EP321 - theChurch.digital’s 25 Promises for 2025

Welcome to the Church Digital Podcast. Through this podcast, we'll talk about the technological innovations within the church. But more than tech for tech itself, we'll address deeper questions.

Is disciple making possible digitally? How should we approach the digital mission field? Can a biblically grounded church operate in digital space?

Oh, and where does the metaverse and artificial intelligence fit into all of this? Whether you're a big or small church, the Church Digital's goal is to help churches like yours learn to be a multiplying church, digitally and physically. And now here's your host, Jeff Reed.

Well, shoot, I don't know about you, but I could just listen to this music for a while more. I kind of thought, hey, let me just let it play longer. And that's a little too fast for me now, I don't know.

I maybe, I like the EDM. I like the techno. You know, I like the, the, I like this stuff.

Like, I was always a techno kid growing up in the 90s. You know, it's funny. I woke up this morning, Fat Boy Slim was, was in my head, praise you.

I literally had the rhythm of praise you. Just in my head for the first hour before I got going. I was, I started like singing it in the shower and my wife was making fun of me.

True story, 100%. And so, yeah, welcome to my world. Hey, Jeff here with the Church Digital.

I'm excited about today. We got Fat Cap coming in. We got, we got Stacey as well.

Stacey giving a shout out here. Hey, hey. Nothing like, hey, hey.

Coming in from the East Coast, Flat Cap, I'm listening to DJ Soto's AI album. That's interesting. I hadn't heard that.

And so I need to, I saw you talking about some of that online. I'll have to, to check that out. It's crazy.

We live in this crazy world, man, where AI, AI was supposed to do the menial jobs to allow more creativity among people. Yet somehow we ended up where AI is doing all the artistic jobs and people are like, well, what am I supposed to do now? Like that's a whole other conversation for a different day.

Not going to get there today, but oh my gosh, we are, it's, well, it's the new world. So welcome. Glad you're here.

Hey, it's 2025. It is 2025. I think we're, I think it's 2025.

Okay, let's do this. Purple Disco Machine. I'll have to, I'll have to listen to that.

Stacey, send me a link on that. This is, you are using a language I do not understand. I am not cool.

I have always said this publicly. I am not the cool kid. I play a cool kid on TV.

Stacey is, is by far, I was, I was a radio DJ out of, out of choice, but not really the good one. They kind of buried me. They gave me like the, the night shift, 8 PM, 2 AM, where I hung out with a bunch of like psychos, which was awesome.

It's a bunch of psychos who listen to radio at like two in the morning on weekends. I'm just saying like, there's a, it's a, it's the party crowd. You may be the party crowd.

The party crowd was listening to this stuff. And so that's, that's one of the reasons why I love it. I'm going down a road.

I do not want to go down today. Stacey, stop it. Stop it.

Let me not go down this road because I want to talk about something today. I'm excited about today. I, God bless you all.

I am going to be talking. I'm going to be doing so much 25 things for 2025. I don't know about you, but I am jacked up excited about 2025.

And, uh, I, I was telling, I was telling my wife and I was telling some of the crowd, like, I have not been this excited heading into a new year. Like things are just clicking. There's so much excitement.

There's so much opportunity. The path is so much, it's so clear. I have so much excitement.

I need to drink coffee to sustain. I'm kidding. But I need, I am just so excited about the road that we're on with, with the church digital.

And, uh, and so I was, I was trying to think yesterday, what do I want to talk about? Five promises. Let's do five promises.

The church digital, five TCD promises for 2025. And I just sat down at the keyboard trying to knock out five promises of 2025. And, uh, I, you know, when I got to about 18, I realized, okay, I'm thinking too small.

And that's time to expand my vision. And so I got to 25 promises of 2025 and realized, Hey, this is a, it's a pretty good number. I'm glad where we are with this.

So we're going to go ahead and roll with it. 25 promises for 2025. Are you ready? I'm ready.

Uh, Stacy flat cap, others in the room, hanging out. If you got questions to them in chat, I want to hear from you as we're wrestling through 25 ways, 25 ways. The church digital is going to impact you in your ministry in 2025.

Like, let's, let's get real. Let's take it down. Let's, let's tell stream beats to, to, to take it down a little, a little bit here.

He's kind of doing it for me a little bit. I can feel it in the background. Come on, keep, keep it, keep it low.

Keep it chill here for a second, bro. Okay. All right.

Very go. Oh my gosh. You, the organ in the background where we're there.

We're feeling this. Hey, tall, skinny Kiwi. Hey, everybody.

We want to help your ministry in 25 and it's, it's, it's going to happen. Like if the church digital is not helping your ministry happen, it's not because we're not trying like engage with us, but there's 25 ways we're going to be able to, to, to get connected and to help your ministry take next steps in 2025. And so let's get into this.

I'm going to, I'm going to fly through these. If you'd like something, you got questions, throw it in chat. We'll dig into it.

Uh, but here we go. 25 promises of, of TCD in 2025. Number one, more my, oh my gosh, the, the, the music just stopped right there. It's beautiful.

Number one, more mind blowing concepts from the TCD. Number one, more mind blowing concepts from the TCD team. I tell you what, we, it's, it's so funny.

People are like, Jeff, you must be so innovative. Jeff, how do you come up with these ideas? Jeff, how do you, it ain't me people like, and this is not like humble brag.

This is, this is legitimate. I sit around and, uh, Barbara Carnero, Jason Morris, Andy Mage, Layton. Um, they come up with questions.

They come up with ideas. They come up with challenging concepts. Um, I, I'm just a, the loud mouth jerk that like tries.

Okay. I'll say that I'll be the rebel. Okay.

Some of the stuff I say, like I want to, I want to own, um, you know, the, the, the church is, is a coward. Okay. That was me.

So if you're going to send the hate mail, send that to me. But a lot of this stuff, oh my gosh, it's coming from them. Um, uh, platforms is places, JMO rolling that out.

All the archetype stuff that Barbara talks about. If you've not, if you've not listened to Barbara talk about the archetypes and how the different types of people there are influences you and influences your ministry in, in, in your aim, niching, small niche casting, that's going to be my word for 25 is niche casting. Oh my gosh.

So, so good. And so stay tuned for more mind blowing concepts. Okay.

That was like, that was like the softball pitch. You know, that's, that's the easy one. Let's let, we're going to get into this.

Hey, you know what? Number two, the second promise of TCD and 25, we're going to be hitting more connection points. Okay.

So we're, we're, we, the church digital, we're, we're following the same framework that we challenge everybody else to we're connecting with people at a, at a superficial level, blogs, podcasts, um, uh, YouTube streaming on, on YouTube conferences. Uh, we are connecting and building relationships, even in physical space where we're connecting with people with the hopes of getting them into our community to build a relationship so that we can encourage them to be a digital missionary. We're doing the same framework that we're telling you all to do.

Shh. Don't tell anybody. And, and for us, we want to connect with more people at, at, at a higher level.

What does that look like? We'll get into some of that here in, in a little bit, but I mean, just even the fact that we're in the countries that we are like, like there's an opportunity. What does the church digital look like in Espanol, uh, in, uh, you know, Mandarin Chinese in, uh, in, uh, uh, insert language here, you know, what is the church, what's the Nigerian version of the church digital really look like?

Oh, oh yes. Uh, Sarah, Sarah's jumping in here. Barbara talking about, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh We're going to be able to connect with more people in different ways digitally.

Number three, 25 ways the church digital is going to, the promises for the church digital that we're supporting your ministry. We're going to be creating new communities in 25 with new focus. Remember connect to community, right?

Community right here. This is where the relationships in your church. This is where you're building relationships is where you're establishing trust in community is where you're seeing evangelism, digital evangelism, digital discipleship.

You're seeing that function real well in that community context. And so for us, we've got discord, love me some discord, WhatsApp. I love WhatsApp too.

I never thought I'd say it. I do. It was funny.

We're even just talking about like, my son is going to be getting, a WhatsApp account. And so we are, um, we are a strong WhatsApp believer, but we are going to start to expand into new communities. That may be more platforms.

That may be more, uh, different focus of the communities, but there's an opportunity to not stay where we are as much as to multiply and expand. Even to the point where we're like, we're, we're having serious conversations with like globally recognized organizations about coming alongside them and helping them build communities. And what, what would it look like for the church digital to help, um, other organizations understand how to utilize digital community?

Like this is the focus of, of what we're trying to do with the church digital is get to this place of where we, one of the promises we're going to do. Number three here is create new communities with a new focus. Number four, this one took a little bit to get through, but I think we got everybody lined up.

We're going to do new formats for equipping digital missionaries. Now, now you all know this and it's interesting, Sarah and, and some of the, uh, the, uh, word revolution team, they, they don't even know about this. And so like, um, I, I, I, I kind of was like, I don't know that I don't want to like hurt anybody when I say this, by the way, seriously, on these 25 promises, a couple of these make a cut, uh, from the VOD.

So if you're watching it live, congratulations, you're going to see the unedited, the unfiltered version. If we get all the way through this thing and I don't have to make any cuts, I'm going to be surprised. Cause a couple of these towards the end is going to be like, did he just say that?

Yeah. Yeah. He did just say that number four, um, is we're going to come out with some new formats for EDM.

Now we've got a, a, this is the inside scoop, baby. Like you come in, you listen, you get the raw stuff. Um, the 12 week cohort has been awesome.

We're, I think a week seven, week eight, uh, I'm meeting with my cohort in like three hours, uh, two hours. As a matter of fact, I'm going to take a break after the stream and then I'm, I'm teaching through, uh, with them now. And, and we're coming up and we're doing the cohorts for equipping digital missionaries right now, starting in the, uh, in January, later this month, we're going to be doing Oceania.

We're going to be doing Nigeria and, uh, I'm, I'll probably do, uh, one or two. I'm, uh, looking at just signups in the, in the U S if you're interested in the course, uh, in the cohorts, uh, the church.digital slash EDM, the church.digital slash EDM for equipping digital missionaries. It's a great course now.

And we'll get more into that here in a little bit. Now here's the deal. Here's what we've discovered.

Uh, the way that we're doing the course, the, the cohort, the, the 12 week, um, and I knew this, but I wanted to actually see somebody say something, uh, it, that does not work in all contexts. And, and as we started working with some of our, our Indian friends, um, in, um, Southeast Asia, we discovered that, Hey, you know what, um, there, the orality of the culture doesn't work real well with, uh, the, uh, asynchronous methods we were using, uh, for the cohorts. And so they asked, can we come out with some other models?

And so the answer is, well, of course. And so we're actually going to be offering a, this is an inside scoop. I told you we're going to be offering a coaching, um, type model where it's a couple of coaching sessions tied into the material.

It's the same concepts. It's the same materials, but we're just making it available in different formats. Some people would rather break it down slowly and, and have like a, a group to process it in.

Some would rather binge and process alone, but still be part of a larger community. And so in, in the end, at the end of the day, I don't, at least for me, I don't, I don't care, uh, as much as it is how, um, what you do with this information once it's done, like I'll tell anybody, anything. I just, I just, I wouldn't know what they're doing after the fact, how it's impacting the kingdom.

That's the thing that interests me. And so number four, we've got, um, new formats, uh, for EDM, uh, looking at the time here. Oh my gosh, it's going to be a long stream.

Cause I, I, I can't, I can't shut up. I'm too worried. I'm too worried. 25 was, was interesting.

Number five, fifth of the way there. Another mic dropping woman here. We're going to be doing, I think I may have said this publicly.

I don't know. I, I, I talk so much in so many different audiences. I don't, I don't know who knows what, honestly.

So roll with me. If you've heard this before, number five, five promises for 2025, we will come out with new cohorts beyond equipping digital missionaries. There are things that, that we're talking about, um, that go beyond just, uh, the equipping digital missionaries material in the cohort.

Like I, I love what EDM is and, and to be honest, we're still building it out. I recorded one of my sessions this morning, uh, for week 10, but the, the place where we want to go with this thing is much more in addition to what we're doing with EDM. We want to get to the place where we're, um, providing other learning opportunities.

And that's, I, you know, honestly, like, I, I mean, I guess I'll say this. We're looking at like, um, what's happening with, uh, sharing Jesus online. Like the book was incredibly, uh, honestly, like, unbeknownst to me, I wrote the thing and, you know, uh, organizations are running it, exponentials doing their thing with it.

And, um, you know, I blinked, I did a, I did a Google search on it the other day. And like, you know, there's like, uh, sharing Jesus online, uh, reviews and like China walking through how to, to do this in, in, uh, in the Chinese environment. And, and, uh, like the, the missional impact globally, there were, there were three or four countries, Philippines was one, um, where people are adapting the sharing Jesus online mentality into the, the mission, uh, models globally.

And it's starting to get me asking questions like, uh, can we do this more intentionally? And the funny thing is I love this. Dr.

John and I actually shot, this is the secret. Dr. John and I actually, you know, he wrote the book with me strangers.

I'm like, we actually already shot the, the, the course, the cohort, the material. Um, we got in a video studio with Andy Mage, like two years ago and, and shot the, the course and I got, I got sick and, and took a break and, and never, honestly, never compiled the thing together. And, and so, yeah, guess what?

Number five, uh, we've got, uh, new cohorts. So we'll be rolling out in 2025 beyond just equipping digital missionaries. We want to help you all.

And there's probably some other things we're going to do too, because I'm just so driven. Listen, God told me help. And, and, you know, whether it's tangible, ethereal, what that looks like, we can get there, but dang it.

You know, in 2025, the church digital is going to be helping people like you be a digital missionary. Number six, outposts for everyone. This is the one that I'm spending the most time on.

I love the team that I have with the church digital right now because of this. If I look at, um, the connection level, you know, the superficial, the, the content, getting eyes, building the audience level, Barbara and, and the word revolution team, some of them are watching this are doing an incredible job. And if you get into community, Andy has built and is managing and maintaining two incredible communities, which by the way, volunteers are diving in and resourcing and, and, and owning that as well.

And it, and it's beautiful. Actually, he just had a meeting with Whitebeard who's coming back and, and it's going to get more involved in, um, the discord community, uh, coming up and, and it dude's getting married like into the month. And anyway, it's just really as exciting.

Some of the stuff that's coming on, when you get to equipping, JMO's built this in time. Like I have finally, I have finally gotten to the place where we can build the bottom of the funnel. Okay, Barbara, it's not a funnel.

I understand, but the bottom of the funnel, what's an outpost and, and, and how can that help you in your ministry? What we're trying to do in, in 30 seconds too late is create regional networks, relational networks, decentralized networks that connect you with people that are in a similar missional context with you. Maybe they're on the same platform as you.

Maybe they're reaching the same geographical area as you and give you the opportunity to, uh, be encouraged in ministry, to explore new ideas, to experiment with new techniques and to be empowered in the ministry that you're already doing while being learned while learning on, on how to do it better. Like this is the, this is the accountability that we want to create at, at, at a much smaller level as the church digital gets bigger and, and Lord, please let this get bigger. We want to create opportunities for it to be much smaller and the smaller, the intimate, the accountability, the hands-on that's coming through the outposts.

And so, you know, and that's that mobilization piece. That's the bottom, uh, community, uh, connect community, quit, mobilize. We finally got there.

And so we are building that model out right now. Uh, and, and, and, uh, here's the secret. You want to get that relational network.

You want to give, be a part of this. And we're going to talk about them. You want, you want all the benefits of what comes with the outpost.

And there are a lot you want to, you want to go through equipping digital missionaries. You want to get to the relational networks. EDM is, is the, is the front door to get into that.

Uh, flat cap knows he's been with us. You get in an outpost, you get, uh, an outpost. Uh, yeah, I, I, I, I feel like I, I almost had the, um, uh, Oprah, uh, meme.

You get an outpost. You get an outpost. You like everybody, everybody gets a outpost.

Like, could you imagine like being in that where it's like, you get a car, you get a car and everybody gets a car. I want to, I want to, I want to be in that one. Number seven, I've been talking serious.

Let's dial it back here a little bit. All right. I, um, I have, I have a conviction in my life.

Are you ready for this? Number seven, number seven, seven promise, the seventh promise for the church digital in 2025. I worked too hard.

People are like, Jeff, you work too hard. And you're like, you know what? I agree.

I agree with you wholeheartedly. Uh, and so we're going to have some fun. I'm going to do a new thing late now.

I don't even think, you know, about this. I'm glad you're in here. Um, I'm doing game time.

I'm, I'm going to jump on YouTube and I'm going to, I'm going to stream some online games and I want y'all to, to come hang out with me. I'll just give you an example. Like I started over Christmas.

I got, I was, uh, picking my daughter up at their, uh, she had like a Christmas party right before Christmas at our friend's house. And there were mutual friends with the family. And so I walked in the house and there were like 25 people.

And I hate, I, I just, I hate large gatherings and physical space. And 25 was a large gathering. And so I'm like the awkward wallflower and it's, it's a, it's a Hispanic family and everybody's talking Espanol.

And I, um, I'm like the, the source, um, in the, in the room. And they invited me over because they're playing. Oh my gosh.

I forgot the name of the game, but they're playing Jack box games, Jack, Jack in the boxes, old computer company from like 20, 30, 40 years ago when I was a kid. And it's evolved into Jack box and they were playing Quibbage, something like that. And, uh, it's, you know, the game where you're, it's, it's just, it was, uh, it was a Apple TV game.

It was on PS five as well, but you, you were like using your phone to interact. And it was so good. It was so cool.

It was so much fun. And it was such a, a relaxing thing just to let go, have fun. And, um, we're going to do that through the church digital.

I'm literally, we're going to, I'm working on the tech. Now we'll have it set up by this Friday, but this Friday, we are going to do game time with Jeff. We're going to be hanging out here on YouTube, on the YouTube channel, playing the game.

Um, and so you want to jump on screen with me, I'll give you access to do that. You want to, uh, play and chat and, uh, you're interacting with the phone, uh, your iPhone or, you know, smartphones or web browsers or, or whatever connect with us from across the board, but you want to relax and, and have some fun with us and do it. We want to hang out with you and we'd have some fun.

So game time with Jeff is, uh, 1130 AM Eastern, 1130 AM Eastern. What is that? 8:30 AM Pacific. God bless the, uh, the California crowd.

You get to wake up to me first thing in the morning, grab some coffee and, uh, grab some coffee as I've got my yellow, the church digital mug. I suddenly realized I'm not wearing a hat. That's weird.

I should do that. Okay. Number eight, the eighth promise.

We're going to, number seven is we're going to have more fun. Number six is more relational connections and outposts. Number eight, more streams, more resourcing, more voices than Jeff.

I, I love the church digital. I love hanging out with you all and, and, and I love getting to do stuff like this. Um, but I kind of liked the fact that we get to learn from others too.

And so we're going to be introducing more voices. Um, and, uh, um, that's going to be a really, really cool thing. So here's the thing you need to know is we are working really hard, uh, to on communication because as we're doing more and more things, I know we're not, we're not communicating that well.

Check out, um, check out this webpage, the church.digital slash calendar, the church.digital slash calendar. That's going to have all of the, um, the events, the streams, all of that, that's coming up. And so that is a great place to, uh, to connect and, and to learn about what's coming up and to find that it'll adapt to time zones and it, and it's all good.

Tall Skinny Kiwi, uh, my friend in New Zealand, who's having a great Wednesday on this Tuesday. Uh, oh, what streams may come. Nice, nice, nice play there.

Uh, play on words. I, I appreciate that. Uh, we've got another one coming in.

Um, I'm not even going to try to attempt that. Uh, I'm the Finnish guy from Discord. Yes, sir.

Hey, good morning to you. Finnish, uh, Finland is, it's probably what, six, seven hours away. So it's not quite morning time, but, uh, have, have a great Tuesday evening.

Thanks for jumping on and hanging out with us on the stream. Love that. You know what?

I mean, we've got three continents at least represented on the stream. This is my point. I can talk digital ministry till I'm, I'm blue in the face and Lord knows I've been talking digital ministry for 25 years at this point, uh, literally, and that's not a joke.

Um, and so I can, I can keep going, but I kind of like, I want to hear what Simon Dirks has to say. And, and I kind of want to hear what Utope has to say. And, and I love sitting in a room with tall skinny Kiwi, uh, and, and letting him spout stories, uh, because dude's got more historic, historical context than I do.

Um, I, I think he was, I don't know how it's possible, but somehow tall skinny Kiwi was doing digital ministry before the internet even existed. Uh, he, he was, he was on the, on the front lines of that thing. And so, and, and I would put, oh my gosh, I had an open office with tall skinny Kiwi and white beard.

Um, and it was, it kind of felt like, um, you know, the old guy get off my lawn type of thing. The three of us together, it was, it really was a surreal moment. Like it was just, it was really cool, the three of us together, but that's the thing.

It's like, I want, I want to create those types of, of conversations. And so you're going to hear more voices, uh, on the church digital stream and more blogs. Like we're going to do blogs.

I, and then number nine, really the thing that I love is more open offices. I, you know, I have met so many people through the church digital that are coming in and, and really, Hey, I, uh, I connected with you here. I, I, I, I, I found you on Google.

I did things and being able to jump on a Google meet and, and have a one-on-one, a conversation and they get to introduce them to, you know, Stacy or, or Melanie or, or Trizzle or some of the other people that have been hanging out. I mean, to be honest, like Trizzle, that was the relationship that I've, I built with Trizzle was through the open offices. He kept showing up in some of these open offices and talking and building relationships and we're able to get them connected into EDM, uh, through, uh, for Simon in Europe, Simon Dirks.

And, and like, it's, it's very cool to see how this, um, this comes together, but how through the open office is the way to do that. And so we're going to have more voices than just me leading these open offices. Um, you know, flat cap is already doing these, uh, he's doing open offices with me and I appreciate him for doing that.

Uh, leadership doesn't know this. Hey, sorry, I'm going to challenge you, uh, open, uh, we're going to ask the, the leadership to do open offices. And so they're going to be doing that.

Uh, we're going to ask the, the, the movement leaders, the, the outpost leaders, the, the, uh, central support team, we're going to be asking them to do open offices. And so there's going to be chances to do a deep dive on, on different topics. And once again, all that's going to be scheduled and communicated, uh, through the communities, through discord, through WhatsApp, and through the TCD website at the church.digital slash calendar.

Hey, if you're watching on the fringe, um, if you're, uh, um, you know, um, an outsider, not really connecting and engaging. If you're watching us on, if you're reading blogs and podcasts, watching the stream, but you're not in the community, get in the community, come in, be a part of something bigger, um, and, and, and get relationally connected with us here. By the way, um, I have a, I have a, uh, uh, uh, uh, stalker.

I have a, um, what's the word I'm looking for? Identity theft. Uh, somebody on Discord, I, let me, I just needed to disclaim this right now.

Somebody on Discord is, is spoofing my identity. They're using my same ID photo and, uh, they have, uh, it's my name. Uh, my, my name on Discord is Deerfeg.

It's Jeff Reed backwards, D-E-E-R-F-F-E-J. And so they're using that same name, but they put a period at the end to make it different. And they're, they're going up to, uh, you know, digital missionaries being pastoral in voice and, and like encouraging them, supporting them.

But then the ultimate goal is the guys trying to get these digital missionaries to, um, like go into whatever the spiel is like the, um, um, you know, buy, invest in their, their blockchain or just crypto thing. And so if, if somebody, if somebody asks you to contribute into their crypto with my face, it's not me, um, rest assured. If somebody says that, you know, we want you to own the church digital partner with us at the church.digital slash partner and contribute, investing in us, uh, contributing to us regularly, um, that's me.

That's a legitimate ask from the church digital. But if somebody wants you to invest in a blockchain, um, that's, that's not me. Uh, if there's any questions, feel free to hit me up directly, but just know, hey, you know, and it's funny, Andy Mage was like, congratulations, Jeff.

You've got a, you've got somebody, you know, stole your identity and running with you directly on discord. Um, I made it y'all mom, aren't you proud? So, so good.

Um, yeah, it's, uh, this is so good. Uh, it's, it's a mini, it's a mini deer fetch. You know what?

I'm going to like, in all seriousness here, just take a moment. This is going to be the longest stream I've ever done. There is no chance.

I'm going to get through 25 of these. And what am I on? I'm number, number nine.

And I've been going a half hour. Uh, well, okay. It's not going to be my longest stream.

I did a 12 hour stream. I can do it in 12 hours, by the way. We'll get, actually, we're going to get to what's, what's next on that one here soon.

Um, here's the inside scoop. If the guy actually, like, part of me is a little proud. I've got somebody, I mean, yeah, the guy's an idiot.

I'm assuming it's a guy. It could be a girl, whatever. Like this is, I'm not making any assumptions, but I have somebody that's being pastoral and missional to people in need and using it as a con to get in, to get them in, to invest.

Okay. But the guy is actually smart enough to recognize the opportunity to, uh, mentally and emotionally care for others and use it as a con. So yeah, it's a con, but at least he was smart enough to like be intelligent about how he's reaching people.

That's what I'm like, you know what? I've got a unintentionally, I've got it like an apprentice happening here. Like, this is a legitimate thing that that's come up as a result of this.

Like there, there, there's a, a mini deer fetch coming from this and yeah. Okay. Maybe it's terrible.

I do. I, I agree with you. That is terrible.

But, um, yeah, there's worse things. I've had, I've had worse things happen to me than this guy, uh, is trying to, to get into that. All right.

Let's get into number 10, 30 minutes in. We are at 10 of 25. What is that? 40% of the way done 10 promises in 2025, 10 TCD promises of 2025, 10 ways that we are going to the 10th way.

We're going to help, uh, we're going to help, uh, your ministry. Number nine, resourcing open offices. We're going to be available for you to have, uh, uh, conversations directly.

Uh, and the good thing is we've got so many different contexts and, um, specialists in this area through the church digital. We're going to be accessible for y'all. Number 10.

That was just a recap of number nine. Number 10. Uh, what's the span of care for a digital missionary?

This has been the, to be honest, I've spent more time on this one over the past month and a half than probably any other thing I'm going to talk about. Um, I, and this is the one, honestly, I'm the most excited about span of care. Uh, we've got people that are, I'll, I'm just going to, I'm going to tell it a different way, I've talked with two or three digital missionaries that, that have been on the ropes over the past years that have been doing ministry, um, hardcore ministry, uh, without a support stream up front.

And I, I'll just be honest. Um, I like made them cry, uh, very quickly talking about coming alongside them and providing, uh, emotional, mental, and spiritual support, uh, through the church digital. Like it is an exhausting, uh, and it's just, I don't, I don't want to sugarcoat this.

Digital ministry is an exhausting attempt. A digital mission work is not easy. Uh, it is, it is rife with distraction.

It's rife with addiction. It's rife with, uh, spiritual warfare. Who is walking with you on this journey?

This is a lot of what we talk about inside EDM. And there's stuff in EDM in some of the sessions that, that I've not said publicly talking about this. And so we want to make sure that our missionaries are cared for and that the people that are connected to our network are cared for.

And the ways that we get you into that, uh, is through the outposts where you can provide mental check-ins, uh, uh, quarterly check-ins to check your emotional, mental, and spiritual health, where we can provide, um, uh, a community of, of support asynchronously get you into these outposts where there's, uh, regular, uh, opportunities and relationships that you're able to dialogue in together. Like we're really investing in, in the emotional support that is needed to have a, a, a missionary go the distance in digital space. And we need your help to get there.

Cause we want you to honestly guinea pig for us and help us figure out how to be best effective towards that. I mean, like the stuff you're doing, I've, I've been saying this a lot lately. I'm going to say it later.

Like we want to help this generation of, of digital missionaries of digital churches. Cause we need, we need this generation to succeed for the next one. And so the better you can be, the more helpful, uh, we can be for you, the more helpful we're going to be for the next generation coming up as you succeed.

So all my kids and I want my kids to succeed. So what do you need? Let's, let's get into that.

Number 11, uh, oh, by the way, tall, skinny, Kiwi distraction, 25 is a lot of promises for 2025. I'm glad it's not 2099. You and me both.

I was actually thinking about that. I didn't have my lunch today. It's right here.

And, uh, as I was not eating my lunch, but I was preparing it, I had to thought, wow, I'm really glad it wasn't like 2000, 2000 promises through the church digital. All right. Uh, where am I at?

Number 11, financial support. No, I'm not writing checks. Sorry.

I really do. Uh, but we have a, I really do want to, I really, really do. Uh, we're not a bank.

I wish, I wish we were a bank. Um, but you know what? If you invest in my, in my Ponzi scheme that is taking crypto, we can get you connected into, no, I'm kidding.

Somebody is going to clip that and turn, make it viral. Um, financial support. We have met an, an incredible ministry partner, Whitebeard.

I'm sorry, what flat cap is going through it now. I'm trying to think who else is on here. I don't think anybody else here is, but, um, some others are talking through it.

But we've, we've started working with Reliant and what Reliant is, is Reliant is, uh, is, uh, helps missionaries fundraise. Like, uh, you can, can raise money through Reliant and Reliant, um, you know, cuts the check and, and pays the money through and they, they do fundraiser training, uh, towards that. Uh, and so, and so, and the idea of, you know, churches, there's organizational fundraising and that's a, that's a much more complicated thing for a, a, uh, an organization to do it.

But for an individual that's interested in, in being part of that, uh, we're work through us and, and Reliant to get to the place of, of where you can, can fundraise. Like I said, you know, I know Flatcap is, is doing that right now where he's, he's going through the training and through a relationship with Reliant. He's the work that he's doing through the church digital, um, where he's actually going to fundraise through the church digital and Reliant to, to help him get the money he needs to, uh, to do that.

And so Flatcap's already pushing, Hey, you know what? If you've got questions on, on, on Reliant, go ahead and hit him up and you can do that at, um, uh, you know, the WhatsApp and the, and the discord. He's easily accessible for that to ask him about that.

But once again, like to be able to network through, to get to, to, to Reliant, like get through EDM. And so if you're not in EDM yet equipping digital missionaries, the church.digital slash EDM, let's get you in there. The church.digital slash EDM.

And, and one of the benefits of, of going through EDM and being part of the, the, the Hispanic care on the flip side is where we get into, uh, the Reliant piece. Number 12, talking about care on the flip side. Number 12, ongoing and growing support from missional partners and TCD volunteers.

I, um, we're actually, I was, I was meeting with Kathy Tate, Kathy, sorry, Kate, Tate, Kathy Nazier. It used to be her name was Kathy Tate. Kathy Tate, when I first met her, she got married and, uh, I got married a long time ago, but you know, it's, it's still Kathy Tate in my head.

Kathy Nazier. And, uh, she's one of our project managers working with us here at the church digital. And yesterday I gave her the project.

I was like, we are updating, uh, the website of where I'll list all the partners that we're working with. And she's like, well, how many? So I know how to structure.

And I pulled up a Google slide from a slide deck that I'm working on and it, and it listed in like, okay, to have it fit all in one slide. I had to, I had to like make it like size six or seven font. It's really small, but it's like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

All the way down. It's like a ton of names, man. The, the organizations that, that we're working with right now, trying to figure out how to best support you from a, from spiritual direction, soul care, from, um, you know, mental, emotional health, from, from, from a spiritual level, from a financial, from an organizational, like we're, we are trying to rack our brains about how best to support, you know, what we're doing with Reliant.

That's just the one that's already signed on. And like, that was the easy one to go through. There's others that we're still, we're still trying to figure out everything, but like we are investing so much time in helping those that are part of the network that go through EDM that are part of our outposts.

We want to see, we want to see all of you all succeed, but the, the sweetness comes once you go through EDM, once you go through EDM, it's like, Hey, you're, you're family that you're, you're in, you're in the inner circle. Um, and so I just, I can't keep beating that drum, man. EDM is so crucial to getting you into the access, to be able to have access into these things.

Number 13. Okay. Some of you are probably saying, Jeff, why do you love EDM so much?

Like, do, do you only like, do you not care for anybody else? I mean, I do, I don't, I don't like that. I want to see everybody succeed.

And, and remember as everyone succeeds, so will the next generation. And so we need to not just be concerned with the people who are loyal enough to go through EDM, but we also want to help those that maybe aren't exposed to that. Um, and so one of the things we're doing right now, number 13, 13, um, uh, I started to say prayer request, 13 promises is tangible resourcing.

We want to start helping churches and organizations outside the network too. Now, remember, this is the, this is the, Hey, you're getting the early scoop here. Not everybody knows about this.

And I don't know how much we're actually going to talk about this publicly, but dang it. Why not? You know, um, and this is actual, if you, if you, Layton's flat cap, uh, flat caps, actually, I changed this, I changed his job title somewhere around Christmas, like the week, a week of Christmas.

Um, I was like, Hey, Hey, Hey, Layton, um, you're going to do this instead. And it's going to be awesome. And God bless Layton.

Layton's like, I'm excited. Let's go. You know, it's just, you know, diving in full steam ahead, uh, like Layton does.

Um, but it's this idea of tangibly resourcing. Layton's a great relationships guy. You know, I, I, I, you know, am, I've always enjoyed the, have you met Ted type of thing.

And Layton is, uh, is, was always good at playing that playbook at connecting people together. Um, but I want to just not be a connector. I want, I want the church digital to, to be tangibly resourcing and helping, you know, pastor Coco, um, pastor Coco's, uh, conversation with me on YouTube where she talked about, uh, on giving Tuesday, um, where she talked about some of the struggles she's facing in VRMMO.

Um, that was a game changer for me and, and, uh, the hardness of what's happening in this space. As others succeed, so will the next generation, as we succeed, so will the next generation. And so we need to figure out how to get the pastor Coco's, how to get the final fantasies, how to get the virtual realities.

We need to figure out how to get these churches to succeed. And so we're wanting to step in and, and, and help in that space. If you're struggling, come see us.

We need you. The church needs you. The world needs you.

God's called you to do something. And we're just here to help. Number 14.

How am I doing time-wise? 45 and about halfway through. All right. We're going for a 90 minute stream here.

Extra. What did, what they call this? Uh, overtime is, is free football.

Uh, cause you need to pay for it. Extra innings, overtime. We're going overtime here, uh, with, uh, the church digital stream. 14, 25 promises, TCD promises for you and 25.

Um, so we are going to be wrestling a lot with contextualization. And number 14, I'm promising you that we're going to be wrestling a lot with the contextualizations that we interact with physically in place. You've heard Jason, you've heard I talk about platforms as places.

Well, there, there is contextualization in the place aspect because you know, how, how you're doing digital ministry to connect with somebody in Germany is going to be different than how you're doing digital ministry to connect to somebody in Nigeria and how are you doing digital ministry to connect to somebody in, I don't know, the middle East, just to name a couple of spots versus, you know, how you're reaching somebody in America. By the way, even in America, there's, there's generalizations, East coast versus West coast, uh, East coast, best coast. Sorry, I know Stacy, West coast, best coast, um, or, you know, even upper economy, lower economy, like, um, you know, race comes into play in America.

Like there's so many different ways to contextualize that. We're doing research right now to help better understand the, the physical contextualizations that we're facing. And, and we want to, honestly, we want to document that.

Like, it's funny. I joke about what my next book is going to be through the church digital. It's going to have something to do with that, the contextualization bit at the place level.

And let me get to number 15 real quick. Contextualizations at the platform level too. Because remember I said platforms is places.

Platforms are the new places. We need to validate what the places are and how the places are operating digitally. But really in digital ministry, it's not about the places, it's about the platforms.

Like the, the culture that is brought in from an outsider into the digital platform is stronger than the culture that exists within the physical space when doing digital ministry. The culture that exists digitally when you're in the digital environment is stronger than what is existing in the physical environment. Think about that.

You can at me, don't at me. You can at Jason Morris in discord and in WhatsApp, and he would love to have that conversation with you. All right.

So here we are. Number 15, 14 and 15 was contextualizations. We're really going to be doing a deep dive into this 15, 14 and 15 was platforms and places contextualization.

Now here's the deal. 16 and 17. This is the one, these are the two. This is what's going to get me fired.

Do you hear me? This is it. This is the one that you're going to hear a quick cut.

And then I'm going to talk about something completely irrelevant because what I'm about to tell you is going to get cut out entirely. I can get, I'm going to get in trouble for this. You ready?

Number 16. The church digital is going to do an online conference in spring of 2025. You know, we've been talking about, you know, our friends at exponential and I love exponential.

Mark is working. Mark Lutz and Andy actually is talking with Andy earlier today about this. They're working with exponential and doing the conference at the exponentials at Orlando and some of the other regions and excited about, about what they're doing and doing the physical connections there.

And it's necessary. It's needed in that space. Excited to see that happen.

When you look at the scope of what the church digital is, we really, we've really outgrown physicality. Like at one point, maybe one day we'll do a physical thing and try to get everybody together. But I'm realizing, hey, I may never give Utope a hug this side of heaven.

I might never, it's going to be once in a blue moon when I'll see Simon at some mission conference somewhere. And when you get into, you know, Abby and some of the other names of the guys that we're working with and bringing on for, through, to be our outpost leaders. Physical is a, is a, is a limiter.

So we're going to do a digital conference. We're going to do an online conference spring of 25 aimed at digital missionaries. We were really close in, in previous years.

And it was, this was back before we had narrowed down on digital missions. We were trying to figure out how to do a digital conference that was digital, uh, physical, physical, physical, physical church, hybrid church and, and digital planter. And digital missionary at the same time.

And just to be honest, everything got confusing. Um, and that's where it's like the simplification of this. And so stay tuned for a digital missionary conference spring of 2025.

I have no idea what it's going to be, but we're going to do it. And since we're talking crazy, number 16, Barbara's going to kill you. Kill me.

We are going to do an online conference. A second one fall of 2025. I told the board, uh, we put it in our goals.

We're going to do two online conferences in the year 2025, uh, different topics, different themes. In my mind, I've already got some ideas. No, I'm not going to tell you.

Maybe if somebody would like, you know, invest, I don't know, $5,000 in my crypto account. No, I'm kidding. Um, the, the, the, the, the grassroots of this thing is, is that, um, we want to resource digital missionaries at a global level.

Um, and, and we're going to be figuring out, uh, honestly, I think the spring conference is going to be a Guinea pig. We're, we're thinking, at least I'm thinking some radical ideas and we got to get the team starting to, you know, on the agenda. I'll be honest on the staff agendas, we meet weekly.

And, um, I usually have like four bullets that I want to cover. And, um, you know, we meet for an hour and everybody's got agendas. Every's busy.

Um, and, uh, you know, flat caps actually, you know, teasing this. He's like, I've been waiting for that. Yeah.

I've been waiting for it for the conference. We have, because for months I've been saying like the fourth bullet on the agenda is conference. The fourth bullet is conference because we've, we've been eating and talk about it.

And, uh, I would never, we've never get through one, two, and three to be able to get to the fourth one. And it was always last. And, uh, and so the meeting, we've got a meeting tomorrow, tomorrow.

And I think there's two bullets, uh, in the second one is, is, uh, is, um, the conferences. And so I'm, I'm dreaming of some crazy ideas of how to do this. And there, there's excitement.

Uh, Stacy's jumping in here. Woohoo. Is that, is that the right way to, how do I say, you know, I never know the intonation of, of woohoo.

Uh, you know, this is when I would, I was, I was a tech director at a physical church. The, the, you know, the praise slides where people would be like, you know, the Oz and the whatever. I hate it when churches, even churches I would visit now and people would like type those words out all the way through.

Uh, but I'm distracting, you know, Tuscan and QE is very excited about the two conferences. I'm excited to get Tuscan and Kiwi talking at a conference, Tuscan and Kiwi. You're going to be the first person.

I'm actually going to publicly ask you right now on this stream. I want you to speak. I want you to lead a breakout at one of the conferences.

I have no idea out of the 5 million things you could talk about what you want to talk about. We're going to figure that out. I'll hit you up later.

Um, we, I want to think outside of the box to do this and figure out how to get voices like tall skinny Kiwis audible in front of others. How do I get tall skinny Kiwi heard by the world and at the same time, give the world the opportunity to interact with each other that if time zones were not a thing, digital ministry would be simple, freaking time zones, kill it. And so this is what, this is what we're trying to do is, um, I'll tell you, I'll tell you what I'm thinking, I'm not, not this, but you use video, you use video to inform.

I said this yesterday to Barbara in, in a meeting about something completely separate. And Barbara's like, I can do that. Like it was, it was a, it was, it was, it was a proud moment for me because I got, I lit Barbara's eyes up.

Normally Barbara lights my eyes. She says something radical and I'm like, oh my gosh, yes. But I said it, I was like, you use video to inform and instruct.

You use a synchronous to process and you use, um, uh, interaction huddles, meeting conversation to apply. And she heard that and she's like, that's exactly what we're going to do. And she, she rolled out the show.

It was so beautiful. It's like, it's a proud moment for Jeff. I called my mom afterwards.

Mommy, guess what? No, I'm kidding. I didn't do that.

Um, I may get my mom to do a breakout. No, I don't, I don't. Well, don't hold me to that.

That's not one of the promises. My mother is not one of the promises of, of 2025. Where am I?

I'm going at an hour and I've got eight left. I think we're going to flow. Oh my gosh.

I was about to say we're going to fly through this. Then I get to number 18. You got some music?

Kind of fits with, with where we're going. I wanted to mix up the, the soundtrack a little bit. Cause I knew 18 was coming.

I don't like the soundtrack like stream beats. I normally like this one album I chose. I don't remember.

It's, it's a little too, um, rough. It's not, not chill enough for me. Like I, I want a music bed.

Like I don't, I don't like the sharpness of the, the horns is a little much. Number 18. The 18th promise that we want to help people like you do digital missions work, digital ministry, digital ministry.

As I burp that actually fits for number 18. Did somebody say gaming? Maybe, maybe anybody Bueller Bueller.

We want to launch a gaming outpost. You know, we've got these, um, outpost networks, you know, Simon's doing stuff in Europe. I think I've shared this already.

Simon's in Europe, Utope's in sub-Saharan South Africa. We're talking to Abby in, um, in Southeast Asia. We're talking to others in the middle East.

We're talking to, um, uh, uh, uh, Adrian down in, um, Oceania in that area and some others in, in the space, you know, and, and, and so we're creating a foothold that we want to expand into, into other countries and other regions talking incredible conversations right now in South America. It's taking time, but really excited about what's happening there. And it was funny, my daughter, I told the story, but my daughter asked me the other day before Christmas, daddy, what's going on with, um, with, uh, with, uh, EDM, what's going on with the church digital?

Tell me I was driving her to dance. You know, if I only get my daughter to talk, I drive her to dance and I've got like 20 minutes just of nothing but her and me talking. And it's, it's the best, it's the best moment of my day.

And, uh, and it, so I was telling her all about these outposts and, and I'm proud. I'm like patting myself on the back. It's like, Hey, this, we did it.

We're getting a global footprint. Caitlin, isn't this awesome? And, uh, and Caitlin, you know, looks at me and says, daddy, um, I thought you were about platforms instead of places.

Why, why are you copping out in just doing places? Why aren't you doing platforms? Dang kid.

She gets that from her mother, you know, challenging, pushing back, being right. And so that's the thing. It's like, you know, we talk about platforms as places and we're doing all this work and celebrating the work that we're doing in places.

And we weren't doing a platform. Okay. Gaming's not really a platform.

You could say Twitch, but then Twitch really isolates the work that's being done in final fantasy. So you could do Twitch and final fantasy in game and streaming, but those are two different environments totally. And what do you do with virtual reality?

Like really, honestly, it should be the metaverse, but metaverse does not really in 25 encapsulate yet the idea of VR and gaming, because gaming really hasn't enveloped. Do you see what I'm doing here? Like the whole gaming ecosystem is, is raw.

It's fluid. Like there's so much potential in that space. Untapped resources, blue freaking ocean in gaming.

Was it one of the largest unreached people groups right now are gamers? Like, oh my gosh. It could be an incredible, an incredible opportunity.

And so we went to the guy and said, Hey, the guy, the top guy, and said, Hey, who, how can you help us? What can we do here into gaming? And he said, challenge accepted.

Black app is going to launch a gaming outpost. To encourage gamers ministry in the space to explore new opportunities, to experiment with new techniques and new ideas and to empower others. I always feel bad.

My fourth finger can't really do that. It looks like I'm flicking people off into empower. This was a really powerful moment.

And I literally just said, flick off. I don't want, I was. So we went to the guy I'm starting over because this is going to be a, a, a, a story, uh, you know, short.

So we went to the guy, Layton's laughing at me right now. Like you freaking moron. You blew that.

So we went to the guy, we, the guy in gaming, Layton and said, could you help us? And he said, challenge accepted. And so we're doing it.

We are starting an online gaming outpost aimed at one, encouraging gamers that are doing ministry in the space, number two, exploring new ideas, new platforms, three, testing out new techniques, experimenting with new ideas. And number four, encouraging those that are doing ministry there. We want to see a movement of people in gaming space.

Twitch, MMO video games, virtual reality, any place that you can do community. I believe there's an opportunity to be the church in that space. I don't know that you can really do community in, oh, I don't know, Fortnite.

I mean, somebody can prove me wrong, but yeah, you can do a Bible study in over 40 minutes if you're around trying not to get killed. So I'm not saying every video game, but where you can have ongoing community, where you can build relationships, let's do it. Let's go.

And I am excited about FlatCap leading out, had a conversation with Andy today. We are excited about that. Andy's going to be coming along.

I'm already recruiting volunteers here or there, talking with people about it and teasing it. And so if you want to get connected, hook up with Leighton in Discord or in Twitch, Discord or in WhatsApp and do that. And let's get connected.

Stacy, I have no idea what this is. Please continue to share lessons learned from her. What did I say with her?

That's awkward. I just called you up publicly. I didn't mean that.

I'm sorry. I didn't read that. I was like, love the lessons.

But then I saw the her and I was like, I'm not sure what that is. Number 19. I'm learning stuff, OK?

I am learning stuff about myself in this season. And I'm calling myself on it here a little bit. By the way, I'm doing a two hours.

This is great. You got to go stick around, whatever. I love it.

I'm doing I'm learning about myself. I am I did it this year again. I normally I gave up on this.

I was really doing this before a lot. And Jason Morris invited me in to do it again, to try it a different way. And for whatever reason, I have a little more energy this time, this time around.

And so I'm doing a Bible reading plan through YouVersion, the app. And I've got, I don't know, Layton, 25. Layton's not in that.

I'm sorry. I'm trying to look who's on here. Stacy.

Actually, I can't remember. I don't think anybody on the stream is on this. There's maybe 25, 26 people.

Kiwi was going to be on there, but he didn't sign up. And so but I've got 25, 26 people going through that with us. And it's different this time around, man.

Like this is the first reading plan that I've read that I've tried. I've tried this before, you know, where you read like three or four chapters a day and you go through the entire Bible in 365 days. To be honest, I've tried it and I usually get to like Leviticus and Numbers and I just want to like, I'm done.

I can't. Or, you know, I get distracted and other times and it's not a priority. And so I've given up in past years, even attempting.

I think last year, last year I recruited like, I don't know, 40 people to do this. Like it was crazy the amount of people that I had signed up to go on this with us. And then I think I didn't make it through week one.

I like was just, I'm out, peace. And, uh, so I got to this place with, um, uh, going with JMO and it's just, it's, it's really, it's, it's, it's refreshing this round. I've got my wife, I've got both my kids, you know, my wife and I were having a conversation last night talking about Job.

Um, and it's, it's just, it's been refreshing and, you know, doing it together. And so, but in that I'm learning about myself, I'm learning, um, what, um, what I'm strong at and, and, and where I'm weak. And, um, you know, it's interesting.

I I've actually, Stacey has used this language with me. Um, I wrote, I wrote an a, I wrote a, a, a, a four page, uh, script on something. Um, and I sent it to chat GPT and I said, shorten this and, uh, make it more Rebelly or rebel like, I think, cause that's often what I'll do with chat GPT.

I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll make chat GPT, get my angst up. Um, it's a little secret and, uh, and it does a great job. Um, but chat GPT used the same language and I went back through my script and I never used this language, um, and chat GPT and Stacey and others have said, you know, know your lane.

And, uh, and so it's like, okay, I, I, I know my lane and, uh, and just to be honest, like I'm, I'm a very, um, aggressive in some areas, but, but my weak area, if I'm honest, gets into areas like where I'm going to hit you here with 19 and 20. 19. The church digital historically, really, I would not say has been a gospel centered organization. Now, yes, I mean, the gospel, great commission, the, the, the purpose of, of Jesus and, and, and all of that.

Um, and I, I don't want to be dismissive or demeaning towards it, but historically I, I, I'm not the guy that's going to write a, a, a fluffy rhetoric about, um, Christ in my life. Like I, I just, I'm, I'm going to tell a story or something like that. But for whatever reason, I'm, I'm not a pastor.

I'm not a preacher. That's, that's not my skillset. Uh, and so I'm, I'm more of the apostolic than I am the shepherd and I'm not a teacher at all.

Uh, and so for me, it's been hard to get that in. And now we've started to involve some others in talking a pest. Those of you that are going through EDM are going to get into a pest here in a couple of weeks.

Uh, but now we start to bring in the a pest model of apostolic, um, uh, I just profit, uh, evangelist shepherd teacher and the role of, of each of those functions, uh, within the organization, within the team and within our body, the people we're ministering. And bringing out their, their skillsets and their wirings and giftings and drivings towards that I'm recognizing that as an organization, historically, the church digital has lacked in showing or communicating the idea of gospel centered. And that's going to fix in 25.

We are going to change that in 25, 2025. We are going to come out and address the idea. Uh, we, we will be more gospel centered.

One, and two, I would love to figure out what a gospel centered digital church looks like and start to maybe reflect those ideas and values on all of us so that we cannot be apostolic driven, but get to the place of being gospel led. Um, that I don't think we are yet may call me crazy. Maybe you are.

And if you are, if you have experience, if you have understanding, if you have a vision for this, that I'm not seeing, I would love to, to get into that. But there's an opportunity to be more than apostolic here. You know, as I'm listening to hardcore tech, it's really louder in my ears.

That's why I keep coming back to it. I keep turning it down. Uh, maybe it's not loud where you are.

That's good. Um, but we, uh, we want to get to the place. I'm going to hit the skip button, go on to the next one.

Um, we, we want to get to the place where we're representing those values, where gospel, the gospel is not a thing in the church, but it is the thing in the church. And, and I don't, I don't know that we're there yet. So number 18, 19 gospel center, number 20 in that same thread, prayer centric.

What does it look like for us as, as a, as a church, as a culture, as missionaries to be centered and grounded in prayer, where, where our decisions, where our values, where, where our, our judgments, where our motivations are, are, are prayer led. I'm not, I'm not that. I don't have that wiring.

That's not my default. That's the way I want to say it. That's not my default.

I can be prayer centered. Um, but when crap, it's the fan, I go into fix it mode. I don't go into God.

What do I do in this moment? Mold mode. And that's, that's some of the things that, that I want to work on at a personal level at, at a organizational level.

And I maybe want to encourage you, maybe, maybe you got this fixed. Maybe you got this figured out. And if so, I'd love to, I'd love to learn from you.

What is a prayer centric digital missionary look like? What is a prayer centric, a digital church look like virtual reality church? You know, it's interesting.

There was a, during COVID, uh, let me try to think on the stat. I don't think I could pull the number during COVID alpha did some, um, yeah, it's a flat cap. I'm going to use you for a second.

So excited, um, about the prayer adventure in that challenge. Alpha did, uh, did some report with Barna as part of Barna's digital church. Stadia did something.

And then Stadia worked with Barna on digital church. Um, then somebody stepped in and did something on something, digital evangelism maybe. And then Barna and Alpha did digital prayer, but the major, um, the major point was that lost people, people called to Christ, they wanted to be prayed for digitally.

I don't remember the stats. I don't remember the numbers, but that was the takeaway is that lost people during the COVID season were open to the idea of being prayed for digitally. I, to me, one of the greatest losses in COVID was that we didn't pray more digitally and use that as an opportunity to connect into dialogue with people and involve them in community.

And I don't want to be like, Hey, prayer is the opportunity. I don't want to cheapen prayer by saying it's at the connection level. It's shallow and superficial.

I'm not saying that, but I think if prayer is the thread that goes all the way through, if prayer is centric to everything, it's a different thing. And that's, that's what I'm aiming for. We've got some feedback coming in.

Greg Salty, uh, number 19, gospel centered. I've always been impressed in how specifically global South folks seem to always be gospel led and not lost in the details. Talking last South, South America, everybody beneath the equator.

Number two, getting together and praying has changed our ministry so much. Greg, we'd love to offline with you. DM me.

Let's talk about it in discord. You're in discord, I think. So yeah, I would love to get with you on that.

Um, you know, it's interesting. Greg is Greg. You can correct me if I'm wrong.

You're in France, Spain, Western Europe, um, I believe. And so global perspective, promise 26, not in the script. We will learn the U S church, uh, we'll learn from the global church during the church digital.

Um, that's big right there. No, uh, uh, Stacy here. I've learned from some friends who have added so that new disciples are made at the end of, of the mission statement, uh, of their mission statement.

Yeah. I want to get to the place where the disciples are making disciples generational. That's promise 27 that we will be generational, that we will see our children, uh, multiply, not in that way, but yeah, we want to see, um, generation of generation of generation.

I want to meet people whose lives were changed by the church digital, who would say, who is this Jeff guy? It's not about me. I was, um, yeah, I'll tell the story.

There's a, there's a, um, a disciple material, uh, uh, I call it a movement, uh, called Timothy initiative, this is comes out of, um, it actually started overseas as our call. I think it was like, uh, China, East, East Asia thing material that was developed for there. And then it was ported over into American different languages.

And now it's like this, this global movement. And, uh, I met the CEO way before I was doing anything with the church digital. This was back in like 2015, 2016, and, um, he, um, the, the CEO, the founder of the Timothy initiative, you know, I, I just shared with him the ideas of digital and he and I built a casual relationship.

Like, you know, I, I would reach out to him every six months or a year. I'd see him at a conference and have a 10 minute conversation with him. Nothing, nothing fancy.

Um, but I started, I started texting him with the giving Tuesday thing, inviting him to the giving Tuesday and new years. And it just started, he started encouraging me. And, um, I told him, I was like, yeah, we're, we're, you know, excited about the new year.

How can we pray for you? How can I pray for Timothy initiative? And, and he's like, he's like, Jeff, we're our goal is to train 180,000 missionaries in 2025.

Could you imagine training 180,000 people on how to share the gospel? You know, the, I, I remember, I remember him telling a story on a podcast. I think it was the church planning podcast that the CEO of a stadia does, um, where the, the, this man talked about, um, when he was a physical church pastor, he was a lead pastor at a church in Alabama for like five years.

Then he was a church, a pastor, a lead pastor at a church in whatever for six years. So he had 11 years as lead pastor at two physical churches. And he went and he added up, he added up all of those churches, the people that got saved, the lives that were changed a in, in through the Sunday morning services and be what was documented from like friends of friends and whatever, all the, the gross and the baptisms that happened within that, within the two churches that he worked at in that lifespan.

And then there's 11 years, I know a number was interesting. I mean, it was, it was a good passage, good preacher. And so there were, uh, there's life change from that.

Then he went and, um, he added up, um, all the numbers that within one year of, uh, Timothy initiative of, of a disciple making where it's disciples making disciples, the multiplication model. So growth model to 11 years, one year of multiplication model, one year blew it away. Like in three months, like it was crazy.

And that's the thing. If we can get to the place where new disciples are made and disciples are making disciples, multiplying that through, that's beautiful. I was wrong.

Well, actually I think it's in Spain or grant France. Greg says France catching up on that. So that's, that's good.

Um, uh, Stacy, let's get on to prayer centric life. Um, yeah, I, I need, this is, this is where I need to learn. I need, I need to know my lane and realize that my lane is not the lane or Elaine as in Elaine was Seinfeld.

Oh man, that was a, that was a bad cut. Somebody, we talking about cut, somebody cut, cut that out, cut that out. Um, that was bad too, man.

I'm, I'm showing my age. I'm, I'm literally talking 75 minutes here. I'm running out of stuff.

Me going straight here. Just, just vamping. All right.

Number, Ooh, I, there, this was, this was supposed to be number 20. Now it's 21. I made a mistake somewhere.

I'll go ahead and do it. Number 21. This would have been cooler if it was number 20.

You'll see in a second. Talking about multiplication, talking about disciples, making disciples, talking about empowering ministry at a global scale, the church digital promises. This might also get me fired, but the good news is y'all play a part in this one.

Like this is, if this is going to happen, it's going to be you. If we are going to, um, if we're going to see 21 happen, we need your help because the 21st promise of the church digital for 2025 is that we will have 20,000 gospel conversations in 2025. Simply put, said another way, we want to see digital missionaries share Jesus digitally or in virtual reality 20,000 times.

Technically, I said I wanted to be 20,025 times in 2025. You know, that's, well, first off, I think it's important what I'm asking us to do. And I say us because I play a role in this too, right?

I'm asking us to, to have the conversation. I'm not asking for 20,000 salvations. I've actually worked for organizations and churches that put the number on salvations and we're judging salvations.

That's not our job. That's God's. That's the Holy spirit.

It's not my job to, to make someone accept Christ. It's my job to present, to give them the opportunity to help them understand if they're not receptive, that's between them and God. So what I'm actually asking for, and, and flat cap wrote the number out.

So graciously, 20,025 conversations about Jesus with 20,025 people in 2025. We, we want to see life change happen, y'all. And Jeff, that's hard.

Well, here's, here's the reality. We want to equip one of our goals, another goal as an organization. We want to equip 200 digital missionaries this year.

If 200 digital missionaries who share Jesus twice a week across the year, 50 weeks, that's 20,000 right there. Two conversations with people about Jesus a week. I'm not, I don't mean to minimalize it.

I don't mean to cheapen it. It's, it's an opportunity. What could God do if we had 20,000 conversations with people about Jesus?

What would, what could God do as that grows and expands? That's the thing that I'm excited about. Yes, I'm excited about where we are today and what's going to happen in 25.

I'm excited about where 25 is going to take 26 and where 26 is going to take 27 and where 27, 28 and what it's going to be looking like, you know, a decade or two down the road when, you know, somebody's texting me, man, we're just starting out on this movement. I'm really excited. And, and, you know, how can I pray for you?

And I can say something like, oh man, we're, our goal is to train 180,000 digital missionaries this year for the church digital. We've got to start somewhere. Uh, and right now you all at the ground level.

So, Hey, you know what, what do you need? You need two conferences. You need us to do two digital conferences on how you can be more effective as a digital missionary.

Please. I'll do that. No problem.

You want, oh, I'm, I was about to give away what's coming up. It's about to give it away. I'm not, not, not, not going to.

You need resources. You need connection. You need, need help getting funding.

What do you need? Cause I want to make it easy for you so that you can do the thing that the kingdom needs. Get out there and, and tell others about Jesus digitally.

This is beautiful. Layton. Layton is excited about this stuff, man.

He he's jacked up. What is God already planning through these conversations? Well said, my friend.

So goal number 21, 20,000 gospel conversations in 2025. All right. Goal number two, uh, 22, goal number 22, promise number 22, better way to say that.

I'm sorry. Promise number 22, uh, stats and stories centered around digital missionary work. We are a part of the research that we're doing is we're trying to, to, to collect and, and assemble facts of what's happening in global space digitally.

We are, we're recognizing opportunities. We're hearing murmurs. We're not seeing trends yet.

Um, and so we're, we're just, uh, you know, the, the stats guy, the research and the researcher in me is, you know, we're looking for quantitative numbers and we're looking for qualitative stories of what's happening, uh, in, in the digital mission space. And so, yeah, we're going to be collecting them, which means we're going to be telling them. We're going to be sharing them.

We want to encourage you about, about what's happening. And so if you get something awesome, that's happening, we want to hear about it. Let us know, uh, share it with us.

So number 22 rolling here, we want to, uh, collect and share stats and stories centered around digital missionary work. Number 23, two, three, we're going to be doing four town hall meetings. I, you know, I really like, we did a town hall back in like September announcing the, um, uh, the move to a digital missionary sending agency.

I don't know. I don't think the team can handle another four radical shifts, organizational shifts, like moving to a digital missionary sending agency. I don't think I can pull that off four times in 25.

Don't hear me say that. Um, but I will, um, I will promise you that we're going to gather together and we're going to listen. We're going to dialogue in, in that team hall, uh, in that team hall and that town hall model.

We want to hear from you in that. So, um, keep stay tuned. We're going to hear from you for town hall meetings, two, three, four town hall meetings in 2025, two, three, four, five.

You kind of get the, the joke that's happening there with that tall, skinny Kiwi. I look forward to hearing more hopeful rumors, uh, of what's happening out of Asia. I have heard some incredible things coming out of Asia.

Um, there was, there was a couple of people that we were connected with in, um, at Lausanne that were talking a lot about what's happening in Asia. 24, the 24th promise for, uh, the church digital in 2025, 24th TCD promise for the church digital in 2025. Um, I am going to probably get myself in trouble for this one too. Well, okay.

I'll put an asterisk on it because I can promise one. I don't know that I can promise the second half. We'll see the first half.

I promise we're going to do another giving Tuesday live stream. That for me was the, that was a, almost a conference into itself. Like I actually considered not doing a second conference in the fall and just doing the giving Tuesday as, as exhausting, but as cohesive and as bringing together an event.

It was doing that 12 hour live stream, um, was, was beautiful. Um, I, you know, I think it, it brought, um, I mean, yeah, it brought funding to TCD and I'm thankful for that. Hear me.

Uh, but it more than, more than the funding, it brought awareness to what was the that was happening at a larger scale. I actually had, I've seen people get connected with digital churches and virtual churches off of watching all my stream. Like I've had friends get connected into other ministries as a result of it, you know, stories that I can tell you directly.

And I know what happened in other, in other spaces too. And so I am very excited to do another giving Tuesday live stream. 24 done 24 B. I really want this.

I'm not sure I can say it, but I'm going to say it and then somebody is going to hold me to it. And that's why I will do it. But I don't know that I have it in me.

I want to do a 24 hour live stream. Actually, you know what? It's 20, 25.

I want to do a 25 hour live stream. I, you know, I was, I was really convicted by this. I reached out to some of my friends over in, um, Oceania, inviting them to this, to the stream, to be a part of it.

And I got a text, some texts back from my, um, Australian and New Zealand, New Zealand friends basically saying, Hey Jeff, like we're only like conscious one hour of that stream. Um, it really is just an unfortunate time. You, you pick to do the stream.

And, um, like I'm actually curious, was it 7:00 AM right now? Uh, and, uh, uh, Toskini's on. So, I mean, it was an exaggeration, but the time was, was very, uh, limiting.

Once you get in time zones are awful, you know, globally, I get that. I do think there's an opportunity to do a 24 hour live stream that's drawing attention to the work that the church digital is doing globally. Like I would love to do a live stream for our Oceania friends and let them, you know, recruit and draw attention to the ministry they're doing in Oceania or, uh, Southeast Asia or Europe or, um, you know, Sub-Saharan South Africa.

Like we multiply these ideas down and, um, and, and see them expand. Yes, at the local level, because that's where the time is, but we're telling the same story at some level globally. Flat beard.

We should start the minute the day starts at the date line. That's what's that's in the Atlantic, right? That's where it goes out there.

So yeah, that'd be, that'd be interesting. Tall, skinny, uh, Kiwi reading it from the 25 hour live stream sponsored by Starbucks, Jolt Cola and, and Red Bull. Yeah.

Red Bull gives you wings. I would, um, I want to, I want to asterisk this conversation. I am not intending to be on camera.

Jeff Reed is not intending to be on camera for 25 hours. Jeff Reed is intending to do a 20, to have a 25 hour stream happen that, Hey, let me hand off to Simon in Europe and then disconnect for two hours while Simon runs the stream or something like that. As a team, we're wrestling through it.

I pitched the idea. I did. Hey, what do you think about this?

Some people loved it. Some people were really excited about the idea of a 25 hour stream. Some people.

Not so much. We will make it a much more interesting stream. It's not just gonna be me talking for 12 hours.

Is Jolt Cola still around? That's, that's a great question, Melanie. It is.

Um, we actually, I saw it at a novelty shop this Christmas. It was a, um, it was a, a pop-up candy store. And they had like all canned, all rare candy and all types of the old fashioned drinks and that and Jolt Cola is still around.

I'm, I'm sure it's not at the major supermarkets, but yeah, you can still get it. Um, I don't know if this would list will be posted somewhere, but I think it would be good to use it as a prayer prompt through the year. It is, I, you know, I'm gonna, I, Stacy, I appreciate that.

I'm gonna write this as a blog. I'll probably get it published next year. It may be a filtered version.

I'm, I don't think I'll filter it. I, I think we're gonna let it roll. Um, A, I think it's good to, for us to pray about it.

B, um, the reason I wanted to do this is accountability. Um, I, I just, I wanted to be, this is what I'm thinking. And, and I just, I wanted to say it on public record and, and let others join me in praying, join me in helping, you know, burn the ships.