EP022: Jeff's Mom & the Heart of Online Groups

Hey there, welcome to the Church Digital Podcast.

My name is Jeff, and we got a great episode set up for you.

It's episode 22.

We'll talk about who's coming up here in a little bit.

It's my birthday week, and yeah, happy birthday to me.

My birthday was actually August 18th,

so the day yesterday from when the podcast released

on Monday the 19th, and I'm excited.

I'm 42.

The gray in the beard's legit.

I haven't had hair in 20 years.

So yeah, 42 is looking a lot like 41 and a lot like 40,

and a lot like my 30s, actually, come to think of it.

But let's get back on topic.

To celebrate my birthday, here's what I'm doing,

listening audience.

I'm giving away Starbucks.

I love Starbucks, and you love Starbucks too.

So follow me on Instagram.

Instagram, my account is deerfeg, D-E-E-R-F-F-E-J.

So deer like the animal, and then Jeff backwards,

because my name's Jeff Reed.

It's all backwards.

Follow me.

I'm giving away Starbucks gift cards this week

on my Instagram account.

If you want to get notified when it's coming,

turn on notifications on Instagram.

Take advantage of my graciousness all week of my birthday here,

August 18th week.

And this isn't the only way I'm celebrating my birthday,

because it's my birthday, and I get to do what I want.

And I can cry if I want to, which I'm not.

To celebrate my birthday, I'm bringing a special guest on here

for this podcast.

And this woman, honestly, is dear to my heart,

maybe next to my wife and my daughter.

I don't know that I love any woman any more than this.

And before this gets any more awkward,

let me tell you that we're bringing my mom on the podcast.

So here's the deal.

What does my mom have to do with church online?

My mom's been leading multiple online small groups

for almost three years now.

A lot of it are people that she's recruited to join in.

And my mom tells some phenomenal stories

and has some phenomenal experiences

about what it actually means to lead a small group online.

And so us as churches, as we're wrestling with

whether or not we should do this,

and what does it look like,

and does it downplay the physical as well as the virtual,

and how we're all complicating what's involved

in actually doing discipleship online.

People like my mother have just jumped in

and have been discipling people for years.

And I want to explore this.

I want to share some stories.

I want to see what online small groups looks like,

what biblical community looks like,

what cell groups, whatever the language is.

What does it look like to get people together

and study the Bible online?

And ironically, the best expert I know to dive into this

is my mother, who is past retirement age,

who is going to tell some phenomenal stories.

And so I want to present to you, ladies and gentlemen,

Rady Armis, who's not my mother,

but online pastor over at Christ Fellowship Miami,

myself, of course, in the Church Digital,

and my mother, Linda Reed, retiree online small group leader.

Here y'all go.

I just want to put a disclaimer.

I can't call this woman Linda for the entire length of this podcast.

So listening audience, yeah, no, it's not going to happen.

You're going to have to be okay with me calling her mom

because mom's been mom for 42 years.

And that is awesome.

And so, I mean, I really just wanted to get a chance to sit down and talk with mom,

who's been doing online small groups for three years.

Three years ago when I was at Christ Fellowship Miami

and just looking for somebody kind of crazy to buy into some concept of doing a small group online,

and mom being, well, super supportive like she always is of me.

Well, mom, how'd you get involved with doing an online small group?

You tell the story.

Okay, well, I think you called me and asked me, would I host an online Bible study?

And I said, well, who's going to be in the group?

Number one was one of my first questions.

How do I host one?

And most important, do I know enough about technology to do something online as an elderly person?

I won't say old, but elderly.

Nobody's saying old.

Not one person has said old.

Not even elderly.

You're young for your age.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Linda, you're proving that a lot of this is really even just a state of mind thing,

even just by taking this jump,

because those questions right off the bat are what most people would approach us with.

So keep telling your story, because I think it's going to help lead a lot of people in that direction.

It's been easy, and it's been wonderful.

And a lot has happened, and God has been in it.

You can see things that have happened,

because I started with one small group on Sunday night at 8 o'clock.

Now I have two small groups.

I have one on Sunday night and one on Monday night at 8 o'clock.

And as a leader, it's wonderful.

I only have to study one, you know, prepare.

It's like a teacher in school.

I only have to prepare one lesson, but I get the time and I get the privilege of sharing it twice.

So tell me about your particular study.

So you got some great questions.

Who's going to join the group?

That was your question three years ago.

Who joined your group?

Tell us some of what your online small groups look like.

Okay.

On my Sunday night small group, I have the first person that actually joined my group is still with me three years later.

And she started out living in, she actually, her family lives and went to West Kendall.

But she went away to law school in Washington, D.C.

And she joined, was my first person to join in my class out of Washington, D.C.

She was a college graduate and she was just entered law school.

And so she was there until just this last year.

She now moved to San Antonio.

And what's so great, it's been seamless.

She's now in San Antonio, but she joins us every Sunday night.

And we've just had a grand time.

One of the other ladies in our Sunday night small group, she and I went to Washington, D.C. to visit Melissa.

And we had a grand two days with her, went to the Bible Museum there.

And we really got close as friends, even though really our relationship is centered online.

And to me, one of the most important things about being online, it's the same as being face-to-face in a physical room.

And it just opens up so much access to anybody who wants to be in a small group.

And so for me, it's been wonderful.

And we've had all kinds of experiences in our small group.

I have one lady who has actually joined in on small group from the grocery store, believe it or not, on her cell phone, because she didn't want to miss.

That was interesting.

But we've done that.

We had pajama night one night, because, you know, we're all in light.

We're all women.

We all wore pajamas.

We got up and showed our pajamas to each other.

So, you know, we try to make it fun.

And so this past year, we've been doing the study.

We've been going through the book of Matthew.

And when Jesus was going to have the Lord's Supper, we were going to do, we were going to have communion on, you know, like you do online at church.

But I couldn't bring myself to do it because I didn't feel like I should be leading in communion as a small group leader.

But we talked about it.

So anyway, we've had fun with that.

We laugh.

We cry together.

It doesn't matter if you're in the same room or if you're online.

You can have all those same feelings of connection and community and emotion together.

We text each other during the week.

We text each other recipes.

You know, we stay connected during the week.

We celebrate birthdays.

You know, we do everything that you do in person you could do online.

It's wonderful.

So you're a something, something year old person.

You're on the older side, retired, you know, grandkid, loving, doting grandmother on my kids, which is awesome.

Melissa's not.

You mentioned she's on the younger side.

Melissa's 26.

She's been an attorney now for two years.

Right.

So you connected with her.

She was graduate level work when we first connected.

And I can just, I remember that early conversation that I had where as online pastor, like as we were getting the connection cards and utilizing people that came in through the online campus, Melissa was one of those that reached out saying that she was looking for some form of biblical community, looking for a small group, looking to get connected.

And just transparently, Melissa was coming from like a law professional level.

My mom had, has, you know, former business and professional level on that side.

And so it's like, Hey, maybe I should put the two of these together.

Maybe.

And as I recall, like there were even others early on that I was like, let me try to help my mom start this, this small group.

That's maybe this young professional group that, that she could like mentor and develop and grow with.

And we've had some common go.

Melissa has stayed.

One of the challenges, you know, I think I'll jump ahead here a little bit because of what you just said about the small, you know, the age difference.

Some of the challenges have been some folks coming up for me as a, as a leader, they'll come on, they'll, you know, you're, you're trying to connect.

You're trying to build that relationship.

Then after a month or two, they drop off and you reach out to them because you're, you want to find out, are they okay?

What's happened?

You know, just like you would, if you were doing a in-home or at church, you know, small group want to know what's happened and you don't want people to fall through the cracks.

And one of the challenges has been getting them to respond back and, and share with you why they've moved on.

It's okay.

You know, it's not for you.

I understand that, but that's been the toughest thing for me is to let some people go.

And I'll give you an example.

We had a young girl who was studying nursing at FIU.

This is going back now three years ago.

And, um, she, um, wanted to come on.

She signed up to come on.

She texts me back and forth.

I'm coming on.

I'm coming on.

I never could get her to come on.

I sent her a book.

I, I, I mailed, you know, cards of encouragement to her and so forth.

And then one day I got a text from her, a very long text that she was in a, um, situation where

she had an unplanned pregnancy and she, um, she evidently was raised in a Christian family.

She knew what had happened was wrong.

She was devastated.

And I just kept trying to encourage her, encourage her and encourage her, uh, you know, that,

um, in every way I could, I, I, I just loved on her every way I could through the, through

the texting and through sending cards and books and stuff like that to her.

And anyway, make a long story short, I didn't hear from her for about a year and a half and

a year and a half.

And then just about five months ago, six months ago, she friended me on Facebook out of nowhere.

I was shocked.

And we started up a relationship again.

She had been in a abusive relationship.

She had the baby.

She's beautiful.

I see I'm real good friends with her on Facebook.

Now we friend all night.

She's never come back onto the group, but she keeps promising me she wants to, and I keep

reaching out to her.

She keeps reaching out to me.

And so I just found out that she now lives in Kendall.

So I'm going to try to get together with her.

So, you know, I've tried over the last two and a half years to, to minister to her and be

there for her, even though she never actually showed up on a small group.

Yeah.

And she's a young girl, you know, I know, and in, in, in a need of a, of a, of a mentor

or somebody to help her along the way.

So that's been one experience.

And then I have on my Monday night group, I actually reached out to a mother and daughter

and my mother and daughter is now Barbara Orr, who goes to Christ Fellowship Miami and

Chesley Orr, who lives in, um, somewhere in Texas, some small town in Texas.

She's now a dentist.

And she, she's young, she's young like Melissa.

And so it's been really great seeing a daughter and a mother that is in a Bible study together.

And I've really enjoyed that.

And I know that they have, because they both have reached out to me and told me that they're

very excited to be in a Bible study with their mother or with their daughter.

That's encouraging because that's pretty rare, isn't it?

As far as getting that dynamic, a lot of folks feel uncomfortable, like, hey, opening up with

mom there or, or with their daughter there.

And I think it's easier for a mother and daughter to do it online and in person.

Let's, let's, let's unpack that because I mean, what, with the two examples, with the

two studies, I mean, you're, you're old and you've got, uh, Melissa who's younger.

And so even like getting the two of you in, in a physical space, there's challenges if

you were to do that physically.

And so you've got two different examples of a mom and a daughter, uh, and, and, and older

retired versus a young professional that, that are building relationships virtually, um, utilizing

online tools.

Why do you think that is?

Um, I think that it's, it's just a more comfortable situation because you are, even though you're

face-to-face and, um, but you're not in the same room and it allows you to be who you are

without the intimidation of mothers sitting right by you.

You should understand that, Jeff.

I'm asking questions here.

So wait.

So, but in my Sunday night group where I have a 26 year old Melissa, I have, uh, a beautiful

person, young, not young, but she, I don't think she's old.

I haven't really asked her how old she is, but I'm going to guess she's somewhere between

40 and 50 younger than me.

And she's a nurse in, uh, Orangeville, Ontario, Canada.

And she has just been a delight, always has a smile on her face, always has something to

add and truly has been a real inspiration to our group.

And, uh, so, so the age range on that Sunday night group really goes from 26 to 72, you

know, and our Monday night group goes the same realm, 26 to 72.

And so it's been fun.

And, and believe me, we all share that.

That was one thing I wanted to share with you guys that I think works so well is I dedicate

an hour and the first 15 minutes we fellowship.

I mean, we really fellowship.

We share our lives.

We share what's going on that last week.

Uh, what, what we're expecting to do this week, you know, what's going on, um, the good,

the bad, anything we just open up and share.

That's our first 15 minutes.

Then we have an opening prayer and then we do Bible study for 30 minutes.

And then we close in 15 minutes of, we share a prayer request and then we pray.

We all pray, uh, or one will, you know, depends on what, you know, what's going on and how many

prayer requests we have that I either assign some to pray.

And some other, I have one lady that's in my Sunday night group.

That's from Puerto Rico and she's fairly new Christian.

I believe I haven't had a chance to really talk with her yet.

She's new to our group.

And I asked her to pray, which may have been a mistake, but in retrospect, it worked out

great.

God was in it because she said to me in our little group, she says, I will pray, but I don't

know how to pray.

And I said, you know, Erica, you know how to talk.

I said, that's all you have to do is talk to God and telling what we've been talking about.

And she prayed and it was beautiful.

And it was from the heart.

And afterwards she said, Oh, I can pray.

I can pray.

She was so excited, you know, but as silly as that sounds, that was a really aha moment in

a small group online where we were being real.

And it was wonderful.

It was really wonderful.

And now John and I, my husband, we're going to Puerto Rico on October 22nd and I'm going

to get to have dinner with her and her husband.

So I'm going to get to actually meet her.

So I'm excited about that.

So wait, she's in, I'm sorry.

She's not from Puerto Rico.

She's in Puerto Rico.

She's in Puerto Rico.

She came to our group through CF, through Agatha.

Who's in New York.

Who was in New York.

Okay.

And Agatha, because she was in, in Agatha's group going back two, three years ago.

Yeah.

And Agatha reached out to her and invited us.

And Agatha has since left our group.

She's had, her father died.

She's had some traumatic things happen in her life.

And, but I keep her on my every Friday email.

I will never let Agatha go from me until she tells me to stop sending her emails.

I send her the lessons every Friday.

So if you're keeping score at home, we've got Texas.

We've got, she's later in Miami, currently North Carolina with the podcast, but normally Miami.

We've got Texas.

We've got Ontario, Canada, and we've got Puerto Rico.

Right.

Like there is multiple countries, multiple time zones.

And two cities in Texas.

Right.

Because, because even though we meet at eight o'clock on Sunday night for Port, for Puerto

Rica, that's, it's a different time zone in Puerto Rico, but I forget what it is.

I think it's, I think it's an hour later, but then in Texas, in San Antonio, it for, for

Chesley and for Melissa, it's seven o'clock, even though it's eight o'clock.

It's an hour later.

So.

I mean, where did you find these people?

It's, it's, it's just kind of like networks, Agatha, and somebody.

Yes.

And on Monday night, I have Lori, who is my niece, who is a fairly new Christian, who lives

in Charlotte, North Carolina.

And she's in my Monday night group and loving it with Janice, who is in your Tuesday night

class.

Yes.

Awesome.

It's all just kind of coming together.

So when you approach people and you ask like, Hey, I want you to join my online small group.

Like, what's their response?

Like, you know, and some of these people, you know, you're seeing them in face-to-face,

Janice, Lori.

Right, right, right.

Well, the first thing older people ask me, well, I know how to do it.

You know, that's their first concern.

And for younger folks, it's how much time do I have to put into it?

You know, because time is, you know, king, I guess you could say, in the realm of the

worldly sense.

And, you know, I think when I tell them, Hey, it's one hour a week and you don't even

have to leave your house, you know, or your apartment or your home, wherever you are, if

you've got the internet, you can join us online for one hour.

You know, no travel time, no anything, you know, it's, it's easy.

And so, you know, a lot of people, you know, are willing to give it a shot.

I have to tell you, if I had more time, I'd do a third class, you know, but, you know,

I've only got so much time too.

And, but it's easy.

And we could take each of our groups.

If everybody shows, it's just like two regular physical groups, whether you meet at a home

or in a church, sometimes people show up, sometimes there's conflict, they can't, you

know, so forth, so on.

So, you know, some nights on Sunday night, we'll have seven, sometimes we'll have five,

you know, a Monday night, it's a smaller group, you know, could I take another couple of folks

in on Monday night?

Yes.

But, you know, finding them and getting them connected.

I'm not sure exactly how all that goes down today.

But I have to tell you, I truly believe people that are attending church that are not involved

in a small group.

If they really were introduced to online small groups, I think there could be a huge number

of folks that could do it and enjoy it.

When you look at, because you've done both, you've led online, you've led physical, you've

been involved in online, you've been involved in physical groups.

So like, and you're of the generation that it has less credibility in context of online.

So when you're doing this, like, what are the obstacles, and just completely transparent,

honest here, what are the obstacles in context of online that you're like, man, online is

suffering because of this.

It's harder online because of this.

Like, what are the challenges that you've had to overcome that maybe you don't have in

physical?

And then vice versa.

What are the challenges of physical that are solved in online?

I think the obstacles are the same for a leader.

And that is your dedication to study, okay, and content for, you know, how do you get the

best use of your 30 minutes Bible study?

I used to do some books earlier on.

We used to do a topic study.

I mean, we did this, we did the topic study of the Ten Commandments.

We did a topic study of the Lord's Prayer.

Now we're in to just doing books of the Bible.

We'd like, we just finished Matthew.

We started Matthew, believe it or not, in February, and we just finished it.

You know, there's 28 chapters.

I try to do a chapter a week.

Some chapters in my little 30 minute have to go into two weeks because of the length of the

chapter.

But we have all decided, I took a survey of both my groups, did they want to go back to

a book or a topic, or did they want to go on to another chapter, another book of the Bible?

And they all said, let's do another book of the Bible.

And we've decided that September 8th and 9th, we're going to start the book of John.

And that's what they all wanted to do because they said that for all these ladies, except

for Janice.

Janice has, as you know, is very learned and been in Bible studies for years and years and

years.

It's been a real eye-opener to them to study the whole book of Matthew verse by verse,

you know, chapter by chapter, verse by verse.

And it's, for me, the challenge is getting, I do an outline that goes to them every Friday

with an email, you know, giving them whatever news I can come up with for the week of what's

been going on and all that and anything I've heard about anybody that's in our group, sick,

well, new babies, like, you know, Janice is a great grandmother five times over or something.

So anyway, you know, we share all that news on, you know, that we can through either texts

or emails, but then I give them an outline and giving them an outline that proposes certain

verses with questions for them to think about and key verses that are in that section, those

individual sections in those chapters, you know, it takes a lot of work and takes a lot

of, you know, studying.

And I've read more commentaries now on Matthew than I ever read in my life.

So for me, it's been just, you know, a real eye-opener into the book of Matthew that,

you know, it's been, even though I've been in church all my life, I'm learning things I'd

never, or I'm remembering things, or maybe things are being able, easier for me to recall

because I'm studying them at a deeper level.

That's challenge number one for the leader.

Challenge number two for the leader would be to really know that they have an accountability

and a responsibility to love these ladies online, even though I'm not physically in the same

room with them, and truly get to know them and love them as though I could put my arms around

them.

I mean, we have a lot of fun.

And as much as one night, Chesley was eating some cereal, or she was eating something while

we, you know, she'd just gotten home from work, and she was having dinner while we were having

class.

And Lori says to Chesley, Chesley, I can just smell those strawberries in that cereal.

And we all just bursted out laughing because, you know, Lori was trying to make it seem like

we were in the same room, you know, together smelling these strawberries, even though it was

online.

It was fun.

You know, we really had a good time that night with a lot of different ways that we try to

interact, even while we're studying God's word.

And anyway, that's...

That's beautiful.

You know, loving people from a distance, how else has that been challenging in a way?

That's where a lot of folks get that kind of mixed up as far as, you know, community in

terms of online.

You know, I think you could do a Bible study online where everybody was in the same city.

They just don't have time to get to a small group location.

You know, I think they could be from all over the world and, you know, be in that same online

group.

Obviously, if you had an online group that was meeting online every week, if I had a group

that was just in Miami or down near Palm Meadow Bay where I live, I would probably try to once

a quarter meet at a restaurant or meet in my home to see each other.

You know, that would seem to like be, okay, that would make sense.

But when you are doing it where you have people all over, then you have to be creative, you

know, in learning how to...

We have a group text that we're all in and we send out happy birthdays.

We send out, you know, good luck on this or, you know, something they know somebody's going

to do.

And we all respond back and forth to it.

And...

Those are the kind of things that even with physical, quote unquote, physical groups that

take place, like in person, like you really start to know that you're really getting into

community when jokes and when community is happening outside of the context of group,

right?

Right.

When you don't, quote unquote, have to be in communication with one another.

That's when the real friendship and stuff is bonding.

That's what everybody wants for their smokers.

I feel very connected to these ladies that I've never met.

I feel as connected to them as I do the ladies that I've met.

That's good.

I care about them and think about them and pray for them.

Just the same.

Talk a lot more about their spiritual growth.

I loved how you challenged one of them to pray.

And that right there for some folks is amazing, you know, because a lot of people would be,

even a lot of small group leaders I've talked to in physical groups are afraid to call people

out for any kind of spiritual step in their context.

And so what are some more examples of that?

Well, we have been, I have been working on getting them to think about starting their own

online small group, even though they can stay in mine.

Right.

I'm trying to get them to think about coming up with a list of just two people, because I think

three people can be the beginning of a small group.

No problem.

And, and, and the reason why I believe that is some, there's been a couple of Sunday nights

that there are only three of us that showed up.

I think just like, you know, the others all had conflict.

And when you have just three or four people online together, it's a much more intimate

gathering, just as if you were in the home with this three or four people.

Because the larger a group gets, the more disconnected it gets from community of knowing people.

And a lot of people aren't willing to speak up as much in a bigger group, where in a smaller

group, they'll share at a better, at a deeper level.

So I have my, my groups now are being challenged for beginning in September to come, not to,

not to actually have started the group, but they're each to bring two people's name that

we're going to start praying for those folks before they even ask them to form a group.

So I don't know if it's going to go anywhere, but I'm going to, I'm challenging them to do that.

I think that this past year in Matthew, I think the idea that they all wanted to do another book

of the Bible verse by verse versus some book, you know, from the bookstore.

Bookstores don't exist anymore.

I know, I know, but it's an indication that they, they're spiritually, I believe they're,

they're, they're growing because I think that it's a lot harder to sit down and, and, and

get into the Bible because there's so much of it, even after I study it and read three commentaries,

there's some stuff just still over my head as an, as a lay person of, of God's word.

And there's many times I have to say to them, they'll ask me a question and I have to say,

I don't know.

I said, you know, I could venture a guess, but far be it for me to lead you the wrong way.

I won't answer it unless I'm certain of my answer.

Wow.

I love this idea of, of duplicating, of challenging the groups to create other groups.

And, and Ray and I, we talk a lot on the podcast and I'm, mom, I've had the conversations with

you as well about this, this, this theory of church online.

It's called online, the offline, the, the gospel that we learn about in our, in our online relationships

affects our, our offline world and using it to say, okay, I'm not just going to stay in this one group.

I'm going to actually use it to, to go out and start to talk with people, with friends that I know,

start to pray about inviting them into the group, into a, a relationship to, to get them to

understand more of God, to understand more of the gospel through it.

And, and you doing the studies that you're doing, diving into the scriptures is, is such a

awesome, rich way.

Even the book of John, just that, as that, that, that first study to get people to understand

the heart of the gospel and getting them to invite others in and enabling them.

Okay.

We've just gone through John, you know, maybe Matthew, we just finished Matthew, but you're

starting John. So as we're starting John, maybe this is your opportunity to do John for the next

group. So the people that you're going through it, Hey, as we're doing John, you do John as well

with your group. Cause that's, that's a great book for some new people to start off. I love,

and this is kind of what I wanted to ask just here. Like you've got people who have, who have

joined your study, Melissa, as an example, who have been like through Christ fellowship, the church,

somebody catches an online broadcast, fills out a connection card. Um, and we get them connected

into a group, but the majority of your group isn't like crowdsourced through a church service.

It's more, these are people that you know, like, uh, Barbara Chesley, Lori, right, right, right. And

Lori, my, my niece, I knew that she has struggled in church and not really there. And I called her up

and I invited her to give this a try. And she said, Oh, I would love to. And she loves it. I mean,

really, really loves it. And then I have Mary, you might know her, Ray. She was a member of Christ

fellowship and she just moved to Naples. Um, but they're moving back. It didn't work out for them

to stay in. Brenda found us who's in Ontario, Canada. She found us. I don't even totally understand

how she found us because I think she was listening to Christ fellowship Palm beach.

Okay. And somehow or another, she called the church Christ fellowship, Palmado Bay and got connected

to my group through that way. Um, because the first time I, we, cause we always, we all,

always discussed, you know, church. Cause I, my, my biggest encouragement to them is that

they go to church, you know, and so that we talk about what church we went to, what, what

message we heard, you know, that's some of the way we fellowship and Brenda says, and we were

talking about, you know, Rick Blackwood and she goes, who's Rick Blackwood. And, and I said,

well, you know, through Christ fellowship, she goes, no. And she said,

some other name who I don't remember what she said of Christ fellowship up there. So that,

and then I remembered that there was another church Christ fellowship up North.

Yeah. We've probably benefited a little too unfairly from that cross branding, at least

online. Yeah.

So anyway, that's how we found her. But obviously Debbie Brown is in my Sunday night class and I've

known her for many, many years and she's, she's wonderful. And she's, you know, she's got a lot

of knowledge and a lot of, you know, um, background in, in Bible, um, through BSF. So I encourage her to

share her thinking on different verses and subjects and it's just been really, really wonderful. I don't

know how to explain it. I just say the, I get the biggest blessing out of it. I just love it.

I love this idea of you taking ownership of inviting people in, uh, and, and part of in what Ray and I

have talked about is there's, there's this personal mission of, of, we know people who need Jesus. We

know people who are struggling in their faith. We know people who need that, that community.

And, and, and I love that, that you've reached out to the people that you have to make this group

and that you're, that, that Christ Fellowship through Church Online is really empowering you at,

at the personal mission to develop, um, discipleship relationships with this people, these people,

take them through, uh, the scripture and, and to, to dive in. So like, this is,

this is awesome. I love what's happening here with this. Uh, so keep going with that. Here's,

here's the question and we'll, we'll land a plane on this. Somebody wants to start a group.

Somebody's not sure if they want to start a group. How can you advise them? What advice can you give

them to start an online small group? Um, that they just pray about it first and then allow God to

put two people into their mind, maybe a family member or a friend and start that way.

And, and you know, it's as simple as, it's as simple as that.

That's so good.

That's, I mean, that's, that's what, you know, um, if you have anybody that's thinking about it,

have them call me. They will definitely want to do it after they talk to me.

Okay. So I'm not going to give my mom's, uh, cell phone number on the, on the show notes. So I kind

of want you to now and now so that we can start more Christ fellowship online small group. So,

uh, go ahead and call 305-238-1818. Ask for Radiarmus and, uh, I'll get you with,

in with Linda Reed and we'll work this out.

Get them in touch with me. That's fine.

There you go. I like that so much better than the other option. So well done. Um, man, Ray,

thoughts as we're landing the plane here.

I mean, Linda nailed every part of it and, and, you know, she loves the people in her group and

she loves Jesus and all this kind of works together to help lead them in the right steps

of discipleship, which is what it's all about. The medium doesn't matter as much as the fact

that she's living out the mission and that's, what's most important. So great job, Linda.

Thank you. Thank you.

Mom, any, any closing thoughts?

Well, um, just that if somebody would have asked me before I retired three years ago,

I would be doing online Bible studies, I would have said, no, not possible. But let me tell you,

you just have to get in there and do it. If you've got a laptop or a computer, it's easy as can be.

And the Zoom product is for me the best. We used to have another product before we went to Zoom.

Do you remember what it was, Jeff?

Yes. And I'm not going to say the name.

Okay.

That's okay. I'm hoping we get sponsored by Zoom here.

Let's just get it.

That's okay. Because Zoom is really easy to use. And, um, I, I think it's, you know,

it's great the way it works, the way they can sign in and, you know, the way you set up the meetings,

every aspect of it is great and easy, very easy because I can't even get this Bluetooth thing to

work. So you can, you can take that part out, Jeff.

No, I want, I want, I want Linda to get all the Zoom sponsorships to Zoom. If you're out there,

right, Linda, read a check right now.

That's, that was awesome. Um, I, you know, I, I can, I can remember three years ago, um,

sitting in my office. Okay. Should I ask my mom to start an online small group? What's the,

what's the best that can happen? What's the worst that can happen? What would this look like? How do

I, I've got this need? Um, and it was all, it was all centered around that, that Melissa relationship

because there were two or three of these young professionals that were starting to, to crop up.

And it's like, what do I, what's the best way to do something here? And that was, you know, that

initial conversation to, to help reach that, that type of person. And I got to tell you, I mean, I love

the fact that I did three years later that you've developed the relationships you have, uh, with these

people, um, that you've been able to, you know, and I don't mean to be rude when I say this, but you've

been able to extend your ministry life where you've been able to do things in ministry through online

that, you know, you may not be able to do if you were existing in the physical realm, because

you travel so much and you're, you're doing so many different things that, um, physical ministry you

can take with you. Yes. You know, but let me, let me write and comment on that though, because Linda,

this is what I love about it and something that I've practiced, you know, with folks who

are a stage of life behind and something that I've had the benefit of having folks who are

a stage of life ahead. And if you're here listening and you're anywhere in life, I just want to

encourage you. Number one, you don't know who you can develop that's a step behind you.

And number two, you don't know the kind of development that you need from a person who's

a step ahead. Because I'm telling you now from everything from parenting to marriage life,

to work life, having folks in my life who are two or three steps ahead of me has been the

treasure trove of my life where I've avoided a lot of pitfalls and where the Lord has allowed me to do

the same for somebody who's in college or just newly married or whatever else, just a step behind.

I don't have to, you know, you don't have to have everything, just be willing to give what you do.

And that is so powerful in discipleship.

Yes, very much so. I have one, just real quick and I'll close. I have one of the ladies I didn't

mention Sunday night, Jill. She lives in Homestead. Her husband's in the military and they're getting

ready to transfer to, he's taken, he actually has a PhD and he's going to work for the University of

Michigan and they're moving. And she was sharing Sunday night how excited she is that she'll be able

to take her small group with her to Michigan, you know, so we're all excited about hearing all about

what God has in store for her in Michigan after, you know, she came to Miami from Ohio,

not wanting to come, afraid to come, you know, with two small babies and her husband in military.

It's been wonderful. And she and I have grown to really, you know, trust each other and love each

other. And now she's going to Michigan and she's excited both to go to Michigan and take our group

together, take our group together. Yeah. And then that's, that's the heart of church online and online

relationships is that, you know, you've, you've got this biblical community. You've got this,

this group of people and you have the opportunity to, to continue those relationships on. And this is

awesome. I like, I, and man, this has been a great birthday gift and I appreciate the time of this

and the wisdom. This is probably the cheapest birthday gift I ever got away with.

Yeah, we'll, we'll let that fly. There, there was a lot worse you could have said in this podcast.

So we're just going to, we're going to walk away. I'm going to count my blessings. Thank you for that.

Right. Uh, for Ray, uh, for, for Linda, I'm, I'm Jeff with the church digital. Thanks for joining us

today and, uh, we'll see you next time. Thanks for being here. Bye.