BETA29: Five Reasons You Might Be A Digital Church Planter

Hey, all right, you got the beta show. I'm Jeff with the Church Digital Podcast, once

again, powered by Stadia Church Planting. Here with the beta show, we answer your digital

ministry questions on the air. Text them in, 484-324-8724. By the way, with the beta show,

we do this live. We do put it on podcast. It is on archive on demand, but we do this

live every Thursday at noon Eastern. Hey, if you're out there watching, feel free to throw

some questions, throw some comments, throw some thoughts here into whatever the platform

you're on. If you're on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, wherever you're engaging and you're

watching this, feel free to comment out there. Let us know that you're out there as we're

talking through here. If you've got ideas, if you've got thoughts on what we're talking

about, we would love to hear from you. And if you're out there and your sole purpose

is to just distract me while I'm trying to talk and do this live, yes, I am talking to

you, Ray DeArmas. Don't do that. Don't be that guy. Don't try to distract me. Oh, look,

I'm getting a text literally right now. Okay. Hey, so text the digital ministry questions,

484-324-8724. And what I want to talk about today, specifically here with beta episode 29,

five reasons you might be a digital church pastor, a digital church planter. Five reasons

you really should say pastor. Typo on the screen. That's awesome. Five reasons you might be a digital

church planter. So we've been talking a lot here about this idea of a digital only expression of

church. And this is not to challenge what's happening in the physical building as much as

it is to acknowledge that there are other options, there are other opportunities, there are other

ways to do that. And by launching, by planting, by starting a digital only church, you've got an

opportunity to do ministry in a different way. And so we're going to highlight some of those ways,

really going to highlight also some of the characteristics of maybe what some of these

innovative, some of these pioneering entrepreneurial type people, what they're looking for and who they

are. Who are these people that are getting out and trying to do something different here. So here we go.

Five reasons you might be a digital church planter in the making. Maybe you don't even realize it yet.

Here you go. Number one, you're going to recognize that physical is a way, not the way. Physical is a

way of doing ministry. Physical is a way of doing church. It's not the way. It's not the only way.

Now, listen, I'm going to be honest with you. I'm talking so much here about the way. I'm kind of

hearkening back. Okay, listen, some of you out there might even be thinking like Star Wars, this is the

way, the Mandalorian. I am not that guy. I am not the guy right now that's going to bring attention

to the Mandalorian. This is the way and that we have to, at least with our digital church context,

say that this in a digital only way or in a physical only way, there is not a way. There's

not the way of doing church. The way is actually biblical. Okay, I'm going to take off the Mandalorian

little gif that was up on the screen. And so there is multiple ways of the models of the strategies of

of church. What a digital only planter is, is somebody who recognizes that there's a different

way to do it other than what you see in the physical space. Now, it's interesting. I'm going

to throw another gif here on the screen. I actually had this graphic was texted in to a group with a

number of digital pastors in it. And the text may be hard to read on the screen. And I should say this

actually, because as a podcast, people are listening in audio only. So there's a photo of a sofa

here on the screen and the words on the screen simply say this, church on a sofa will never be

the same as church in a sanctuary. And so I had a digital pastor text this in to a number of digital

guys. And it was funny in the moment when it came in, the digital pastors' reactions, there was like a

bunch of like boo gifs that were posted in the group and a bunch of thumbs down emojis. And it just was

like, there was a negative context centered around this idea, centered around this comment of church on the

sofa will never be the same as church in the sanctuary. And it was funny, my response, and I would suggest

the response of a digital only planter is going to look at that and say, "Oh, thank God. Thank God there's

something other than the model of what's happening in the church in the sanctuary." I wholeheartedly agree. Church on

the sofa will never be the same as what happens in church in the sanctuary. And it should not be. Because we

have an opportunity to do something different. Even though the majority of the world looks at what's going

and let's go back to the building, the majority of Christians, let's go back to the building. A digital

only planter is somebody who's looking at this and saying, "There's another way. There's got to be another

way." And it's going to highlight and draw attention to that. Alright, number two here, let's pump it up. We'll go a

little quicker. A digital only church planter is more interested in building relationships than putting on a show. You're far more

interested in doing relationships, building relationships, connecting, engaging, dialoguing

with people than building a show. By the way, surprisingly, digital planters often, at least the

ones that I've met, they're not overly techie. Yes, they understand the technical aspects of what's going

on, but we're not talking, forgive me, we're not talking like technological geeks here. Okay, maybe a couple of

them are. But really, they're normal people that understand how to build relationships utilizing digital

tools in digital community. And you don't have to be a cutting edge, a bleeding edge geek guy as much as

you need to be somebody who understands relationships and how to build those in digital space. How to create

disciple makers in digital context. So definitely some challenges there. I'd love it. You're more

interested in building relationships than putting on a show. Number three, digital ministry lessons of COVID

excite you more than going back to the building. So in this 15, 16, 18 months, whatever it's been, where we've been

learning how to do digital ministry as a result of COVID. Now that we're seeing this pivot, now that we're

heading back to the building to re-engage and to do this in physical space, a digital only church planter,

there's something gnawing away at the inside of you right now saying, "There's a better way."

There's some, there's a, there's a voice, maybe it's the Holy Spirit, maybe it's, you know, bad tacos. But at the end

of the day, there's something that's kind of urging inside of you. Maybe there's an opportunity to do

this digitally, to stick with the digital plan, to maybe even explore a deeper understanding of digital

ministry than what you're able to do within the established church model, which let's, to be honest,

may be driving you back to the physical building. The relational context here, connecting with people

digitally is at a higher value for you than for some churches, managing the systems and processes like

pastors do physically. And this is the challenge really, and not all churches are this way, but a lot

are, where a pastor in physical space is really managing systems and processes that allow the overarching

system of physical ministry to happen. The challenge to that is in digital space, digital pastors bypass a lot of the

systems and processes and really get a chance to engage with people at a digital level, even more so than

what happens at the physical level. This has been documented, we've talked about it so much here on the

podcast, where digital pastors have an opportunity to engage relationally, physically, digitally, even more

than physical pastors would in physical space. A digital pastor is also going to recognize the potential reach of digital, and they want to step up to the challenge that they're going to do.

The potential reach of digital, and they want to step up to the challenge of not just reaching tens, hundreds, and thousands of people digitally, but they want to step up to the challenge of engaging, of dialoguing, of building those relationships digitally for the cause of Christ.

Beautiful stuff that's happening there. Number three, digital ministry lessons of COVID excites you more than going back to the building.

Here you go. Number four, you might be a digital church planter if you are a disruptor in the making. You're dreaming about doing things differently.

Okay, you've watched the modern church struggle in its mythology. Words like disruptor, innovator, entrepreneur, these don't scare you.

In 2021, I believe this to be a fact, weird is just a couple clicks away from being normalized, from being accepted.

So much of what was weird in 2020, 2019, 2018, let's be honest, here in 2021, weird is normal.

And so some of what we're experiencing and what a digital-only expression of church and how that, the perception of how that's weird, I think that you're going to see that get normalized very soon.

Now, as a matter of fact, it's probably getting normalized as it continues to reach some of these people that were defined as being weird, that were viewed as being weird.

We're literally creating the weird method to reach the weird people for the cause of Christ.

And so being that disruptor, being that pioneer, being that cutting edge person, not to the end of creating something new, extra biblical, outside of the view of the church in context of the Bible.

And we're going to get to that here in a little bit.

But even speaking towards ecclesiology, like this needs to be grounded in the Bible.

You know, maybe you're looking at the book of Acts and seeing how the diaspora, the breaking up of the established Jerusalem church and how it was, the ecclesia was scattered.

They preached the Bible as they went.

They created new expressions and the regathering in physical space.

You're seeing how the church operated that way.

Maybe you as an innovator, you're asking questions.

What is the diaspora and to breaking up of the church to create new ecclesias around?

How can that benefit the church today?

What would it look like for a digital church to distribute, to recreate?

Or maybe you've read books like Francis Chan's Letters to the Church or Ed Silvoso's Ecclesia.

And all of a sudden you're realizing here that there is room for a new model of church while still holding to that biblical ecclesiology, to the standards that are in place.

Digital church does not turn its back on the Bible.

The digital church embraces the Bible, and it's looking for pastors.

We're looking for planters that want to plant ecclesiologically solid churches just in a digital community.

Which really gets us here to number five.

You might be a digital church planter if, number five, you respect that a digital community is a community worthy of a church.

You might be a digital church planter if you respect that a digital community is a community worthy of a church.

Let's look at it.

The largest nation on the planet right now is Facebook users.

Okay, Facebook users are not a nation, but if you gather all Facebook users, active Facebook users together, there's more than what's in China, more than what's in Russia, much more than what's here in America.

24 million people are active in a video game called Final Fantasy Online.

The game's been around a long time.

It's not a new game.

They're actually existing in community.

The game is popular even today because it's a community.

This is where people's friends are.

It used to be even things like Twitch, Discord, TikTok.

We're seeing where younger generations, honestly, they're sprinting to some of these new platforms.

We even throw Roblox in there.

Young people are sprinting to some of these new platforms.

Why, you ask?

They're ironically running away from the platforms that their parents have come on board with.

When's the last time you saw a 20-year-old on Facebook, willingly on Facebook?

It's been a minute.

Even Instagram is losing value at this point as they're starting to get into the Snapchats and the TikToks and the things like this.

But for a digital planter, you're not running away from the idea of a church on TikTok.

You're not running away from Twitch.

You're running towards it because you're recognizing that there's digital community in that space and a digital community.

A digital church is needed to be in that digital community.

All right.

Hey, so we've hit five reasons real quick.

Five reasons you may be a digital church planner.

Recognize that physical is a way.

It's not the way.

You're more interested in building relationships than putting on a show.

You're recognizing that digital ministry lessons of COVID, that excites you more than the idea of going back to the building.

You're a disruptor in the making.

You're dreaming about doing things different.

And number five, you respect that a digital community is a community that's worthy of a church.

Well, are you interested in doing this?

Are you interested in planting digital-only expression of church?

I would love to have a conversation with you and explore these ideas together.

Connect up with me.

Swing over.

Connect up with Stadia as well.

Swing over to the church.digital/planting.

More resources there towards this idea of planting digital-only churches at the church.digital/planting.

Schedule a time to meet up with me.

And looking forward to have a conversation with many out there.

Many like you who are interested in planting these digital-only churches.

Awesome.

Thanks, everybody.

Y'all have a good day.