EP199: So What's Going On with Jeff & THECHURCH.DIGITAL

Welcome to the Church Digital Podcast, powered by Stadia Church Planting. Through this podcast, learn about how God is using technology and innovation in digital and digital environments around the world. Our goal? To help churches like yours learn to be the church digitally. Our heart? That churches like yours will discover a newfound focus on disciple-making that will revolutionize your church. And now, your host, here's Jeff Reed. Episode 199 here. 199 of the Church Digital Podcast. This is Jeff. We are streaming this live on the air. I am sick as a dog, so this is going to be a really interesting experience as we are broadcasting and doing this live on the air, as I'm probably going to cough and gag on something here in a second.

That's gross, Jeff. Why are you talking about that on air? Hey, let's move on. Here with Episode 199, we are talking about some of the big, big changes coming to the Church Digital. Lots of really interesting things happening in the coming year, 2022 and beyond. 2021 brought some changes in itself. I resigned from Stadia. Mutually, everybody is happy. Everybody, the transition went very well. I still partner. I still contract with Stadia and helping with digital church planting. I think just this morning, I was talking with a Stadia partner, a Stadia organization, and love what Stadia is doing and what the future holds for that org. But there was this place where I felt that God was leading me to do something different.

And that's what brought about some of this change. And we're going to talk a little bit about some of the changes we've already have in the past here, a little bit through the Church Digital podcast here. As a matter of fact, last week, we talked about this where literally tomorrow, in the next couple of days, I am starting as a director of META for Leadership Network. That's right. META, Leadership Network, is coming back. Exponential Acquired Leadership Network. And we had Todd Wilson on the podcast, episode 198, just last week, talking about the META Church, what the church can, should, and will look like in the METAverse and how we need to take steps to do that today. Maybe what are some of the challenges that the META Church faces?

Well, Leadership Network wants to pioneer in that. And so they've contracted me for a role to be director of META. Guess what? I get to talk about META Church all day long and create content and blogs and live shows, and it's going to be awesome. I'm really looking forward to that. You're going to hear more about that in the time to come. In addition, the real reason that I stepped out of Stadia and kind of went on this new path was this idea of creating a digital church network. Now, we're going to talk a lot more about that in the next episode. Episode 200 of these podcast episodes. That's incredible. So you're going to hear more about what that's going to look like in episode 200. As a matter of fact, and even along the way, I just wanted to give a shout out, Garrett Silji.

We have been, as one of, just a side hustle almost. One of the things that I've been working on was a production company. I had been doing it pre-Stadia, pre-COVID, over the past maybe five years or so. And Garrett, when COVID hit, my life obviously changed and got a lot more busy towards digital type things. And I handed it over to Garrett Silji, who's actually the producer of the podcast. And Garrett's been running this production company on the side. So much so that we ended up launching it out to be its own entity now here in 22. But it's AVL, live streaming, venue, studio solutions, design, and sales with that. So if you're interested in that, you know, it's not really about that. But let's, we can move on towards that.

Definitely love serving churches however we can. But really the challenge of all of this. So you can see, hey, he's doing something with Exponential, with Leadership Network. He's launching a digital church network. We're ramping up some things with the church digital. We'll get here in a little bit. We're talking about even an AVL company. Like there's a lot that's happening here. And so for me, I'll just be honest, the challenge for 2022 is simple. It's multiply. How can I multiply myself into others? Because I, Jeff Reed, am a lid. I'm a limit. There's a capacity to what I can do. And I often live at that point. And how do I empower others to do that? It's interesting. I had somebody tell me that in the old model, the old model for power was one of control.

And so if you were a powerful individual, you were controlling situations. And what's interesting is this new model is one that's much more about empower. It uses words like empowering. It uses ones like platforming. It uses words like equipping. And so for us, for me personally, moving forward, as we're doing all these things, how can I empower? How can I equip? How can I platform others? Which is really the heart behind what we wanted to do with the Church Digital here in 22 because we wanted to get to this place where we're starting to platform others. You see, the focus of 2022 for the Church Digital, it's going to be simple. We're going to be doing content. We're going to be doing courses and coaching.

And we're going to be doing consulting. We're getting back to the roots of where the Church Digital started, and we're going to be digging in. But the difference is that we're going to be bringing people with us. Specifically here, we are going to be platforming more writers and content creators for that content piece here with the Church Digital. Now, Church Digital primarily has been my voice. I've been the one speaking. I've been the one writing and blogging. But what's interesting, we just brought in Tom Pounder towards the end of last year, maybe November or so. And Tom, by the way, in the short time that he was here, I texted him the other day this, he actually has the most read original blog in 2022.

So a blog that was written in the year 2022, he wrote a blog on MetaChurch that went viral. And by far is the most read, most viewed blog, just in the short amount of time that he was here. And he really hit a good topic on MetaChurch because that's really been a hot topic here in the past two or three months. Thank you, Life.Church. And so, hey, Tom has been doing a great job of that. And we want to start to bring in other writers into this equation. So, Tom, yes, continuing on with TCD Sidekick and what he's doing in addition to that. Guys like Andy Mage, who is an incredible, not only from a technical aspect, but understanding content, really, that niche. Angela Craig, who's done digital church planting with Pursuit Church Live and understands that.

Women in ministry as well, understands that angle from a very high level. Chesley Lundy, a constant innovator and disruptor within the church, excited to have him on board. John Pyle, really starting to understand and dig into the mental health aspects of it and have done a podcast with him and excited. Marcy Carrico, she's actually the newest one here in this conversation. Everybody's new. But Marcy was like, hey, by the way, come on. And she's actually going to be doing a lot of social media for the church digital and wrestling a lot of these things. And so we're really starting to platform and build some other people that can speak into this. And the interesting thing is when you really get to know all of these people, all of them have, like I said, they have nuances.

They have specialties. They have things that they're very specific for. Now, that doesn't mean that's all they're going to speak on. But there's an opportunity to really dig deep on particular topics and angles, and they're going to be doing that. By the way, blogs from all of these writers will start hitting the church digital literally next week. We're going to start publishing, and they're going to be hitting the ground running there next week. But there's really, there's more than just for content. There's more than just blogs, right? There's other things we really wanted to get into. And so we're going to be expanding the TCD podcast network. Now, some of you may know that we launched the podcast network technically when Tom came on board because Tom was like the other podcast.

And anytime you got two of something, you might as well call it a network and get a more attractive label for it. So, hey, we're doing a TCD podcast network, but we're maybe legitimizing it more because it's going to be more than just Tom and I. And so for this, let's bring in this screen here. Obviously, we've got TCD Sidekick. If you're watching on video, you can see the image on the screen. I mean, TCD Sidekick podcast is going to continue on. Tom's been doing a great job with that, the church digital sidekick. In addition, Chesley Lundy Experience is going to be kicking off, and he's going to really be talking about that disruptive piece and digging into maybe a different idea of what church can look like.

And he is so forward-thinking with the stuff that he's talking about. Yeah, Andy is going to be talking, Andy Mage is going to be talking about breaking the fifth wall. The idea of content and engagement centered around that. He is so good on that topic and looking forward to hearing more from him. And John's better on the inside with John Pyle, really doing an introspective, an inside look at the health, at the soul care that's centered around working for churches. You know, we're a tech group. We do ministry. We do discipleship. We're not necessarily system preferences and stuff like that a lot. But really, my heart is to have health in churches. Because coming from a guy that's been a career church staffer, I know the toll that it takes on the people that are out there doing the ministry, that are running these organizations.

And if they're not healthy, then the church is not healthy. Which is why, you know, I want to thank John for coming on and really starting to dig into that. So, as you can see, we are expanding what we're doing ministry-wise, what we're supporting in our podcasts, in that, in the messages that are out there. All of these podcasts, I mean, obviously, Tom's is running right now. All of them are going to launch or relaunch sometime the week of January 24th. So, keep an eye on the church digital social media, email, website. We'll blow out. If you're listening on the podcast, check out the show notes. We'll include the links in there for easy access. But we will make this very accessible for you all so that you can test out, subscribe, and kind of see what's happening here with all of these shows as they're getting started.

Well, hey, guess what? Like, this is just a piece of it, right? Like, we are, we're doing content. But we want to do more than just content for churches, which really starts to get us into this idea of courses and coaching. So, the church digital, and some of you, we actually sent an email out about this the other day. Some of you have already checked it out. We launched an equipping store, an online course store where you can go on. And our desire is to sell online courses to give churches like yours, to give people like yours, you, pastors like you, knowledge, experience, expertise, training to help you do the digital ministry or the meta ministry that God's called you to do. And so, that store exists right now.

That online course store, which we call equipping the church digital, is at the website equip.thechurch.digital. Or, of course, go to the church digital and follow the link there. But the heart of this is we've, like I said, designed to equip your church to do digital and meta ministry better. Really digging into the technical, to the theological, and the tactical aspects, the challenges, and how to overcome those challenges. So, we're really hitting on just a full rounded approach here with the online course store, the technical, the theological, and the tactical challenges that will happen as a result of doing just the ministry that you're doing. Just a couple options we have right off the bat.

By the way, Stadia Fidgetal, we offered, we created a quick start. We had Exponential, had exclusive rights to it in 21, and so now we're opening it up here for everybody. This is the cheapest we've ever offered anything Fidgetal. I want to say it's $249. You can check out the store. But this is bingeable content to be able to go through and wrap your brain around how to develop a digital disciple-making multiplication strategy for your church. Phenomenal asset right there on the course store. Similar to that, First Steps in Metaverse Ministry. This is a brand new course launched out by Jason Poling and Michael Used to Venice, who is with, both of those guys are with Cornerstone VR, Cornerstone Yuba City.

Phenomenal course for people that are just wanting to get started. This is a great course to help you take those first steps in developing a meta ministry, a meta church, a meta, addressing the meta mission field. And so if that's your interest and really wanting to get into that, I would definitely check out what's happening with that. I think it's important to recognize, like I said, that we want to do more than just online courses, but there's coaching groups that we want to involve in that as well. So you can check this out here. This is a meta church coaching cohort that we are just starting now. I mean, literally right now. This is with DJ Soto, Jason Poling, and Michael Used to Venice.

But by the way, man, I want to be in a cohort with DJ Soto. The guy literally invented meta church. He's the freaking bishop to the metaverse. And yes, that would be incredible. And so here's an opportunity to jump in with a cohort with him and some others that we're putting together. And then once again, or I don't know once again, but here's a digital church cohort that we're doing, a coaching cohort we're doing as well. And this is with Andy Mages, the Tom Pounders, the Chesley Lundy, and myself with that. And so once again, you're seeing here, we're starting to platform other people into this and start to create opportunities for others to share their specialties, their knowledge, their information as they're going, as they're trying to encourage others into the digital journey.

I can't reiterate this enough. I have had a dozen conversations in the past six months with people. Hey, Jeff, how do we get to where you are? Which I think is crazy because, you know, I'm humbly, I'm nothing. But what's interesting to me is there are so many people that want to help churches. And so for the Church Digital, we are literally wanting to be that platform to help others in that. So, hey, you've got crazy ideas for a cohort or you want to create an online course for something. You're interested in creating some side hustle because Lord knows ministry doesn't pay what a secular job would pay. We are open to that and would love some ideas. So feel free to throw any ideas at me. Shoot me an email with that.

With the coaching groups, specifically here with the coaching groups, man, you're just not interacting with these experts that are in these groups. But you're really digging in as well with the churches that are in there, that are on the same journey as you, encouraging each other, reiterating with each other, experimenting, giving feedback with that. And for me with the coaching group, that's really why I think these coaching groups and cohorts are so powerful, especially the ones that at least that I've been a part of and that I've had the experience of. Oftentimes in my ministry, as I was thinking different, there was nobody on my staff who was thinking like me. And so the ability for me to get feedback from others within the staff, well, it just wasn't there because none of them were on the same page as me.

Doing a coaching group here is an opportunity for you to get that feedback. It's the considerate digital or meta Proverbs 27, iron sharpening iron that's going to happen as a result of that. Awesome. Hey, all right. So first off, like I said, we had content. Second off, we had second off. That was weird. Second part was coaching and courses. And then the third part we wanted to get into was consulting. So the church digital, we are launching up our consulting arm again. Some churches, man, you need a little more handholding than what the cohort can give. And so you need somebody, a specialist to be a little more involved in that piece. Maybe some orgs need a more specialized approach. And truthfully, the church digital, even at this point, even as I've resigned within the past couple of months, we're working with churches and organizations here in the U.S.

and globally to help the cause of digital and meta church. And one organization is looking for this, one church is looking for that. It's all centered around, for the most part, discipleship, multiplication, engagement, conversation, digital strategy, application development in some areas. Like there's some really interesting areas. And I and the team, we would love to help you in this journey. So, man, maybe you're a church that's really wanting to fine-tune a digital strategy and you're interested in a one-day or Tuesday session. Or, man, you're looking at developing a project over a long period of time and having one of us walk with you as you're developing that new app or developing that new disciple-making strategy.

Yeah, let's do that and let's try to figure out how the church digital and our team can help you in that journey that you're on. So, yeah, like there's a lot that's happening here at the church digital. And as you can tell, like we're not slowing down. If anything, this is a time to ramp up and to run for 2022 and beyond COVID. Well, the Omicron that is most likely coursing through my veins right now is not going away. It may be diversifying. It may be changing. It may be looking different than it did maybe a year or two ago. And not even that Omicron is the reason that we need a digital strategy or a meta strategy. Remember, all this is just an accelerant. COVID was an accelerant to the culture changes that were already going to happen.

And we're seeing that even in the metaverse as we're seeing more and more attention to that. And even things like Life.Church broadcasting their services in there, kind of making awareness to, hey, this is an opportunity to do something different. I love the fact that in this season, there are churches. There may be few and far between, but there are churches that are wanting to do something different. And as far as I'm concerned through the church digital, we are going to help churches like that however we can. So, hey, listen, there's a lot that we're going to do. The content, the courses, the coaching groups, the consulting, all of that's coming because in the end, we want to help your church develop the technical aspects of digital meta, the theological, as well as the tactical aspects of what we're doing in our strategy.

So, let's keep doing that together. Questions, feel free to throw it in the chat or whatever. Send me an email. Hit me up on social. And be looking for a lot of these changes. By the way, there's a new landing page on the church digital. You can check that out. But be looking for a lot of these changes coming out here starting even next week with the blokes. All right. Hey, this is Jeff. Man, we're going to wrap. Hope this has been a good one. And we'll see you next time. Episode 200. Episode 200. Man, next week at Church Digital. We're talking Digital Church Network and teasing what's coming up with season three. Season three of the Church Digital Podcast. Mere weeks away. Coming up here very soon.

All right. Thanks, everybody, for Jeff and everybody else at Church Digital. You have a good one. Bye. Thank you.