BETA23: Digital Revival - Seeing God Move Phygitally

Beta show episode 23. Here you got Jeff with the Church Digital podcast once again. And I was, my favorite part once again, it's powered by Stadia Church Planting. This is a hard question. It's funny when I talk with digital pastors, when I talk with online pastors, when I talk with executive pastors, lead pastors, I ask this question a lot honestly. And it didn't even, this question didn't come from me. This came from Greg Nettle, president of Stadia. He asked me early on in the COVID season, "Hey Jeff, where are you seeing the tangible presence of God move in our churches online?" And, you know, it's funny. The first time he asked me that, he's asked me that actually multiple times. It's not like that's an intimidating question or anything, but when he asks me, you know, at first time I was like hemming and hawing and talking about, you know, reach, talking about numbers of viewers online. And you know, is that, are we really seeing God move? We know enough about these people at that point to even acknowledge and to see that God's moving? We don't even know who these people are when we're watching the online services. And maybe I'm talking about small groups. And maybe I don't, look, I don't want to judge how God is moving in your churches, but what I do want to say is, is early on in this COVID season and even now that we're maybe possibly coming out of this thing, the still the question rises: what does it look like to see God move digitally? To see God move in our churches online? To see God move in our digital only expressions of church? And so I wanted to do a Clubhouse. I wanted to bring some guys together because I started hearing some echoes of some major movements of God that were based partially or entirely in a digital space. And so I wanted to ask, I listen, I heard a lead pastor literally say the words "digital revival" coupled together in the same sentence. Like that's how serious they were. It's, man, God is doing something in our digital space and we should just step back and watch and continue to join him where he's moving.

And so here's what I wanted to do. I brought three digital pastors, three pastors, different roles, different expressions into the conversation here. I brought Andrew Bolton, who's from Long Hollow Church in Nashville, and they actually were the ones that utilized this word "digital revival" and couple those together in the same sentence. And so we'll talk more about that in a little bit. Tyler Volkers, who's on staff with the Ridge Church up in Wisconsin, as well as Tyler Sansom from First Capital Christian. Excuse me, from Church Anywhere, which is a digital only church that's coupled with First Capital Christian in Cordon, Indiana. Tyler's, no, excuse me, Tyler Sansom's no stranger to the podcast, been on a lot. Tyler Volkers and Andrew are new, but are solid in some of the stuff they're doing in ministry, solid in their digital approach.

Now what's interesting is this digital revival, how we're seeing God move, you know, it's not only in the digital space. It carries over into physical, or physical kind of carries over into digital. And so you're starting to see this fidget approach. Yes, I did say "fidget" in seeing God move in fidget spaces, physical and digital. So here for the conversation, I'm bringing in Andrew, Tyler, and Tyler. That's Tyler squared, and myself, Jeff, with the Church Digital and Stadia Church Planting in a conversation that I'm simply calling "Digital Revival" or seeing God move fidgetly. Okay, everybody, here you go.

Yeah, man, for sure. So, uh, so Long Hollow, we're a church just outside of Nashville, Tennessee, in a city called Hendersonville. We're a multi-campus church. We have two campuses. Um, then like everybody else, you know, COVID happened and we had to go from streaming a service to building a digital strategy in the air while flying the plane at the same time. Uh, so I stepped into this role in July from being one of our student pastors for over a decade. Um, and man, I tell you what, it has been, it has been so exciting. You know, just since July to do this and see how God is moving in spite of myself and not having a clue what I'm doing. So man, God is good. It's been a fun ride.

That's awesome. And really the spark for this whole conversation, um, was listening to a podcast that was sponsored by the church, Long Hollow, and they literally use "digital revival" in the title. And, and that, you know, oh my gosh, what's going on over at Long Hollow? And so interested. And we'll get to some of that here with the conversation. Let's do Tyler Volkers next. Tyler, your Ridge Community Church, um, and have been part of what you guys have been doing in this COVID season and love what I'm seeing. So maybe share a little bit about what ministries look like for you guys here mid-post COVID over at Ridge Community.

Yeah, thanks Jeff. Uh, yeah, name's Tyler Volkers. Uh, been on staff at the Ridge Community Church for about 11 years now. Uh, started as our student pastor, was serving as our next gen director, and um, kind of the Oak Creek, uh, executive pastor. Oak Creek is a smaller, newer campus. Um, the Ridge before COVID, and then COVID happened. Uh, during 2020, I was asked to shift my role to be our, we call it the online campus pastor, to learn, hey, how do we put more leadership resources and strategy to doing digital ministry? And so connected with Jeff through Stadia. It's been awesome. It's been a wild ride. We now currently um, we have one physical location that is meeting, and as well as our online campus. And I'm currently serving as our executive director of ministries as well as the online campus pastor. And it's still a wild ride now to see both working in tandem together has been, uh, really, really fun to watch that start to unfold now.

Yeah, uh, fun is just the beginning of maybe describing what that looks like. And seeing a church like Ridge Community here adjust, they were doing some digital before, but as a result of COVID, you know, I've really amped up some intentionality and getting to this place of multiplying and exploring different options. It's been awesome to see a church evolve through that. Also, another awesome church to kind of look at from afar and learn lessons. Uh, Tyler Sansom, uh, Church Anywhere lead pastor and executive leadership at First Capital Christian, uh, in the season recently went, and I think this is safe to say right, like you were a church online pastor, uh, but as a result of COVID and seeing uh, maybe some expansion in ministry, you guys have launched like a separate digital only church through uh, First Capital Christian. Tyler, you want to maybe share a little bit about that?

Sure. Yeah, so I have been um, the engagement pastor, which was our way of calling me an online pastor for about four years. And then COVID hit and it gave us an opportunity to do something that we wanted to do for a while of kind of fully staffing a digital church and going all in on that. So for the last like year and a few months, I have, a year and a month or so, I have been the lead pastor of a fully digital church that's staffed for just digital and microsites.

Yeah, so and this is, this is going to be great because at Tyler and your literal environment where you're preaching the gospel, where you're seeing growth, is in digital space or digital space that's feeding into micro locations. And so I think this will be an interesting conversation as we're stepping back and really looking and seeing, hey, how's God moving digitally? How is God moving fidgetly? What does that look like?

Well, let me start with Andrew, maybe describing a little bit here. Uh, Andrew, you use the phrase, or not you, your senior pastor Robbie Gallaty, uh, in a podcast making disciples. Um, we'll throw it in the show notes if you're watching this on podcast or listening later. But he used the phrase um, "digital revival" talking about what's happening at Long Hollow. And what I know of Robbie and some of the seriousness of how he treats uh, church, the gospel, even the phrase "revival," I know that's not a light phrase or a phrase that he throws around. As a matter of fact, pre-COVID, I know that he wasn't necessarily even a fan of digital ministry in context of being fidget, physical only. So tell me a little bit here. Like, what are you seeing coming out of? Why is he using this phrase "digital revival"? What's happening at Long Hollow that makes them use that?

Yeah, man. So and I think just in general, right now in the season of our church for the past 16 weeks or so, guys, just been doing something really special. Um, not only, you know, church-wide, but in my heart personally, you know, and in the leadership's hearts personally. And this revival kind of broke out in our own lives. And then God has just done something that is, man, pastor said best this way. He said, "There's nothing, nothing more exciting than telling a story you don't fully understand." Um, and when it comes to like, I can't explain the revival going on physically right now. But then the reason he started talking about this digital revival is we started seeing people all of a sudden start flying in from Montana, North Carolina. I could go on and on, 12 different states so far to be baptized. They were surrendering their life to Christ. And just all these unbelievable stories that were coming out of that. Uh, and then we started having people reach out, "Hey, I'm here and I'd like to be baptized." And you know, people truly surrender their lives to the Lord from all over the country. So um, so all of a sudden we saw this revival break out in our church. And then the story started rolling in of people who don't live anywhere close to us who God was just doing something unbelievable in their life through salvation, or maybe they already had a relationship with Jesus and they just want to follow through in obedience. And how that was playing out into their life as a whole.

Is that something that like you guys were preaching revival in the physical space and it just trickled over to digital environments?

Oh no, no, dude. I did, that's the thing. Like we, you know, I stepped into this role in July, so you know, not very long. Um, and sure, we're trying to come up with strategy and all this stuff, but I mean, God's just doing something in spite of our strategy or lack thereof, you know? He is just, um, he's calling people to himself. And um, and we weren't preaching it, man. It so started, uh, it was kind of a two-fold thing. So we had this guy named Dylan who actually grew up in our student ministry. Uh, he turned away from the church and uh, turned to being a full-fledged Satanist because of these students at our church. He said that, which that's hard to say, you know? You really got to humble yourself to say that. But he said he would come to church on Wednesday night, then he would go to school and he would see how students, you know, would get all amped up for Jesus on a Wednesday night and then go live like he did and everybody else who doesn't know Jesus at school all the time. And he would see the parents allow them to do that. He said, "If that's what Christianity is, I don't want anything to do with that." So he full-fledged worshipped Satan for years. And then God started working on his life and he found himself back at Long Hollow as an adult now. And he surrendered his life to Lord and then he followed through in believer's baptism. And then a couple weeks later he brought another girl with him who was also a Satanist. She surrendered her life to the Lord. He fought, she followed through in baptism. And then it was that same day this tragedy happened in our community. And this family that goes to our church, somebody had actually murdered the wife and nine-year-old son. And through that process, the dad who's a friend of mine now, he gave his life to...

The Lord and the same day that that second girl got baptized, he got baptized as well. And the Lord just put on Pastor Robbie's heart, "I need to call for spontaneous baptism." Yeah, which freaks us out, you know what I'm saying? Like, how can we prepare for this? Um, and that day, I mean, it was like 100 people got baptized and God just exploded this movement. Ever since then, we've seen just people coming to the Lord, and then out of that started rolling in these stories from God doing the same thing from all over the country.

So the physical, I'm just trying to unpack here, the physical baptized at one point a hundred people, uh, spontaneous in one service, you know? I'm not gonna get into like social distancing and all that. I don't, right? I don't wanna die on that hill today. But so you're seeing a hundred people get baptized in physical space, and it's almost like that reverberated on, even past the physical, in the weeks and months to follow. You mentioned like this is four months coming, right? Mm-hmm. Wow, that's exciting. So people are, is it, are people connecting with you through physical services? Is it more like small groups? Is it friends on friends sharing some of that story? Like, how are you seeing it actually spread and how are you connecting with some of these people like you're talking about across the country?

Yeah, man. So, um, you know, obviously we are trying to be very intentional with our digital community. So um, they see me on Sundays before and after service, and then I'm also the person on the phone when they make a decision and they want to take their next step. So they have a pastor that they've connected with, and what really, one of the stories I'll tell you about, this guy named Keaton. So Keaton actually came to the funeral of that, of the mom and the son that I just told you about, and that was his first time ever at Long Hollow. He lives in Indiana, and he came to the funeral and, you know, listened to our pastor preach the funeral. And then when he went home, he said, "I'm gonna tune into that church again." And when I was talking to him the other day, he said that something about just watching Long Hollow online, um, they hadn't really been in church for a while, and God just really rekindled he and his wife's relationship with Jesus. He said the Lord just lit a fire in him. He said he took that excitement and he took it to his workplace where, and he's the owner of one of the largest mining companies in America. So I mean, he's like, it's a big deal to go there and then talk to your employees about Jesus. Uh, so he started talking to one of his employees about Jesus and what God was doing in his own life personally. This guy surrendered his life to the Lord, and then a couple weeks later, they drove five hours in to, he got to baptize his employee. I mean, it was just incredible.

Um, there's a friend of mine named Daniel who lives in Montana. Um, he started watching Long Hollow online. He sent a service to his brother, Dakota, in North Carolina. Dakota surrendered his life to Lord. Daniel, who had been a believer but never followed through in baptism, uh, he worked it out with his brother where they actually flew in, one from Montana, one from North Carolina, to be baptized together one day. Um, and since then, I mean, Dakota, I mean Daniel, has become just a great friend of mine, and he's joined the church as a member. They live in Montana. He serves with me every single week as a chat host. He's serving with me tonight to pray with people online. Um, guy's just doing something super special there, even though he doesn't physically attend this campus.

Wow, that's incredible to see some of these stories come about. And I, I could literally just ask question on question to explore this more. I want to talk with some of the others we've got here at the panel, but love seeing, um, love hearing the words "digital revival" and "Long Hollow" in the same sentence there. Uh, what's what God's starting to do there. Hey, let's swing over to Ridge Community next. Uh, Tyler Volkers, uh, part of executive leadership, senior leadership over there with the church, man. Uh, you told me, was it something like you've seen 50 baptisms this year or in the season? Got what's what's God doing uh there out of Ridge Church and what does that look like digitally and physically?

Yeah, we we've been blessed. Uh, we saw 50 baptisms on Easter. Easter? Oh, it's just Easter. Okay, Easter. And we we've had more, a few more, uh, kind of leading into the year before that. The first ones before were uh, some digital, uh, Zoom baptism events, which are just fun too. You, we had a couple different locations sending baptism team members. I got to go to one location, and people are wanting to get baptized, and we're doing it through Zoom, and people are logging in cheering, uh, seeing them in. So I got to baptize a guy named Joe who actually serves in our online broadcast team. And so I've been watching him and serving with him. He's been producing our services. And so we actually featured a story in our digital Easter service, uh, just like, um, seeing him take his steps. Or he was tricked by his wife to come to the Ridge. And so he's, you've been kind of coming back and forth between in person and digital. But Jeff, I think the way that I would describe um what we saw on Easter when we saw 50 in that moment, I think we saw God just kind of show us some fruit from the hard work and the hard labor that all of us have done in both physical environments as well as digital environments over the last year, just trying to figure out, okay, what are we doing? And baptism is, at least how we view baptisms, I mean, it's awesome when you see people take those steps, but it's also a cup-filling experience too, where you're seeing, oh man, you're seeing the lives change and celebrating the moments there. And so when you saw parents baptizing their kids and then husbands baptizing their wives and small group leaders baptizing small group leaders, and they've connected with us digitally or they've been staying with us digitally over the year, and then were able to come back, I think it was just kind of like this unleashing of people ready to take this step. And we were able to see that happen in just one moment, which was really cool.

Uh, we made it a goal in Easter to say, "Let's make baptism the step for people," and like, Andrew, remove any barrier that could cause someone to say, "Hey, if I know that this is my next step, we're going to do everything we can to let it be their next step." Meaning we'll program it in services, we'll have spontaneous ones available in our hallway in our physical space, and then we'll make it available online as well through, um, you know, different ways to. We've even recorded a video of us how to do it in 10-degree weather and put that online with Google Forms to just have people uh submit that, and we can celebrate with them that stuff to take there. So uh, it was a really, really cool, really cool day.

That's great. Uh, you know, and Andrew saw a hundred in physical that kind of echoed over uh into the into the digital space where they're seeing the kind of the reverb, the echo of that continuing on. Um, you know, I guess I don't know, we're what, two weeks away from Easter? You know, at least when we're recording this. It's not been major time, but how are you seeing what was it celebrated online? Are you seeing some of that echo carry over into online? What's what's been the response digitally?

Yeah, so we are uh, we celebrate it online with the next service and celebrating those steps. And then what we're what we've been doing and what we're continuing to do is, okay, if you took that step or even if you haven't taken that step, there's another step after that. And so uh um, we're really hard on hitting, really hard on our discipleship pathway. And so immediately out of that, um, "Hey, your next step uh is to go into Rooted." And so we're celebrating that, whether that's uh in person, we're offering that in person for the first time again in a year, but also having it available online for those who are uh joining us digitally. And then uh, same thing. "Hey, if if you are kind of curious about all of this, get you an Alpha right away." So that's we're using that as a way to celebrate those steps, but then also continue to go, "Hey, you know, for those of you who aren't there yet, there's a next step for you to take right now, and here's what it is." And every step that we want available, we're committed to making it uh in person as well as digital.

Very, very, very cool. Uh, next up, we'll swing over to Tyler Sansom. Tyler is uh, lead pastor, digital pastor, oh, at uh, uh, love to. Uh, it's funny, never get a phone call when you're on Clubhouse. That literally just happened, so I'll have to call that guy back later. Anyway, Tyler's handsome. Uh, man, let's come on here, talk a little bit uh about what uh, how how you're seeing God move through your digital-only expression of church, how that's tied into what's happening over at First Capital Christian at the physical church. Like, you've got some nuance because you're operating as a digital-only, so maybe talk both sides of that. What what it's looking like digitally and maybe how that's being influenced or affected by what's happening physically?

Sure. Um, yeah, we've seen God continue to kind of just knock our socks off with um the way that he's working through basically just everyday people wanting to tell people about Jesus. Our whole thing is empowering people um to go out and share the gospel both physically and digitally. And so far this year um, we've been able to baptize around 30 people through online-only connections or at a microsite, that kind of thing. I will share a really cool story though that happened on Easter. Um, at the beginning of COVID, we had to refigure out ways to continue our microsites that met in prisons because obviously we couldn't get inside of a prison. So we worked out a deal with the state of Indiana where we could put all of our digital content on every inmate in the state of Indiana's tablets. So um, that opened up a wealth of possibilities for what we could do to reach people within the prison system. And we, I think we averaged somewhere around like 2,000 prisoners a week that had been watching. And we started a letter-writing team made up of a lot of senior citizens here at the church that are literally writing letters back and forth to these prisoners every single week after they watch our service. So that's kind of a cool um, the oldest form of technology and handwritten letters meshed with a new form of technology and online services meeting. But we've met a guy named Bubba via letter, and he had been in prison since 1986. He got out March 21st, and one of the first things that he did was reach out to us, and we got to baptize him on Easter, which was like probably the coolest experience I've ever had in my life.

That's awesome. So I mean, it literally started, okay, you normally do prison ministry, and you know what, I think I remember like something like six, seven hundred people would come on on the big service to to the physical space to whatever the room is at the prison. But because of COVID, you actually reached more people by getting content on a tablet, you know, not an iPad, but some sort of digital device. So you're reaching more people, and then the first thing this guy does when he's out of prison, he comes and gets baptized at your church. Like, that's yeah, that's crazy.

Yeah, it's awesome too because one of our microsite leaders drove like two and a half hours that morning to go pick him up because he's, I mean, he was nowhere near where we were, just so he can make sure he could come to the physical building because he'd been writing letters back and forth to him for like a year. Um, so that's the first time they got to meet in person, first time all of us got to.

Meet him in person and he got baptized phenomenal. Yeah, and just, and that's it's funny we we push so much community in in doing digital ministry and and what this guy necessarily didn't have access to the community he had access to the content uh on his tablet um and as a result of engaging with that accepts Christ and gets to the place where he's ready to get baptized like that sir he has he had a little bit of community we had to get creative with that that was where the handwritten letters came in so okay like we essentially our online chat team uh like on our normal weekend service we created a second one of those only to write letters back and forth to these people you're you're talking snail mail here that's like way retro I'm talking like like handwritten we put them in an envelope and send it but like it's insane these guys uh and girls in prisons are are now giving they've started small groups within their pods um we're doing this big discipleship challenge and they're like writing how they're participating in it it's really cool awesome love that and so here's some phenomenal stories different stories of how God's moving tangibly uh in digital and in physical space you're seeing through through Andrew and through Tyler Volkers a a physical expression that that echoes that kind of reverberates uh through digital space across time and is still being affected you're still seeing some of those people come in I love the you know Andrew your line of you know dozens of people are coming in from a dozen states or whatever to get baptized you're literally traveling in this season um trying to get to a place for for baptism Tyler Volkers you're training people to baptize uh in in the the hot tubs and you know ten degree weather in uh Wisconsin God bless you um you're welcome down here remind me whenever you want Tyler like and Tyler Sansom you're cheating the system a little bit kind of doing things differently uh by doing the tablets not giving up on the ministry in this COVID season but instead finding ways to maybe even reach more people and by doing that you're you're connecting with somebody who probably wasn't getting connected before and either way it's definitely somebody who's not coming to the building so I've got a question and and would love to let's let's raise hands if anybody else in the room's got questions and wants to dialogue through this but my question at this point that that wouldn't ask is are what we're seeing and reaching digitally I have a theory and I would love for you to either tell me I'm crazy or tell me I'm exactly right the the type of people that we're reaching in digital space oftentimes are not the type of person that comes into a physical building I I had a I had a church planter just tell me recently the story of a guy who accepted Christ over Easter weekend and and he was celebrating the fact that this person um was that his digital service that he attended was the first church service this guy has attended in ten years and so I'm curious do you see uh examples of that where where the digital is connecting maybe with a type of person that isn't coming to a physical church building a physical church service or is it you know the fear is that we're stealing from somebody to do something else digital what are you guys seeing uh in in that context uh I tell you what Tyler Volkers why don't you go first uh Jeff I think the answer to your question is yes the most prominent one that's coming to my mind right now are those who um maybe have walked away or stayed away from Jesus for any length of time and are very hesitant in coming into a building those are the ones that we celebrate when we connect with them online a story that I got from one of my uh uh she she's a one of our chat team members and and she serves in our YouTube uh chat and she got a text message from one of her best friends that said hey um I've been secretly watching your services online that you've been posting about and I kind of want to go in on this Jesus thing how do I do that and this chat team member led her through a decision to to make a decision to follow Jesus and she screenshotted the whole text message conversation and sent to me and said this friend has always called themselves an atheist or an agnostic for for years and has shown no interest but because what she was sharing and putting out there digitally this friend was able to check it out at her time and those are the stories that we're celebrating we want to connect with as many unchurched people as possible and hopefully spark their curiosity to want to follow Jesus which um right now what we're seeing and what stats are telling us those are the people that are not going to come to an in-person service anytime soon that's awesome if our churches digital or physical could only reach more agnostic stalkers that that would be a huge win we had one Jeff we were doing a mental health message and uh for whatever I I was just trying to you know live tweet throughout the service or whatnot and I use the hashtag mental health um and for whatever reason there's a Twitter handle that says like at mental health they retweeted it with the YouTube link to our service and we got you know I think about two thousand views on that time which is just significantly more than what we see in our first day of uh sure but there there was one guy that uh even commented in our chat he's like I'm I'm agnostic and I don't even know why I'm here why am I here right now and just the ability to I don't know what he was I I don't know the story you know about how they ended up and started engaging there but I mean that that's just that accidental stuff just doesn't happen in the building yeah so so how we can serve them there online is just it's just a really cool opportunity we get you know once again that reinforces the the power of those hashtags um you know does not your it amplifies your voice and and and honestly it allows God to do things I I don't I don't know what part that's going to play in the kingdom uh with this guy who stumbles in uh on on that hashtag but God's going to do something with it long term so so love that Tyler Tyler Sansom what what does this look like for you we've been really pushing this digital missionary piece super hard for the last year um Jeff you got a couple of podcasts about that so if anybody's interested you can head over to Church Digital and learn more about it but basically we're trying to empower people to use uh like a social media influencer kind of style of mint of um using the internet and use that for the kingdom so we've been able to really um infiltrate niche groups of people that we would have never seen in the building um specifically like groups of atheists that struggle with mental health issues we've had a lot of good conversations and and led people towards Jesus in that area same thing with um like the LGBTQ group of people um so a lot lots of of people that the church typically doesn't specifically target have been able to be reached through digital platforms in in new ways specifically through this digital missionary piece that we've been doing yeah I mean it's one of the things I love about that that influencer approach Tyler I was actually interviewed uh today by somebody who's working on on a research project multiple universities were on and they were talking about the questions they were asking is how how should the church use influencers uh social media influencers and um I I think I think as I started talking about this digital missionary I honestly I I think I I brought them a perspective I was talking about you a lot uh but they just they hadn't thought about it like so wait it's it's not about the influence or trying to drive an event or something that's happening at the church it's about letting the influencer reach their audience for Christ and then through the relationship almost as a second part pointing people to the church like that was that was a foreign concept she said she said to me just real quick she's like you realize Jeff everything you just described goes against the it challenges everything that like the social media institutions say and I was like well maybe I'm wrong but we've got people like Tyler that are seeing a result and so how do I challenge what he's seeing coming out of out of his church and she's like no I think that you're right Jeff I think that everybody else is going on outdated information so it's a phenomenal conversation even today talking about this idea of of influence and how God can move in in digital space so you were saying I'm sorry buddy that's super cool yeah the the thing that it's really hit us hard um and that we're trying to pursue right now we saw a stat last week and I I can't remember the exact uh publication that we saw it in but it was something along the lines of like forty-six percent of kids under the age of eighteen their dream job is to become a YouTube creator and so um we we're right now trying to figure out if we can like use this digital missionary platform and teach students how to use influencer type social media to reach people for the kingdom because they already want to become influencers so if we can take them right now and teach them how to share their faith through that influence we're like using their passion for a purpose which is what we're all about here at Church Anywhere so right now our big um like push towards the second half of the year is trying to start like three or four teen leaders under this digital missionary track yeah I I love this idea of training people and I don't want to get stuck on the influencer but training volunteers and and through those relationships empowering others to use their influence large large or small to reach this different type of person so good and once again I can have a conversation all day just talking about this idea of of a digital missionary I see Angela Craig in the audience I know she spent a lot of time talking digital missionary as well no Angel I'm not going to put you on the spot and bring it up right now hey Andrew um talk talk to me a a little bit like uh and and you're you're the church and I don't want to downplay over play but you know over the years you guys have wrestled with digital doing it not doing it I've had a lot of friends that have worked in Long Hollow um so this idea of of reaching a different person digitally than you are in the physical space I mean at some level you've got to see that right because you're seeing multiple people travel the nation to come in to visit at Long Hollow are you guys seeing where you're reaching a different type of person than what's happening from the Long Hollow campuses how are you kind of um uh I don't know what the word is uh justifying that seeing how that's working yeah yeah well before I get into that let me just say I've been on mute I've been over here just getting fired up what God is doing with you guys and through your churches so it's just so awesome to hear but uh man I'll be honest like Long Hollow is a bit of I don't know it's just maybe a different place with if you know Pastor Robbie and you know his testimony and you know his story and his history with uh with drugs and alcohol and you know the the heroine and uh all this stuff right and then his radical conversion um so Long Hollow has become a place where you are welcome just as you are and like our Celebrate Recovery ministry is poppin like it is like it is just one of the the most fruitful ministries that we have so we just kind of have this healthy environment of everybody's welcome here just like the revival you know kind of started with um with with two Satan worshipers who had given their life to Christ you know so um as far as like who we're engaging with online man I'm seeing this beautiful mix that I did not

Expect, you know, I had a conversation with a guy the other day who, he just let us know he was new here, right? He wasn't even making a decision or next step, and just in our conversation I asked him, "Hey man, how can I pray for you?" In our first conversation he said, "I'm addicted to porn. I'm struggling with same-sex attraction, but I just want more of God." And so we're seeing people like that engage online who, being online, they're able to just be open and honest, maybe like they wouldn't be looking at somebody face to face. But then on the flip side, we have my friend Alex who is in his late 60s. He lives about two hours away. He's been in church his whole life, and he told me the other day, "Andrew, even though you know I worship in my pajamas, I feel more connected to a church than I've ever felt in my life." Um, so he doesn't only watch online. He leads a life group. He's leading a discipleship group. He's volunteering with me as a prayer host, and I guarantee you he doesn't know this yet, but I guarantee you he'll be my first digital deacon.

Like, so I'm just seeing people from all ages, all walks of life engage in church online, and I just I did not foresee that, you know? I, if you would ask me before I stepped in this, I thought it'd be, you know, guys my age, you know, mid-30s and below, the younger generation, and they are, but it's also this older generation who loves Facebook and they just absolutely love engaging with people in the chat on Facebook and etcetera. So man, we're just seeing a really sweet mix of people from all walks of life and all ages.

Yeah, that may be. I think Andrew dropped out, or at least he dropped out on my feed. Sorry if I'm cutting you off. Um, that may be the first time that I've ever heard the word "digital deacon" uttered in a sentence together, like putting those two words together. And sorry, Andrew, you dropped off, uh, tech-wise. I love, I love that, digital deacon, man. Yeah, if you can remember it, feel free to, or we can move on. That's awesome. Sorry, man. Um, tech happens. Uh, we've had some explosions on Clubhouse, but life goes on with that.

Hey, I do want to open it up for questions or thoughts, audience out there. How are you seeing God move digitally, physically? So often, you know, there's lots of doom and gloom in context with some of the stats coming out. I don't want to beat it up. I beat it up and plenty of other opportunities, but really the Holy Spirit moves irregardless of what Barna tells us in some of these things. So I would love to hear maybe from some others in the room, or I can keep asking questions, but would love to hear: how is God moving in your churches? What are you seeing? What are some of the challenges and the obstacles that you're facing in your church?

Long Hollow, Andrew here has been talking about digital revival and some of the things that's happening there. Tyler and Tyler, respectively, with their churches, Ridge as well as Church Anywhere, have been celebrating lots of testimonies. So if you got questions when a dialogue, would love you to raise that hand and we'll go ahead.

Hey, some of you are listening out there in the interwebs through the Church Digital social media channels or YouTube, feel free to jump on over in the Clubhouse, be part of this conversation. We'll probably go for about another 20 minutes, maybe, and cut at 6 Eastern.

Well, let me ask this while we're waiting for some other questions to come up. So how does God move? We default to this world of baptism, life change, baptism. Like, I'm okay saying that there are other ways that maybe we're seeing God moving this season. And so would maybe ask, like, what, Andrew? I mean, let's start with you. Like, you just mentioned a very strong, you know, Robbie Gallaty. His testimony, drug use, is very open about that, defines who he is as a pastor. Actually makes him very accessible to allowing people to kind of connect to his message. Uh, is very kind of disciple-centric church that you guys have. Um, what has I mean, pre-COVID, I don't even think you could do Celebrate Recovery digitally. I think, like, Alpha was forced to go digital in the season. Celebrate Recovery, you know, I think was in that same kind of boat. So even in context of Celebrate Recovery, maybe it just add a story here. What are you seeing kind of in that space where God's moving even through things like Celebrate Recovery in digital methods?

Yeah, man. So like you said, a lot of times we in church world, you know, kind of put revival in baptism, life change and baptism, whatever. Um, pastor has been very clear that there are kind of different expressions to revivals at times, and this just so happens to be how the Lord is moving in our church right now. Um, and there's plenty of other ways that the guy can move, obviously. As far as like CR goes, um, dude, that was hard in the midst of COVID. Um, I mean, we have our pastor who oversees Celebrate Recovery. He was very sensitive to this silent pandemic that was happening with isolation and drug use and just all the things that were happening in his world. So they had to fight really hard to find, you know, to keep those people in communities. Uh, you know, obviously, like, if you know anything about CR, they have the big worship gathering just like a church does, but then they have step studies, and some of those step studies were able to continue. You know, they moved to Zoom, obviously, but that community was still there. Um, and life change was still happening. You know, we still saw people finding freedom in Christ even though they couldn't physically step, you know, step foot in the building. Uh, I may have forgotten what you asked me and just started talking.

No, that's fine. That's awesome. Love that. Totally, it's what Clubhouse is all about, just talk about whatever you want, and we'll tie it together. How are you seeing God move through Celebrate Recovery? Tell me a story. I mean, obviously I can't get a name, but is this, how's God using that particular ministry to maybe connect people, restore people, um, towards more of a kingdom mindset?

Yeah, man. So uh, what I love about Celebrate Recovery, if you don't know anything about it, um, you know, people sometimes just assume it's for drugs and alcohol and that's like all it's for, but it's really for any hurt, habit, or hang-up they say. Um, and I mean it could be sexual addictions. It could be just hurt. It could be depression. I mean, on and on and on, the sky is the limit. But what I love about Celebrate Recovery is that so often, uh, church people, you know, we put a mask on and we save face at church and we're just not real about what's going on in our lives and the struggles that we have. And Celebrate Recovery is one of those places where they're like, "No mask," and people are open and honest and vulnerable. And when you step into an environment like that, the Lord just works and moves in a really special way.

Um, and you know, I mean, just full transparency, Celebrate Recovery at our church was started by my father-in-law who fell in ministry, and that was before he was my father-in-law. Uh, I mean, as those 15 years ago or so. So the guy at our church who started the ministry fell, and but a God story this past week. Uh, my mother-in-law, who, you know, his right-hand woman starting the ministry, she never stopped serving in Celebrate Recovery. And she was so faithful, and that community, you know, she could have very easily been embarrassed and walked away from it. But because it's such a real place, you're able to be yourself, she was able to stay there, and people loved her through it. She was actually honored this past week just for the impact she has made in Celebrate Recovery over the past, you know, 12 or 15 years, because she stayed in it. And so God's just moving in a really special way there. And it doesn't have to be Celebrate Recovery. If we're just open and honest in any environment in the church, you know, God moves in a special way.

That's beautiful. Um, great story involving your dad who fell in ministry and used CR to grow, to get restored. I mean, that's what the hope dealers, that CR is all about.

Tyler and Tyler, both you guys at some point have used Rooted as your discipleship-making vehicle. Tyler Sansom, I want to say that in this COVID season you guys have evolved and started creating maybe some of your own, like a new process towards that. Um, well, I tell you what, let's start with Tyler Volkers. Uh, talk to me a little bit, Tyler. Uh, Rooted. How is Rooted? Uh, how are you connecting? How are you seeing lives change, maybe not out of salvation or with salvation, but how are you seeing discipleship kind of evolve in your church? How are you seeing God move through Rooted?

A great question, Jeff. I think the biggest thing that COVID taught us was that our discipleship process was really mostly focused on programs and mostly focused on getting people in an in-person environment, which not all of that is a bad thing, but when it's dependent upon that, you're gonna run into problems real quick, which we did when we had to go digital only. And so we decided we needed to flip our process and our pathway to be more spiritual stage focused. And so rather than trying to get people into an event or an after party, their first step, I mean, I almost feel someone embarrassed saying this out loud, our first step for people really should be leading them to follow Jesus and make a decision to follow Jesus. And so when we really streamline that to point to making that the north star, then pointing them to Rooted, which for us is the perfect way to begin to get them into our discipleship process for what we would want for anyone going through that, going through the Ridge. And so that's our goal. And so we're seeing stories of people. I mean, they're going through it and doing exactly what you would hope for them. They're connecting with lifelong, you know, faith-building friends either online or in person. Uh, they're joining serving teams. But the thing about Rooted that just makes it really special is just the deep soul work that you almost do where you're identifying strongholds and you're identifying lies that the enemies put into you, and then you're replacing them with God's truth. And you see the life transformation that way.

I'm thinking of an individual in my group right now who's going through Rooted, but he's also in part of my Ridge group. And uh, I don't want to share his name out loud, but I know he was in rehab about two months ago dealing with some dependencies. And now we're watching him go through Rooted and taking steps, knowing Jesus, following Jesus, and is so committed and so faithful. And uh, you almost see it in his face, even through Zoom right now, you're seeing it. Like, the life change is happening in this man, and it's just awesome.

That's beautiful. Um, it's funny we're hearing stories. Uh, we're not wanting to say names publicly, which I completely respect, but there's names, there's stories, there's people that are attached to this where it's not just numbers that are watching a three-second Facebook feed, but it's really you're starting to get towards a relational approach and getting and seeing the life change as a result of it.

Tyler Sansom, you used to be Rooted. I'm not, I'm not crazy, right? You moved away from Rooted. You started developing maybe a more intentional, custom-design discipleship process. What does that look like for your church that was in this COVID season, right? I don't want to make stuff up here.

Yeah, yeah.

That was so we, yeah, we used to do Rooted. Um, love it. It's really, really good. Um, but we, um, I've kind of moved away from that to more of a, um, kind of go along with our sermon series approach. We've hired a Fidel pastor back in, um, probably January, and his main goal is to fidgetly disciple people. So taking current sermon series topics, things like that, and figuring out ways to online and in person help people take one step closer to Jesus every day with that topic. Right now we're in the process of developing an app. It's going to be called One Step Closer app, and it's literally just a way that we can send reminders and have content available for people to engage with and interact with on their app of one step closer to Jesus every day. It'll have a communal aspect to it as well. So we're going to do all of our small groups through that app, and I'm really, I'm really excited about it. I think it's like a really, really good next step for, um, discipleship in a modern age.

I gotta tell you, we're gonna have a side conversation. I've been, I've had more interest in the past two weeks with people asking like, what the church mobile app should be, um, or is the church mobile app necessary? And I, I described to them essentially what you just talked about, and they're like, "Oh, that's it. That's what we gotta do." So once again, Tyler, you're ahead of the curve, uh, even developing some of this stuff out. But in, and it's through things even like the community aspects within that mobile app where you're starting to get names, you're starting to get connected, um, in, in relationship with, with people. And, and I want to suggest like, even as our churches that, that are listening here in the audience or, or listening on podcasts or streams or whatever, if, if we're wanting to see God move at some level, I, I think there's a context where we gotta know that the people that we're, we're reaching, that we're trying to connect with, that we're trying to, to share. Uh, we recently did a, a podcast conversation here at the Beta Show, uh, man, maybe a couple months ago, sometime in twenty-one, but the heart of the conversation was, how do we as a church, how do we define success mid-post-COVID? And, and we brought in, uh, church planters, lead pastors, everything from a church plant all the way up to a giga church, uh, you know, in the Bible Belt, uh, all different levels. It was, it was three or four individuals, and it was fascinating. All of them agreed on one thing. Uh, for a church to be successful, they need to get to one-on-one or as close to one-on-one as quick as possible. And, and as we're, we're doing things in, in digital space, as we're doing things in physical space, as we're existing fidgetly, trying to operate in both hemispheres, I really think that's, that's the heart of this. The, the more that we can relationally connect to people, um, I think the more that we can see God move. Now, I think God may be moving as a result of it. And, and I've had situations, and I don't know about you, but I, I joke even with my own church in this COVID season where, um, they get really excited because all these people accept Christ on Sunday through the church online platform by clicking on the hand raised icon at the appropriate time. And, and I'd have to tell my church, "Hey, like four or five of those times, to be honest, it's my daughter who's just really excited clicking the link." So sometimes God's moving and, and we don't know the people, to know the situation, or if it's legit or if it's not. But the more that we can build these relationships, meet these people, and be part of their lives, to see God moving, to celebrate as they're doing these steps, whether it's salvation, whether it's a restoration in ministry, whether it's discipling and releasing someone on personal mission beyond what they themselves could have gotten to on their own, uh, we, the church, we have a vital part, um, in helping people find this revival in, in digital and in physical space.

So this has been a phenomenal conversation. I want to thank all, all the guests, uh, for, for being on here. Uh, Andrew Bolton from, from Long Hollow, Tyler Volkers from Bridge Community, uh, Tyler Sansom, First Capital Christian, uh, Church Anywhere, to be more accurate. Like, this has been a solid conversation talking about the idea of what a digital revival can look like, what revival looks like in fidget environments, and how we're seeing God move digitally and physically.

Just real quick, I'm doing another one of these Clubhouse conversations tomorrow, five p.m. We're bringing in Greg Atkinson, probably one of the top guys in, in first impressions for church, one of the early, uh, guys who was doing church online, and so hugely influential in physical and digital church services. We're doing a conversation with him on Clubhouse tomorrow talking about secret shopper, what are guests, what are first-time visitors, what are they looking for in a church online service? And, and how can we utilize the digital to connect with some of these first-time people? It's hard to really connect with them. It's easy to get them to watch something, but that connection, that engagement, that's hard to get to. It's maybe the most difficult thing in church online. So tomorrow we're going to be talking with Greg Atkinson, telling some secrets about how your church can be more effective connecting even in those digital environments.

So hey, Tyler, Tyler, Andrew, thanks for jumping on this Clubhouse, and we're gonna wrap. Um, I tell you what, thirty seconds from each of you. Any closing thoughts? Andrew, you can go first.

Yeah, man, I just say if, uh, if you're a pastor, minister, volunteer, listen to this. Um, if revival's happening, don't miss it for yourself. Sometimes we do the work of the ministry and we miss what God wants to do in our own heart in the midst of that. Beautiful. Uh, Tyler Volkers, what do you got?

I'm thinking, hey, look for the fruit of the work that you've done this past year. You may be tired, but it's been effective. Celebrate it. And, uh, what we're hitting, the fun season where physical and digital are going to work really beautiful together. So don't give up on digital. Amen on all accords there, Tyler Sansom. Thirty seconds, man.

Yeah, just echo what they just said. I don't have a whole lot of great wisdom to add to that. I'm just excited about what God has been doing and is continuing to do here at Church Anywhere, and I love hearing stories about how he's using digital in other places as well. That's beautiful. Tyler Sansom's out of gas. So, uh, we're gonna wrap on that note. For Tyler, for Tyler, for Andrew, this is Jeff with the Church Digital and with Stadia Church Planting. Thanks for joining us here on this Clubhouse, and we'll see you next time. You have a good day.