Experimenting and Improvement - Jate Earhart

, really nice band isn't going to cut it. And having nice coffee in the lobby is not what's going to get them to come to you, your mosque. So you have to, uh, like, re, like, really seriously think about it. What would it take? What does it mean to, uh, treat others the way you want to be treated? And for me personally, if I had a close friend, if I had somebody that I played video games with throughout the week, and that person said, "I've been going to a mosque recently." And I know it's kind of weird. I know it's not like the normal thing, but it, um, yeah, it, it's a thing. And like what they're saying makes sense. And so I would love to just chat about it with you, but like I need some context. Would you just come with me to the mosque? I know it's going to be kind of weird. Here's what we do. We go to the, the entrance. They got coffee. You're going to go and you're gonna sit down. You're going to drink the coffee, and then we're going to stand up and it's this thing and they do a prayer. Don't worry about it. Music. Sit down. Listen, sermon, and then we're going to leave. But like afterwards, I'll pay for dinner and like we can just talk about it. I want to hear what your experience was, what you thought was strange or not. And like we just discuss it, you know? And like if somebody asked me to do that, they're like, no pressure. It's just I, I would like you to just try it. Sure. I would go to your mosque. Like I, I would do it. Um, and I would, I would just, just to see, you know? And then, um, so same, same thing. Think about that through anything that you're trying to get people to go to. Anything you're trying to get people to talk to, replace in my head. I replace, uh, when we're talking, I replace the word, um, like God or Bible or religion with science because, uh, if we're talking about in my, in my head, if I'm trying to invite somebody to something, if somebody asked me to come to, uh, a science, let's see, how do we, a science study? I would not be interested in a science study. No, I've, I don't want to study science with you. It studying is like there's a test at the end or something. I'm not interested in a science study. Okay. But if you said, let me phrase it. Would you want to come to a science discussion where it's people that are not the, they're not the like leading experts in science or anything like that? It's just something that like is, it's an important topic, and so I think we should discuss it. There needs to be spaces for discussion, but discussion is mostly out these days. And so it's just a place for us to talk about it and to give like a first, a first look for people that have maybe like not thought about science in a really long time or maybe even ever. I'd be like, "Oh, okay. Yeah, maybe, you know, maybe not really up my alley, but if I'm, uh, available on a Saturday, I might do that." So it's what we do. That's why we don't call it Bible studies. We don't say, "Come to my Bible study." That's a very Christian thing to say. So instead, I said, come to our Bible discussion where we talk about the Bible. It's the first time. Maybe people have never read the Bible before, never been to church. I get it. I'm not a pastor. I'm not like a super smart guy. It's not like I've, uh, I've read the Bible a couple times though, and like I'd be willing to talk about it if anybody's interested and like discuss it because I think it's too important not to. But like, you know, it's a first, it's a first passing over for people. And, and so thinking about your context in whatever way it is is like, how do you phrase whatever the thing is that you're doing in a way that makes sense to people who have no context to the words that you use? And like you're going to use Christian words that sound very natural and normal to you. And it's like you're speaking a totally different language to them. And so think about it like through a different, um, a different context, a different, a different lens, I guess. Um, hopefully that was some, something in there is helpful. Totally. That's where I've been. Um, care loads together. Yep. Yep. Yep. My contacts this Friday. I'll be challenging gaming students to a week of spiritual starting spiritual conversations in their favorite games. I'm suggesting they start with today. I'm asking um about people's faith. Could I ask you few questions about what you believe? Yeah. I mean like that might that might work. Again, my for me, a lot of it is the having a space, creating a space. Yeah, let's talk about that for a second. So, they're going into the games and and they're talking to people for the first time. I've seen this and I've seen it be effective. So, I know that it can be, but for me personally, it's not something that's been super effective. Although, I have done it through Destiny and like a couple things at the end of raids where it's been okay. But most of the time, those conversations are kind of one-offs and they're with random people and they're not like with friends. And for me, I've had a lot more lasting relationship success with people that I've become friends with. So, um, that's the the problem that I kind of hit on earlier, but I think we should fly back over is that there's no talking spaces anymore. Like part of why Twitch is so awesome and even what we're doing right now is so awesome. Um although they're not I mean we kind of get some but yeah it it's not um there's no places to talk anymore and this happened before COVID but COVID didn't help. Uh well COVID did help but it helped with with pushing the digital even harder. So there are not there's not places to just talk to people. You can go if well a lot of them are places of addiction. Um if you go to a bar, you can drink with somebody and talk at the same time. If you go to a if you smoke, you can stand out and smoke with somebody. If you're an Uber driver, you can talk to somebody as you're driving them on Uber. If you're next to somebody in a plane, um outside of those things and maybe a bowling alley, like there don't really exist spaces anymore for talking. You can go to the park, everybody's walking their dog, they're not interested. You can go to a grocery store, they are getting their groceries and not interested. You can go to the mall, people already have their clicks. Like you you don't just randomly walk up to somebody and talk, which is why places like VR Chat are so interesting to me. VR Chat's like an online VR space where you can literally just walk up to somebody and chat with them. And it feels so strange at first because it's like this is the opposite of real world. But because of that pseudo anonymous that you can just block somebody and not ever have that conversation again. I think that's why that's allowed that to become a space like that. But you have similar spaces in video games where you're just playing a video game and you already have some context of like we both play the same game. But I think it's trying to get past that. how to move it beyond just that like first time interaction. And if it's adding somebody in a game so that you can play again, then like awesome. Um, and then praying for those people like make a list and think about, okay, where where's that person at right now and how can I have another conversation with that person? I think these are just Yeah, I think these are just super important like first steps, but I'm going to keep trying to uh scroll down so I could catch more I could catch more of what you're saying. Um Jade, how do you move from fans to personal connections? Um and opening up in a community. Well, yeah, I don't I don't know that I mean I don't think I have a lot of like fans. I think I just like get to know people and so I think it's kind of all connected to that. But yeah, being really open, people will reciprocate. There's a a funny thing in Japanese um and it happens in English too where in in Japanese the way that you ask a question is the way somebody responds. So if you say like the words you use for what's your favorite food, then it gets it's the same words they'll use for like my favorite food is and it's just sort of a that's how it's framed. And I think the same thing ends up happening a lot with pretty much all of our communication where people will naturally reciprocate the what you're doing. If you're if you're really open about something, the more open that you're you are to them, the more open they're willing to be. um because it's like breaking down a a wall. So, I try to be very very open. I I crave moments that I can be more vulnerable than Yeah. Like on stream that's the case. If I find something that I'm like, "Oh yeah, this would be a really kind of vulnerable thing to say right now," then I know that's something I should say right then. And cuz being vulnerable, I we tend to want to like I want to have all the right answers. I want to have like all the right Christiany answers. And if I have the right answers, then I'll be able to answer people's questions really well. And then that will like convert them to Christian. More often, it's like, hey, I'm having lots of questions, too. These are all questions what you're asking. Me, too. I've also thought about that. And yeah, that's a really good point. And I don't have all the answers, but like let's explore it together. let's look it up uh on Google and like yeah I don't know according to this it's saying such and such thing and like what do you think about that and people are more often like oh okay so like I'm not strange for having a couple questions about like the anger of God this is a confusing topic let's talk about it you know and if if people know that you're willing to be uh like well you have to be willing to be wrong. You have to be willing to like maybe what I'm saying is right. Maybe what I'm saying is wrong. And can can that be okay? Can it be okay that I don't know all the answers because otherwise the other person's going to be afraid to ask questions that like they maybe they don't have the answers to, you know? So yeah, I would say opening up in a community is really like you have to open up the level that you're willing to open up to. People will open up to you. It would be good to have some type of discipleship tool um I can give and speak about. Um yeah, I I mean tools are really good. I think tools are tools tools are helpful and I think especially in discipleship it becomes more helpful because both of you can agree to like download a tool and go through it together. But in evangelism, which is more the space that I end up, it's like kind of less um I don't want to say less about the tools, but it really is I went through the whole process of of getting as many tools as I could for evangelism. like, "Yeah, I'm going to have this. I'm going to say this thing and then, oh, I'll do the whole thing where like, you know, this is the gap is sin and like I'm going to draw a little cross across it and like, you know, I had this whole whole little spiel planned out." And then uh I like went in the real world and uh it was like people just want to talk about video games and it's like, "Oh, okay." like how can I how can I have a conversation with you about whatever your favorite game is and like oh that game really talks a lot about like some deep topics and stuff and like oh yeah but it really hit me at a time in my life when I was like considering suicide oh snap dang like how did you get out of that oh you know I had some friends and some stuff but like I don't know I don't know if I ever really did shoot man like do you want to talk about that is something I can pray for you for and like I I didn't have to do a whole gap thing talking about like well you know the reason that you're dealing with suicide is because the gap of sin is actually pretty wide and like I mean I I get maybe some people that's the like thought process but it's it doesn't translate for this person that's like dealing with some really dark stuff and the answer is in the Bible but like if you really love God and you really love people and you're thinking how you know how how can I treat others the way I want to be treated like I I don't when you when I tell you something really deep and that's going on in my life. I don't want you to like sit there and draw me a little like diagram. I want you to be like, "Dang, yeah, I've dealt with some stuff, too." And like, "I'm sorry that happened." And is it okay if I pray for you? Like, can can I pray for you? And I've even told people who are like, "No, I don't really believe in prayer." I've literally said like, "You can think of it like good vibes if you want." Like, honestly, it's okay if you don't believe in prayer. If you don't believe in God, I do. And as somebody that loves you, cares about you, wants the best for you, the best way I can show it is to pray. And so, like, please give me the honor of doing the thing that I believe is the only thing I can do in this situation. I'm online. I'm just a talking head on the internet. I I can't go to you and give you a hug like I want to right now. Can I please pray for you? And people are like responsive to that cuz you're being open. You're not trying to be like some scripted robot. And it's going to get even worse with AI, guys. It's going to get much much worse. It's going to get much much harder for you to have these relationships with people when like AI exists and they're already used to having um all their answers just answered by some like robot and they are going to crave ever more. Gen Z is like the craving of having conversations with people and intimacy and having like close connection to people. It's going to become more and more and more important that you do that. So lean into that as much as you can. We're hybrid in person and uh digital small groups fellowship and sometimes keeping the in-person uh is the priority folks happy and the digital is where the reach lost the priority uh happy is challenging when we know both are important. Yeah. Um like if you can do I I for me it's like if I can do in person then I will. If I can do digital then I will. And for the people who want to do in person because that's what they know and it's what they're good at then like great do that you know um do that. But the people that are good at digital like do that. Let let them do that and encourage them to do that and support them in doing that and fund them in doing that. Like let it's crazy that the in person is the ones that are like that's all it's funded. And I think that's just kind of archaic. a hundred years from now, it'll probably be flipped. Where we're like, well, why would I put a bunch of money into a building? Building costs are uh a million Bitcoin. Why would I do that when I could just do a digital? And so, I'm sure it'll flip at some point. But right now, all the funding goes to um it just goes to in in person and it'll probably flip at some point. So, we're just we're just in a weird switch between it's where God's placed you. God put you in this earth for this time for a specific purpose. We are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works so that he prepared in advance so we that we might walk in. This is the time that God put you here for a specific purpose. Whoever you are, whatever your context is, I 100% believe that God is like put you on this earth for a purpose and he will set you and the world up to do that purpose. So even if you're like ah it's like so much harder than such and such doesn't matter. There's lots of hard things that people have done before you. You're lucky you get to do a hard thing because if it was an easy thing, then you wouldn't want to do it anyway because you're all here because you're like the type of person who would do the hard thing that would do the thing that's the weird thing. You know, you're used to being that kind of person. And so here you are and like God did this for this purpose. And I think a hundred years from now it will be much easier. But they're going to have their own hard thing. They're going to have their own how they're going to be like hundred years from now. How can we, you know, disciple people in the AR generation. Everybody's got me blocked. My avatar, no one even sees me anymore because they use the blah blah blah to like block me out. And so it's like it's going to be just a totally different landscape moving forward. But for now, we look at like where we're at right now in our context, you know? I'm listening, but I'm still working on the meme invention journey. That's awesome. Yeah, Jack, I see your like your avatar and uh definitely want to, you know, talk about anime with you sometime. That happens to be all the time. I was asked for a call back number for somebody to at work and suddenly got bad things that happened this week. Yeah. And it can be really hard, but it's also like lean into that a little bit. If that that person doesn't have anybody else to talk to and maybe that's something that God prepared you for. Imagine if the person who is it's easier in the context where we're looking at the eunuch in the Bible, right? Who's like, "Oh, how can I understand this Bible if nobody teaches it to me?" And like that's what we want, right? We're like, "Why can't God just teleport me somewhere and have somebody appear to me and just be like, 'Oh, this Bible, if only somebody would teach me what it is.' Me, I read it. I know it. I know how that is. But like we get that all the time, right? Where there's people who are saying there are things that I am dealing with. If only somebody would have an answer for like what this thing is and why I'm dealing with this and why hard stuff happens and why difficult things happen to good people. And you're like, dang, yeah, that's uh that's the Bible. Um that is actually what they're asking. They just don't know that they're asking it. You know, are you coming on? Am I out of time already? I'm I'm literally just trying to reach chat. Oh, no. You're totally doing great, which is one of the reasons why you were one of the first people that we said we we wanted to have you on because you are really engaging. You're answering the questions people have. We will have more time for Q&A and we will have an afterparty. So, there'll be plenty of time where rather than just reading chat, we can have a video calls which I think are are much much better to engage in. Anyway, so I I did post in there a five minute warning, but you at this pace are 10 minutes away from reading the five minute warning. So, no no worries on that. Uh let's get some fives in the chat for Jade. And if there were any other questions that you had, make sure you bring those back when we we do the Q&A or when we do hang out afterwards. Uh but dude, just such good stuff, man. Thank you. Yeah. Um I'm Yeah, I mean I see so Okay, five minute warning now. Are we? No, we're down. Okay. I I see the um Yeah. Yeah. I I I'm seeing like a lot of things and I'm trying to to scroll through, but I also know that it's like there's like walls. There's walls of stuff. So you guys are um Yeah, I see that was from Yeah. 10 minutes on there. If uh if you have any questions, obviously just feel free to message me. If you use Discord, you can just click my name and send me a friend request or a message request and I'll just go through and um you know, I've seen all your names in here, so I'll I'll know who to accept. And um I one one more thing here that Dr. Level as my big question I'm wrestling with is how do I create the content people want to see while not Jesus juking them? Particularly while focusing on video content. um for the most part. Yeah. Like same, you know, I mean, same same kind of stuff. And that's I think I think it's difficult because especially when creating content, video content. Um I believe that that's like you have to do it in the most subtle ways. um just so that you're continuing to be in algorithms that are not just all Christian. It's not the mindset for a lot of people is like, "Oh, I don't want to be shy about my faith and so if I don't specifically say it, then I will come off as like a shy Christian." And that's not true for me or for anybody else that's a Christian. Like just don't think that way. You're what you're doing is like how do I make something in a context that is just not Christian but I want to bring that kind of aspect to it and there's things you can say that will let people know that that's like who you are and I talk about that too. Yeah. What's up Andy? Well, I was going to say like there there seems to be a personality type though that really thrives in getting out of the Christian algorithm. Like Level Up, it does like you do, but people like like uh Flat Cap and I, we don't necessarily thrive outside of that lane. I think we thrive a little bit more inside of the um it was like flat cap was talking earlier about finding your one and like our one is might be those that are convinced but searching and growing and all that whereas your one might might be Yeah. Like you said 50/50 like Christian non-Christian. Yeah. That's a that's a lot of non-Christians for a bunch of Christian people, you know, for for a lot of Christian mindsets. And so it's almost like finding your personality type and then gripping it with two hands and making sure you hold on to it. Have you have you found that in your life as well? Yeah. Um, it I will say it's it's a little difficult for me to like I I believe that's true and like both are really necessary especially as somebody that's grown a lot from getting content of another Christian and um you know like Tim Mackey is a huge huge thing for me and I just listen to a ton of Bible project and a ton of like exploring my strange Bible and stuff like that that's been really helpful to me. So of course I've consumed content from a Christian that has helped me grow. So I know that that's necessary, but I also like came from the context of mostly being in church, only talking to church friends, only having a very Christian lingo and like God really working on my heart that like I was only going to ever talk to Christians and that that was not what I was supposed to be doing. So if I am um Yeah. I So I guess that that's really like between you and God because for me that was natural. What what you're saying is literally all I did. I mostly did teaching content. I literally made videos where it was Christian videos talking about making the game and how can the video game, you know, express what's going on in the Bible and like I thought that I I made videos that were like short form content through LoveClan uh talking about this is how we can pray and stuff like that. And my context is totally different now. But it was not because I thought, "Oh, this will be much easier for me or because this is just more natural." It was just literally the things I'm talking about. I started to think through and say, "This is not like what God even tell me to do." Like God is telling me I need to go into these places that are kind of weird for me. And if only if the only people that ever do that are people that are just kind of like they don't really know the Bible very well and so they're just sort of on the fringes and they just became a Christian and so they're already there then it's like people will only get like a wishy-washy Christian and that's their only context they'll have. And so instead, it's like I really do have to think about how can I phrase this in a way that it it means okay like last night I was in VR chat and one of the people I was talking to um the person next to me was just using the Lord's name in vain all the time and it is super awkward for me and it's it's really hard for me to like be in spaces like that. But it's like yeah cool. This is like where God has me right now. This is where I am today. And if I um if I can have a communication with this person, I know already right off the bat that any amount of Jesus I can give that person will be the probably only experience that person gets for the day, you know, and so I don't know like what's what's important to you? um is it it it does kind of you know not to like but there is a leaving the 99 for the one and there sometimes you're going to be like dude but I could have 99 times the success if I was openly Christian about everything that I said in my videos. Like I if I just reached the Christian audience, I could be 99 times more uh uh big. I could have a 99 times bigger stream. My YouTube videos would be 99 times bigger. And that's like, are you willing to have uh only a thousand views if it means that that what you're doing is what God told you to do? And this is why I say it's so important that we do we really love God. Are we really like praying about is this the thing that God has for me? Because if you get a feeling in your heart that's like I've had things that were very successful but were not um effective for what I felt God told me to do and just being successful is not a good measurement for like is this what God told you to do and only you can know that like only you and God can can talk that out and uh that's really that's very difficult for me and also very heavy on my heart because it's stepping out stepping outside of yourself and being like I don't have a good metric for success outside of this is what God said for me to do and so I just do it. And that means your view count is not the most important thing. You know, you're even just like having lots of friends isn't the most important thing. If you have one friend and it's the person that God said to reach and you're reaching that person, then you're doing what God told you to do. And that's um very very difficult because I like logic. I like the metrics. I like I like saying, "Well, I'm successful because blah blah blah." And giving all my like reasons for success, and it's just not it's just not how it works in God's kingdom. So, yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. One, thanks, man. Um Oh, go ahead. I just wanted to Yeah. Sorry. You you just said one thing there, where God has me right now. And I I think that's an important thing to think about as we're asking all these questions. That's one reason why I want you to go back and think about this in 6 months and a year from now. Because who God's calling you to right now might change as you grow in your faith. Because maybe right now you're called to one person that you need to reach, but in 6 months or 3 years from now, God may have prepared you to reach someone else and you need to move to another new place, which is what I admire about some of the stuff that you you are always talking about, Jade, of experimenting. I need to change because I'm not reaching. Suddenly I'm attracting Christians and they're not who I'm called to. God is telling me no. So you have to figure out ways to move into the space where the people are. It just just inspired me uh in many ways which is partly why I'm doing things in person to do those very same things that you were talking about. Where can you make a place for someone to be able to come? So love that. Jade, would you be willing to hang out in your uh in the Jade Fox room a little bit later? Of course. Of course. Awesome. Awesome. If you guys have more questions, send them to Jade. But I'm going to stage dive him back into the audience right now. Everybody, fives in chat for the one, the only Jade Fox. Goodbye.