Confession hour here on The Church Digital Podcast. I say something in this podcast that I've not publicly admitted to in maybe twenty years. So listen in, but let's be honest for a minute. Working and/or Volunteering for a church can be an incredible rewarding job. But if we're honest, it can also suck the soul right out of you. This is why I love talking with our guest here, Jon Pyle. He admits there's a problem, and is working to help people, well, be better on the inside. We're on Week Two o...
Feb 07, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Season 2Ep. 202
So THECHURCH.DIGITAL is rolling out it's Podcast Network, and I gotta tell you, I'm excited about the Content Creators we're platforming here on The Church Digital Podcast Network . Over the next month The Church Digital Podcast is getting taken over! We'll be featuring one of our Network Associates each week for the next five weeks, giving you, listening audience, a taste of the different nuances featured on TCD Podcast Network. Right off the bat, we're featuring Tom Pounder & The TCD Sidek...
Jan 31, 2022•40 min•Season 2Ep. 201
200 Podcasts has brought us to this point... Have you heard yet? We are launching a Digital Church Network. Over the years we've had so many conversations centered around equipping people via digital discipleship to reach a digital and meta mission field in hopes of creating digital and meta churches... honestly it just felt like launching a Digital Church Network was the next natural step. Looking at the reach and engagement digital churches are seeing, and the lack of organizational support th...
Jan 24, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Season 2Ep. 200
2021 brought a lot of changes, which brings opportunities in 2022. So, here we are. THECHURCH.DIGITAL, in an attempt to better equip churches that are interested in expanding their ministry in digital and meta spaces, is rolling out... well, you're just going to have to come watch the stream with Jeff when he announces the changes coming. Complete Show Notes Available at THECHURCH.DIGITAL ....
Jan 17, 2022•20 min•Season 2Ep. 199
As a Church Futurist it’s not often when I talk with someone that is ahead of me, and my conversations with Todd Wilson historically have blown my mind. Todd, CEO of Exponential, is an incredible designer of strategy. The few opportunities I’ve had to talk with him about the trends of today and how they’re influencing tomorrow - and how the church needs to adapt - well, inspiring is just the beginning of that conversation. Truthfully, I wanted to share one of those conversations with you. As we ...
Jan 10, 2022•52 min•Season 2Ep. 198
Today we're not going to be talking much about technology. In fact, it doesn't come up at all. Today we're going to be focusing on more of leadership, the networking, the relationship aspects. The Digital Church Network will be launching in 2022, but to pave the road we needed to have some conversation to learn more about what church networks can look like. Enter in Jason Shepperd, with House Church Network. As Founder of the House Church Network (in Texas), Jason has created a microchurch movem...
Jan 03, 2022•55 min•Season 2Ep. 197
Pandemic or not, 2021 was a chaotic year for the church and its leaders. Before we get back to 2022, let's reflect back on 2021 and the positive influences we as the church and its leaders have gone through. Joining Jeff in this broadcast is Tom Pounder/TCD Sidekick, along with other content creators/influencers: Chestly Lunday, Andy Mage, Garrett Siljee and John Pyle. Get a sneak peak of what TCD Podcast Network will become in 2022 while celebrating some of the greatness of 2021. SHOW NOTES &am...
Dec 27, 2021•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 196
Show Notes Available on THECHURCH.DIGITAL
Dec 20, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Season 2Ep. 195
For the love of all, let’s focus on doing something other than the weekend service ! We’ve heard it time and time again, let’s do something different. Have you ever asked yourself why it’s so hard to do something different? Lee Coate, Executive Pastor at The Crossing Church, has figured out the formula for an experimental culture at a church, and sheds some insight on how to be a church that experiments, while talking about a recent experiment that the church is going through literally right now...
Dec 13, 2021•46 min•Season 2Ep. 194
So, what you’re telling me is you met some people in virtual reality and now you want to fly across the country and meet them in person? What are you in, some kind of cult? Real live quote from the mother of one of our guests here. Nicole the Angel started attending Cornerstone VR, a virtual reality campus of Cornerstone Yuba City. Cornerstone Yuba City is a small church in NorCal, maybe about 200 attend there physically. One of the unique parts of Cornerstone is they consider their virtual real...
Dec 06, 2021•1 hr 10 min•Season 2Ep. 193
What challenges are you facing in Digital ministry? You’re definitely facing challenges. We all are! What’s fascinating to me, in this post-COVID culture we’re moving into, is that one church’s strength is another weakness, and vice-versa. Which really gets me to the heart of this podcast. Sprout Digital is in the midst of a five year Research Project, digging into the validity of Digital Church and Digital Discipleship. And with focuses like that, you can bet that THECHURCH.DIGITAL is excited a...
Nov 29, 2021•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 192
So you want to be a missionary in Belize? Awesome. Learn the language. Understand the culture. Meet some people. Listen. Pray. And eventually talk about Jesus. There’s a playbook on how to be a missionary in a foreign land. And as you probably noticed very little of the playbook has anything to do with a church service. But how do we be a missionary in, oh I don’t know, the METAVERSE? Enter PastorBrock into the conversation… probably the first true META Missionary I’ve ever met. I love his persp...
Nov 22, 2021•54 min•Season 2Ep. 191
So happy the Facebook algorithm connected Steven Barr and I together. Being a Disney freak, I was sure Facebook connected us because of my obsession with all things Disney. Come to find out, though, there’s a lot more that connects Steven and I. Steven runs a church aimed at Disney Castmembers, the employees that run Disney World theme parks. Talk about out of the box thinking, I wanted to learn about some of his philosophy of how he’s reaching people at Disney, but what came out of this was a m...
Nov 15, 2021•54 min•Season 2Ep. 190
Uberizing Church. Yeah, at this point we’re just making up words here. That’s a good thing, though, cause we get to define each word. Ulitmately, with each new word comes a new standard. Uberization of Church brings this idea of platforming a concept, crowdsourcing it, and releasing it to others. In many ways, it’s the opposite mindset than what we typically think in church today. It’s not controlled growth, it’s releasing control, allowing multiplication. How do we get there? Jump in this conve...
Nov 08, 2021•58 min•Season 2Ep. 189
Zuckerberg did it. With the announcement of the new parent company, META, Zuckerberg has made Facebook extremely relevant as they announced their dreams for the METAVERSE. For those unaware, the metaverse comprises of virtual reality worlds, augmented reality, digital assets and physical space all isolated or seamlessly blended together in some sort of a mixed reality. Crazy? With Facebook $$$ you can bet the Metaverse is going to expand big time. It’s important to realize, the Metaverse is alre...
Nov 01, 2021•18 min•Season 2Ep. 188
Why is a digital church perceived to be so threatening to a physical church? Rather than see a digital church as complementary to what’s happening physically, a digital church is seen in competition, as if the Gospel means less digitally than physically. Reality is we see today that these digital churches are reaching a different type of person than physical churches are reaching. These digital churches are not in competition, they are completing our call in making disciples… just using differen...
Oct 25, 2021•56 min•Season 2Ep. 187
So what's going on at THECHURCH.DIGITAL? What's this big announcement? Jump on this podcast to get the news first-ish... and find out how THECHURCH.DIGITAL is moving towards helping churches like yours with practical, grounded insight & tips. Once you check out the podcast swing over to http://thechurch.digital/sidekick
Oct 21, 2021•20 min
We often talk, here on the podcast, about the idea of churches doing multiple strategies. At Stadia, we call it multimodal churches. Instead of running one approach, a multimodal church runs multiple modes, multiple strategies of church. Rather than simplifying approach, in this mid/post-COVID season, it’s not good to put the proverbial eggs in one basket. Instead, church, we need to diversify our approach and run multiple strategies. This begins to pull the thread on the conversation today. Jas...
Oct 18, 2021•42 min•Season 2Ep. 186
The idea of a digital missionary may seem almost foreign to some. Can we really empower people to be on-mission digitally? What is that process to get people on-mission? This just scratches the surface when I sit down with Tom Pounder and talk about what a Digital Missionary is, and what they can be… Ready to think outside the box? Talk crazy? Let’s go. Complete Show Notes and Online Video Available at THECHURCH.DIGITAL...
Oct 11, 2021•38 min•Season 2Ep. 185
It is amazing to me how controversial the words “digital” and “discipleship” are, especially when they’re in the same sentence. The truth is that these devices in our pocket can go a long way to bring us closer to God. In season two, we’re continuing to highlight those that are doing innovative things and thinking outside the box, so let’s talk crazy on digital discipleship. This is the heart of the conversation today. We’re bringing in Tyler Sansom, Lead Pastor of Church Anywhere, to learn how ...
Oct 04, 2021•36 min•Season 2Ep. 184
Fun stat. 49% of Church Budgets, Pre-COVID, went to salaries. Payroll. Almost 1/2 of every dollar given went to pay an employee. (Almost 25% went to pay for the building, but that’s another conversation). There’s a movement as of late. Are you seeing it? People are stepping back from paid church staff positions, but still doing ministry either through the church or moving to doing ministry more in the workplace. This bi-vocational/co-vocational mindset is anything but new, however during this mi...
Sep 27, 2021•41 min•Season 2Ep. 183
Thanks to the global pandemic, churches around the world have made leaps and bounds, digitally. Even, as aggressive as, the church has been in forging new digital and phygital (tm) strategies, let me tell you some terms they’re not yet taking seriously: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning. The future of not only church, but tech in general, is centered around this idea of personalization. Using data openly available to craft messages, training, and discipleship specifically for individuals...
Sep 20, 2021•55 min•Season 2Ep. 182
Season Two is upon us. As we’re launching this next season at THECHURCH.DIGITAL, we are telling the story of the innovators, the out of the box thinkers, the crazies… and celebrating what God is doing though them! First on the list, Theo Davis, Digital Pastor at Restore Church, who is doing an experiment of an online bible study through Minecraft. I’ll be honest, I know very little about Minecraft. My kids, however, know a bunch. How is Theo using Minecraft to engage a different community? What ...
Sep 13, 2021•44 min•Season 2Ep. 181
Trying to take your small groups to the next level, digitally? Get some quick tips on how to lead and engage digital groups better using some quick and proven methods. How can BETA Show help your groups this week? Tune in and find out! BTW, this week is The BETA Show’s last episode, as the all new Season 2 is debuting Monday, September 13th. Like the BETA SHOW? Check out more episodes here . Complete Show Notes and Online Video Available at THECHURCH.DIGITAL...
Sep 10, 2021•25 min
Whether you do ministry in an established church, or looking to start something new, in this mid/post-COVID world our churches need to think “digital” first. Let’s talk through three reasons why your church still needs to think digital first. Like the BETA SHOW? Check out more episodes here . Complete Show Notes and Online Video Available at THECHURCH.DIGITAL...
Sep 07, 2021•12 min
Wanting to plant a church? In this mid/post-COVID culture we live in, there are many complications when it comes to doing physical ministry, much less starting physical ministry from scratch. At this point, every church plant needs to embrace “Phygital” in their church. How can your church plant be Phygital? Many different paths here to integrate digital into your church’s strategy. Let’s explore some options here, and give church planters some practical next steps, here on the BETA Show. Like t...
Aug 30, 2021•22 min
Looking to take that next step in your digital ministry? Recognize that Digital Community is not located by physical boundaries, which leads to new guardrails defining Community. In many cases, for phygital/digital-only churches, AFFINITY is the new VICINITY. Like the BETA SHOW? Check out more episodes here . Complete Show Notes and Online Video Available at THECHURCH.DIGITAL...
Aug 23, 2021•17 min
I was in Nashville last week, and had an incredible experience (over a cup of decent coffee) that brought me some insight on Digital Ministry. What did I learn here? Let’s talk about what Waffle House taught me about Church Online. Like the BETA SHOW? Check out more episodes here . Complete Show Notes and Online Video Available at THECHURCH.DIGITAL...
Aug 16, 2021•12 min
We’ve got all these people, digitally? What are we supposed to do with them? If our churches really expect to exist digitally, then we need to be comfortable discipling people in digital space. What does a digital discipleship pathway look like? And how does a digital discipleship pathway operate compared to a physical discipleship pathway? Let’s start getting practical here on the BETA SHOW. Like the BETA SHOW? Check out more episodes here . Complete Show Notes and Online Video Available at THE...
Aug 09, 2021•31 min
We get this a lot these days. Coming out of the COVID season many churches are trying to push back towards a physical-only process, while ignoring many of the lessons and principles that were learned during the pandemic... or leadership wants to still emphasize digital, but is putting all time, energy and resources into physical and ignoring digital? As people who are passionate about digital ministry, yet are seeing digital devalued, what are we to do? How do we handle situations when our visio...
Aug 02, 2021•17 min
