BETA27: 6 Reasons We Need Digital-Only Churches

Hey, all right, we got the beta show episode 27. Hey, I'm Jeff with the Church Digital podcast. Uh, once again, all this is powered by Stadia Church Planting, and really Stadia is at the heart of this conversation that I want to talk about today here with digital-only church planting. Hey, let's do this.

Up front, if you've got questions, text your digital ministry questions in: 484-324-8724. That is literally my cell phone number. I am giving you my cell phone number. Don't call me right now. Don't be that guy. But text 484-324-8724, send your ministry questions in. Topics for today's show, beta episode 27: six reasons we need digital-only churches.

Six reasons that the church today, Western civ, Western society, we need digital-only churches. I'm gonna love this conversation. We're gonna define what a digital-only church is, and hopefully I don't get lynched in the process. I got to tell you, I had a pastor tell me this within the past couple weeks. Hey, Jeff, you've successfully normalized the weird. We were talking about digital-only churches, and this pastor had told me merely 24 hours before the conversation, none of this made any sense and none of this sounded like anything he wanted to get involved with. But as he started to understand really what a digital-only expression of church is and how that can be used to reach different types of people, he got on board quickly. And I got to tell you, I hope today in this conversation, some of you out there, I can help start to normalize the weird here of a digital-only church.

Well, hey, before we get to the six reasons, let's just do this real quick. What is a digital-only church? What are we, what are we actually talking about? We're talking about a biblically, biblical functioning, ecclesiologically solid church in digital community. I don't want to go crazy. I'm not rewriting the Bible. I'm not going something new age or something ethereal. I'm not talking about visions of Jesus and rewriting Scripture. Uh, what I'm looking at is taking the biblical functions, Acts 2:36-47, and defining that in digital context so that church can exist in digital community. And so really, that the challenge is for us is that we're looking at a digital community as a community that's worthy of a church. A digital community is a community that's worthy of a church.

Now, you see, we've already, we don't get, we, the church, we don't get to define whether a digital community is a community. Society, culture has already done that. They've said a digital community is a community. They've already defined it. There's millions of people that play video games regularly, and that's where they engage with their friends. Their, the largest nation on the planet, if we looked at social media as a nation, would be Facebook. Billions of people are active on that network each and every week. So there are already people that are engaging in digital community. The real question is: is do we Christians, do we see an opportunity for the church to exist holistically within that digital community?

Let's get into this. Uh, a church existing in digital community, digital disciples in digital community, using digital and cloud-based tools. A digital-only church can manifest itself into microsites, micro churches as well. This is not what I'm saying. This is not a digital church. Digital-only expression of church does not drive people to a physical building. This is not, hey, let's do ad campaigns that are going to get people to the physical building. That's not digital church. Broadcasting your service alone does not make you a digital church. Just because a church service exists digitally is not the challenge. The real question is: is where are you doing disciples? Where are you doing discipleship? Where are you making disciples? If you're making that in digital space, then maybe you're a digital church. But if you're only doing that in physical space, you're not there yet. It really comes down to that disciple-making piece.

Practically speaking, what is a digital-only church? Maybe you're familiar with some of the more current microchurch network strategies: Rob Wagner, Casey Underground, Brian Sanders, Tampa Underground. The way that Rob Wagner looks at Kansas City and his passion to reach the city of Kansas City specifically, we just did a podcast. He started in that southwest quadrant, and what happened was when he went digital as a result of COVID, he expanded out of that southwest quadrant quickly. Digital was an accelerator. Another conversation. But as Rob is passionate about Kansas City, I've got digital planters, and I know people that are that passionate about virtual reality, about Twitch, about Discord, about video games. About, we're gonna get into much more of creative opportunities soon. But you see that this is how a digital planter looks at this community: that it's a digital community, that it's a community that needs the church, and that digital planter is going into it.

Now, I hear some of you right now. I'd listen, let's be honest right now. Uh, I would hate going to this church. That's what some of you are thinking right now. Jeff, I need my side hug. That the past 15, 16 months with COVID, not being able to be in that physical space, has been a detriment to the church. You are right. I am not going to push on that. You are right. The church has struggled over the past 15 or 16 months because they did not have physical. But that doesn't mean digital-only can't work, and we're going to get into some of that here.

Uh, with a little bit, ultimately what you need to understand, this is one of my favorite quotes from Jim Tomberland. I want to give him a shout out here with this: it's not for everyone, but it's got to be for enough to make it worthwhile. And when I look at a digital-only expression of church in 2021, Jim Tomberland's quote comes to mind. Because digital-only expressions of church, you're right, 2021, post-COVID, right now, it's not for everyone. Not everyone on the planet wants to attend a digital-only expression of church. I would suggest though that there are enough right now to make this worthwhile. And that is the challenge: how do we support and do this to get enough out there to make it worthwhile?

By the way, quick commercial: Stadia is helping plant digital-only expressions of church. Stadia churchplanting.org slash digital. D-I-G-I-T-A-L. Stadia churchplanting.org/digital. If you're interested in planting a digital-only expression of church, swing by there and uh, let's have a conversation.

But let's do this. Let's get into it. All that was prelude for what's coming up now. Six reasons that we need digital-only expressions of churches today, 2021, post-COVID, where we are.

Number one: it's time to rethink the church. Okay, listen, put the pitchforks down. Uh, the torches, don't, don't, don't come at me. Hate mail, don't press in. Just hear me out for a little bit here. Today's typical church, if we really were to look at it, yes, there are some things that are based on the ecclesiological, the theology of the church, the biblical functions. But there's a chunk of it as well that's extra-biblical, that's outside of the Bible. Now the challenge for you is to really look at what's happening and say: the things that you're passionate about, the things that when you go back to the church, are they theologically solid or is it extra-biblical? Is it things that are outside of the Bible?

So when we talk about doing a digital-only church, we want to look at the Scripture and reimagine what the Scripture, what Acts 2, what other passages calls us to do in digital space, what that church could look like digitally. And I'll tell you right now, it's not always going to look like what the physical church is. But that doesn't mean that it's not biblical. For ourselves, we want to reimagine, we want to reset, we want to restructure the big C church. That's our calling. And that, once again, it's not for everyone, but it is going to be enough for people to make it worthwhile. We are going to get enough people to make the effort worthwhile for that.

So number one: time to rethink the church.

Number two: different churches reach different types of people. Different churches reach different types of people. Hinted towards this earlier. De-churched people are finding safety to ask spiritual questions within digital community. Digital-only churches are succeeding in reaching de-churched and unchurched people at high levels. I had a church tell me of digital church, 70 to 80 percent of the people that engage regularly with this particular church are de-churched, essentially atheists, agnostics. Uh, 60 to 70 percent of another digital church are, um, are unchurched. Are, I'm sorry, 70 to 80. I just totally screwed up that. That's awesome. 70 to 80 percent is unchurched, complete atheist. 60 to 70 is de-churched people. For the first time, they're going back to the bride of Christ. And so we're seeing where digital has an opportunity to connect with different types of people than really what the physical buildings have been able to get over time.

Now there's a whole other spectrum. What we're looking at here, you've heard me talk about video gamers. I know of a successful church that's happening right now that with the American Sign Language, ASL, essentially the heart of hearing, where they're not able to connect together in physical space just because the ASL community is scattered so far across the country. It's one of the largest unreached people groups in America, by the way. Digital churches are able to connect with them in great ways. I've got, we're working with the church right now in Stadia. He's a first-generation Nigerian. He lives here in America. He wants to launch a digital-only church that is aiming to connect with Nigerian refugees around the planet. Try doing that in a physical space. Like, he literally wants, he's a Nigerian first-generation, and he wants to reach other, um, refugees scattered across the country, not Nigerian people specifically, Nigerian refugees who have been displaced. And he's able to capitalize on that and reach and minister to these people in digital space. This is beautiful.

And Mark Lutz, uh, who's the lead pastor of Lux Digital Church, one of these digital-only churches we've launched just recently, is very clear of saying, by the way, hey, our church of video gamers. We're a church of video gamers. Yeah, video games, video gamers attend, but so do their spouse, so do their friends. Like, it's more than just video gamers. It's not for video gamers. It's of video gamers. And so that's an interesting clarification coming in where churches, we're seeing digital churches are reaching different types of people.

Number three: there's a strong emphasis here on the word digital disciple-making. Okay, two words, maybe three, depending upon where, how you think of the hyphen. Digital disciple-making. Disciple-making is an intentional word here. The heart here is a disciple who has made a disciple who's in the process of making another disciple. So you're seeing a repetition, you're seeing a multiplication happening. This is where digital shines. This is the strength of what digital is. Digital is all about equipping. It's all about training. It leans so heavily into disciple-making if it's given the opportunity.

The perception though among a lot of churches out there, among a lot of people, is that digital, that technology, is cold and that it's distant. When in fact, digital can be very warm and personal. At the end of the day, digital is a tool, and it really depends upon how we, the church, the church planter, want to yield, wield that tool. So it comes down to: what do you want it to be?

When I look at digital churches, here's what I see. I see that digital churches work best not when it's about a church or an organization alone doing ministry, but it's more about the church empowering individuals to do ministry. And this is where we start to, and this quote was actually, I wrote this in 2018, it went viral.

Past week I'm not sure why it was listed in a tweet and just kind of exploded off that, which is awesome because that really is more relevant today in 2021 than it was when I wrote it in 2018.

Man, if the church, if we could get to the place of empowering individuals to do ministry instead of us thinking that our lone voice is going to be the one that's going to shine through. And this right here, this really gets us here to number four. You ready for this? Personal mission. Really, a digital church is about enabling the priesthood of all believers. A digital church has to move beyond that one man standing on stage exuding a spiritual gift in front of thousands and instead a digital church is going to empower thousands of people to exude their spiritual gift in front of tens or hundreds or maybe thousands. And this is where that equipping and that training comes in. Where if we, the church, can start to equip others with a voice instead of trying to speak for them, maybe sending them out instead of trying to gather them in, we'll get into that part here in a little bit. Man, the church would look much, much different.

Let's check this out. Here's the standard. We have, you said this a lot too. The digital only church standard is really online to offline. The gospel that we hear in our online world, it has to affect, it has to influence our offline relationships. If what we hear digitally is not affecting who we are physically, then we, the church, all we're doing is creating consumers. And we have to get past creating consumers in a 2021 post-COVID society. And this is where a digital only church shines because with a digital only church you have fresh opportunity, fresh DNA to create those environments and to utilize the strength of equipping and empowering within a digital disciple-making process to release people in new ways. Phenomenal opportunity we have, not to mention the reach of what's happening. I mean, I'll even fall back on Rob Wagner, Casey Underground. He was focused on the southwest section. He said this in an upcoming podcast with the Church Digital. He was focused on the southwest corner of Kansas City. When he went co-digital as a result of COVID, he found, oh man, I no longer can focus on southwest because I'm discipling somebody up in the northeast, in the northwest, in this and in all the regions. And so he had to broaden his map because the reach was so good in digital that we're not even talking about, we're not even realizing that.

Number five here: God is moving in digital only churches globally. God is moving in digital only churches globally. I had a friend, I was speaking to a friend of mine. It's actually a Stadia planner planning a church in San Francisco, California. And he's a first generation, Ali Ruhi did a podcast with him. He's a first generation Muslim from Iran. And so I was telling him all this stuff with digital only churches, how it's going, maybe I was bragging a little bit. I'm known to do that on occasion. And all he says to me, he leans in and says, "Hey, Jeff, you know who's really good at like this digital only church, this general disciples stuff, discipleship? You know you need to talk to?" And I leaned in, I'm excited. I'm like, "Ali, tell me. I want to talk to him. Can you introduce me? I'm excited about this. I want to know." Is that what Ali says? "Every pastor in Iran. Every pastor in Iran is really good at this digital discipleship stuff. Why? Because that's all they have."

And so while we here in the U.S. are arguing about whether discipleship can really happen in digital space or whether a digital only church is successful, the nation of Iran is seeing growth happen spiritually in our developing people utilizing satellite broadcasts and utilizing apps like WhatsApp to disciple people, to literally bring life change within their family. One person often gets saved within the household and then that one person is discipled digitally to the point where the others can accept Christ and they are able to share their faith with others, literally within the household. Not to mention that, you know, the whole Christian thing in Iran equals death. So like the power of digital discipleship is very good because the win of digital discipleship is getting people to the point of getting baptized, which is literally where they will be killed in Iran. That's legitimately a thing. So tell me that digital discipleship and digital only churches don't work. I'll point you to Iran where evidently it's working quite well.

Number six here. By the way, you know, I would even just throw this quote. Maybe this is haphazard. Look and see where God is moving and pray about joining him in his work. Henry Blackaby, Experiencing God, 1975. You know, I got to believe that if I'm just looking at what's happening there in that space, man, there's incredible opportunities for God to move. There are lessons that we can learn in Western civ based off of a country that literally these digital only churches are taking people to the point of dying. I mean, that's a legitimate thing. Maybe we should be joining him in his work. I don't know. Let's pray about that.

Hey, number six here. This one is a work in progress. I would love insight from you. I'm gonna open this up. Text me 484-324-8724. I want to hear your insights in this. You see, we, the church, we're really good at, at least in the Western society, we're really good at this whole ecclesia. I think we love gathering. It's all about the gathering. We've been going nuts for the past 16 months because we cannot gather. What if, and maybe this is crazy, what if it's the diaspora, the scattering, that is actually where God moves? And I've been challenged by some people. Check out the Sam George podcast within the Church Digital podcast. He talked a lot about this where it's really the diaspora, it's the breaking up of the people, and then the ecclesia, it's the reconnection, the creating new communities is where we see God move. It's not the stagnant of, "Hey, I'm gonna be in my one community," as much as it is the dispersing and then the reconnecting and then the dispersing and the reconnecting in different areas.

What I do know is this: digital is not a virtual building for people to gather. Digital, a digital only church is a distribution network for people to scatter. And I would throw at this Acts 8:4. Those who have been scattered preach the word wherever they went. Yes, the scattering in this context was Stephen. Yes, whereas he was murdered. Yes, there was all sorts of persecution and things happening. Okay, maybe that's not happening in Western society, at least where we are in 2021, but I do know this: if we are going to connect with new people, if we're going to do new things, we have to move outside of our comfort zone. Our comfort zones cannot get us connected to new people. We see that statistically time and time again. New things connect to new people. Digital is going to get you to a different audience. And so doing these things differently is what's going to help us. It's what's going to propel us to get connected with new people and create new opportunities, new ecclesias, to even create new diasporic movements to reconnect into ecclesias. You can kind of see how the cycling and the intertwining comes together. It's a beautiful thing. Would love your feedback on any of this, including number six.

Number six is kind of putting it together in my head. Would love some dialogue. Here's the deal. Ultimately, we're going to wrap. If you want more information on digital only church planning, go swing over to thechurch.digital/planting. Questions? Hit me up because we're going to land the plane. I'm two minutes over where I want it to be on this idea of digital only church planting. Here are six reasons why you need those digital only church planting options out there. And if you are interested in doing this through Stadia, once again, hit us up at stadiachurchplanting.org/digital.

Hey, this is Jeff with the Church Digital and with Stadia Church Planting. Thanks for being here. I'm signing out and we'll see you next time here at the Beta Show. Have a good one.