BETA30: Three Reasons Your Church Needs To Go Multimodal

all right hey you've got the beta show here episode 30 it's 30 on the beta show i you know

when i typed that in this morning i didn't realize man it's been that long we're doing

30 episodes here the beta show this is awesome hey i'm jeff with the church digital once again

all this is powered by stadia church planning we're gonna be talking a lot about stadia church

planning here on the show by the way welcome if if you're some of my exponential friends i was

literally just hanging out in a webinar with the exponential conference talking about digital

and how digital can help church planning physical and digital church planning some fun stuff over

there so if you're checking us out with that awesome thanks for being here like having you around

hey remember here at the beta show we are answering your digital ministry questions feel free to check

us out text us digital ministry questions 484-324-8724 i'm literally giving you

my cell phone number right now find me anybody else okay maybe gander gary v is doing this but other

than that not a lot of people giving their cell phone number out on the internet 484-324-8724

texture digital ministry questions we will answer them in in a future episode by the way once again on the

beta show uh we do this every thursday noon eastern we answer your ministry questions we talk about things

and we're going to be hitting more topics here very soon i'm on vacation next week and we're still going

to do a beta show it's going to be awesome if you're watching live throw those questions and comments in

whatever social media platform you're on we're streaming this on on facebook on on youtube on periscope

twitter uh i'm trying to think i don't know if there's anything else that might be it wherever you are

seeing this put comments in there and and we'll we'll try to engage with them and dialogue through it

next week here's a quick tease what's the difference between a church broadcast a digital slash digital

campus and a digital only church i get so many people asking this question yes there's nuances that are

involved but those nuances are huge we're going to be addressing those questions here on the next beta show but for

this one episode 30 three reasons your church should be multimodal three reasons your church should be

multimodal here's another one of these words listen digital was a fun word to use and we have to

define digital and we're still using digital even in this post-covid culture we've done a lot of

streams here lately with the beta show talking about why the bait why digital is so important physical

and digital working together maybe you love that we're going to create a new word here

multi-modal stadia loves this word multimodal let's create multiple models of church here's what

multimodal means multimodal churches different models of church different methods of discipleship

different opportunities in leadership and so when we talk about multimodal we're literally talking about

different ways of doing church and why we need why we the church in this post-covid in this new world

that we're in we need to diversify our church here a little bit now when i say models what does that

mean here we go different models of church you got your prevailing the typical model you know what

every church was doing like february 2020 before covet hit you got the the building or you're renting the

building you're doing the sunday morning thing 9 a.m you're struggling to get people to come more than

than 1.6 times a month get that thing yeah okay so that is a model of church now it's not the biblical

definition there's other things there's strengths and weaknesses to that model if you look at acts 2

for example 36 to 47 somewhere in there you'll find that there's things that that model does well

there's things that that model does not do well there's other models beyond that you know we would look

at a physical model one that's using physical and digital together that's different than doing a

physical only digital can complement to that we talk a lot about that here on the stream there's

digital only there's location independent churches churches that exist completely in virtual reality

and there's strengths and weaknesses to that model there's avatar vr church there's watch parties

there's micro church networks there's prison churches there's workplace churches there's all sorts of

opportunities in digital and physical space to do churches differently by the way and i just said this

like in in korea i said this on the exponential thing that i was just on in korea some of the

largest churches pre-covid were actually in the country of korea like their ability to do giga

church in korea was phenomenal some of the smallest churches are located in india three or four people

huddled under a palm trees is defined as a church in india and both are highly effective pre-covid so

to say that the giga church model is is wrong or the or the the india the the mud hut model is is

wrong of what they do in church that i mean okay i think god has the ability to define what but for us

let's take advantage of whatever models we can and hold it to that biblical ecclesiology i think that the

challenge for us here in this 2021 the tension of summer 21 for us as the church do we fall back on

what we know or what we're comfortable with the desire for all of us is to go back to the building

it's what we know it's like hi ho hi ho it's back to the building we go okay look that's a little silly

but the heart of this is i feel this tension i've had this conversation with churches and i've had

conversation with other digital pastors where they're saying jeff they're our leadership is literally

thinking about stopping our stream online because they think if they stop the streaming online it's

going to drive people back to the building that 20 they're just being lazy we don't want them to be

lazy at home we want them to be in the building the the the church on the couch church on the sofa is wrong

it's bad it's not it's it's worse than the building and so we need to stop we need to cut that off

and instead we need to try to reemphasize and simplify what we're doing to get people back

to the building and and what i would suggest is maybe the answer isn't simplify maybe it's diversify

maybe instead of leaning away and cutting off and simplifying everything that we're doing

and realizing hey we just want to be building maybe that isn't the answer maybe instead it should be

let's lean in and diversify and create more strategies within our church if the building's not working

to effectively reach everyone then maybe we should figure out how to more effectively connect with

people by doing some different models which gets us entirely to this idea of beta 30.

three reasons so we defined multimodal and we're saying here's three reasons why your church needs

to be more than just the building i'm not slamming the building hear me the building's going to serve a

purpose and you're going to reach people with that building the answer is not get rid of the building

the answer is maybe there are other things we should be doing that are going to work alongside

the building here we are and this is going to maybe it's going to sound like i'm being

controversial here buildings number one three reasons your church needs to go multimodal buildings will

continue to lose influence number one buildings will continue to lose influence they'll have a purpose

but their influence is waning barna we talk about this that so much you guys are probably sick of me

saying it eighty percent of people called to christ uh are not interested in coming to a physical

building they're not coming to a digital building either and so to to think of our digital service

whether the buildings are working or not it plays a purpose but if we're looking for it for evangelism

if we're looking at these buildings as hubs where we're going to continue to gather people in physical space

we were losing that influence our buildings were losing our influence pre-covid the shift away from

buildings did not happen as a result of covid covid was just an accelerant that got us many years down

the road quicker as a matter of fact experts are saying anywhere from three to seven years of of cultural

shift happened within that covid 16 month season so we're further along we're further away than where we were

our buildings are losing influence because people that are cold to christ aren't looking for answers

spiritual answers to their questions in the building similarly even looking outside of the whole church thing

uh global commercial real estate market is struggling like the brick and mortar model even outside of the church

it was struggling pre-covid covid was the knife in the back getting us away from this idea of brick and mortar

meanwhile ecommerce.com is is thriving in these environments just last night i didn't go to sushi

maki located here on 144th street us1 in miami to be honest i i i ubered it i i uber eats yeah i paid probably

10 percent 15 percent more than than if i took the kids to go i was tired i didn't i didn't want to go

so we uber eats and we had our bacon fried rice in our house and we used a a e-commerce solution to

make it happen look maybe there's nothing wrong with the building there and it is a property as a tool

a tool on the tool belt it serves its purpose well but if the goal of your church is to have a building

if the end game is i need to have this building to be effective that is the wrong idea because there

are plenty of churches globally there are plenty of models globally that are highly effective they're

just not using the building so let's look at that buildings will lose influence so we need to diversify

what we're doing in order to be effective in ministry number two and i'm going to cheat here number two a

different models of church will reach different types of people different models will reach different

types once again this is a win i can tell you stories of people that have been reached as a

matter of fact with the exponential group i just told him the story of of danny danny hasn't been to

church in a physical building in 10 years he was actually disillusioned by church he had religion

shoved down his throat that's his words that's not mine and but what happened is danny has accepted

christ within the easter season through a digital only expression of church it was actually aimed

for video gamers our church of video gamers others are involved but and so through that expression

of a digital only church that's aimed at video gamers danny 24 at one of the darkest places in his

life accepted christ danny wasn't going back to a building but through a digital expression aimed at a

particular people group video gamers he accepted christ oh my gosh you can reach so many different

types of people in digital space than you can in physical one of the planners that i've met recently

is a first night first generation nigerian refugee and his goal in planting a digital only church is to

reach other nigerian refugees displaced nigerian refugees across the planet you can never do that

model in physical space but now through digital you have an opportunity to do something different

what if your physical church actually partnered with maybe some of the people that have a specific

calling like this and what if your church not only through the physical model but you reached out

to a nigerian people group or to a gamer people group or to an american sign language another one

american sign language asl hard of hearing another one of the largest unreached people groups in america

oh my gosh the ministry potential we could have that would never happen in the building stop looking

at the building as a threat figure out how you can diversify your ministry to do something different

all right now so i'm cheating here also realize to be different models of church disciple people

in different ways so remember we're talking here three reasons why your church should be multimodal to be

different models of church disciple people in different ways here's the challenge how we

disciple someone in physical space in a physical building in that you know sunday school and maybe

it's a cell group model small groups that are meeting in homes how that works in digital space how

you're going to disciple somebody in a workplace ministry it evolves it looks different and that's not

a bad thing it's a good thing because people need to be discipled in different ways there are people that

are going to connect with a digital only expression utilizing a discord or there are people that are

going to connect better into a zoom type of digital there are people and there are people that i've met in

this season that are longing for the sunday school model to come back and that's not bad i i want to say i want to

say we need as many different models as possible because there are people that are engaged with that

that cell group model with that small group that meets in homes there are people that are going to

engage better in a digital space than in a physical space i i've personally i've met i've met people in

my life that actually can't have a conversation and they're incredibly awkward on zoom but when you get

them in virtual reality and they have that avatar that's separating it's a completely different environment

because they're more comfortable in that space and for me to say that you can't disciple somebody in

virtual reality because that's not what they talked about in the bible is ridiculous it's a model

so let's figure out how to use whatever tools we have available to disciple these different people

in different ways creating that disciple physically digitally microchurch they all have to look different

celebrate those differences encourage those differences find ways to support those differences moving forward

because in the end you're reaching a different type of person than what your single strategy of the buildings alone

will reach and that's the importance you're reaching different people you're discipling them in different ways

and you're mobilizing releasing them into different methods than just the building alone hey look number

three here remember this is three reasons why your church needs to be multimodal number three allow

a different type of leader to shine i as a matter of fact just this morning i was having a conversation

with a digital church planner that stadia is working with and and we we've had this conversation

she is not the paradigm of a church planner in a physical church model she is not the charismatic

leader and she knows that of herself she calls it out to say that she's not a leader is false to say that

she's not capable of planting a church is false she's just not capable she calls it out of herself she's not

capable she's not leaning towards that physical church model she doesn't have the charisma necessarily

to do that in physical space but her ability to lead digitally she's far more interested in in in

discipleship and disciple making networking she's more of a gatherer than than the leader and this

is the stuff that really works well digitally she was created in her gift sets i believe will help her

be an incredible digital only church pastor and we stadia are helping her do that you can talk to me

stadia churchplanning.org digital we'd love to have that conversation another show um so whether you're

you're trying to be the physical church the digital church a micro church is going to be different than

a giga church pastor a multi-site pastor or even a multi-site uh campus pastor that looks different than

if i'm running a singular location or it looks different than if i'm doing a digital only so your different

models if you're a multimodal church this gives you different options to bring in leaders in different

ways maybe you've got that business leader who's in your church and he's looking for a challenge

spiritually and the only thing that you're coming to him for is hey i need somebody to help in the

parking team and hey you know what i really need this check this donation because i'm wanting to build

something out our times are hard can you can you help us financially those are not bad options but

is it the best option are there ways maybe that you can develop him spiritually and then challenge him

to reach others within the marketplace maybe we're diversifying even into the marketplace of what that

looks like or you're talking to him maybe about expressing and reaching into a digital only expression

there are options to challenge people with different leader capacities different skill sets beyond making that

sunday operate smooth listen i i have produced tens of thousands of the one hour on sundays they're

important they're helpful they're going to serve a purpose moving forward but there are other options and

this is what we as a church need to consider maybe we need to diversify maybe we need to allow another

type of leader to shine in the season so that they can be effective in ministry moving forward there are

diamonds in the rough and we don't even realize it and we're not utilizing them at all here we go i lied are

you ready for this top three reasons your church needs to go multimodal i'm going to give you number four

what can we afford in this season okay look let's not let's call it out it's it's really the fourth i said

three i lied we're cool the reality is is that economics are hard it's it's funny i just read an

article i posted it in some facebook groups today uh 2020 u.s was actually one of the top years for

charitable giving it was the the largest year of charitable giving in in u.s history 2020 we the church

i i i'm seeing these articles all the time float through my desk i know the stories i've had the

conversation with pastors the church is struggling financially we're shutting our doors in the midst

of the largest charitable donation event happening in u.s history over the year of 2020.

i don't know how to explain this i i'm digging in i'm having conversations we're gonna do a podcast

on this on to the church digital here soon but i think what the takeaway is is that maybe your

multi-site can't afford to launch a new physical campus what if you did one digitally what if you put

that in emphasis not into a digital maybe a digital only expression of church maybe it's more of a

broadcast with digital discipleship online maybe it's a a workplace ministry you're going to talk

with a couple of these business executives in your church and challenge them maybe there's some elders

that on your board that need to get out and do things within the community they live in and you

want to create a micro church or a micro location strategy don't stop pushing ministry and multiplication

because the economics are bad and you can't afford the lease on a new building to buy a building or

the avl costs there are other things you can do by the way digital is going to give you a far cheaper

footprint uh than physical micro is going to give you a far cheaper model than physical and so utilize

this what can we afford we can afford a different model explore that don't wait on it don't sit on

your hands and put all your eggs in a building that's losing influence diversify what you're doing into

different ways thinking about shutting down even to that level if you're thinking about struggling don't

shutter the doors of your church shutter the doors of your physical location and physically figure out how

to diversify into digital only into micro diversifying to something else that's going to give you the

opportunity to exist to thrive moving on i have had a pastor tell me in this i've had somebody tell me

that uh going digital allowed them to thrive going physical going back to physical actually hurt it held

them back it was a lower standard i'm trying to get this guy to do a podcast as a church down here

in south florida i'm excited for this conversation because this guy's passionate about it and he literally

says hey jeff i was doing digital ministry right before covet here we went physical it actually slowed

us down it didn't work we went back digital and we started skyrocketing again so to say that digital

doesn't work that it's not right that it's theologically wrong that's god's call for you

maybe there's opportunities to thrive in this area look and see where god is moving and join him

in that act at the end of the day don't limit yourself to one model in this season of struggle

it's not put the eggs in one basket maybe it's to diversify if you've got if you got any comments

or questions i would love to hear it i've got facebook user love this don't know who you are

but the fact that you love this makes it happy for me that's great any other questions feel free to

throw it in there and i'll be engaging them in the chat don't limit yourself to one model in this season

like i said diversify we at stadia we are wanting to talk with churches that want to go multimodal

directly if you're thinking about this hit me up on social media every social media platform you can

think of i'm dear fed jeffreed backwards d-e-e-r-f-f-e-j hit me up if you are interested in

going multimedia i stadia we would love to help you in that next week my vacation week i'm going to

pre-record we're going to set it to stream you'll you'll get it next week and don't don't yell at me

i'll really be on the beach kicking back relaxed next week here on the beta show what's the difference

between a church broadcast physical digital campus and a digital only church hey this has been a great

time maybe a little longer than i wanted to but loved the opportunity to stream here exponential

fans thank you for that thank you for coming back this is jeff with the church digital and with stadia

church planning we're going to wrap beta episode 30 here we'll see you next time here at the beta show

with the church digital podcast y'all have a good day