm going to be doing EDMs, the, uh, equipping digital missionaries and targeting those who

have decided that, uh, the gaming industry, the gamers, those who spell the, the, the motif

is like these two guys sitting in your mom's basement, playing video games all day and not

connected with the real world.

Uh, but they need Christ and there are a lot of Christians out there that have had the call

to those gamers because they love them and they know them.

And so that's what, uh, we're going to be doing.

Andy is going to be helping me along with that.

Andy's over in gaming sphere as well.

So a bunch of my friends on Twitch going to be reaching out to them, bringing them in.

We're going to be launching some new things in the discord.

Sorry, those that are in WhatsApp, the gaming realm is connected with discord.

So if you're in gaming, you'll, you'll be connected in discord at some point.

So we're just going to be building that outpost connection for community inside of the already

existing TCD discord server.

So that's, we're going to, we're going to play around there and the Twitch channel.

We're going to be launching some new things back on the Twitch channel.

So I don't have any dates specific of when those will be or time schedules, but it'll

be the last week of February is when all of this will hopefully be going live.

That is our target deadline.

Andy will probably hold me to that and make sure that we get all of that going.

So, uh, any questions on that, Jeff?

No, that's beautiful.

So gaming outpost TCD's gaming outpost, uh, is, is launching right around the corner.

Um, uh, Stacy flat cap.

All right.

Gaming outpost, uh, DeMarcus is, uh, let's go, uh, with, uh, gaming emoji, uh, real Andy

mage is saying, yes, I will.

Yes, I will.

And so, yeah, that's, he's, he's not singing the, that popular song.

He's, uh, he's holding them accountable.

I'm going to be honest with you at this moment.

I'm, I've said this publicly, I'm not a gamer.

And so the idea of gaming, I kind of feel like the, um, uh, uh, the, the, the Papa chasing

the children around trying to do this.

I, I just, I love this Jeff.

This presentation was more about what Jeff's and do I want to post and then building the

building what I was actually going to talk around it.

Uh, but I will put this in public writing right here to give Andy mage, uh, ammunition.

And so Layton, you can go ahead and screen cap this because sucker, it's going to happen.

The gaming outpost will launch this month in TCD discord.

The, the gaming outpost is going to launch this month in TCD discord.

If you're interested in more information, go see, uh, my friend flat cap and, uh, and get

connected.

That is going to be in discord and Twitch because those are the gaming platforms.

And we're specifically going after that, uh, niche audience with this.

There's really, I don't, I don't think I said this earlier, but there's, there's Jason

Morris would say two.

I would say there's probably three cause I've, I haven't convinced him yet on the third yet.

I don't know that I told him three yet, but there's three different types of areas that

we would, that we're going after with our outposts.

One is, and Stacy mentioned that earlier, it's, it's the, the platforms and places platforms

looking at like, like Facebook, looking at, at the different platforms that exist.

And then there's like places that are like, you know, countries, Europe, uh, Southern Africa,

et cetera.

And then the third one is, is more of people groups is not the right word, but it's more,

it's more of that where, you know, I'm even thinking like, um, children or arguably maybe

even gaming at some of that.

And so some of these terms are kind of loose, but the, the purpose is, is that we are focused

on, on specifically, um, helping people within these subcultures, understand more cultures

and subcultures.

Okay.

Understand the gospel, uh, and understand the, what God has in their life and seeing that

multiplied in, in digital and physical space.

And so Layton's been a, um, um, I'm trying to figure out the right word.

Um, Layton's been a, um, a place of strength.

I'd say an explorer.

Um, well, you know what, dude, you, when crap hits the fan for me, you're the guy I go

to like, and so I'm, I'm trying to say something, a statue isn't the right word, but you've been,

I would say you're a place of strength, man.

And so I, I appreciate you of, of how you're engaging in this and, um, want to, uh, when

I'm looking forward to seeing how, uh, the gaming outpost is going to succeed moving forward.

So, man, thanks for jumping on this.

Okay.

Any, any closing thoughts before you leave the show?

Uh, I think on some level, like the whole outlook of what outposts are supposed to be

of experimenting, exploring and encouraging, uh, that's, I think really the heart of what

we want to do with this is exploring and finding other people out there that are isolated and

alone that don't know yet about other people doing anything digital in ministry, finding

them, bringing them into community and, uh, learn it from one another, encouraging one

another.

So, and I love the idea of experimenting.

So that'll be a bunch of what'll be happening in the next six months.

Awesome.

Love, love that.

So looking forward to it.

Andy says, uh, from the peanut gallery, I would also agree that with Jeff, uh, flat cap

is a place of strength for us.

And so flat cap, my friend, thanks for, thanks for jumping on here, but I'm going to press my

magic button and kick you off.

See you later.

All right.

And then it was down to me.

So this has been a lot of fun to put together.

Uh, Stacy, uh, says, uh, uh, comments, uh, Jeff will be launching a Jeff outpost.

Soon, uh, you get a Jeff, you get a Jeff, you get an outpost, you get an outpost.

We got something that we through the church digital that we want to do to help all of you, uh, take

clear next steps in your digital ministry.

Whether your weaknesses connect community, equip, uh, mobilize our heart is to get you connected, um, with people that can help you with a process, with steps, with training, with equipping, um, with, with a group, with others that you can be encouraged to explore, to experiment and be empowered to do the ministry, uh, that you're doing.

And so here's what I'm going to do.

Uh, we're going to land the plane at, uh, 62 minutes.

Actually, I started two minutes late.

And so, um, maybe that's, um, okay, but I'm going to go ahead and open up, uh, Q and a.

Uh, and so you can zap the QR code.

If you need to go, go.

If you want to stick around and listen to me ramble, uh, go ahead and throw comments and questions in YouTube, or you can throw them in, um, uh, what do you call it here?

And, um, uh, mint, minty, mint-o-meter, and, uh, we'll go ahead and address questions.

This is officially the after-party.

Thank you, Leighton.

You know what I'll do?

I'll go ahead and kick the, get the music going again.

Um, so thank you, Leighton.

Uh, thank you, J-Mo.

Thank you, um, Andy was not on, but, and thank you, Stacy, for, for being on here.

Andy was, was around.

Andy's the guy that helps me figure out all this stuff.

And, and so, um, yeah, the, the tech of it, by the way, house of his glory, pastor D, um, love it.

You know, talking about, uh, I believe that was about the gaming outpost.

I think it's when I saw that come in.

Um, uh, you know, I always, I'm always thankful when pastor D's around and, and yeah, uh, Leighton is a, a strong tower, uh, in that he is strong tower.

Um, yeah.

What's, what's that song?

Oh my gosh.

The righteous fall into him and they are saved.

Anyway, there's a, a Psalm, right?

I'm pulling that from, man.

That's, that's a deep cut for me.

And so, yeah, I'm looking for questions.

Anybody on EDM, uh, any, any of the topics, the conference, anything, throw it at me.

Otherwise, um, I may just like hang out here and, and jam out for a while.

With my low-fi music, low-fi, I bought a, I mentioned this earlier.

Actually, some of it, I'll, I'll put it on the podcast.

It'll be, it'll be the bonus content.

So, um, we bought a new car.

Some of you have been in some of my open offices and meetings where I, um, oh, that's much more interesting than my new car.

Uh, will we be notified soon about EDM?

Um, yes, yes, tomorrow emails will go out.

Um, several things happened.

I apologize.

Uh, we will be launching the next EDM, uh, the week of February 24th, 10 days away.

We'll sign up times and get everything set in the next 10 days, uh, to launch into that.

So, April 24th is going to be good for that.

Thank you, uh, for that question.

Um, very good.

Let me, um, dig into here.

Uh, do outposts meet via Discord?

Um, that is a platform-specific question, um, or, you know, a play-specific question.

Uh, outposts are decentralized, and so there's, there's freedom for them to pick.

Now, I'll, I'll tell you that the gaming outpost will be meeting in Discord, because it makes

100% sense for that to happen, uh, since all gamers are on Discord.

Now, what we're finding, Pastor D, in context, is that our, um, like, for example, um, Utope,

down in, uh, Southern Africa, South Africa, he, um, the technology, the banning,

bandwidth that absorbs into running Discord, really makes it very hard to get much engagement

in, um, some of the technological bandwidth limited areas down there.

And, and so the, the asynchronous community that honestly seems to be picking up a lot

globally for us is WhatsApp.

Um, honestly, across the planet, 25% of the world's population already have WhatsApp installed

on their phones and are active users.

And so, rather than trying to introduce a new platform to a bunch of people, we've been

leaning strong into WhatsApp globally, uh, realizing that Discord does work for some people.

As a matter of fact, our new EDM, uh, the ones, and I'm going to be leading this next batch,

um, they will be a hundred percent WhatsApp, um, the Americas, the Oceania, and the other.

We're all going to be together in, um, um, for EDM.

As a matter of fact, we're doing something different.

I'm actually going to combine all three of those continents together, all three of the,

the groups and the one WhatsApp group.

Uh, so instead of isolating the Americas in Africa and Oceania, uh, it's going to be all

combined together.

And so there'll be, you know, a point where we can interact and, and, uh, learn from each

other globally.

Like, I, I just think that's a, that's a great place to be.

Keith is coming up to save the day.

In Proverbs, the name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run into, not fall into

it and, uh, and, uh, is safe.

Um, I wrote a blog about this a while back.

Um, I need to pull that out.

Who'd I write that for?

It's a good question, Jeff.

I may have wrote that for leadership network.

I'd have to, I'd have to fall back.

Um, I equated, uh, the strong tower to the steeple, um, which is, uh, another conversation

about buildings.

Um, cool.

Uh, pastor D.

Yeah.

Cool.

Uh, WhatsApp makes sense.

Totally, totally does in their context.

Um, Steve Reed, uh, that'll be the next song I sing.

Kumbaya, my Lord.

All right.

I think that's the first time I've sung Kumbaya in a decade.

Thanks for that, Steve.

I appreciate the, uh, I am not related to Steve.

Um, Oh, I just exited out.

Well, I was almost, I was done with that aspect.

Um, I am not related to Steve, although I've actually had people ask me that a couple of

times.

Steve, people think we're related.

We talk too much on, on WhatsApp and, and, and discord, I guess.

What else we got people?

It's the after show.

Nothing.

I'll hang out for five more minutes.

I've got my EDM group coming up here.

Um, America's we're on week 11.

Um, and so I've got to rehash, um, I've got to make sure I'm all caught up on the material.

Uh, this orchestra, tall, skinny Kiwi, this orchestra has a read section.

Yes, it does.

Um, uh, tall, skinny.

Is it 5 AM where you are right now?

5 AM.

Like I'm, I'm trying to reflect back here, man.

That's, it is O dark early for you.

My friend, 15 hours away from where we are now.

Um, thanks for being here.

Steve Reed makes a comment that we have the same dad.

Okay.

Well played.

Um, I, I am corrected.

Uh, it is 8 AM.

It's a little tall, skinny.

Um, enjoy your coffee.

I got decaf right here.

Uh, I've been drinking.

That may be my third or fourth cup.

I'm, I'm not sure today.

Um, I've been, I, you know, I used to make fun of people who drank decaf coffee, but I've

been leaning more into it as of late.

Uh, I just, I need coffee in my life, man.

I water, dirty water with ground up mud.

I mean, who would not want to drink that?

Cool.

Messaging us from the future.

Yeah.

That happens to me all the time, Micah.

Um, when I talked to friends down in, in New Zealand, I, I am constantly in, in, uh, the

other country that's down there, Australia, I'm constantly like, Hey, how was, how was,

how's tomorrow working for you?

Is it, is it good?

I, I, I made that.

It's funny.

I made that joke this morning with South Africa.

Um, yeah.

Micah, I'm man.

I'm, I'm excited.

You're hanging out with us.

I'm, I'm, I'm really excited to see what's, what's coming up.

You asked the question yesterday.

I'm having a conversation like right after this to dig into it.

So I'll, uh, I'll get back to you on that right around the corner.

Um, tall skin of Kiwi.

I'm a little disappointed in you.

I have black tea with milk.

Is that like a chai?

Isn't chai tea, black tea?

I think chai tea is black tea, but he didn't say chai tea.

Did you, have you, the joke from Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse?

It's like chai, chai tea.

You don't say tea tea, chai is tea.

So why would you say chai tea instead of just chai?

Don't say, nobody says tea tea.

I love that line.

That's so good.

So it's maybe one of my favorite movies.

I would argue Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse was the best sequel of any movie ever.

And actually I do have a degree in radio TV film.

So I am not just ignorant when I say crap like that.

I have a college degree that would back me up.

Yeah.

My degree was in radio TV film.

I had a professor tell me once, Jeff, it is very clear to me that you don't watch enough

TV and you're going to fail out of this course unless you watch more TV.

I never checked out a book out of the college library the entire five years.

No, I'm just kidding.

It's four and a half.

But the entire four and a half years it took me to get, never once, never once checked out

a book.

True story.

Okay.

So some other people are drinking black tea with milk.

I'm very disappointed.

I don't put milk in black tea.

So this is surprising to me.

Black tea with milk.

Okay.

That's good to know.

Thank you for sharing, Micah.

Earl Grey Hot.

Okay.

I've had some Earl Grey.

By the way, Jean-Luc Picard.

His favorite tea is Earl Grey.

Hat, hat, hat tipped flat cap for that, that reference.

English Breakfast.

That's what I've started drinking recently.

And I wasn't that impressed.

So maybe I got to add milk to, like, I normally like, I mean, I drink, I don't put cream or

sugar in any of my coffee, but I just have not been that impressed with the English tea

strong.

So maybe I, I gotta, I gotta break it down.

Um, Lion Witch and the Wardrobe.

I'm sure that's a reference to a book.

I just, I know it's a book.

I know I'm lost in that, uh, straight up green tea.

Stacy's from, Stacy, you said today, are you from Japan?

Uh, somewhere in Asia.

I, I feel bad I should know this.

He said it today.

And I was like, I think that's the first time he told me that.

I'm pretty sure it was Japan, uh, green tea.

Uh, so stereotypes aside, Stacy likes green tea.

Um, I will do, I'll do green tea with, um, sushi and I do sushi on a regular, regular basis.

Yes, she is, uh, Japanese.

That's, that's what I thought.

Excited.

We've got, um, Japanese represented on, on staff with us.

Uh, yes.

So, um, uh, uh, Pastor D got, uh, the Picard reference.

What did he say to, uh, um, number two, make it so.

Wasn't that what he always said to Riker?

Make it so.

I had a, um, yeah, I don't know that I want to tell that story.

I'm just, I started to go down the road and I was like, that story does not end well.

Maybe too embarrassing for this crowd, for me in front of this crowd.

So never, I don't think I've ever stopped a story intentionally, but I'm, I'm, I'm not

going there for that, for that one.

Uh, you need to do loose leaf, uh, quick bags, uh, uh, tea dust.

Okay.

All right.

Now listen, I'll, I told Stacy today I'll do anything once.

Um, I'm all, I'm all about that.

Uh, Bigelow, I do Bigelow.

Like my, my daughter does Bigelow.

My daughter loves tea.

Uh, not, not so much for me.

So that's, that's good.

Um, this is the, this is the after show with the, the town hall meeting.

Sitting around discussing tea.

Uh, TT, uh, Stacy, uh, has been, uh, really, uh, getting into, uh, I, I will mispronounce

that.

What is that?

Jamaica?

Okay.

Melanie's more my style.

Drinking coffee with creamer, but I like tea too.

Black teas, uh, with milk, green tea straight.

Um, and wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, Stacy, you don't do sushi.

I'm, I'm confused.

Like, what are you?

Isn't that like being Italian and not liking pizza or American and not eating junk food?

Like, I, I don't, I don't understand.

I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm lost right now.

Although evidently, whatever that word Mike has said is, is legit.

And so I'm happy there.

Um, I totally couldn't have hung around for the after normally, but I'm home sick with

my little girl who is vomiting.

Oh, thanks for sharing.

So I have the free time.

Um, yeah, no, we normally don't do an after show.

As a matter of fact, uh, the streams on Tuesday, I'm trying to get them to like 45 minutes,

trying to shorten, uh, just had a lot to pack in today.

And I got, I got slowed down a little bit at the beginning.

Um, ramping up was just, this takes a little bit of time.

Oh, sorry to hear about your daughter.

I had that a couple of weeks ago between my daughter, my son, and I, we were like constantly

sick for like four weeks, I think five weeks, almost just rotated back and forth.

My wife teaches at the school where my kids go to school.

And so, and then I'm basically a hermit, you know, I really don't leave the house.

Um, and I don't do crowds.

And so it just, it just like, you know, replicates whenever sickness, one gets it, one comes home,

they get better.

Another one gets it just in time to come home when the other one goes back and somewhere

along the way I, I work it.

And so, yeah, definitely, definitely can relate to constant sick, um, in USA, but English

tea, like PG tips and Yorkshire gold, uh, I don't like Bigelow or Lipton.

What do you got against Lipton?

I don't know.

I don't, I don't, Lipton, I feel like it's strong.

My dad drinks Lipton.

You know, I always feel like I'm about to say this as I'm drinking out of a Starbucks mug,

but I always feel like the, the commercialized product, the, that like, it's like everywhere

is, is not that, is not as good as some of the lower ones.

And so like, you know, Lipton, the ones that everybody's heard of, you know, I'm more like

the, you know, the stuff nobody's ever heard of.

Yeah, sure.

Maybe they lace it with like cocaine or something, but you know, you only live once, right?

Like I said, I'll do anything at least once.

So I'm kidding.

I won't do that.

Uh, yeah.

Thanks for sharing.

I don't know that I, I, I feel that, but no, I'm kidding, Micah.

It's good.

Uh, it's green tea and roasted grain.

Oh, okay.

That's roasted grain.

Okay.

All right.

I'll bite.

Send me, send me a link.

I'll, I'll buy some and try it.

I would be, I'd be interested in that.

By the way, I'm drinking Dunkin' Donuts decaf coffee that I got out of my Keurig.

So, uh, when I'm talking about commercialized, yeah, I'm really lazy too.

And so I want stuff easy, um, in a work environment.

And then it's a known story.

I may have told this here in the church digital.

I had, you know, I'm going to turn the screen off here for a minute.

I got nothing better to do today.

Um, when we launched the church, when we launched ebeliever.com right out of college,

uh, it was actually a toss up between us doing, um, ebeliever.com.

The first online community, 40,000 digital.

We were doing Facebook before Facebook was doing Facebook.

Like it was either that, which is what I wanted to do, which I felt God calling us to do.

My wife wanted to start her entrepreneur business as well.

And, uh, we decided that we couldn't do too.

It was too much of a risk to do two entrepreneur businesses at the same time.

My wife wanted to open a coffee house at, uh, where we were at Texas Christian university,

TCU and forward, Texas.

There was no college university anywhere.

There's no, um, coffee house anywhere around the university.

And this is before Starbucks.

And, um, it was funny.

Like we, that was the fight.

That was the kind of the trade-off back and forth between, um, what we're going to do.

And I won.

I don't know.

Starbucks, I have a feeling would have put us out of business.

So I told that story and somebody's like, well, Jeff, you could have been Starbucks before

Starbucks, Starbucks.

No, I don't, I don't think it would have played that way.

Um, okay.

So let's get it.

Let's get an education here.

There are a few types of sushi that aren't raw.

Inari, football shaped shrimp, California roll, tempura roll.

So you'll eat non-raw sushi.

Uh, California roll tempura.

That's fine.

But anything that's got raw, you won't.

Inari.

I'm trying to think what Inari is that I don't know.

Okay.

I do a lot of sushi.

We eat sushi maybe two or three times a month.

That's my, that's my wife's and I quick, I say quick, nice, a date place.

We know the, um, we know the owner of the sushi, the big sushi chain in Miami.

It's called Sushi Maki in South Florida.

They've got, I don't know, 12, 15 locations.

And so like, we just, we've got a lot of friends there.

Uh, you know, it's the low file.

So it's true.

We've got four kids and we were collectively sick for two months.

Yes.

Oh my gosh.

It just goes and goes and goes.

Uh, so much guys.

I have to go.

Um, all right.

So let's, let's do this.

Uh, sorry to offend.

Uh, but I had a, a lady ask me if pure leaf tea was real tea, like Snapple.

Oh, even I know that I don't want to touch that one.

Oh man.

Not that there's anything wrong with Snapple.

So yeah, that's, I think there's more sugar than tea in Snapple.

Once again, you know, it's, it's not the stuff you buy in mass.

I'm a food snob.

I'm a coffee.

I'm a liquid.

I'm not a food snob.

I take it back.

I'm a, I'm a liquid snob.

Um, unless I'm lazy and then, you know, just drink whatever.

All right, y'all.

It has been really fun.

Yes.

Yes.

I've, I've enjoyed this.

We're going to do the town halls three or four times a year.

Um, Snapple takes me back to the nineties.

Uh, yeah.

With Joe Cola.

We were talking about Joe Cola the other day.

Uh, that, that came up in a, in one of the streams.

And so, yeah, man.

Hey, Micah is, it's, I mean, it's always great to hang out with you.

Uh, and, and the rest of you, Pastor D, uh, Melanie, Stacy, uh, there is way too

many flat cap, Steve.

Um, I mean, I feel like Kiwi, I feel like I could just keep scrolling here and, uh, figure

it out.

And there's more even watching silently in the background, but honestly, I got to shut

up because there's other stuff I got to do.

I got to, I actually, I got to have a couple of conversations, um, uh, with the board.

And then I got my cohort.

I got to lead in 30 minutes, but I'm going to go.

And so I hope this was good.

Looking forward to the conference, looking forward to EDM, looking forward to pray, looking

forward to, uh, prayer, uh, guided prayer, looking forward to gaming outpost and more.

But for everybody else who's been hanging out with me today, this is Jeff from the church

digital.

Thanks for hanging out with us on this stream.

And we'll see you next time on the show.

And the music fades out.

Have a good one.