EP335 - Jeff Talks Fall Conference(s), Ambassadors & Matthew 6

All right. Hey everybody. Welcome to the Church Digital podcast. Church Digital. Jeffrey here, founder of the Church Digital, TCD, as all the cool kids call it these days.

And hey, looking forward to doing the stream on this Wednesday. I was supposed to join you on Tuesday and had a little family situation going on. My daughter um strained, sprained, we're not exactly sure, sprained an ankle. And so urgent care was involved. Doctors, um, no broken bones. X-rays are clear. She is a dancer, ballet, tap, jazz, all that sort of stuff. And so she's in dance recital season. So she's freaking out. And so we're going to an orthopedics on Thursday, tomorrow. Hopefully, hopefully things are good there. We're optimistic, but things seem to be going good in the Reed house these days.

Troy Jones is joining us, jumping in from the outside. Hi, Jeff. Talking about a kid, Troy's what, four or five weeks away from wrapping up school as well up in Pennsylvania. Hi, Troy. Hope things are well. Anyway, so we are cramming in a stream here last minute. There are lots of other things happening right now in the Church Digital. So audience is going to be a little low, literally as I'm doing this stream. There is a guided prayer session that's happening right now. Stacy is doing prayer right now with a lot of people. Hey, Troy's actually, Stacy's here. Stacy, I literally was talking. Isn't your guided prayer right now? Like, I don't know, make that awkward, but I was not expecting that. And also we've got Flat Cap. Flat Cap jumping on on the stream as well. Flat Cap is streaming on Twitch in about an hour. And so I don't know that I can officially raid people from YouTube to Twitch because it's a different platform. Like it really doesn't work that way. But at noon Central, noon Eastern, we're going to wrap this one up and y'all are going to go hang over on Twitch TV and see what my friend Leighton has coming up. Leon, what are you doing these days over there on Twitch? What do we have going on today on the Twitch? Who are you interviewing? What's the plan? Drop it in chat. We'll throw it on here in a little bit. But seriously, thank you all for praying for my daughter Caitlyn. She's 16. And so you can, while you're praying for my daughter Caitlyn, pray for the upcoming driver's license that is pending very, very soon. So Caitlyn has been doing a great job driving, but has not, and she's logged 50 hours driving with me, which was a challenge in itself. Not so much watching my daughter drive as much as trying to get 50 hours of time where my daughter is not attached to her cell phone and getting her to drive it during that time. But we do have all the hours logged. At this point, all she's got to do is do the test and she's going to be fine once we book it. And then the fun starts happening. The fun starts happening because I get to kick back and watch my daughter drive herself all over the city instead of me driving my daughter all over the city. Isn't that what parenthood's about? Like the point where you get your kids to the place where they can care for themselves and then you just literally sit back with a cup of coffee and then just watch them make complete idiots of themselves. I've always been waiting for that moment. Usually it's the parents making idiots of themselves, or you know, more precisely it is me making an idiot of myself. And so maybe you can't relate to that, but I tend to make an idiot of myself on a regular basis.

So anyway, hey, Stacy's guided prayer is 7:30 Pacific, 10:30 Eastern. I was half an hour off somewhere along there. And so that happens in our open office, the Church Digital office. And then Flat Cap does his stream over on Twitch.

Awesome. Hey, what are we going to talk about today? I don't know. Anybody got something they want to talk about today? I mean, I've always got stuff that I want to talk about, but let's just, we can just call it kind of kick back, relax, call it easy. Nah, I've never, nah, that doesn't sound like me. All right. Hey, listen. There's some interesting things that we're working on. Hey, speaking of Troy, Troy's like, explain what I am doing. Troy, I never know what you're doing because you're supposed to be in school right now. But I will say this that Saturday night, if you're watching this live, Saturday night the 26th, our friends are doing a takeover, the Holy Aces are doing a takeover of our Discord. They're going to be doing a demo of what's going on with that. And so if you're interested in virtual reality or seeing what these guys and gals are doing in ministry spaces, it's incredible. Troy is going to be a part of it and their team is going to be actively involved. I love these guys. Like I'm really excited to see what these guys are doing. Forgive me. I am exhausted. I haven't had enough coffee today, but I'm really excited to see what these guys and gals are up to. And so look for that. The Holy Aces are doing that. Somebody tell me what time Saturday. As I'm chewing the fat here at the beginning. Saturday, I saw it. I saw a graphic somewhere, but I'm not seeing it right now. Um, anyway, maybe it was in WhatsApp. 9:00 PM Eastern. 9:00 PM. I'm an old fogy. You want me to stay awake to 9:00 PM Eastern? Man, that's, I'm usually like, you know, on my fifth round of Z's by that point.

Wow. All right. So rule of thumb with Jeff, either I fall asleep as I'm speaking myself in third person. I got to stop that. I'm either asleep before, I was either asleep by 8:30 PM or it's 4:00 AM. I have to get to sleep before the rest of the house. And it's all about my dogs. Because my dogs will come to sleep when my wife comes to sleep and my wife comes to sleep when the kids go to sleep. And so I have to get to sleep before the dogs go to sleep because or it's all like it all falls apart because if the dogs come to bed and I'm still awake, the dogs take over the bed, there's no room for me and I'm up till 4:00 AM. So I have to go to bed at 8:30 before my kids, before my wife, before the dogs or it's toast for me.

All right, Flat Cap is saying that it is for the young at heart. The air show and TCD Discords, the Church Digital and the Holy Ace, the Holy Ace is excited about seeing what's going to happen there. In all seriousness, go check that out. Check out the TCD's Discord for more information on that. Discord.thechurch.digital. That'll get you into the group and there'll be more information on the event coming up in there very, very soon. There's a demo video in there in general chat right now. That's, I've always been excited about what these guys are doing. Um, so cool.

Hey, listen. Some interesting things. It's going to be a low-key stream today, but some interesting things we've been working on with the conference. And you know, I may have said this, I don't remember. First off, how awesome was Mr. Pete last week? Like, wow, that guy. I, I, I, I didn't think I would be having an interview with a puppet at any point in my life. And after having about a two-minute conversation with Mr. Pete or Pete the Puppet, I'm like, dang, I actually wouldn't mind like doing a full show on with what do you call it? Pete the, was it Pete the Puppet? It was something that was really, really cool. And so look for, I may double back with Mr. Pete, but in all seriousness, dude's 84 years old and what, so many people have reached out to me thanking me for doing the interview with Mr. Pete and just talking about how Mr. Pete has revolutionized, has challenged, has encouraged them in their metaverse ministry walk. Like Oasis VR, Tiger, Oasis Church VR, Stuart McPherson, formerly Lakeland VR, like some guys that have been doing VR for a long time have talked about how Mr. Pete was influential in their lives. And it's like, dang, Mr. Pete was been doing this for a while, has been empowering and encouraging people to do digital and virtual ministry. Yeah, even at 84 years old. Um, I mean, yeah, sure, puppets, ham radios, like these are unconventional things that you would not normally see in virtual reality, but dang, because it's unconventional is what makes it attractive, is what draws people to him. And the genuineness of who he is, absolutely incredible. And so, see you Troy, if you have not watched the Mr. Pete interview, go back on TCD's YouTube, grab it, watch it. Um, check out the podcast, listen to it. Yeah, you know what? Actually, no. You got to watch it because this dude is unbelievable. Like just as genuine as they come. And an 84-year-old guy who couldn't even spell metaverse and all of a sudden is now doing this on a regular basis and doing all sorts of stuff in Big Screen and empowering and almost inviting ministry to happen on other platforms and encouraging pastors and missionaries in that space. Um, I'll be honest, like it makes me tear up a little bit, man. It really, like I just, I was really impressed by that guy. So much so I was like, "Hey, Mr. Pete, like what are you doing? Like we need to work more together. Mr. Pete, where can we get you to work, fit in with the Church Digital?" Because like a lot of the stuff we've been doing is a lot of the stuff that Mr. Pete's been doing, just Mr. Pete's been on his own doing it. And I don't know. I've always been more of the guy. How was that face? I just looked at myself on the monitor. I'm in a stupid face day. And some would argue I'm always in a stupid face day. Um, you know, I've always been the guy who's like, we're stronger together than alone. And so look for more for Mr. Pete in the weeks and the months to come. I'm excited by some of the opportunities there. It's really interesting. I've got, we're doing EDM right now. I'll tell the story. We're doing EDM right now and we've got two or three. One of the cohorts that I'm leading is, um, I'm doing five cohorts right now. Oceania, Africa, three in Americas. And one of the three cohorts is, um, this is weird. I didn't schedule it this way. I didn't plan it this way. It just happened. It's filled with retired people, like 60s, 70-year-old people. My mother is one of these people. And so my mom, I love her. She's called me three times today. I have to call her as soon as this stream's over. It's an emergency. She has to talk to me. It's not really an emergency, but she needs to talk to me. But she was, she's doing EDM and um, you know, she just keeps asking me questions. She keeps asking me questions. She keeps, she's so excited and um, and she just, she doesn't have like any other place to kind of outlay to work through some of this. And a lot of times we create what we call outpost regional networks that it's more peer-to-peer group kind of support. And that's really the heart behind what we're doing with outposts is to give an opportunity to explore, experiment, to be encouraged, and to be empowered to do ministry. And so like we're doing that, but this retired group really hadn't totally developed yet. And so Steve, my brother from another brother, he's in that group as well. And basically I was like, "Hey, Mr. Pete, how'd you like to mentor some 60s and 70-year-old people in doing digital ministry?" And dude, Mr. Pete was like, "I'm all about that."

That's incredible. Do so. I'm like, "Yeah, Mr. Mr. I just connected Mr. Pete with my mother." Um, I didn't mean it that way, but it did sound funny.

Uh, so I'm I'm excited. I'm excited, Mr. Pete. Mr. Pete, I I am excited for you, sir. All right. Hey, listen. Um, conferences. Oh my gosh.

I'm excited. So I'm going to I'm going to tell you right now the church digital we are doing a town hall meeting. We are going to do a town we do these things once a quarter.

We circle the wagons. Get everybody together and uh kind of just this is what we're working on this quarter. This is the challenge. This is the opportunities.

This is where we want you to to get a big picture of of where we are and where you fit. This is where we want to hear from you.

Uh what do you need? What are your challenges? And and we are doing that town hall meeting on Tuesday, May 20th. So Tuesday, May 20th is our town hall meeting.

And at the town hall meeting, I will be announcing um the the conference um themes and dates dates and themes for the conferences for the fall.

Now, some of you might be astute. Wait, he said dates. Dates is plural. He said themes. Themes is plural. Does that mean you're doing more than one conference?

That is what that means. I've been watching a lot of House lately. I've been binging House. I'm on season 4 right now. Uh don't ask me why.

Uh actually, I don't I don't mind it. Guy, you know, the guy's kind of a a know-it-all, but you know, he he can can you read between the lines and pull things.

So, I'm channeling my inner house here. I'm going to start calling you all morons. No, you're going to start calling me That would probably be more accurate.

But we're going to be doing more than one conference in in the fall. Now, I we had already kind of announced that we had said that we were going to do um a uh a conference.

I think I said this. I think we had said this publicly. If not, I'll go ahead and say it. We're going to do a European conference.

uh you know, our Simon, our uh European um outpost leader, uh and and we're going to be partnering with him and uh missions organization in Europe called Mission Alliance uh to to sponsor uh the the European digital missionary conference where we're going to highlight missionary work that's happening in in Europe and and

how what that looks like digital and their speakers and their and it's it's meant to connect people to Europe, uh, to EDM and to the outposts, but it's also a way for us, you know, not of Europe to maybe get an insight of what's happening in Europe and maybe pull lessons from somebody

in different contexts. And so, I'm excited about that conference. We the church digital is we'll be sponsoring that and running that and we'll be running um uh I would say at least one other conference uh although I suspect that it will be more than just those two conferences.

Feel free to read between the lines on that. Um we our our teams are are actively working on a number of fronts. Um, at the end of the day, I did not I and I've I've talked with leadership about this.

You know, we do a in the spring, we do a mega conference, right? Like I mean, what we did back in April 2nd, oh my gosh, that was this month.

That seems so long ago. What we did back in April 2nd was incredible. The mega conference just blasted out, get everybody in their mother to to come to this thing.

That was awesome. That was so exciting uh to be a part of and to see that happen. Um we're at this place where we wanted to do two at least two conferences a year.

And um I I just I felt like we needed more. We needed to do something different than just that same type of model over and over again.

A lot of the feedback that I got from the first round and and I did I did I listened to the feedback from the first round, a lot of people were talking about how the tables and the breakouts were really the the best part.

Um smaller uh you know more more intimate settings. And so um yeah, we uh we're we're molding, we're adjusting, spring conference, we've been using it like a global conference.

This is everybody coming together on a massive topic and and the the fall conferences, they're more going to be more targeted, more focused. Um, regional may not be the best word, but targeted, um, niche casting, niched, um, you know, words like that may fit the the idea of what we want to do

in the fall. And so, look for two, three, four conferences coming up for the church digital in the fall. Think of it this way.

Fall is going to be a conference season for the church digital. And because of, you know, generosity of of you donors, supporters of of sponsors uh for the conference and beyond, you know, we're in a position where we're able to do all of this once again for free.

And so all of the conferences um uh that we're doing, however many it is, uh we're we're in a position hopefully to keep it for free uh for for the next uh for this fall 2025 round.

So Jeff, when are you going to announce it? At town hall. So we'll have all the ducks in a row by May 20th. Uh if not, I'll we'll fake it.

will lie and just go ahead and announce it. But we're we're excited to to get to this uh by May 20th. And uh looking forward to seeing you when we uh when we announce all this on the uh May 20th uh stream, Tuesday, May 20th, 1:00 for uh the town hall meeting.

The other thing um that I I'm I'm I'm excited about and it's one of the things that that we've we've really been trying to to figure out as an organization is is how to get people, you know, it's funny.

We we've been using the word owning. How to get people to own the vision of the church digital. Hey, you know, at the church digital, we had um what did we have?

I think we had 6 or 800 people join um sign up that were completely new to the church digital. And so like the let's say 50% of the people who registered for the conference were completely cold to church digital, had no previous uh um exposure to TCD.

By the way, that's freaking incredible. Like that that right there is is a stat to itself. I I was so excited to see some of the exposure that we got and how new people were coming in maybe with not even real ideas on on what digital missions work looks like.

And now, you know, now they're starting to get communicated and resourced and empowered to be able to do that to explore that space. But as we're moving people from connection into community and and and really hoping that they'll start to own these ideas um towards that really been wrestling with this idea of

of ownership. Now TCD is a nonprofit. Um when I say ownership I'm not talking about the level of like selling stock, you know, cuz you you can't own a nonprofit.

It's there's there's nothing to to own. It it doesn't it doesn't work that way. So, it's not ownership as in like you you're retaining stock value or something like that, but it's it's more of um buying into the vision of it, contributing to the vision, to the mission of of what this

is doing. being a part of it at at a at a higher level. A and so and this is what we're really starting to, you know, scratch the itch on on the church digital.

How do we get to the place where we can get people to to contribute at at a higher level? What does contributing even mean at at a higher level?

And it was interesting. I was actually a couple weeks ago, I was sitting, no, I guess it was two weeks ago. It was Palm Sunday.

I was sitting at church and um you know I go to a small church plant here in Miami. Church is about 3 years old.

And we had a um we had a guest guest speaker, you know, and the guest speaker really kind of brought the hammer strong on on discipleship and and um the the the challenge of discipleship versus consumer centric churches.

And and it was a it was a it was a honestly it was one of the more well-crafted messages I've heard on that topic.

presented from a pulpit. Often times when I hear pastors preach on this, they they don't really swing the hammer because they're um they're overly cautious.

And this guy was a guest pastor. Uh and for whatever reason, I I guess he had permission. Dude was like swinging a hammer right out of the box.

I I posted it's funny. I posted the video in YouTube uh in our YouTube video on our TCD channel. So I was like, "You guys got to hear this.

It's really good." But he did something. This is what I want to do. He really focused on Matthew 6 as he was talking about what it looks like to own the the the vision of TCD.

And so I want to do this. I'm going to I'm going to do a screen share here. This is going to be different for me, right?

We're going to I'm going to read some scripture here. Matthew 6. Let me see if I can push the right button. That's kind of there.

All right. All right. So, let me get this to work a little better. Matthew 6. All right. So, Matthew 6, I got it here in front of me.

You can see it, but I want to scroll down. There were three things that he pulled out. Like, if you're going to own the vision, a disciple was his point.

if you're going to but you know I I would I would agitate agitate I I would change the adjective if you're going to own the vision of this of of the church digital I I would invite you as the founder as the leader of the church digital as as maybe the visionary of

the church digital I I will tell you that that we as an organization are in desperate need of this what is this that I'm referring to um you know first off I would suggest that we are in desperate need of of prayer ma uh Matthew 6:5 by the way Matthew 6 is the

um the um the beatitudes the sermon on the mount uh arguably one of the best sermons ever preached uh Jesus Matthew 5 and 6 preaching this but Matthew 6 verse 5 and whenever you pray Do not be like the hypocrites, for they love and to stand and pray in the synagogues and at

the street corners so that they may be seen by others. Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go in the room and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret.

And your father who sees in secret will reward you. When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words.

Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray in this way, and it's the the Lord's prayer.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.

Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors. Do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.

For if you forgive others, their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your father forgive you.

I just noticed this is NSRV. That's an unusual translation for me. Sorry. Um the but step one for us as as you're if we're looking as I'm asking for people to buy into the vision of church digital to to to be owners to be contributors um to to help us as as we're

empowering digital missionaries at a global level. Step number one is we need people that are willing to pray for us and for the mission space, the mission fields in the missionaries therein.

This this is why we did and this is the best kept secret of the of the church digital 1002 where we've got this uh our prayer initiative to stop and pray at 10:02.

And we've got we've got people around the planet that stop and pray every day at 10:02 a.m. Begin we're basing that off Luke 10:2 for the harvest and plentiful but the workers are few.

Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into the harvest field. And so that's our hope. Our our hope is that people would commit to sign up to pray.

Not just sign up to Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I'll pray for you and and not pray, but to stop I'm trying to figure out how to move to get in the frame.

But to stop and to pray for those in the mission field. You know, it's interesting. I have, um, my phone vibrates. I have an alarm that goes off every day at 10:02. Um, if my speakers are on, it actually plays MC Hammer's "Pray" back from like the '80s.

Um, yeah. I just don't ask. You can at me if you want. Tell me how horrible that is. But that's my moment to stop and pray.

And it was interesting today in a leadership meeting. Um, I was wrapping up a meeting and my 10:02 alarm went off and so I finished a couple sentences and by the time I was done it was 10:04 and I said, "Hey, Leighton, can you pray for the harvest? Can you pray for the mission field?" and we took the time right there to pray for it. I've been driving in different places. I've been in digital meetings. I've been in physical meetings. I've been alone by myself. I've been with my kids and my wife. I've been in Disney World with my family. Um, I have been in many different situations where I have stopped and prayed for the mission field at 10:02. And if we're looking at what it means to own, to contribute, um, prayer is a big part of that. And so I want to invite you to come join us at 10:02, pray with us, for even your own ministry. I mean, what if we stopped and prayed every day for our own ministry and then we prayed that God would continue to reach into his mission field in digital and virtual spaces and that God would continue to empower missionaries to be active in reaching into his digital and virtual mission field. I'm telling you, there's a lot of opportunities to pray for people in that space.

But it was interesting the sermon, we didn't just stop at praying. Uh, we actually talked about fasting. What would it look like if we prayed daily and we fasted weekly or we fasted even monthly towards the digital and virtual mission fields? What if we stopped and fasted for the ministry that's happening in these spaces? Concerning fasting, let's look at Matthew 6:16. "And whenever you fast, do not look dismal like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others they are fasting. Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting will be seen not by others, but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you." And so what a challenge for us to pray and to fast.

Now, it's interesting. I have one of my good friends growing up. She actually, you know what, she was the surgeon general for the state of Tennessee during COVID. She was the state, uh, what was it called? The surgeon general for the state of Tennessee during COVID season.

And so Morgan, uh, was her name. Actually, I can't think of her married name right now, but we used to get into arguments because she was so against the idea of fasting because fasting is actually, you know, at that time with her science, I know some article somewhere on buzzfeed.com says it's okay, but denying yourself food for that long of a time, the food starts to, you know, your enzymes, your body starts to eat on itself and in some sense it's not a healthy thing to do to fast for a 24-hour period or something like that. But what she understood at a scientific level, she maybe missed the spiritual opportunity where we're not even being dependent on food when we're fasting. We're being dependent on God. And it's that symbolism of, "Hey, God, we are not just praying words to you, but we're putting our actions where we are. By fasting, we're showing our dependence on you, God. Anything that you're doing in this space in physical and digital, it is not of our own volition. It's not of our own control. It's not of our own action. It's of you." And so stopping and fasting is our way of showing God, "Hey, God, you are in control of us and we hope that you will sustain our physical body as well as our physical ministry or digital ministry or virtual ministry in this context."

And so like for us, the idea of owning, of contributing, of casting, of buying into the vision at a higher level for the church digital, we not only want to ask you to pray daily through 10:02, but we want you to join us in fasting for your mission. Yes, one, let's fast for what God is doing through you in the mission field, but two, fast for how we, the church digital, God can use you through the church digital and God can use the church digital to reach and disciple people at a global scale. There's this challenge that I've had. If you know me and I don't want to speak out of turn, most of you would agree with this. You know, I'm a little bit of a control freak in the grand scheme of things. If you know me well, you know that you don't have to disagree with that. Like, that's, I can control pretty well in those situations. But it's interesting. I've really at a personal level seen God move so well when I loosen up the reins, when I release control and allow God to move through it. It's interesting the points where I've seen God move best is where I lost the most control. The point where I've seen God not move is actually where I feel like I've moved the strongest. And by releasing control is giving God the opportunity to move in that. And so as an organization, to be honest, like I'm even like as we're fasting, as we're going through this, "God, come and do something that's beyond what we can do." I mean, if you look at me, as my mom would say, you could probably skip a couple meals, Jeff. It'd be okay. The larger challenge, though, is I want to see God move beyond what I could do through Jeffrey.com. I want to see God move and do things beyond my wildest expectations or goals or standards because God's vision is bigger than mine. God's vision is better than mine.

Um, I never thought I'd be here. Never thought I'd be here. I am so thankful God's got me here because what I thought I wanted to be and do and how God turned that on its head and where God brought me instead is so much better. And it's being dependent on him in these moments. For me, as I'm praying and fasting and seeking him, I want to invite you to join me in this praying and fasting that God would do something incredible through the life of you in and through and for and to and because and whatever other adjective you want because of the church that you're, I don't think it's actually an adjective. I'm bad at English. So we to own and owns may not be the right word. We want to talk about praying. We want people to pray daily to be a contributor, to take the next step with the church digital.

We want you to be a contributor, which means we want you to pray daily. We invite you to pray daily. We want you to fast through that. Um, and then there's a third thing that we're going to ask you to do, and it's to give.

Um, you know, we're looking here, Matthew 6, let's say verse 19. "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." You know, it's interesting that, and listen, I am not the, I'm not looking for a tithe. I'm not, we are the church digital is not a church, nor are we, do I want to position ourselves as such, and want to challenge to take, you know, money away from the bride of Christ in this situation. But I do think there's a really interesting challenge here on Matthew 6:21. "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Many of you have benefited because of the ministry of the church digital. Um, I would have loved doing, helping, shaping, um, contributing, equipping, mobilizing, um, empowering, encouraging. I've loved seeing this organization do what it's doing. And so I don't want to stop what I'm doing. This organization, our leadership doesn't want to stop what we're doing. But what I do want to challenge you to do is to maybe think about taking a next step financially into this. Look, if it's five bucks, you know, there are some people that five bucks a month is a big deal. And so whatever that number is, I'm at this point I don't know that I want to put a dollar figure on it.

You know, it's funny. I'll say this. We were actually kicking around the idea of a campaign of like, "Okay, we want everybody to do like, okay, 1% of your monthly income. 1% of your, what would it look like if you give 1% of your monthly income to the church digital?" And like the 1%, that's a whole thing in political subculture in America, which I don't want to get into. And so we kind of backed away from some of that language.

I do believe this though. I do believe that for many of you, you see value in what you're doing. A lot of you are spending a lot of time in our community and enjoying our streams and that's incredible. We don't want to stop these things. We want to invite you to contribute into this so that you can own a piece of the ministry of what's happening here, that you can pass it forward through the gifts that we're able to get now is not only able to resource you but to resource someone else and continue on that vision for it. And so that's really what we're wanting to do is challenge people to one, pray, to fast, and three, give to the vision of the church digital.

And so to that end, we're going to be announcing here pretty much effective immediately the idea of being a digital missions ambassador. Now this just launched like you are getting the, this may be the first kind of wave of seeing this page, the church.digital/ambassadors. We want 50 people to have one purpose, to move digital missions forward with prayer, fasting, and generosity. Prayer, fasting, and generosity. Uh, this is a spiritual calling. We're looking for 50 people to stand in the gap as digital missionaries, to pray, to fast, to give, to be part of something that can't be measured by views or clicks. Love that. But by lives reached in digital spaces, and by lives reached in digital spaces, the building will never touch.

It's so interesting. We, um, you would look at our websites and be like, "Yeah, we don't like buildings." We actually love buildings. Buildings are great, but buildings serve a purpose. And the purpose is not everything anymore. And so buildings are going to reach who buildings are going to reach. But there's a whole lot of people that we need to reach that the buildings are not.

As an ambassador for digital missions work, a digital missionary ambassador, here's what we're asking for. Pray daily for missionaries in the movement. Fast once a month for boldness, breakthrough, and digital saturation, and give monthly. Your prayer covers the work. Your fasting sharpens the mission. Your giving fuels the future. Uh, it's not about ownership of a mission as much as we, this is about ownership of a mission. We believe God is inviting many of you to act on. Uh, this is the beginning of what God is doing beyond our building. We're hoping to get in this season 50 ambassadors that will commit to being active in praying daily, fasting monthly, and giving, contributing to that.

How's this fit for you all as people watching the streams? You all are, um, well, you're the ones that are most bought in. I would love some feedback from you on this. You can throw it in chat. You can DM me directly, but we really want to challenge you to consider being an ambassador for us through the Church Digital and at looking at maybe potentially, um, man, I so want to say owning. And I can't say I—I don't want to say owning—to really help represent this at a global level to represent this of the Church Digital to be an ambassador um with others towards the idea of being digital missionaries and the work that's happening in digital and virtual spaces.

Um, help us, and then at the same time maybe start to champion these ideas publicly. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to check out the website thischurch.digital/ambassadors. We'll put that link in the YouTube description in the show notes to church.digital/ambassadors. A-m-b-a-s-s-a-d-o-r-s. I think that's how you spell ambassadors. We really need a shorter vanity URL on that too. Um, but we do want to see more of this move forward.

We're inviting fifty of you in this season. Um, what is this not? This is not a giving campaign. This is not the Church Digital needs money and so we're asking desperately for people to give. Now listen, I'm going to be blunt. I was in that season. I was in that season two months ago, three months ago, four months ago where we were desperate. Um, God's moved in some great ways, and um, you know, the Church Digital is stable, um, moving forward. The Church Digital is stable. But so it's not giving, but I do believe this is that, um, you know, the money is a testimony to where your heart is, and maybe some of you, there's an opportunity to contribute a little bit to own the vision of the Church Digital and set up a monthly contribution right towards that. You know, I've said this. I think I can say this. Daniel Herren's a—how old is Daniel Herren? Daniel Herren's maybe twenty-four, twenty-five at this point. Daniel Herren um started the Robloxian Christians when he was like eleven or twelve years old. Dude ran a digital church in Roblox called the Robloxian Christians for over a decade. He um literally—I asked him once like how many people do you think you connected with? He's like fifty, sixty thousand people, uh, easily through the Robloxian Christians over the course of his lifetime. It was funny at age twenty-one, twenty-two, he aged out of ministry on Roblox. He felt like he was too old to do ministry, and um, they tried to hand it off to somebody else, but they ended up shutting the church down.

I say all that to say that Daniel Herren's a twenty-five-year-old. He works in um politics, political work, um, something. I'm not really sure. Um, he ran for a while. He was like director of a suicide hotline in like New, uh, New Mexico, I think. Anyway, that's not the point. The larger point is that Daniel, a young adult in the Pacific Northwest, was contributing ten bucks a month to the Church Digital. And I tell you what, it made me proud that this kid—he's not even active in digital missions work today, uh, but he has a history in it. He understands, and he is passionate because while that's not what he's doing now, that is where his heart was, and he wants to see the Church Digital help others continue that mission on.

And so dude, invest ten bucks a month, and that may be the widow's mite. Um, ten bucks is not a lot. Um, but God can do a lot with a little, and I'm excited to see what we continue to do with just a little on a global scale. So it's not a giving campaign. It truly is an opportunity to invite you to be an ambassador at a prayer, at a fasting, um, and at a financial level, uh, to invite God into the digital relationships that you have through these methods and to see what God can do through you through these methods. What would it look like if you prayed for your own ministry every day at ten-oh-two? What would it look like every day stopped? And nothing is more important than stopping and praying at ten-oh-two for what God's doing in this space through you. What would it look like if you took twenty-four hours and fasted a month just for the sole purpose that you're showing your dependence on God, not on um worldly methods, not on strategy, but on God. And what would it look like if you sacrificed a little bit of financial stability, a little bit of financial stability, just to uh show God that your heart's in the same place.

I think there's an incredible opportunity for us to take this to our personal ministry to a higher level in digital and virtual spaces. So hey, that's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for, as I close that screen—I think I still have that screen somewhere—I am looking for um fifty people to be a digital missions ambassador. Check out the website www.church.digital/ambassadors. A-m-b-a-s-s-a-d-o-r-s for more information. All right. Well, hey guys, guess what? We're going to wrap up. I told you it was—I mean, it was a chill day. It's kind of just chill today. Tomorrow, next week, I'm excited. We're going to have Stacy and Elm Michelle coming on. We're going to be talking a little bit about um mental health and uh the Church Digital uh chaplain's work.

You know, we've got the two ladies here, Stacy and Elm Michelle, uh, have been active, have been actively working in digital and virtual uh through the Church Digital in our communities. Um, and we want to start to let the Church Digital know what they're doing, what does it mean to be a chaplain of the Church Digital? Stacy's chaplain overall of the Church Digital. Elm Michelle does a lot of chaplain work for the Church Digital and virtual reality. What does that mean? Um, and how they can help uh missionaries and ministries like yours in that. And so it's going to be a really good, a really practical conversation coming next week. So check—uh, it'll be Tuesday, ten a.m., I think. We're going to be good for that. Uh, whatever day that is—says let's see, twenty-seventh, twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth—I guess it's Tuesday the twenty-ninth. Be back onto our normal scheduled time uh then. Yeah, Stacy's looking forward to that, and I'm sure Elm Michelle is as well. But hey, uh, for today we're going to land the plane, and so thanks for hanging out with us here on the stream. Like I said, everybody, uh, as I'm wrapping up here, go open up a new web browser, go to twitch.tv/thechurchdigital. Twitch.tv/thechurchdigital. Our good friend um uh Leighton Flatcap is over there in uh on TCD's Twitch channel, and he's getting ready to kick off a couple hours stream. So hang out with him. Enjoy the podcast interview. Tell him I said hey. And um, more coming soon from the Church Digital. Okay. Love you all. Appreciate everybody. Bye.