The "BIG ANNOUNCEMENT" at THECHURCH.DIGITAL

hey now we're really broadcasting live this was awesome i just did the past three minutes i

literally i clicked the button and uh and and so there's uh whatever i'm using stream yard there

says are you sure you want to go live and i clicked the button once and just started talking

didn't even realize that we weren't even broadcasting live so i'm gonna do the whole

speech again it was awesome hey we are here celebrating this idea of a big announcement

the church digital 2021 it has been an awesome time uh and but we've got some big things coming up

and what i wanted man i just wanted to say up front here as we're kicking off i'm tired i've been

traveling a lot it's been really fun connecting with uh some exponential friends casting some new vision

uh towards digital and and i'm gonna be in dc no dc i've already been there north cal southern

california did all those as well but i'm gonna be in chicago i'm gonna be in houston here in the next

couple weeks so looking forward to meeting up with you if you're gonna be at those events but we got a

big announcement but let me back up maybe before we get there i want to tell you the why we're doing

this and what's coming up so you see the heart of the church digital the heart of what we're doing

all the blogging the podcasting the streaming the speaking engagements the heart behind digital through

stadia and through exponential digital only church planting through stadia looking at even ramping up some

global digital church through an organization called finishing the task we'll talk talk more about that

later just follow it away traveling six of seven weeks by the way thank you very much american advantage

bonus miles thank you for that and marriott bonvoy i i love you listen all of this is for the one

purpose of helping churches like yours understand how to thrive grow and multiply utilizing this digital

technology to understand how digital ministry works how it's different than physical

um and just to even take advantage of this in context of your church now yes it's a reality let's

not sugarcoat it in this 2021 era the majority of churches are trying to get back to normal

as quickly as possible and unfortunately they perceive normal as february

2020 and so some churches they're not interested and i've had those conversations

with pastors uh who are in that situation digital pastors who are scrambling and struggling

and yes it is a challenge but i would even say this i think there's an opportunity in this season

where not all churches want to go back to what was normal the perception of of what the church was in

february 2020 i think some churches are wanting to be aggressive they're wanting to experiment they're

wanting to try something different and really this gets to this heart stadia has this phrase i love

this and i love the family over there uh we want to go with the goers stadia says this a lot we want to go

with the goers the people who are advancing who are running let's go with them and so we we made this pivot

uh in in season two here with the church digital podcast where it's hey we want to go with the goers i

don't want to spend time trying to convince people that are not interested in digital ministry or

the benefits of it why they should do it when instead we should be advancing with people who

want to there's so many people in this season that want to um let's let's go with them and really

this gets into the heart of let's be crazy let's be radical let's go with the experimenters let's try

something different 21 years ago i was crazy i taught an online bible study before like online was even a

thing before social media to anything came out before facebook myspace uh before smartphones webcams

i was doing it 21 years ago crazy right yeah that's that's pretty much the moniker of my life

i left a full-time job uh doing ministry to start an organization pre-covid that was championing digital

uh yeah once again uh probably another crazy thing and to be honest that probably wasn't a good idea

pre-covid but really that's where faith comes in in this stuff but sometimes when we're doing crazy

things proverbs 3 5 and 6 trust in the lord lean not on your own understanding in all your ways

acknowledge him and if you're doing that by faith in those seasons he'll direct your path which actually

gets me back to this idea of being crazy so let's have some fun here if you go on google experiment for

me tell me where it's at you can throw it in the chat if you google right now plant a digital church

chances are me the church digital stadia church planting or some blog or podcast that i've spoken on

will come up in probably six to eight of the top ten listings on google plant a digital church and it

has been awesome pioneering this this idea and working alongside stadia to fine-tune it has been a

beautiful experience um but we've got a problem churches like yours out there you're not wanting all the

radical stuff or you don't just need the radical stuff we all need to learn how to experiment we all

need to learn how to iterate we all need to to hear these success stories but the reality is you need

more than just the craziness that i'm bringing to the table yes i'm crazy but you need the practical

insight you need the more grounded tips um i'm just going to be real right now if i have to write

another blog or do another stream on the top four reasons your church needs an online small group

my head's going to explode like literally emoji is going to happen right here on the screen because

i i mean i'm just i'm spent in that it's been 20 plus years having that conversation and i don't have

it in me anymore which actually brings me here to the announcement that we wanted to talk about so here's

what we're going to do we're bringing somebody in to the church digital we're going to onboard somebody

who's going to take this over not the church digital but really this idea of the practical

the insights the tips the grounded guy that's actually going to help your ministry take it to

the next level now here's what we're going to do and this guy's good i'm going to introduce him a

little bit but i'm going to tease him you guys can do a guessing game if you're in chat here and try to

figure it out maybe you know who this guy is uh look here's here's where he's a digital pastor

okay there's a lot of them out there not not that many but there's enough he's in washington dc oh

oh narrows it down a little bit he's student ministry background he's been blogging and podcasting

for church online for years dude was doing this content before i was doing this content solid

stuff he's been a guest on the church digital podcast during our season two run just recently

quick go to the website try to find out what it was you can narrow it down even runs a facebook group

on digital ministry you know who this guy is all right look here's what we're doing we're bringing

in tom pounder into the church digital so i'm going to work my little technology here and bring in tom

pounder to the screen hey tom how's it going hey jeff i'm doing pretty good awesome so man listen

i am so excited that you were crazy enough to come on board with us here at the church digital

and do this that is going to be a great so hey first off i i want to ask this question

what were you thinking like you're doing this thing you're you're so successful with what you're

doing with ym sidekick what are you thinking coming on board with this well i mean it all started with

that crazy conversation we had three years ago and i just said when i had you on my podcast and i thought

man this guy is awesome this guy i would love to be a part of anything that jeff reed is doing and so

with your background of doing digital ministry and what you're doing for digital ministers all over

when you and i had a conversation when we actually got to meet in person when we got after all the years

of online we got to meet in person you you threw this crazy idea by me i was like man this is what i've

been looking for to partner up with someone who is really an innovator like yourselves and i just

thought i i cannot pass this up i know listen i i love it and by the way people who say that digital

relationships are not real tom has been a very close friend of mine for three years just met the dude for

the first time i don't know a month ago at an exponential conference in dc and so it's it's a

beautiful thing tom is digital pastor with um um new life uh there in washington dc uh as student pastor

as well off and on has been very involved in student ministry as well as digital over the years tom maybe

just take a minute here tell us a little bit about yourself even beyond that yeah so i was uh born and

raised in washington dc just outside of dc my my dad actually was a cia guy for over 30 years um

and so they're from my mom and my dad were from pennsylvania and they moved down here uh do that and

i just always remember growing up um they would always ask what what does your dad do what does

your dad do and we're always told to say your dad worked for the government and everyone knew that if

they said that then your dad worked for the cia so that was just the kind of the weird thing

uh but you know i was born and raised here uh you know and um i left we left a few years for germany

i left a few years for college uh but god really hit me uh you know my parents were always believers

we always went to church but there was always that void in my life um you know throughout high

school in the summer between my junior and senior year in high school uh went on a mission trip that

changed my life and i thought if serving god looks like this i don't want to do anything else and you

know and i looked up to my youth pastor who was just wild and crazy but he was very uh close to jesus

and i thought this is who i want to be like and so i committed my life to say i'm gonna i'm gonna grow

my faith and and uh do that but i you know while i was passionate about student ministry another passion

of mine was always computers i love computers i remember how i'm playing with an apple 2 uh in

elementary school at the schools and then my parents bought in 1985 or 86 um maybe a little bit after

that but it was an ibm ps2 um yeah and uh and so from that moment on i was totally hooked on computers

and so um throughout my college career i still love working with computers but studied ministry uh and

it was just great that about six seven years ago my church approached me about being the online guy at

the church and um it was a position that i was serving in and i loved it um and again i've been

doing the blog for a long time as well doing focus on student ministry stuff but you know i went into

doing a lot of online stuff and my blog and my podcast was all real stuff that i wanted to uh share

with people um just different things i'm learning but then also the podcast was about interviewing people

who were learning cool things and i got a chance to learn from them uh so they were like my heroes

uh that i just got to interview uh so it's just been a fun ride um i've really enjoyed ministering um

and i can't see doing anything other than serving the lord so it's been really fun so tom that is so

awesome man and and love the the experience the wealth of knowledge by the way secret tip

run a podcast not because you've got stuff to say but because you want to learn from other people

definitely a a pro tip right there and has been just i i was telling actually i was texting grade

the armist last night i told him probably the best thing that i've done ministry wise in 10 years

uh we'll start this podcast i don't know three four years whenever we started at this point i can't

even keep track in my head hey so tom do me a favor i because you're you're you're ym sidekick

coming over tcd sidekick we're gonna get there in a little bit what's this whole sidekick thing like

what what how does this work for you yeah so i i've always envisioned myself i i've always enjoyed

leadership and and being a part of the process and being a part of teams um but one thing that i always

i figured out about myself is that i'm a really good sidekick like i'm a i'm you know i can be in a

number one position uh and i can i'm very comfortable in that but where i feel like my sweet spot is is to be in

that number two position to be that sidekick and so when i was blogging you know um before i even

started the podcast um i i just thought what does my blog want to be about what do i i don't want to

be about me i want to just be a part of the conversation and so i just thought you know sidekick i loved

growing up i loved batman and robin and i know everyone loves batman i mean i do too um but i was really

drawn towards uh yeah robin right there i was drawn to uh be the sidekick there i love dick grayson i

thought he was awesome and he became nightwing his own superhero but you know him being robin i was

just one of my favorite characters and i thought i want to i want to be the sidekick so that's how i

approach my blog that's how i approach this the podcast that i do i just want to lift other people

up and be support to other people and that's why i chose sidekick yeah that's beautiful and hopefully

that makes sense some of the easter eggs i think i had more people texting me and asking me not what

the announcement was but why are we doing like batman graphics and uh and pikachu i had people

asking me which one was pikachu it was so funny uh you know uh mario here with this charlie brown's

probably my favorite because snoopy says wolf snoopy never you know talks but that's okay so you

know and of course star wars uh for that and so definitely excited about taking this idea of sidekick

um and bringing in and not that i'm batman and looking for a robin but looking for an opportunity

to get more voices out there uh and doing it by the way dick grayson is totally the best robin ever

and i'm not even he is yeah so that's that's another conversation entirely hey here so here's

here's what we're doing be be excited for this here's the the practical reality of this uh with the tcd

sidekick the podcast why am sidekick podcast is coming over to the church digital it's going to be

part of the church digital podcast network we'll talk more about that here in a little bit we're

going to be tom's going to be doing weekly blogs updates through the church digital the new content

he's developing it's going to be available through the church digital distributed and available for that

tom's weekly email grounded sidekick scoop grounded in in practical insights and tips uh is going to be

available weekly and and tcd the church digital audience to be able to subscribe for that tom is

taking over stadia's be the church online facebook group and running that and so excited to see

some of the insight coming in uh around in that so listen tom we're doing a bunch of stuff through the

church digital to get tom's information his insights his practical tips out there and you can hit all of

that up by going to the church digital slash sidekick that if you're looking at the stream online if you're

looking at youtube the church dot digital slash sidekick is the way to get connected into this and to start

receiving tom's stuff here so tom tell us just here right now uh man what what can we expect what are

like some things that are coming up in the pipe right here with tcd sidekick well i one is i've lined

up a bunch of great interviews and i've already conducted a few of them that are going to be released uh

starting next wednesday so next wednesday will be my first one and can i tell who's going to be on the

podcast okay yeah sure let's do it okay ben stapely the one and only i wasn't expecting that one very

cool love that yeah so i i love ben and you love i know you love ben too and so he's just one guy i

wanted to kind of launch this tcb d sidekick off with uh so i'm excited he'll be my first guest there

and i've got four or five other online ministers who are lined up and they'll be coming out in the

consecutive weeks of just conversations we're having about online ministry and what it looks

like for you and what what it looks like for them but also more importantly what it looks like for you

and how you can apply what we're talking about uh into your ministry context uh and then i've just got

great different blogs and my blogs you know they're they're digital based but i also focus on some

leadership issues um and uh just things like that so i i try to take digital in the in the aspect of

not not just if you're an online pastor i want these to apply if you're a children's minister

if you're a student minister uh if you're an executive pastor how can you incorporate digital

components into your uh ministry and so again that's where we're going and so i that those are

the kind of angles i'm going to take for for the content i'm producing with the church digital

and i love that i mean i love that aspect where we're trying to not make digital so much as an

as an exclusionary aggressive radical approach but trying to make it practical for every person for

every step for every person who's in ministry even challenging digital missionaries which i know tom's

passion about even uh challenging those that are not on staff to embrace digital as a as a way of uh

disciple making moving forward and so tom i cannot be more excited about what is happening and getting

ready to talk about this but sadly we're gonna have to wrap up here and so there's gonna be some big

things coming down the road even beyond this 2022 is going to be awesome and we still got a chunk of

21 left to go through church digital podcast network's going to expand look for more voices to come into

this area as we are really passionate about helping people helping pastors helping ministers helping them

understand how to use digital to the place of multiplying stadia uses the language until every child

has a church and that's the motto of of the church digital dude ministry do multiplication until

everybody's got a church because that's the goal of where we are so much more coming soon in context

of all of this church digital ecosystem but hey thomas we're landing the plane here any closing thoughts

on your side just excited to be a part of the team and looking forward to how this develops and uh to be your sidekick

awesome do not put on the costume whatever anyone says no cosplay necessary there hey guys and and we're

out for tom this is jeff uh with the church digital uh powered by stadia church planning thanks for jumping

on this big announcement hey there's going to be more stuff more big announcements coming soon so look for

it coming soon but until then check out uh the sidekick page there the church digital slash sidekick get connected

with tom and uh y'all have a good day