EP290 - Jeff Talks New Website, Discord, and a New Online Era

the world the church they're already judging us they're already just this this hurts this is the

this is the therapist here um they're already judging us based off of of what we're doing

and if you've not experienced that good for you you're you're one in the few at this point

be people of action 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 will 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 episode 290 290 that's 2 9 0 that is i'm gonna do this on

the fly see if it works cc uh 90 would be l no it would be cc ic is that right no ccxc all right hey

here's what i need you to do i need you to text me is the roman numeral for 290 ccxc go ahead and text

me 4 4 3 2 4 8 7 2 i'm not kidding 4 4 3 2 4 8 7 2 4 text me right now episode 290 ccxc of the

church digital podcast brought to you by riverside hey so we did something really cool this week with

riverside episode 209 and we talked about a little week a little bit last time in episode 289 where

last time uh 289 was me streaming into mighty networks into our the church digital fam our online

community um which is hosted by mighty networks and which is a cloud-based stream and at the same time

we had riverside running in the background recording at a much higher quality video and audio image and it

was awesome it made the end product for on demand incredible like riverside always does and so

what are we going to do for episode 29 to make it better well uh we're going to stream into mighty

networks again and we're going to stream into i don't know the church digital's new discord channel

we'll talk about that here in a second but we did we streamed into discord we streamed into mighty

networks and we recorded uh it on riverside and once again the audio and video quality was incredible the

only thing that i noticed um just a typical from the typical experience that i've got here uh at the

studio working with riverside is because we had so many streams open at the same time the actual well the

speed that was uploaded to riverside was a little slower because you know i was running two different live

streams at you know 1080 and then i was doing riverside capture uh so it's just to make actually

three because there's 720 is the buffer for riverside anyway yay riverside go to the church.digital

slash riverside for more information on how listen churches if if you're not doing shorts if you're not

doing uh manuscripts if you're not doing um if you're not doing uh images and social if you're not

utilizing ai and social media in your sermons on how to create shorter easier to process elements that

are going to get eyeballs in front of your in front of your sermons and get people attached to your

website your digital process and get you connected into some sort of a digital community like you need

to be on riverside the church.digital slash riverside go check it out okay 290 i took last week off i was a

little under the weather um we put a lot of work uh i publicly want to thank barbara canaro and word

revolution barbara canaro and director of connection for the church digital um because guys um

the new website launched yes i did not say the new website launched as in breakfast or dinner i said

launched as in hey that website that jeff built in 2018 for the church digital on a weekend before

anything launched that is no longer valid and is no longer on the internet well it's probably on some

internet archive but we've got a new website for the church digital you can go check it out at the

church.digital uh it has been an awesome joy uh to already see feedback from it to already see

productivity come from it we're already connecting with people the website is converting not converting

people to jesus but converting what it's supposed to be doing what is the website supposed to be doing

it's supposed to be driving people to our new discord server hey the church digital did you know the

church digital is on discord hey did you know the church digital is on discord hey had you heard the

church digital who is on discord hey the church digital it's on discord the church.digital is on

discord you can get there at open up a web browser discord.thechurch.digital or you can go to uh

thechurch.digital and click on one of the 47 different links on the landing page that's good i'm

exaggerating but it's there's a lot of links there to drive you to get to discord um we had an awesome

time really celebrating the church digital i did a stream on uh tuesday i don't even know what today

is i don't even know that it matters what is today april 9th uh when i'm doing this recording in the

stream but we did a stream on tuesday the 9th celebrating the uh the launch of the website the

discord um uh some of the other community changes that are happening within the church digital celebrating

our leadership there's some changes that are coming to social media we started talking about some of the

framework things like really this was a circle the wagon kind of conversation a circle the wagon kind

of podcast um and so would love for you all to um check it out it's episode 290 really uh it's let's

you know what we're just going to call this part two of the new the church digital

all right hey stacy how you doing hopefully you can hear me hey it's jeff uh with the church digital

uh we are streaming this on mighty networks right now and in about 10 seconds i'm going to click the

button to start to stream over on discord and so let me go ahead and start the stage there

celebrating tcd new website hey barbara carnero tope how you doing it's fun doing this here on mighty

networks um but i am opening up at a new world we are now streaming for the first time over on discord

and and hopefully my discord friends can see me i got octopus and sarah uh valado i'm probably

mispronouncing that over there on discord so i got five people in two different communities

simultaneously streaming at the same time hopefully everyone can hear me it looks like you can hear me

on discord and um you know i can't really tell anything somebody's saying chat if they can hear me

hey tope can you hear me huh maybe i should jump over to discord i mean i'm not saying discord's

a better experience but actually discord upped its streaming game literally today's the first time

that i've seen it thank you tope for that literally on a different continent the dude sound checking me

from from africa i love that um but um if if you're over in in discord it looks like old school um

oh my gosh i forgot what it was called clubhouse like you remember clubhouse for like the the 60

seconds that it was popular during covid and everybody was like clubhouse clubhouse clubhouse

and i was like all over clubhouse and it was great um yeah so now that's what that's how discord

looks and now i've got people in there and i in the audience and i can bring them up to the speaker

platform or i can be like yeah we're done with you and and and sound you back down and so hey this is

the new streaming world you yeah tope did tope used the clubhouse for all did they ever do clubhouse for

um for android like did android ever because i'm honest like if it was if it was yeah they did okay

good because that was to me that was the problem clubhouse never got like launched well maybe because

also it was audio only but you know that's the whole other thing but the fact that it was was only

ios like almost felt like it had to be a a clubhouse apologetic anytime i recommended or said oh no

jump on clubhouse we'll have an android phone oh i'm sorry to hear that why i mean that was always

the follow-up i wanted to ask but i know it always wasn't bold enough to ask the heavy questions like

why would in the world would you have an android phone i feel sorry for you green bubble people

um i have i have an android account i am it's okay hey ian kirk's jumping on this is this is so weird

uh i got uh i got six people in uh in uh discord i got five people in uh mighty networks in my head's

gonna like spin back and forth all day here maybe four in mighty networks no actually barbara is double

dipping she's in both which that's how much barbara cranero loves the church digital she is attending

virtuous virtually in two different communities at the same time like she can't just be in one she's

got to be in both to make sure things are going well ian kirk i haven't talked to you in a in a long

time it is so good uh to see you hey i just found out something today this is a voice from the past

uh ian ethan connelly now ethan has been a a guest on the church digital podcast digital pastor

oh my gosh i'm blanking on the church's name up in um uh washington dc area virginia

dude dude has is is one of our top five right now of podcast listens he he did a podcast on chat

that blew up during covid and um yeah man listen he's he's a digital pastor the funny thing the

interesting thing is he was he was an it director but funny thing before that he was like a volunteer

it guy his church he was a volunteer it guy for his church five years ago and they they brought him on

to be an it director part-time then full-time and then they bumped him up to um

uh to staff full-time and then he cast vision for a digital ministry uh an it nerd for a church

volunteer grown up in the system and the church agreed to do it let him do it and so he launched

pre-covid right as covid was really starting actually it was in early months he launched his digital

ministry the reason i bring this up this past weekend ethan connelly just got ordained it is now

the reverend ethan connelly and and so really excited uh for that evan connelly i've been

saying ethan it's evan connelly i've been saying ethan and i'm like that's not his name it's not ethan

but i couldn't think and it's not ian ian made me think of it but it's it's evan super excited uh for

evan congratulations and this that would this um would mean a whole lot more had i gotten his

first name right the entire time which i did not which is embarrassing on my half hey listen those of

you that are in um mighty networks feel free to come over to the discord world i mean i'm not saying

it's better in the discord world but it's closer to the camera and so when i look at that screen you're

more likely to be seen uh it is oh it is better according to the guy that looks like um um you

know gandalf uh gandalf is telling me that it's better so that must be but hey it's uh go to

discord d-i-s-c-o-r-d dot the church dot digital that'll get you to our discord server create an account

if you don't have one uh but we're going to get more into discord and mighty networks and all that

here in a little bit so i hey i do want to ian good to see you man uh being making the move to

discord i saw that hey i want to know right now in chat we launched a new website right is that kind

of a thing that this new website how how do we like this what do we think tell me in chat give me some

feedback i would love to know what you all thought it's it's it's been a really interesting morning i had a

full morning planned i was supposed to be doing a lot of writing talking about the future of worship

in a hybrid environment and um my discord kept blowing up as more and more people started

transversing through the website into discord or people started filling out our our digital discipleship

um assessment form that we've got on the website and um and it was just an incredible uh experience

like it was really i i was texting barbara canero by the way barbara canero word revolution designed

the website in discord it's hill me h-i-l-m-e-e um but uh it was a very it was very cool to see all that

come in but i i literally i was in the middle of doing this work and i i texted barbara i was like

hey yeah good to know your website's converting a whole lot better than the old one was because the

whole one didn't necessarily have those those movements of conversion like we really we didn't

even like broadcast you know just i put it on my personal socials so we're really excited barbara you

really did a great job jmo saying over in uh mighty networks uh but yeah we need to take uh sumi beats

you do need to take a closer look at the website there's there's a hidden not so hidden easter egg

underneath the hamburger specifically for you sumi beats uh so i'm looking forward to you seeing that

and then laughing hysterically uh once you get there uh but it is uh man it's something we're really

really proud of the the old website i mean i'm not gonna yeah you should be intrigued um the old

website uh is something i designed um on a weekend over a weekend in 2018 i mean this i'm i don't know

how to like sugarcoat this like it was a a very old website uh that was literally built i had just quit

my job and uh was like okay i'm gonna do this thing called the church digital i'm gonna go and do it

i gotta tell people what i'm doing because everybody's asking me what am i doing now that

i quit my job and i'm sick of people like talking to me so i got to build this website and like post

it on social media and so i literally i worked over over the weekend to do it i didn't have a clue what

i was doing like if you were to hey jeff what was your what was your the hamburger was the outline

what was the plan what was the the hamburger by the way is the three lines in the upper i guess

it's the well actually they're both it's the upper left-hand corner whatever your left is

it's it's usually the menu and uh it was it was really um i'd have a clue what it was and um what

i was doing and so threw a bunch of stuff down somehow google found me because evidently i was the

only idiot in 2018 that was talking about planting digital churches and uh well google just has loved

me ever since and it's been awesome to see really more than the website really these ideas flourish

like even the the amount of people that are jumping on the stream that to check this out daniel heron

saying howdy and mighty networks my gosh daniel daniel i miss you we need to catch up

um even you know meeting guys like daniel heron um a kid who planted a church in roblox when he was

11 or 12 years old it's just so many incredible stories of people thinking outside of the box and it occurred

to me somewhere around meeting daniel um that you know actually it it was jate jate was on a podcast with

me and after the podcast um jake got like ripped um airheart got ripped by like church people for some of jate's

beliefs um centered around digital evangelism and digital discipleship um because he was being very

evangelical in digital space and and evidently god doesn't believe in the virtual reality or in discord

well i'm sorry to hear that maybe somebody should tell god that another pioneer filled out the

assessment so we're up to four now um within hours of launch um so cool and it was interesting like i

really some of those early conversations like my heart just broke some of the stuff that dj soto was going

through as he was and this is 2017 2018 angela craig uh with pursuit church live some of the stories that

she was going through uh where her own denomination would not support her even though because her she

did not have a physical mailing address because her church was digital uh like it was it was re

honestly it was just ridiculous and um you know and some of you heard me tell my story where it's like

man i really god is this my time to plant a church and every time every time i asked that question

i cannot tell you how loud god is screaming from the rooftops no i've even had people offer to give me

money to go towards my first church and instead um god unequivocally says your job's to help

and so stepping in creating the church digital uh which was initially physical church we'd spun off

digital church network which was a mistake i said it i own it it was my mistake uh not what we were

doing but the marketing of it splitting it up into two things uh solidifying it now into the church

digital and getting some of our branding figured out now surrounding myself with this awesome leadership

team uh of andy mage barbara carnero uh j mo the j mo jason morris flat cap layton uh oh my gosh tom uh

isn't in the mix on that and so many others um gosh i mean i could sit here naming off like the movement

leaders and the the uh the network the podcast network and it's it's really um it's really incredible

white beard i'm sad that you're the fourth um as well i would rather no i mean the first guy was nice

but you're you're nice as well um that's that's good it's it's been a really awesome experience and i am so

um humbled honestly humbled uh to be here to be on the stream talking to you people watching this even

get blasted out um now there's going to be some changes with the church digital oh my gosh jeff said

changes there's so many changes there's always changes um yeah so if you roll with me you know

there's always changes um that's one of the reasons why the website hasn't been updated since 2018

was because there's always changes and why are we going to change the website we're going to change

it again in two months anyway and um yeah hey we haven't worked with that organization in months but

hey keep it on the website because it's just too much work to get it off um yeah it's digital i mean

it's supposed to be listen the website that you see it and now it'll it well i mean it's already

changed today a couple times it'll probably get changed again you know within the next week or so

and there's always already stuff that we're talking about adding to it and adjustments that need to be

made um that's why it's digital we don't have to pay for print printing costs it's much cheaper

evidently it's scale digital scalable i don't know if you knew that um but man we're really excited

um i mean i just i feel like i keep saying that some of these changes so barbara canera word revolution

by the way who's now our connections director here with uh with the church digital asked her to come on

on our leadership team and very excited to have her on i met barbara for the first time a year ago

at um at exponential i mean we i mean we met digitally whatever that means but really sitting

down having a heart to heart in in um a year ago and you know it's it's interesting i talk about how

i i meet people where it's like it's like you are me we're the same people it's like kismet kismet was

like yahtzee before yahtzee was yahtzee kismet um actually i think kismet's a russian word for i

don't know maybe something um but like there was there was this this connection because we really saw

things uh you know eye to eye we saw it the same way and um you know it's interesting it was in god's

timing it was like okay we got to figure out how to like work with barbara how to get with word

revolution we had worked with a couple different um several different kind of communications branding

specialists um and no ill will against any of them just if none of them were able to really

capture the ideas of the church digital they really didn't understand it um and and barbara

shoot i i don't honestly i don't feel like i even needed to explain it to her at some point she was

telling it to me um and uh and so she came out with a with this website and but we were putting together

this website and trying to make it all happen she's like and this is this is very hard for me this is

why i am no longer a communications director because i want to make everybody happy and i want to do

everything and in communications you cannot do everything and you cannot make everyone happy

and so um you know barbara's like well okay what's the what's the call to action like what what what

what's the point of the website what are we trying to do i don't know if you remember the old

the church digital website but there were like on the landing page alone there were 27 different call

to actions everything from connect to uh dcn connect to fam give uh get consulting you know check out the

our online courses uh there's a cohort there's something with leadership network like i mean we

we were we were renting no we weren't literally renting space but we were giving it away as as as free as

possible um yeah some codependent

you've been talking to my therapist that's awesome stacy

oh my gosh okay so i'm back um yeah so but yeah so where was something the mighty networks

there was white beard it was called digital church network which was that branding failure

um it was a branding failure we should not have been digital church networks we should have been the

church digital all the way through it's my fault i own it so we get to this point well what what's the

call to point point we're going to be and it was like well we want to get them in community um and and

i'm going to be honest like i love um i mean we really at this point right now we have three different

communities the church digital is pushing three different communities right now now obviously discord

which is all over the new website which by the way is the new call to action uh there's our facebook

group we've got over 2 000 people that are over in our facebook group um and then that i built up

during covid through stadia and some other organizations um and then there's mighty networks which is i don't

know last i checked somewhere around a thousand plus or minus um and uh which is um

it's you know god god says don't speak ill will of actually i don't know if that's

biblical but my mom says don't speak ill will of people if you don't have anything nice to say

don't say anything at all and um yeah so mighty networks everybody thank you very much uh listen

we're not we're we're not going to be mighty networks is not long for the church digital um it's

it's great in a lot of things um and it's lacking in a lot of things uh and and for for the price for

what we're paying for it uh for what money we do have with everything else um we decided as an

organization and i've said this i think publicly but we decided to move uh to discord um and facebook

will continue to exist we will we will support to you as a matter of fact i've already had conversations

with with our leadership so even specifically some of our leadership about um being the voice of facebook

about staying on uh you know ian over here on discord is saying yay i way prefer discord well

ian is a very technological person and it doesn't surprise me that ian would would want discord um

you know some of our other you you know i have said this a dozen times in my life show me a soccer

mom on discord just one i want to see one soccer mom who's excited about this it doesn't exist

soccer moms don't want discord and that's the reality is that like there is a type of person

um a gamer a techie who's excited about discord and and that's why we want to be there uh show me a

soccer mom kid on discord um that's awesome jmo that's the line of the day uh there are plenty of

soccer moms kids on discord which is why i want to be on discord tope right now from from africa

discord is new to me but i'll learn how to use it that's it right there that's what i that's what i

want to hear that's what i want to see man excited about that tope uh it is to you can go to the

website and click follow the 27 now call to actions on the home page to drive you to the discord server

or you can go to discord dot the church dot digital discord dot the church dot digital and that's going to get

you to one of our mini or one of our that'll get you to our discord server i should have said that up

front sorry i got literally laughing out loud i'm a gamer stuck in the body of a soccer

oh barbara carnero for the win okay awesome uh tope yeah tope we've we've talked on discord i think at

least once um maybe we've interacted if not by the way i am dear fudge on discord uh i think i'm dear

fudge on discord am i dear fudge on discord yes i'm just i'm dear fudge d-e-r-f-f-e-j and so feel

free to frame me directly find me on the server um you know you're already in here so let's let's do this

thing um yeah so evidently there's this new website and there's new discord server to go with it

uh facebook we'll we'll stick around now we're gonna we're gonna be the streaming the events the

stuff that we do our our movement system instead of that being housed all in mighty networks we're

going to move all of that to discord so jason morris the jmo right now is dealing with how to

move our movement system over to discord and i am glad he's doing that because that's not something i

want to do and so he and andy are working on that by the way andy is is now overseeing our community

i think i've said that before so andy will be overseeing discord and be working with facebook

um and then um jason jmo is overseeing our discipleship and then i'm overseeing um multiplication

now some of you might be saying wow uh barbers connections community discipleship multiplication

that's isn't that jeff isn't that your digital church framework why yes yes it is that's exactly

what it is we've developed a leadership team to line up uh with this this framework uh because

it's our desire to create the model for what a digital church should look like as we're equipping

other um and discipling people and and equipping future planters we want to show them what these a

successful model looks like in hopes that they'll emulate and be successful moving forward be patient

on this uh next round of cohorts yes um hey you know what jason you'll appreciate this you may actually

know this that better than i do google's gmail was in beta for eight years 11 years do you do you

does anyone actually know how long google's gmail was in beta i mean it was it was longer than five that i know

um anybody sue me beats sue me beats sue me beats you maybe not have it um five years okay good uh so i

said it was longer five years five years in a day is longer than five years um tcd's movement system

powered by a new thing will hopefully be in beta shorter than five years a kid no jmo's actually been working

really hard on it and we're actually making really good time we just wasted several years uh earlier

to that once again i own my crap it was my fault uh by the way i have a filter on my screen and so

the when i said crap uh crap emoji kind of popped up on my screen here when i'm looking at

um uh white beard punk mock you worked at ezekiel

wait as in the clothing store or the uh the tech christian tech company ezekiel

streaming is not good for me because i keep wanting to get pulled into these individual

companies you worked for ezekiel i had no idea oh man we got a lot we got even more mutual friends

than i realized i don't think we talked about that when we talked dude i was one of the um

uh i mean i had a monk outfit from ezekiel monk was the name of the um

the platform right am i getting my christian tech companies confused um monk 360 that came from

ezekiel 360 which was based on on monk monk was a reseller of ezekiel 360 as okay now it's all

coming back oh yeah man we we've off to jump on another call once we talk about your assessment we'll

we'll do that um but we we really built this this modeled this whole thing around the model for

hopefully what a digital church uh can can look like and how we can have healthy connections

and how those connections can get driven into a community where there's relationship building that

leads toward discipleship and there's understanding within that discipleship towards multiplication and

even mobilization of of that moving forward and this is really what we're all centered around as we're

wanting to get into the movement system which is the uh which is this this uh man barbara you need to

give me a better word than than than funnel uh this circle of trust this this this cycle cycle let's

go with cycle uh with this cycle and and jmo's talking about it now in discord the reproducing church

catalyst uh starting in june where we want to get these digital churches multiplying mobilizing

people and getting them out there into these digital communities we have such a huge

opportunity and and and i would dare say and the people that know me know my heart know this to be

true i i believe that we have a responsibility you know the rest of the church world looks at us

really like we're a square peg in a round hole what are we supposed to do with these dorks these nerds these

islands of misfit toys and you know what i i really do believe that there are people out there in the

world that we're going to reach digitally that cannot be reached in physical space by a church building

and so i want to challenge us man it's time to get equipped it's time to do the experiment it's time to

surround myself with some some volunteers and some leaders and some people that that can can can make

us be better it's it's time to to try something different

so we'll be posting information here within discord in in everywhere uh towards uh oh jmo's fighting for

final luke 647 process no you're not fighting for final i see it now uh the luke 647 somebody's got to

copy paste that you know i'm not gonna like stop streaming till okay i'm gonna stop streaming to

look up luke 647 because i just called myself out if i will not look up the word of god because i'm

on a stream i have my bible right here at my desk conveniently placed i open straight up to daniel 1

but uh hey daniel uh your book daniel do you know you have a book in here

the horrible thing is i don't have my glasses all i have my glasses are over there so i will be able to read

luke 8 luke 7 luke 5 luke 6 20 so of course i skipped two pages and now they're stuck together

oh look the octopus has got it on here as for everyone who comes to me and here's my word and

puts them into practice i will show you what they are like okay if you're curious that is that's bible.com

one looking up old-fashioned zero but if you can zoom in on the screen i did find the right page

it just well uh there's no way my eyes would be able to read that time upon i will show you what

it's like when someone comes to me listens to my teaching and then follows it it is like a person

building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock

it's a three-part process jmo you can you jump on the screen and like preach

if i like bring you up can you come up

well no no i can't oh you know what i can't do this okay maybe you can jmo come on

my problem is is that

we well we're kind of good because i just realized i brought you up to the speaker but

i'm also streaming in the background over to mighty networks and mighty networks can't hear you

so i'm gonna like repeat what you say over to the mighty networks people but jmo you're looking

really snazzy in the jacket

how's that for branding luke 647 process so if if you're in mighty networks and not in discord i am

not going to repeat everything he just said because um yeah the the it's the smartest man in digital

church man i can't i can't eloquently describe what this guy says like there's no way um but we'll uh

paul steinbeck how you doing scott carpenter haven't haven't uh man haven't seen you in a

while good this good to catch up with you um so we're really excited about our discipleship process

which we are ramping up here our movement system our moves this and you're going to see that happen

in uh in a big way in the coming um in the coming weeks and months as as we're continuing to bait

it through here this will be our first rcc reproducing churches catalysts and so we're

looking for some some people to be guinea pigs with us on that jump on here uh you know

it's interesting i wrote this for the website this morning um you know new thing who we we take is

our our discipleship partner who we take the movement system from new thing is um i mean they're they've

tens of thousands of people have gone through uh the movement system um like literally every continent

except for antarctica has new has uh movement system disciples on it and so whether or not this stuff

works isn't isn't up for up for question it does work um we're we are are the the organization we're

the people that get to take it to a new culture to new environments into digital into virtual into

the metaverse and it's like man such an incredible honor such an incredible opportunity such an incredible

um mandate man they man listen i'm i'm i'm i'm fired up i'm excited about the road ahead of us and i hope

you are are too with that come listen follow obey hill me can you wordsmith yes there you go uh j j mo and

barbara um hey good news is we got a leadership meeting tomorrow so we can talk about that it'll be good

um hey another change because you know we're not done yet uh social media all right i screwed up

i feel like this is uh apologetic jeff day uh who's miss da la la la la is wasn't that the thing in uh

i don't i don't know if it's okay to make fun of names when it sees but when i see miss da la la la la

um who remembers the cobra tv movie uh the the gi joe tv movie that came out in the 80s the the

animated one or early 90s um with uh serpentor oh yes you know serpentor the cobra la la la la la

sorry we're back mistala great glad to have you here cobra law yeah ian ian's got me he knows um

i don't even know where it was i screwed up this is the jeff reed apologizes for living day uh

i breathed i made a mistake um sarah that's so good um so um you know when when new social media

platforms come out um i'm i'm really good at at like buying the or registering the domain registering the

the social media handles for the church digital i register for the deer fetch as well deer fetch

everywhere um i mean i i own 100 or some domains

and um so barbara is coming on she's helping with connections and communications and some of that

and she's like hey okay um do you have a tick tock account oh yeah i got a tick tock account you don't

use it no no no we don't nobody wants to see me dance we're good we're getting into that um i don't need

to dance but we do have a tick tock account and uh she's she's like well give me the give me the login

information and so i went digging and i went digging and i went digging and i could not find the church

digital information for the for the the account now i found deer fetch deer fetch i set up the account

and evidently some other guys using the church digital on tick tock i don't know what he's doing

but he's not me and he's not us and he's not the church digital he's not affiliated with us in any way

i'm not accusing the guy of stealing my handle um but i think we should totally all just go like

raid them do we do raids in tick tock i don't i don't think that's really it's probably more of a

twitch thing um no i i we didn't get to the church digital and so i was the church digital

everywhere we were the church digital everywhere organizationally it was church digital every

we should call fire down from heaven we don't need to go haul jezebel on this guy

okay let's let's not go there oh my gosh jmo

oh my goodness um but i just i screwed up i didn't get it and so um we ended up getting a new

we ended up getting a new uh handle and um we just decided to move everything to the new handle

and so on social media now the church digital we are now officially even youtube be the church digital

and and you know what i i like that because it there's action it's a it's a verb it's okay we're

we're not consuming digital we are being the church in digital we're doing the great commission

but digital it's there's there's action there's activity there's purpose there's directive there's

mandate make listen guys it's it's up to us on this not consuming but being did i say that i'll let you

say that uh oh yes no i didn't say that you said that you barbara said that good i didn't think i

said that because that was that's a heavy sledgehammer you're swinging there um i love it but that's for

us in social and especially social my gosh it's so easy to consume content it's so easy to to get stuck

up and in playing the game and in the rigmarole and um but it's it's very important uh for us as as leaders

to be people of of action

the world the church they're already judging us they're already just this this hurts this is the

this is the therapist too um they're already judging us based off of of of what we're doing

and if you've not experienced that good for you you're you're one in the few at this point

um be people of action

you know it's interesting over the past several years um it was funny we were talking about jade earlier

man i went to and dan daniel heron i don't know if you're still around daniel i can't uh i can't see

is daniel octopus yeah okay um daniel i didn't know you were octopus um daniel man i have fought so

many battles on your behalf you know you i don't even think i've told you how many times i've i've

dressed down people who were you know being typical christians

bad-mouthing bad new ideas yeah they can deal with it i get you but that's that's what we should

be right you know it's interesting you know i started saying because once i got tired of all

these actually it was after john mcarthur took his shots at us john mcarthur um publicly slammed um

actually chesley and i uh this is back during the digital church network days

and so um i don't want to talk about it too much anymore but but it was in that moment where it was

like i um they're going to judge us from our mission field our battlefields the mission field

our battlefield is discipleship our battlefield is is the missional activity our battlefield is is

is out there uh you can judge us by our fruit um and by our character that's it and if macarthur

wants to take shots he can it was interesting i it was actually i sent he he ripped me he didn't know

it but he ripped me like the literal day that my uh my virtual reality book came out so we sent him

a free copy he never said thank you by the way i always thought that was kind of rude

i have too much kingdom i'm not to do even pay attention to those people that's funny i i you know

it's funny i um i will finish the story so when when the macarthur thing hit i was so angry to be honest

and i didn't get better than i did um but i i just i i received it i was in the middle of things i was

really tired and and i just i i didn't have i didn't have a sounding board to kind of vent on

and um i i um i texted three or four people or dm three or four people kind of they were in my circle

of influence just fuming about it and it was funny my wife's a school teacher and so i texted her and

this was during the school day and my wife will never text me back because i um because she won't

step out of her class because like she just as a school teacher she won't she doesn't want to be

interrupted and uh my wife called me immediately she stepped out of her class because she didn't

want me to do something stupid and i i love i love her for this and so she calls me and she and she

says we talked for like 30 seconds and uh and she says okay jeff think about it um john macarthur knows

who you are and and i i just i kept spewing anger and she says no jeff you're you're not hearing me

john macarthur knows who you are and i was like oh i see what you're saying so basically john macarthur

is now the the highest ranking old white man i've managed to take off and uh i i wear that as with a

badge of honor actually he should wear that with a badge of honor uh yeah that's exactly

hey uh that's exactly who i'm talking about born again gamer hey born again gamer nice to meet you

uh yeah john macarthur from grace from you uh now i love john macarthur i i actually have got in my

library i've got a bunch of his books uh i've got um uh his study bible i used to run a christian

bookstore john macarthur is a major part of of my life um he's just not a fan of digital church let's just

let's just land it that way i don't maybe i'm speaking too ill will here on the on the stream

there's an exciting thing um well hey let me say one thing before i get to the exciting thing

um

i'm gonna share it as a prayer request i'm gonna and i haven't actually done this before i'm actually

thinking through right now i don't know that i've ever done this i'm gonna ask you guys to pray for me

not like right now in chat like i'm i mean that's nice if you want to but um

the the circle around me keeps getting bigger and bigger as i tell these stories and and um more and

more get get brought in um but my my health in recent months uh has has taken a nosedive i'm not dying

and no to pull a uh uh arnold schwarzenegger it's not cancer um is that how he said it it's not a tumor

man i butchered the line that was a last minute throw in i didn't think i was going to do this

um it's not a tumor it's not cancer it's it's it's at least they don't think it's cancer they

thought it was cancer for a little bit and then it went away um but my body is just not not reacting

very well um i i have talked about the diabetes um it's i've i've actually you know you never beat

the diabetes but i'm out of the diabetic range uh i've lost 105 110 pounds probably in the past six

months i've lost as much as 60 um and so i'm a shell of the man that i was kind of before this

um but my my health has been um worse not better neuropathy i have no feeling below beneath my calves

um that's actually spreading um i've started losing feeling and senses um in my stomach which is a

weird place in my back in my knees i'm actually getting a lot of knee pain and back pain as well in

other places uh some internal pain um in the stomach and abdomen area um they don't think it's diabetic

related but they're trying to figure out what else is wrong with me which which is a scary place to

be when the doctors are like we don't know but take this medicine and see what happens when i'm already

swallowing like 20 pills a day and so it's kind of messed up right now um and so i am um

constantly exhausted i am um like i probably work

two maybe three hours a day at best i um

like after the stream i'll probably stop and probably have to take like a 30 minute to an hour

nap just to recoup i gotta pick my kids up at at three so i can't go too long here beyond two

um but it's interesting like for the guy that was

he was a um a workaholic a get it done guy uh a producer a guy that built the church digital what

it is uh i mean

virtually on his own with volunteer support

um it's been really hard in recent months

because i just i haven't been able to do it you know i've i feel like i've been the jeff reed

apologist to hey i gotta cancel this meeting i'm sorry uh i'm not gonna tell you this but i'm literally

vomiting in the toilet right now hey i'm sorry um i i cancel this meeting uh i'm in bed on my mobile phone

texting you but i i don't have the strength even to stand up today um

man it's been it's been hard on my wife it's been hard on my family

um

my my my my daughter um

actually asked me the other day she's like well daddy if you get better

and then ask me a question like in her mind it's like i'm not going to get better

my my wife told me the other day she says even if they have to chop your legs off i'll still love you

uh what father wants to what husband wants to hear that like but this this is this is the reality of

of because it's just it's been so weird i hadn't been to a doctor in two decades and all of a sudden

i've got seven on speed dial and i have i have to manage prescriptions and shots and it's just it's

it's been surreal um and it's funny you know there was a season in my life where i thought this is

this is like two months ago where it's like okay god's in control i know god's in control i'm not

questioning god i've seen enough in my life to know that god's real and god's in control of this

which means god wants me to have um neuropathy god wants me to walk with a cane

god wants me to be in pain god wants me to feel this

that messed with my head you're going to be like okay why is that messing with your head well

god i've done all this for you and this is how you treat me this is this is my response back this

is what i deserve but even after all i've done i deserve worse than this and it took a good friend

to show me that to be honest all of this and the limitation of jeff you know it's paul talks about

the thorn in his side right the thorn of the flesh most people think that he paul was handicapped uh in

some level um i think that this cane that i walk with and this position that i am in i think that's god's

desire to put me in the place where i need to be

normally you've seen me be a very strong leader a very outward-spoken very public-facing leader

and over the past six to nine months i've learned how to be a secondary leader you know following behind

people like andy mage people like andy people like jmo and in this next season of the church digital

you're gonna see that continue even more so yeah i'm still gonna be around i'm gonna do these streams

tuesday at 1 p.m this time every week i will stream um in discord and mighty networks as long as we have

mighty networks so i'm gonna continue on with that um you know as long as i'm not like head in a toilet

i'll be streaming and if my head is in a toilet you don't want to see me stream

i'm trying to figure out now if i know i'm not i'm not even going to go there um

but the church digital is going to be group led it's going to be team led those leaders that i mentioned

earlier um flat cap tom um layton flat cap tom andy barbara carnero uh jason morris um these are are the

these are the people i trust these are the people i listen to you know in my experience

there's two different types of leaders uh there's leaders that surround themselves thank you ian

distributed leadership is the future there's two different types of leaders there's leaders that

surround themselves with yes men and then there's leaders with surround themselves with smart people

um and i um i wanted this organization to be led by smart people i wanted to be led by smart people

uh because smart people make me better and uh already i mean i can think of multiple situations

within the past month where the smart people that are around me have changed my mind

to be honest to move to discord was one of them i was not sure on the timing and uh when literally

a hundred percent vote of senior leadership said we need to move to discord and i was the only

person saying we need to think about it it's not much to think about is there and so hey we're in

discord that's awesome i just totally screamed and busted somebody's headphones distributed

leadership is the future that is a is a conversation we need to have have soon

hey guys this has been a lot of fun oh there was going to be a surprise i was going to share with

you on this uh leadership and everybody else that's on here guys thanks for jumping on here man there's

a bunch of people in both platforms and and excited to see um what what god does um with with all of this

moving forward um because all of us we're all just servants for for him um regardless of the context

this is not about brand um but it's interesting in in that brand

i'm already starting to see god move

um

when you look at the church digital website you're going to see uh on the landing page there's an

animation up at the top and it's this it's this uh square and it's it's kind of animated it's doing

some different effects on it actually there's a bunch of squares now i've got some different effects

happening and um the first version of that was one square this is this is maybe

three weeks ago two weeks ago like this conversation is not that long ago

uh andy and i took a look at the first animation

i'm not really feeling it had that conversation with barbara canero and her team uh in front of her

team it's like hey you know i'm kind of surprised here um you know normally

we're so technological as as an organization we're already talking digital church like

i don't want people to forget that that it's about people and so instead of this like animation

um you know do the animation so most we can bury it it's it's i mean i like the effect but i

don't it doesn't really serve a purpose why don't we put it down um why don't we put it down i don't

know like but as a background or something and like you know give us photos of kids like playing video

games or kids on on iphones or you know gin a or gin z and you know it's trying to young it up the

audience because we're a bunch of bald bearded buffaloes i don't know why it's stuck in my head

and um and barbara shook her head yes i think quietly in her mind she's thinking no that's a

horrible idea uh but she says give my team a little while let us work on some things

and uh

daniel you are one of the kids playing video games shut up daniel speak for yourself i have a head full

of hair you're like 22 man 24 are you even 25 conversation for a different day so 24 so i um

so we come back around and she shows version two

well instead of one square cube there's now it's the version you see now it's like four or five

different effects kind of splattered around and and i'm like okay i mean i guess i see what's what's

happening here um i see multiplication which i like i like the effect i'm good with it

and um a couple days ago it was like three in the morning i couldn't sleep back pain was horrible

and it was funny i i didn't even have i don't even think i could see the animation

i couldn't see the website because i didn't have like the dedicated url for the temp server that it

was on just i didn't have it easily accessible but i'm staring at the tv watching uh i don't know

probably x-men 97 episode three for like the 47th time because that show is freaking incredible another

time um but uh the idea of the cube kind of popped in my head and in a and i literally i i went and

grabbed my ipad real quick and started sketching squares because of my mind it's like hey that

framework hey i mean i love the boosted i have no idea what the boosted even means

in discord somebody have to educate me later but thank you thank you white beard thank you octopus for for

boosting the server um this square uh just popped in and literally i started talking about okay squares are

four they're my my framework for church planting connection community discipleship multiplication

that's four that's like the four corners of the square and if we talk about multiplication

multiplication drives us to apprentice so now we're apprenticing to create new examples of church

and that can be the vertical line that's going back uh to create that the second group of the cube and

so really the apprentice is now creating his own or her own connection community discipleship multiplication

and so really what we're looking at with each cube is this is what a network is

within the church digital on how we're challenging all of us to create our own

movements our own networks not of of our own work and not of our own efforts

but something that god can do that god can use to create disciples

in digital spaces via digital tools to reach people in that are more comfortable in these environments

and then i started thinking about oh my gosh on the website there's these eight-bit characters

eight bits are squares that's like totally who we are and then i started thinking of the church dot digital and how

the church dot digital in the new brand is a square and then i started thinking about wait the cross itself

in the church digital is a bunch of squares just gridded together off grid together i guess

and it was really interesting to me and i don't i don't know if god works in this way or barbara's really smart or

maybe i'm just grasping for straws and and let's maybe say that it's a little bit of all three

um

but i am excited about the clarity the purpose and the direction in the team that we have moving forward

and i'm excited that all of you took a freaking hour out of your day to jump into discord and mighty networks

to listen to this old man rant sitting in a chair um into this microphone so hey um i am going to pray

us out of discord this will be the first this is the first live stream in discord on the church

digital super server and uh oh yeah square is perfect yeah she did she's she's she's she's pretty smart

uh but uh let me pray us out and then i'm gonna figure out how to hang up because i actually have no

idea how to hang this thing up heavenly father god thank you for uh thank you for these men these women

these people uh thank you for um this community thank you for uh how much

honestly god thank you for how much they mean to me

thank you for their their encouragement um

during a day at the beginning of a hard week uh thank you for their prayers thank you for their

uh their laughters thank you for the smile that they put on my face today

god we have an exciting opportunity ahead uh to disciple people in digital space to uh to train them on

on on on leadership and to to help them uh plant and start unique expressions of church in digital and

virtual space god um many will not be with us on this journey

that's on them god we ask we beg we plead for you to be with us on this journey and we are thankful that

you've been with us this far in the process and we look forward to what you have for all of us

very soon in your name we pray amen thank you all stream i'll be on next tuesday 1 p.m eastern

in discord and probably mining networks thanks y'all bye

you