More Than a Move: Finding God on the Dance Floor

Announcer/Intro Voice: Control-Alt-Redeem is for anyone called to ministry in the digital frontier. Gamers, streamers, and everyday believers navigating life online. Each episode equips you to live on mission and the real stories of lives being changed. Reset your expectations, reframe your mission, and redeem the space you're already in. This is where digital ministry gets practical, creative, grounded, and hopeful. One episode at a time.

Leighton Seys: Welcome in, welcome in everyone to Control-Alt-Redeem. We are resetting the culture and redeeming the space. And today I get the fun privilege of having Papstio on. Now, here's the interesting thing. If you've been here live, you know there was a conversation with Papstio. If you weren't here live... whatever happened to the vods we don't know it never got published it never went to youtube it didn't get saved uh on twitch so if you were here you know what happened if you're not this is the first time for some of you that you're going to meet pap steel but you actually are the first official second time guest although there's no evidence of a first time so welcome in yes

Papstio: We are going to flashy thingy, everybody.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're going to. You don't remember. You do not. You do not remember. This is not the podcast you're looking for. This is not. Hey, Mel. Welcome in. Lucy, it's good to see you. First, the worst. Second, the best. So this is going to be a good one. Yeah. A do-over. It's a mulligan. It's the mulligan podcast.

Papstio: It's the mulligan.

Leighton Seys: yes you know i love i love playing with words and and having fun with all of that stuff and i was trying to think about this uh i meant i meant to do it in your stream i forgot to do it i was going to do followage and see how long i've been following you but you've been following me longer than i've been following you and I've got to say, I know it's at least three years, but I'm trying to think how early on in my streaming that you came along. And one of the reasons that you were so prominent, I think, in my mind to begin with, is you always had the Muttley emote in the chat. It's like the Muttley went out and like, I'm having a good day. Muttley is here. I mean, you're not Muttley, but, you know, the emotes in the chat. And I was like, oh, yeah, this is going to be fun today.

Papstio: Yeah, I still haven't gotten rid of that emote, even though I used the other one that I made more. It's basically Twitch's dog that's laughing, and then I animated it to make it look like it's giggling.

Leighton Seys: Okay. Well, I appreciate the Muttly. I'm old. I like old things. I like things that are older than me that I remember as a kid, but my parents would look at me and go, that's old. And it was like, but it's new to me. It's so fun when those things become new to another generation when they were old before you even got to enjoy them. So I really appreciate that. Yeah, like this wasn't on your calendar. Mel, how was this not on your calendar? I must have messed something up. I'm sorry about that. It was on mine. Maybe I didn't tag you on that. So those that don't know, Mel is with the Church Digital. She helps our calendar get all taken care of and published and all of that. So whenever I post a podcast, I share it on Google with her, and then she makes sure it's shared with everyone else of what's going on. So you saw me mention it this morning, so you added it. I must have messed something up there. That'd be the first time ever. I guess I am human. I finally made a mistake. After we're talking about not having a podcast. So obviously I've got other problems. And so, yeah, we're not just diving right into it. We're just having a little fun here to begin with. It was interesting because I also messed up what time we were starting, and I published it to be at 7, and you were like, no, I said 6. And then I was like, well, we've been advertising it, so we'll just stick with 7. This is going to be great, I believe. It's just going to be a fantastic time. Yeah.

Papstio: Exercise. So, you know.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. So you're out of breath. Dancing in. Yeah, you're out of breath, ready to sit down and talk. All right. For those that do not know you, we're going to dive into some of that as we go along. So. I like to start with, I think it's an easy question, but it's sometimes a complicated answer. And that is, how did you get onto Twitch? You know, did you come on because you were watching other people? Did you hear about it being a place where you could go live? And so you jumped into doing that. And then along the way, did you start out as having faith forward, talking about your faith, or did that develop as it happened? with you being in the space. So if you just want to tell us your journey into Twitch and then being a Twitch streamer.

Papstio: So back when COVID hit, like most people, the game that I was playing had a Twitch channel that one of my friends had said, oh, if you go watch this channel, then you get drops. in-game stuff you know i'm like oh cool um so that was my first introduction to twitch warframe then raided a channel that at the time was called the angry unicorn um it was a couple stream they played warframe they were warframe uh creators at the time and uh they were hilarious um doc and lala um is what they went by online and you know that that kind of got me into my first actual community um i started following a lot of people who were in their channel and they were all warframe players at the time and uh so i got very heavily into the warframe community inter the end of 20 no end of 20 yeah end of 2020 um and my wife started having complications and she had a collapsed lung that she had to go to the hospital for um And that started several hospital visits in a row. So at the time I, you know, was letting my community know, I'm like, well, I might not be around. I might have to leave suddenly. I you know, because I was I was there like in the community. Right. Almost all the time. So It was they they were actually very nice about it. I made a lot of good friends in that community who were checking up on me offline. But, you know, none of none of them were outwardly Christian at the time. There was no real faith talk, and it was just, you know, a group of people who all played the same game a lot and, you know, liked to hang out, play games together. Um, and at a point somebody was like, oh, you should start streaming Warframe. You know, everybody knows you and you would be affiliate like right away. And so, um, I ended up doing that. Um, I started a no cam, no mic stream and all I did was play Warframe, type in chat. Um, I had already had the 50 followers required at the time.

Leighton Seys: So how do you manage that game? Because I don't know enough about it. How do you manage that game, typing in chat while you're doing it? Is it your play, then you have to stop and type in chat, or is it you can do both simultaneously?

Papstio: Um, for the most part, you can do both, but it is, you know, mouse and keyboard. So both your hands are taken up. Yeah. But, um, also there's an in-game chat. So a lot of people who would come to the stream would actually just want to play with me.

Leighton Seys: Right.

Papstio: And so they're not really typing in chat either. And so it just became, you know, some people coming in, watching me play. They might have questions. I could answer the questions in chat. I love this.

Leighton Seys: And I want to.

Papstio: That was about it.

Leighton Seys: I want to dissect that a little bit further. I don't think I've done this so much with with other people on the podcast so far. But you're playing a game that has a built in aspect of community to it. So in the game itself. has a chat feature and the people want to be in community. So you developed a community. It wasn't necessarily Christian community, but the gaming sphere and the game itself was engineered around community as an important aspect of the game, which... really is the catalyst for you being invited by them or encouraged by them to say you're already in the community we will all watch you we play together so you can go live we'll be right there doing all of this you'll just you'll be able to do this i love that aspect of things and i point that out because There might be someone who's listening to this who does not fully grasp and understand that online community is real community. They have this blinder on that says, if we're not in person, it's not real community. It's not real relationship. And yet it was the community walking alongside of you, not in a Christian way, but walking alongside of you with your wife's

Papstio: know troubles uh maybe not meeting all the spiritual needs but at least being a listening ear being there with you and then afterwards going you're part of us we want to embrace you come and do this alongside of us yeah and that that's just it right you know community is community no matter where you are yeah it's not you know you have to be in the same physical location you know it's people caring about people

Leighton Seys: Absolutely. And, you know, you can take any kind of community that the church may not necessarily be able to permeate. You know, the mob community, we're not really permeating that necessarily so much, but they care for one another in their way within that community. And so your community... of the of the game was doing that and encouraging you and moving forward so yeah i just wanted to pause on that for a minute because i really thought that was an opportunity to touch on something i haven't focused on in other other streams so now that you you've gone live and you're engaging you you're just in the chat you're just typing no camera no microphone What's the next step in your evolution as a streamer? Do you just maintain the game and progress with adding features to your stream? Or what's the next shift for you?

Papstio: so as i got into streaming i noticed that there were a lot of things that my skill set is computers um and streaming i mean it's technology right you you need to know how to manipulate a computer um and a lot of streamers were having issues And I'm like, well, I have all the stuff set up. I can test it out for you and see if I can solve your issue, right? And that kind of became more of my focus. I stopped streaming the game and I started playing around with OBS, with... stream elements and SonglessBot and all these tools that I saw streamers using and going, I want to learn this. I want to start helping people out, you know, using my skill to help the community. And so that's what I did. And actually, my streams became further and further apart until I decided, well, I do have all the setup and, you know, I'm down in my basement playing DDR and Rothband for exercise pretty much all the time. I might as well flip on the camera and just broadcast it. Who cares if anybody shows up? I'm just doing it to test the stuff, right? So I didn't really have a great streaming computer to start. It was an old laptop that I had had. And then I had started building a different computer from older components that I had from my previous computer. into a server case okay yep i know how that goes yeah and so i had i had a lot of issues i've dealt with all the issues

Leighton Seys: Yeah, and I think early on when I got started too, you were often trying to help me troubleshoot things as they were happening live, and you've offered many times to help, and I've recently had some sound issues, and you helped me figure out a couple of things to point me in the right direction. We haven't... sat down tried to work them all out but it's it's really helpful to have a voice that can just tell you it's going to be okay uh let me let me guide you in some ways have you tried this to do some troubleshooting uh i i find that really encouraging so i don't feel like yeah i'm the i'm the person who's less techie self-taught and i can't figure something out what do i do next you know Right. How quickly did that shift and change pan out for you? Was it like, hey, I'm just going to go play this new game, and did your community show up from the game you were playing, or did they just never migrate over?

Papstio: so a couple people showed up and you know they were also like oh yeah i remember this game you know from years ago i used to play and you you know they're like actually you're you're really good at it um but it wasn't their thing of course they the warframe community is in warframe yes pretty much all they do um it's kind of like the wow community yep You know, you play this game and this is it. And I didn't really have a lot of viewers to begin with anyway. But during the transition, one of the things that happened was... Now I'm online in these communities, plus I am streaming, forming my own community, which means my IRL time started to suffer. and uh you know my wife of course noticed right away that i wasn't around and with her health issues she needed a lot more help and so um i kind of left for the most part the warframe community a lot of the streamers that i were i had followed originally had also taken breaks due to family or health issues or different things and they weren't streaming as much and i'm like well you know what else is out there i'm in the warframe community and the music community i used a lot of the music channels to play in the background while i worked right um and there are a lot of twitch artists out there there are so many um uh and so i was in a lot of those communities and i think the first christian stream i stumbled upon was actually ukuleles and she rated you yeah and i'm like oh there are people reading the bible on stream there there's a few of us that were weirdos doing that kind of a thing um yeah yeah I'm like, this I could get into.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, I think actually you were probably, we were both in Ukulele's channel before I started live. So I think I saw you in Ukulele's stream and channel before I started. And then when I started, she had said, if you go live and you're live when I get done, I will raid you. So I had a raid on my first stream. Most people don't. It was kind of like, yay! uh bring a whole and the same with you it was like a whole bunch of people had told me when you start streaming let us let me know i will come watch you and it was like great i appreciate that you know it's it's wonderful to have that encouragement in fact I kept telling people, there's no way I'm going to stream. What am I going to stream? I'm no good at playing games. Nobody's going to watch me. Why would I ever stream? And I just kept getting encouragement from people to do it. And I kind of, I say this tongue in cheek now. I said, well, I'll show you that I'm not a streamer. I'm going to do the Bible. And I'm going to do sermon prep. Nobody's going to watch that. and they did and and and it was like wow uh and i just celebrated five years of being an affiliate uh and which is amazing to think about that wow i've been doing this for for that long and right it's it's truly amazing yeah it's it's a category that i would have never thought i could even stumble into right right

Papstio: And you talk a lot about the read and learn the Bible category. It's like, you know, and what was the other with the Holy Bible or the Holy Bible?

Leighton Seys: It was, I think, I think probably. six months or or maybe it was nine months in somebody came into my channel and was upset at me for not streaming in the holy bible i went over to that i couldn't i didn't know that category existed i had typed bible and it didn't show up so i don't know when that got created i went over and looked at it and it was just like if you want a dry person reading with no emotions And I'm like, this isn't where I belong. Nobody's going to come watch me over here. So I'm just going to stay with just chatting. However, it's been brought up that now it's read and learn the Bible. I'm testing it out. I'm moving to that category. My followers aren't looking for the category. It's new people that perhaps they are looking for the category. So I'm going to test it out and see if it's viable. If I get pushed to the top in any way because, hey, I'm one of the few people that's there. If it works out, great. If not, I'm jumping back over to just chatting because half of what I do is just chatting anyway.

Papstio: Yeah, that's kind of what I did with my channel as well. The program that I use to play DDR is called Project Outfox. For a while, I streamed in Project Outfox, the category. But nobody's in that category because barely anyone uses that program.

Leighton Seys: right right and so i switched over to dance dance revolution and i want some people to come in when when i did jump into to and i was lurking the the whole time you were going uh before we got together i was lurking i went quickly and looked because i remember so here's i don't think maybe we did talk about this the last time and i know we're on a side trail but we do so we do rabbit trails and you know this so this is no big deal um When I coached cross country, I did not entirely know what I was doing. I knew how to create community. I mean, I'd never run cross country. I've told my story before. I'm not going to tell it out here. But one of the things I remember my best friend in high school talked about when he ran cross country is we would have a pasta night the night before we would have a meet. So I just had those at my house to start with. and so we would get done with eating the meal and the kids wanted to hang out and wanted to do stuff it was usually a ddr party at my house so i went to go look for apache and i could not find apache in your playlist and then i went to go look for for a kiss i was made for loving you but i couldn't find that one either it's like okay i'm giving up you don't clearly have the one that i remember all of the songs from. And so you don't have that version in there. So I was going to give you some of those. I really wanted to see those two because those were the ones they were always trying to get it to go to. And it was funny because it would be four of them. I think it was on the Wii and there'd be four of them doing it. And what would be funny is I'd be sitting on the couch. It would pick me up as a person in the background. It would be scoring me and I'm not moving at all. And I'm like, I get a perfect score and I didn't even move. It was pretty funny that way.

Papstio: Yeah, that's one of the reasons that like Just Dance I didn't get into is I'm like, you can just sit on the couch and move your arms.

Leighton Seys: Oh, that's what it is. Just Dance, not DDR. Sorry, wrong one. But yeah, I think I think they did both. But yeah, anyway, it was that it was bringing back memories of that. And it was it is like so I had actually mentioned to my wife that you were that you were down here playing DDR. And she's like, people still play that. i'm like yeah like why wouldn't you you know if you're good at it you would you would enjoy it you would keep doing it so there's yep so anyway to bring that back so you you start doing something that you enjoy do you start developing a new community around that and and when did you decide to you know or did i should say did you always have the video then with the ddr you put yourself up and you were on screen and and go in and chatting and uh talk or you did i think you're the one that showed me this the chat to text um or sorry text to speech text to speech and uh the tts there at which i tried on my my biking streams and then i switched platforms and it wouldn't work um so i had it for a minute and then it didn't didn't turn out to be viable for what i was doing but I love those kind of things like that that are innovative and trying things that, you know, not everybody knows about or that I was able to see. So how did that go from there of I'm doing dancing now. I'm going to be dancing with the stars with Papsio someday maybe. We're going to see you on the show.

Papstio: uh probably not probably not way too old although they have a lot of x x athletes on there yeah yeah ex-athletes so but uh yeah so i started just filming basically streaming my dancing and um i did eventually find a casual ddr community um What was it? Y2Queen was one of the first people that came into my chat and, like, followed, subbed right away, started giving bits, and I'm just like... This is weird, like who randomly comes into a stream and throws money at them. But it turned out that she also streams DDR and they had a whole community who I fell in with for a while. They kind of disbanded, and I kept going. And then as I got around the Christian community, I would get a lot of people from those streams to stop by. And, you know, a lot of a lot of the time for I don't know how many months it was. It was a quiet chat. I was streaming to, you know, lurkers. Right. But it wasn't, you know, I wasn't streaming to make a living. I wasn't streaming to try and get big. I was just streaming because I could. And It was just not the kind of thing that you would normally hear about. You know, you hear about a lot of these Twitch streamers who are like, I can't get anybody to come in. I can't get anybody to interact. I can't get any money. I can't make this work. And I'm just over here like, yeah. it's a business if you don't treat it that way it's not gonna work right right um and I don't treat it that way I treat it as a hobby and so you know all that kind of stuff I didn't have to deal with um but I'm like around all these other communities and I'm like well maybe I should focus and build a community um a lot of my growth actually came after i started modding for z sarian um because i was in her stream all the time people started getting to know me i was in your stream all the time people started getting to know me and then i would see people in other streams and um i never advertised my own stream

Leighton Seys: and so even today i get a lot of wait you stream right right actually forged by grace just said that the other day well and uh and and there's there's something for that so let's just let's just back up and and the plan is for for for the next month uh i'm trying to have mods on here specifically and and talk about it and i think that's true when i first uh saw you it was you were modding for other people so there's something about that aspect of you giving into the community and being a presence in the community that is valued that when we when people find out that you stream, we want to go and give back because you have invested in us in the community without being the streamer and your presence is there. So how, let me just shift that gear for a minute, because we're going to go to Maude. Why did you choose to Maude? What was it about participating in that aspect of the community that you found valuable to be able to do that?

Papstio: so i didn't choose to mod okay i mean obviously i'm i made the ultimate decision too but um i was actually only in ashley's stream for six weeks maybe okay and she reached out and she said hey you know i noticed you're here all the time you're very welcoming to the community would you like to be a mod and i'm like wow after six weeks that's pretty quick i barely know any coffee um but you know i was like oh sure i mean i love your community um her discord was active and there were a lot of people there that you know I got along with and so I was like, sure, I'll be a mod at the time. I wasn't so I hadn't been in the Christian community a lot. I was used to the music community and the Warframe community, which have a lot of trolls. Yes. And the first time somebody came in and started trolling. I banned them. And Ashley goes, wait, why did you do that? I can't talk to them now. And I thought, well, what do you mean? They were trolling, right? And she explained, she's like, these people come in with questions. They're confused. They're trolling because they want to know more about what we're doing. And if I can start a conversation, maybe I can, you know, figure out what that is that they're looking for. And it just made me think, I'm like, huh, I guess that's true. You know, it's not just... There's somebody who's trying to cause mischief. There's a person on the other side of those words. And they need to hear and be loved just like everybody else.

Leighton Seys: And even if they are coming to troll and are trying to create mischief or are trying to attack in some ways, we are to overcome evil with good. And the world doesn't do that. The world either responds with evil for evil or ban. We won't tolerate you. No, no tolerance policy. You stepped out of line and we're going to cancel you and you have to go away. So it is a different mindset, and not every Christian is able to do that within their space. They may have certain past hurt and triggers that they're trying to protect themselves and will be more fast on the trigger to say, nope, not here, goodbye, no tolerance, or they have people in their community that they're more protective of in that way. But yeah, Z Sarah Yu, very skilled in being able to have conversations with people. She's been on the podcast before. So if you don't know who she is, go find the episode where she was on. It's a great episode. And I'm not going to share anything of what is going on with her ministry, but stay tuned for the next year to see what she's up to. It's just going to be some really good stuff. Yeah, timing out instead of banning, Forge says, is a great happy middle ground for what you have found in that regard. Of course, with the warning before then leading up to the timeout. Yeah, and that's a good point too, Forge, that you bring up there is the... we can dialogue along the way without having the ban hammer being the first thing that happens is just so you know that kind of language just so you know that kind of behavior just so you know those kinds of things we don't allow those here uh can you can you go in a different direction with that redirecting and and being persistent having boundaries is still an important thing uh and then as a mod we want our mods to understand where we're coming from so you are learning from her on how to do that so what was the the next kind of iteration of that for you did you did you find that in other communities where you were where you became mods or when did you end up modding for other people

Papstio: so after after a while um so i had actually modded for people before i still mod okay for non-christian communities um but yes the Christian communities that I was in, you know, I found a lot of them were already like that. They've dealt with this before. You know, of course, being a Christian means people are going to come in and they're going to talk about stuff and they're going to ask questions because they're going to be confused about things. And, you know. I always, so my stream is not Christian content.

Leighton Seys: Right. I was just going to ask in that direction. So how do you bring your faith into your stream? How do you engage people around? And I love that there is a variety of Christians in the space because while I have in my name, straightforward, pastor, you're going to go, okay, Christian, what's going on? What's this person? But I chose that because I didn't want people to feel like I'm bait and switching you. You know, I'm playing a game over here. Now let me tell you I'm a pastor and they leave without me even getting a chance to talk to them. So, yep, I know I put a barrier up. but I would rather have that than chase you away and have you feel like I lied to you and was deceptive. So how do you handle it when people come into your stream and you're sharing your faith? What causes you to do that, to share your faith? What are those parameters that you're looking for opportunity-wise? Because yeah, you are a music, you are in some ways an entertainment side of the community.

Papstio: Um, so yeah, I was going to get into this a little later in my journey, but, um, basically I had issues with being a Christian content creator because all I saw was Christian content. Right. Right. I didn't put content creator. in its box right um and so i'm like well there's really no space for me because i'm not gonna read the bible i'm not gonna you know watch podcasts and things on christian content for my stream i am a christian you know right and that's gonna come out because i can't stop being christian just as much as i can't stop being black right like it's gonna come out yeah and it does so in my stream i started one introducing myself as you know i'm a christian husband father and rhythm gamer And I put Christian first on purpose. The other thing is, you know, people come in. I started getting a lot of people who just wanted to come in and talk. You know, they came in, they're having a bad day. They want to vent. I was okay with that. And I would talk to them. And, you know, by the end of it, you know, I'm like, oh, well, I will be praying for you, right? Like, yeah, I'm going to let you know that this is how I believe that I can help you in your situation is through my faith. But I have always taken the St. Francis of Assisi approach where We're going to go preach the gospel and occasionally use words, right? We are going to live our faith and people are going to question it. And that's when we can talk about it.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. And like just listening, though, is actually an act of love because there are a lot of people that as soon as someone goes to have a conversation and tell what's going on in their life, there's people that want to tell them what to do to fix the problem. There are people that want to berate them for what they're doing wrong. There's people that want to shut them down. So the gift of listening is an act of love to be able to have a place that people find, hey, you know what? You're struggling. You're having a bad day. Go find Papstio. Just share with him. And he's not going to tell you what to do. He's not going to solve everything. He's not going to make you feel bad for what's going on in life. He's going to listen and he's going to offer prayer for you. Do you pray on stream or do you just say, I'll be praying for you?

Papstio: I have prayed on stream if people want. Yeah.

Leighton Seys: And some people don't want it. They want to know you're praying, but they don't want to always hear it. Some people do want to hear it. I get both options in mind where people will DM me stuff or they'll ask for it when they're there. Do you ever redeem for prayer in your channel? I don't think I've ever looked for it. I don't yet. Well, you don't have to.

Papstio: It is something that I've thought of putting in there. and you know just because somebody may not want to just type in chat hey can you pray for me right if you have a prayer redeemed then they go oh okay this person's willing to pray

Leighton Seys: Yeah, and that's the reason I have it. Not that people wouldn't expect that anyway, but it's that simple way to say, yes, that's acceptable here. I'm not here to do my agenda of read the Bible. I'm here for community as the most important priority within what we're doing. And so, yeah, there's plenty of days I don't get to all the reading I plan.

Papstio: yeah and so thinking about that and how i can be a christian content creator i went through the taco class i went through the edm class yep i uh was trying to figure out where i fit in and i noticed that reach opened up there uh creator submissions and uh i talked to romans and i had asked him straight up i'm like i know reach is a christian community of content creators but is there room for creators who don't create Christian content. And he's like, well, first and foremost, we are content creators who are Christian, whether you're creating Christian content or not.

Leighton Seys: Right.

Papstio: And I said, okay, that's what I need to know, because I think there needs to be a space for people to come to kind of like the family-friendly category.

Leighton Seys: Yes, yes.

Papstio: Where you can come in and know that this person isn't going to, you know, berate you for what you've done wrong, but you don't have to go to a pastor. Yeah. And when you're ready, after being in the community, after finding out a little bit more... this person can refer you to the next step. And so that's kind of where I am now where I'm like, yes, I'm going to announce that I'm Christian.

Leighton Seys: but that's pretty much all you're going to hear from me unless you ask yeah right and and i know i'm watching you people has that same approach yeah and and i think that's really valuable and and at reach conference and other places uh nerd culture ministry summit oh i got a raid coming on i'll come back to this thought uh you know what i I need to really create a scene for Raid to come in. I need to do it. I have to figure out how to rearrange that with the guest and put something else on. Thank you for the follow. Thanks for following. Nightsaber, so good to see you, brother. Love having you come in. Thank you for raiding. Rebel Games 2025, welcome in. We see who was the follow that came in. Was that Rebel Games? Yeah, Rebel Games. Thank you for the follow. Night Saber with the raid. Anyone else coming in?

Papstio: What's cooking, both of y'all?

Leighton Seys: Look at these fine, handsome men. Well, I'll take that compliment any day. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Night Saber. Yes. Those that do not know that just came in with the raid, you don't know my channel, perhaps. I am Flat Cap Dapper Pastor. I am a pastor. I've been in ministry for over 25 years. I'm not currently serving at a church. I work with the Church Digital. We are a digital missionary sending agency. I do some pulpit supply. I do reading in the Bible on stream. And I have a podcast. And you're joining us on the podcast here on the Church Digital channel, where we are talking about people that are doing... They are a Christian intentionally in a space where it can be pretty toxic. And so we're talking with Pabstio on this episode. Pabstio, you just want to give a quick intro of yourself, get all of those who are joining a chance to get caught up.

Papstio: Sure. So I'm Papstio. I go by many names in the community. Pap, Paps, DesPapsito. A lot of times it's now Papacito.

Leighton Seys: I like the Papacito. I have to say I do like that.

Papstio: um but i am a christian husband father and rhythm gamer i started streaming to help other streamers and i continue streaming to use the tools that help other streamers so yeah you know i was just thinking here because i've been i've been doing this a little bit for some people uh

Leighton Seys: not that you can't go youtube this already and find people that are using tools and learn on it but i've just been starting to curate some how-to videos on things from not the expert level of things but from the You're learning from a novice who's a couple of steps ahead of you. So you don't feel overwhelmed. How do I help you not feel overwhelmed at things? So you at least can enter the conversation and feel like, okay, I'm not an idiot. So that's my approach of what I'm trying to do with creating some things. But have you thought about creating an intentional section of how to, to help streamers? do do things better and like i said i already know three or four that i watch but if you were doing that as well it would be it would be fun to watch you so i'm sure you know video editing takes a lot of time

Papstio: Oh, yeah, it does. I don't have any time. I stream for an hour because that is the block of time in my day that I have to myself. Okay. And so, yes, I have thought about making that content. I just know that right now I don't have that kind of time.

Leighton Seys: fair that's fair and i i have started utilizing ai to help me with my video editing as i have chosen to be more intentional with my stream so that i have not just hey here's the stream go watch it if you want to which nobody does uh and and modify it down into segments where people would spend the time to watch it at least i hope they begin to so i've been i've been doing a whole bunch of that and at times frustrated with how long it does still take even with ai assistance in doing some stuff it it can take up a tremendous amount of time yeah so while while you were you know doing ddr for the the first hour you were on i was editing videos for that entire hour uh so that i have my videos, my VODs going up tomorrow, the Bible reading from yesterday. So it's, it's that kind of a, yep. I've got to, I've got to stay on top of this. They're like, I'll get behind the, then I'll throw in the towel and give up, you know?

Papstio: then approach pro tip for streamers if you don't build in that time to your schedule then you're kind of doing yourself a disservice because you're going to be editing your stuff you know in the wee hours oh and and that's one of those things that i i

Leighton Seys: I don't say I learned this early on. I got kind of forced into this early on in ministry of setting really, really good boundaries because my wife demanded that of me. And there were a couple of ones that early on in ministry, it was when I go to bed, you're going to bed too. I don't get to stay up and study for three and four and five hours of homework. So she was she she's like, I don't care how early you get up in the morning. I don't care if you come to bed for two and three hours and get up. We go to bed at the same time. OK, so we went to bed at the same time. And yeah, I got up at four o'clock in the morning to study Greek. for four hours before class because i needed those four hours to study greek to get a c in the class so uh this is why you'll notice if you come to my channel i spend a whole lot of time on hebrew and not as much on the greek because it's still really difficult for me but that was one and the other was I had Mondays off always, no classes on Mondays. And part of that was because a lot of the professors would travel for the weekend, go do preaching or teaching. They might do a conference at a church. So they'd travel. And so they'd be at the church on Sunday. They wouldn't be back in time to do a class on Monday. So no classes on Monday. So she's like, on Saturday and Sunday, I'm home. So on Saturday and Sunday is family time. You are not doing homework. So it was like it was like forced upon me. But it was so brilliant in the fact that I don't have this urge. Like at the end of the day, I could go work for five more hours. I got to grind it out and I got to do it. It's like, no, my day's done. It'll be there tomorrow. I will start on it tomorrow and I will go do it. Now, there's times I get frustrated that I don't get as much done as I want, but I don't have that drive to work myself past my capacity because, like I said, early on, I got that. pattern of how do you do things? How do you set boundaries? How do you uphold them? How do you protect sacred space? How do you protect family space and and finding that? And I like to use the word harmony. So my wife is part of my life. All that I do has to be in harmony with the time I get to spend with her. My kids are part of my life. They have to be in harmony. If I am out of disharmony, I'm out of imbalance in relationships. So everything has to be a benefit to everything else in my life.

Papstio: Right. Not just work-life balance. It's like you said, it's a harmony.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, I've really been playing with that harmony probably for about a year and a half now. I really like the language of it better because, and this is maybe my bias, but you're going to be lurking, Nightsaber. Thank you. Love you all too. If I think balance, my brain goes, if I get my work 40 hours, I got to get my family 40 hours. If work steals 10 hours, I'm out of balance. But... That's not how things equate all the time. Or my wife was pointing this out to me a couple of years ago when I was starting to do some gaming with my kids who aren't at home because, hey, we can actually play remote. So we were meeting on Sunday nights to play for like four hours. And I'm like, so this is taking time I normally gave to my wife. I'm giving it to my kids. And I was feeling guilty about this. And I told her and she goes. Are you kidding me? Your kids want to spend time with you? That is to my benefit that your kids, our kids, want their dad around to play video games with. It is not taking time from me. You are investing in our family still. And I was like, wow, I wasn't seeing it that way because I was caught up in the mindset of balance. And I think that's really when I started to shift and start thinking about, no, that is a piece of harmony within my ecosystem. and i'm not stealing from my wife and giving hours to my kids i am blessing the whole family together by spending time when they're seeking time with me so yeah that's good and right now you know

Papstio: When I am not working or streaming, everything I do is for my family. I have very little time to do things with my family. And there is a huge difference.

Leighton Seys: Yes. There absolutely is.

Papstio: So the time that I get to spend with them is extremely valuable, especially to my wife. My kid isn't old enough to really express it, but I can tell that he appreciates the time that I spend with him.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. And kids are always that way. They don't have all of it as they're growing. They'll get it. But early on, it's all they know is time with dad. Great. Let's let's do it. You know, and I don't think they equate any kind of balance with it. It's presence with this person that's valuable in my life. That's that's all they care about. And every moment is a is a is a sacred moment for them in that time of life. So, yeah. Now, just to kind of back up because we started here talking about one of the things early on was your wife's health. How is that still right now? Is there elements at which her health is still something that you need to keep in check with what you're doing?

Papstio: so she has a lot of restrictions on what she can do um meaning she can't lift more than eight pounds okay she can't bend over very easily. She can't get down on the floor and get back up. A lot of these things tug at the basically glue that they added to her lung to keep it inflated. And so there are a lot of things, like I said, I have to do for my family because she just can't. Which is kind of funny. Because going back to those Warframe days, she was doing everything. And it just kind of flipped once she started having health issues. She doesn't even drive anymore. Thank you for those bits, Pico.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, that's sweet. I love when people drop biddies. They're so much fun. No matter how small they are, you could give those to anybody and you're choosing to drop those here. That's just awesome. So I think that's a valuable thing. And I find there are a lot of people in ministry who have a family member who does have some need that is beyond their capacity to do everything for themselves, whatever it is, or they have limitations in some way. I wonder if, and I'm not asking this as a question, I'm just wondering out loud because I like to do that. I wonder if in some ways having to care for someone more than ourselves is what opens us up to looking for everybody who might have a need and having that desire to want to serve others more because we already have taken and... decided we're not the most important person in the world because we are caring for someone beyond what they can do for themselves. Yeah, that is a great way to look at it. Yeah. Like I said, I don't know if that's entirely true. I'm just like, because I know so many, and as you're telling the story there, it's like, I get to hear your heart for her, which I already see in the way that you approach coming into chat and the way you approach other people in the way that, and this might seem small to some people, but it's not small to me that when you say, time to go drop the kids off, uh you know or kid i should say well it's time time to go i'm you're going into lurker mode and you're alert like you don't have to say that i i'll understand i i got the rhythm of what's going on but but there's that congeniality there's that awareness there's the hey i know that you know i was here but i don't want to leave without you being aware of it And then I know you're usually listening along the way as you take off, which to me is just kind of fun to go. I'm traveling down the road as people go somewhere. It's kind of a cool thought that you think enough about me to come in the first place and then enough about me to not just leave. So I appreciate that. And I wanted to share that with you.

Papstio: Well, yeah, thanks. I find it kind of funny that, yeah, I do announce what I'm doing for lurking.

Leighton Seys: I know. In a lot of channels. Yeah. But like I said, I wanted to point that out because some people might not think about it. There are people who, you know, all they know. And I hope someday that this podcast is really a place that people find it and they go to their home church and say, God's been calling me to something. Here are a bunch of people that are doing it. And the more people I can have on the podcast, the longer that list of here are people that are doing it. I'm not alone, pastor. I'm not alone, elder deacon. I'm not alone, mom, in feeling called to do this. But every different person brings some aspect of themselves to this. If all you know is the church goes online in the service and they don't know community, you're demonstrating by that little piece that we are actually in community when you say, I'm leaving now, I'm lurking. And we had several people who came in with the raid who did the same thing. I didn't acknowledge them all as it happened, but it was, hey, I'm lurking now. I'm still listening. I'm going to be doing this or I've got to go. Those are all things if someone's in my house, they generally say goodbye when they leave. They don't just walk out of my house without saying something. They might come home without saying something, depending upon what time of day it is or night or those kinds of things. But you don't generally leave a house. Unless you're leaving early in the morning and people are asleep, you usually say something to the people that are there because all of a sudden they'll go, where did they go? And you don't want to leave people with anxiety or wonder. So I love how you've adapted that into your persona of being in community that a lot of people don't realize. You can bring all of yourself into a digital space and you can care for people in a digital space. And even little things like that are a valuable thing.

Papstio: Yeah, it's something, you know, being just because you are in a digital space doesn't mean you are a different person, right? And I like to handle my digital spaces the same way I would if I were just... there with everybody um and it's it's interesting early that earlier that you said that you know the way i interact in chat and everything we have developed a way to i guess

Leighton Seys: have non-verbal communication actually means something absolutely absolutely and i and i think i mean and this goes to the longevity of you being in my stream is uh you you type something and it may not be a full expression of a sentence or everything and i know exactly what you're implying or you're responding to like some people will respond in chat and i'm like what are you talking about what did i say and what happened and what did i forget and what like i don't think i ever read your your messages and go oh that's what you meant Or explain that further. It's like your messages are spot on. We know each other in that realm. And you know what I need to hear or all the little bit that you need to say. I was like, oh, yeah, I know what you're thinking, Patsy. Yeah. Or you're just laughing at me, you know, when I'm doing voices or I'm, you know, messing up a song that everybody loves. And now they're going to have that stuck in their head and it's going to ruin their ruin their life. because i ruin songs for so many people my kids can tell you about that i'll just i'll just share one i don't think i've shared this one on stream because it's not a christian song uh so uh aerosmith song train kept a rolling all night long i always sang and this makes absolutely no sense drank pepperoni all night long drank pepperoni all night long my daughter was in college before she realized that was not the words to the song because she didn't know what they really were she knew i was not correct but she could not hear him actually say anything except what i said And and so it was so funny when she came home from college and was like, OK, you ruined that song, dad. I know it's been ruined for, you know, 15 years for you because you heard it as a little kid and you didn't know it wasn't the real words. I don't know if she did this. She didn't admit this to me. I don't know if she was singing the wrong words and singing, drank pepperoni and and got her friends correct her. That's how I'm imagining it. I'm imagining that that's what happened. She got totally embarrassed by singing the wrong words. She probably didn't intend to sing the wrong words, but they probably just came out of her mouth and it caused a scene and embarrassed her. And I got to hear the aftermath. So dad has achieved greatness in that way with his daughter. Checkmark the box.

Papstio: Congratulations, you've ruined it for another person because that is one of my favorite songs to play in rock band. And now I will never hear it the other way.

Leighton Seys: That's what I said. I ruin songs for people by that, which I have mentioned before on my stream many times and also in this podcast probably that, yeah, that's one of my oldest memories is getting kicked out of Sunday school for changing the words to songs. So I've been doing it for... All of my life, it's just my creative mind does not stop. So if you don't want me to change the words, you need to have a 10-10 beat because I can't change the words to songs that are that fast. Yep. Yeah, we get the dancing emotes in there. There we go, Lucis.

Papstio: but yeah and and your love of words i'll say yes has has rubbed off um i i look up you know i go to blue letter bible now i read the original text and try and figure out if maybe the translation wasn't exactly what they said it was well one of the problems

Leighton Seys: at times is that there was no english word when they were translating from the and and some of the earliest translations were using latin because that's what they had inherited they didn't have the greek to go back to or the hebrew necessarily all the time but they were trying to carry the word over and create english for places where there simply was no word and so Not only did they not have a word, that word was created several hundred years ago out of nothing with no background. So we don't have anything to rely on other than we think this is what it means. And they were trying to, so there's those kinds of pieces. And I love that you go to Blue Letter. Not that because Blue Letter is the best. I use Blue Letter on my stream because it's free. and it's a good place to start when you when you grow beyond that and then there are other people who do streaming now who use logos bible software and they can go much more depth i used it for years i just when i do streaming i want to i want everyone to be able to say i can go do that myself So that's why I do not use it. That's one reason I've been using the Net Bible is it's got the footnotes in there that will clue us into some stuff that's going on in the text and then go to Blue Letter specifically to look up words because I find words fun.

Papstio: Which is why I like reading the Bible through with you because you actually go look up the word and the names, of course. They are just hilarious.

Leighton Seys: Oh, my goodness, yes. The number of, oh, my goodness. You need to go watch VODs that, oh, did I go off on a name? And half the time it's, ooh, this sounds like it would be a really good metal band name. What does it really mean? And is that going to be a good name or not? what what was one of the uh man i i went off on this one i wish i could remember it off the top of my head um i i won't remember it it's it's not coming to me but just making fun of you know mom yelling out the out the door that it's time to come home for dinner and and it's like oh my goodness it gets it gets hilarious at times when i do that so I think JL, if I remember. No, that's the wrong one. I'm thinking of someone else. Anyway, yeah, Sunshine, we'll have to go look that up. One of the names I wish it would stick in my brain, some do, and some I'll go, oh, yeah, I want to remember that, and then I forget that that's it. But a couple of names that I love. are the sons of naomi who says don't call me naomi which means pleasant call me mara which means bitter but her son's names are sickly and frail So her sons are sickly and frail. Spoiler alert. So turn it off now if you don't want to know what happens in the story of Ruth. Sickly and frail die, my friends. Sickly and frail die. I know, spoiler alert, but sickly and frail die. So to me, there's just so much beauty in looking up the value of people's names. Like you get bored with genealogy, just look up every name in the genealogy. As I'm trying to do this year, read through the Bible all the way through and do all of that. I'm not doing as many names as I normally do looking up in the genealogies, but I love looking up about every third name when I go through the genealogies when I'm doing it myself.

Papstio: Oh, yeah. There's some good stuff in there.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. So I know we've talked about some family things outside of stream that have been some things that you've had to overcome. We've talked about also overcoming, hey, I'm spending too much time on stream over here and having to do that. Have you had some... on stream uh difficulties that you've had to deal with as you've been a streamer you mean besides all the tech difficulties well if you want to include tech difficulties i mean you you you painted yourself as the text expert so i figured you had no difficulties whatever all right

Papstio: As I always say, if you're not having tech issues, are you really streaming?

Leighton Seys: I know. I love when people put that in the chat. Whenever I'm having tech issues, it makes me feel better. It's like, oh, yes, I know. But I don't want them, you know?

Papstio: Right. I've had a lot of streaming difficulties, mostly due to time. Because... Anybody who has had tech difficulties while streaming knows that you lose time, right?

Leighton Seys: Yes.

Papstio: You have to stop. You have to deal with it. Sometimes you have to stop stream and restart it.

Leighton Seys: Oh, yeah.

Papstio: And that causes all kinds of issues. But when you only stream for an hour, any tech difficulty basically cancels stream.

Leighton Seys: Yes, yes.

Papstio: so i had a lot of that a lot of those days where i'm like sorry guys this is gonna take too long to fix so i will see you tomorrow right like um but also um while i haven't had a lot of trolls a lot of people who come in specifically to make mischief I have had a lot of people who come in who want to talk about really heavy subjects. And when you're in the middle of a dancing stream or a rock band stream, a heavy subject is hard to talk about at that point. But like I said, I've attracted a lot of people who have difficulties in their life. They're struggling with something and they want to vent. And I don't want to say I don't have time, right? Because that's the whole point of being here is I want to connect with people. and so i will you know put my discord link in chat or say you know message me on discord if you don't have discord whisper me on twitch um i want to come back to this and you know hear what you have to say but i only have an hour on stream and i don't i don't have the time that i want to give you to fully state what you're saying um and so that that has kind of been my biggest barrier to stream is time And I want to create community. But if I don't have time to put in to really listen to somebody really talk to people, then it gets really difficult.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, I can feel that. There are some people that, yeah, they'll come in towards the end of my stream, and it's like, I don't have time. I'm on the way out. I know what you deserve. And I cannot give you what you deserve. And you're looking for that right now. And there's that burden that I can't be what you need right now, which in some ways is the beauty of being able to raid out and being able to raid to another Christian community that we can say, you're not going to be abandoned. We're going to pass you on. But. when it's the first or second time or an inconsistent person you just really don't know if that's going to be enough to to move them to another space and and drop them off so to speak you know and i i also don't want to and i know you don't either of well i don't have to deal with it wash my hands and walk away because you walk away with the i hope it's i hope that they are right where they need to be. And I don't know if they are and when will I hear about it and how to. So how do you with not being a full time streamer and most of us aren't, but not being a intended to be full time, how do you have time to deal with the stuff in your discord then? Is that an easier process for you to respond and discord and do that outside of stream so that you can maintain those relationships?

Papstio: Yeah, so. A lot of the people that I mod their Discord know that that is where I am all the time, right? You know, I've stopped bots that have posted inappropriate content because I get pings on my phone and I can instantly go in and ban them, right? yeah so discord is always up it's always open for me um and so that is where if somebody wants to have a quick conversation i'm pretty much always available yep um and so while i would love to build my discord community it is it's actually very difficult to get people into discord um if you don't have some kind of

Leighton Seys: events regular notification you know some something that you're doing in discord people don't want to just don't join a dormant discord right right yeah and and uh i'm in so many discords that my original one that was mine where i was active in some ways to begin with has become dormant as i spend more time in other places and engaging people in those places like I don't have bandwidth to try to generate activity in my own channel and my own Discord. It's more of a curation at this point of curating relationships where you can come in and know where I am. I can post things that are upcoming and or I can post other things. And there's a few people trying to make it active and go in there. And I appreciate that. But they're also in all the other communities I'm in, too. it's it's i don't need to on some level spend a lot of time there and then i for the other part it's not just about a dormant uh you know community it's i've gone to i want to join the groups of people together where i'm going to run into more people than individual streamers community So I'm not in a lot of individual streamer discords anymore. I've just gone to, I'm going to, I can't do all of them. I have too many friends that, and it's a terrible problem. I have too many friends and, and they haven't got to be on the podcast yet. So, you know, if I was like, if I was in every discord server of people that have been up on in the podcast, By the end of this year, I would be at the limit for the number of Discord servers I could be in. And obviously, I'm not reading messages in 100 Discord servers every day. That's not going to... I wouldn't be able to do anything else, honestly. That would take all my day to be able to do that. So, yeah, that is one of those real things at times is... is that but if they know they can go there in the moment and have you respond to them that's probably just as valuable as an active one where they get overlooked when they say something and no one responds to them or they're trying to reach you and and they don't get to that person

Papstio: It's true. Yeah, it's small and I prefer small communities. I'm a part of a lot of large communities, but it's nice to be heard and nice to be able to contact, you know, the group leaders.

Leighton Seys: Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Have there been any other thing that has been a barrier as a streamer within this? So we've got tech issues and we've got limitations on time. Have there been other things that you faced as you've gone through, like maybe maybe things of feeling discouraged or other things that you've had to overcome as you've been a streamer?

Papstio: So kind of like I had mentioned before, because I stream as a hobby.

Leighton Seys: Right.

Papstio: I don't get those normal discouragements, you know, where there's nobody coming in or nobody talking. But I do... get discouraged sometimes if i'm not feeling like i'm producing good content like if i am having an off day i notice and i'm like should i even really be here today i'm not bringing my best self um and people are probably going to notice and then they're going to say something and then i have to talk about my day and i don't want to talk about my day i want to hear about your day

Leighton Seys: You say that, but that was actually one of the things that attracted me early on to Twitch was it was easy to see for a number of people that I was watching when they were having a bad day. And the chat would be persistent until they told us what was going on with their day. And we got to embrace and love them. And that was like, wow. I mean, just like you're always smiling and laughing. I would know you're having a bad day if you're not smiling and laughing, even in the chat. Because if you're not smiling and laughing and pulling jokes in the chat, I know something's off. So it carries over. But it's one of those things where I so appreciate that... The chat needs you to express when you are having a bad day. And they want to know that because they don't want to just watch a performance. Yes, they want to be engaging. Yes, they want to be entertained. Yes, they want to have a good time. But they also care about the streamer. They care about you as a person. Because if I just want to watch somebody for... perfection there's a lot of other platforms i can go on this is this is not the platform for that this is a platform for building relationships with the streamer as much as it is the streamer building relationships in the community and so i i love that aspect of it i know it's not oh it doesn't always feel good like there there have been days i like i don't want to go i know i'm having a bad day i just don't want to be here and I mean, I've had that in the pulpit too, but in the pulpit, I don't get to be that honest about I'm having a bad day. I do have to put the performance on in the pulpit that everything is all right and this is good. I can let it down when I'm not in the pulpit, but when I go up front like that, it... it like it's not part of what you're looking for in worship it's not going to be accepted here in the same way in streaming i can show up 100 honest and yeah and that's threatening in some ways it is it is a hard thing to go All right, I'm going to be called out today because I'm having a bad day. The other side that's fun, though, is like last Friday when I was super cheeky and having fun and goofing off. It was like everybody enjoyed it and had a great time and it was fun. And so I get to be that, which I also don't get to be in the pulpit either. I don't get to just be goofy for the sake of I'm having one of those days, everybody. My sermon is going to be a little funny today. No, that doesn't work that way either.

Papstio: yeah and i often tell my chat like you know i'm coming right after work and if work was a bad day you know i'm like i i come here i've had this kind of day I don't always want to hit the go live button, but for some reason, when I start dancing, my day is just fine.

Leighton Seys: I love that.

Papstio: I didn't have a bad day. I had a bad few moments, right?

Leighton Seys: Right, right. Yeah, if you got to dance today, how could it be a bad day? Really? I mean, there we go. Just dance the blues away, dance the troubles away, whatever you want to say. You can absolutely do that.

Papstio: And Lucius reminded me that I ask people first time chatters. I'm like, oh, how'd you find the stream? Are you a fan of DDR? And Lucius responded, I'm a fan of you. I'm a fan of Pabstio.

Leighton Seys: I'm a fan of Pabstio. I didn't know I had fans. There you go. There you go. How did you find me? Because you're everywhere. You're in this channel and that channel and the other one. And I'm like, I want to see the great Papsteel perform and hear that great laugh of his. How about we switch and move in the positive direction? What have been some blessings that you've experienced personally? And then what are some blessings that you've witnessed as being a streamer or even being a mod? You can go either way because I know you do a lot of modding.

Papstio: I would have to say one of my biggest blessings... Well, I guess I'll transition between two. So... During November, I always do Movember. I shave my beard, let it grow over the month. I do fundraising. One year... right at the end someone came in they donated um and you know i figured oh they came in saw this fundraiser donated they'll probably not come back well they did come back every stream started requesting and uh i'm like okay so now i have like my first real regular there you go she actually became my mod after a while um my only mod so far and uh She was around. She helped me with all my tech issues and refined my set list and everything. She's currently dealing with life. So she's not around anymore. But kind of as she faded out... watching i'm watching you people he came in and we always talk about you know champions like you're going to have somebody who really gets what you're doing they want to be on board you know and right now for me that is i'm watching you people she has uh definitely been there she's she grabs the first every stream which is hilarious oh oh there you go and uh you know it's been it's been an actual blessing because obviously she is in several communities she has a lot of people that she could be watching and she chooses to come and interact on my stream um i do mod for her as well but um welcome in zaladin

Leighton Seys: um the it has been so nice to uh have somebody like that again i guess yeah absolutely and you're right she is in a lot of places she she she has she's been a mod for me for quite some time and she is always so generous with approaching things of can have you thought about this with suggestions of of trying to help to work on engagement and all like she has so many ideas and i love them but it's like i i can't do all of these I don't have, I don't have bandwidth to work on, on, on some of these things. Like some of them I know are really good and I really need to do some of the things that she suggests because they're going to be beneficial. They would pay off. And it's just, no, sometimes when I get off stream, I have a whole list of other things. I can't put, I mean, I'm trying to, this is, and I stole this from Jake live, which I haven't had him on the podcast. Eventually I will. I want to get 1% better every day. I'm not trying to get 50% better by next week. I can't do that. And some of her suggestions are moving in that direction of this would make it 50% better. I know. I know that would be 50% better. By December, maybe I can get to all of that stuff so that I would be 50% better than I was a year ago. But I just got to strive for that 1% at a time. That's all I can do is just, I want constant improvement so I can get there. And sometimes there's just too many leaps to get to the things that are... But that's who she is. She is everywhere, online, in the Twitch space, in so many communities. She, like... This is where I was five years ago before I started streaming. I was everywhere. I was exploring. I was, you know, like I'm going to find everybody doing every kind of thing that's not gaming. And I'm going to go explore all of those because the gaming part was 90%. I can't go everywhere. So I'll just take the 10% that's not gaming and figure that out. And it's like, it just keeps growing. So. Yeah, she is going to be the one, and I need to get her on the podcast too, which, by the way, Lucis, I didn't tell you this. I'm going to talk to her about the two of you being on the podcast together. So remind me this week to DM you about that so that when we get that firmed up. Yeah, I know. I didn't tell you. But I don't want you to have to be alone on the podcast. So I figured the two of you together on the podcast would be gold. um we'll figure that out yeah yeah wouldn't you yeah that'd just be gold um so anyway like yeah i i love that aspect and you didn't say it this way but i think i i think in some ways it's it's what you were saying it yeah that would be chaos true uh so it might be it might be the longest podcast we will i will ever do is what you're saying there oh um No, it'll be great. So to go back to what I was trying to say, relationships have been a blessing. People in your life have been a blessing that you didn't know that this person was going to be a blessing. That first person that came in, you were saying, yeah, they gave a gift, but it wasn't the gift that was the blessing. It was their continuous presence of you were bringing something of value that they needed in their life at that time. Now they're in a season where they can't be in in in that same thing and i've tried to get some some people on the podcast that were that way that that aren't around anymore that's like i just want to celebrate what you meant to me and what you still mean to me and what is the in ongoing impact of that time that we spent even if you're not currently able to so totally get that vibing with that aspect that's not the way you were saying it but that was another aspect of it that i think uh is is absolutely true of

Papstio: of what people can mean to us as as as the streamer when they're just in the community with us yeah and um i guess the other thing so earlier today while i was dancing you know a lot of people came in and they started you know greeting each other yes Which is exactly what I wanted for my space, right?

Leighton Seys: Yes.

Papstio: I want a community to where people feel like, oh, I know this person. Even if it's from another community. I like the fact that on Twitch, we can go around to different streamers and still see the same people.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. Yeah. I'm trying to think of what would be a good analogy of that for people to grasp and understand, because it's certainly not church. Because you don't show up to the same thing with the same people. Maybe the only exception. And if you don't go to Lenten lunches, you don't celebrate Lent, you're not going to get this. But in any community that I've been at. When there would be community gathered events together, like one church would host, another pastor would preach as you would go through the Lenten lunches. There really was the same, you know, core group that went to all of them. And then there'd be the people if it was at your church would show up, but they wouldn't go to any others. And there was the but that core group that went to all of them is kind of that like, oh, I know who I'm going to see at the Lenten lunches. I know that they're going to be there. I know who those faces are going to be like. Actually, I what I need to go check the schedule out. It starts next week. I need to find out what the schedule is so I can go show up and and see those faces again. It's one of those things not serving in a church in the local community that I I miss some of those things. But, yeah, I know who the locals are. I know who will show up when their pastor speaks. And I know who will show up when the church host. But the rest of them are the core people that are going to be there all six weeks of the Lenten lunches. And they're going to be there. So that's the closest I can think of, of ministry where you're going to see the same people crossing or at a conference where you see the same faces year in and year out at the same conference that you go to. That'd be the only.

Papstio: So my wife is Catholic. are, of course, a lot of the Catholic churches have become parish families now. Yes. And so, you know, you don't, it's not that your church has mass at this time, this time, this time. It's this time at this church, this time at this church. So it's actually been kind of interesting because we don't always get to the same church every week. Yes. But we still see a lot of the same people. at every mass because they're part of our parish family. So we've been at other churches and still go, oh, you came to this mass.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, that's a great thing to be able to have that. You don't usually have that with, and I've teased this out, I want this to happen sometime in my lifetime of the... So one church is having the 6 o'clock Easter sunrise service that rolls over into the 7 o'clock service at the next church. It rolls over into the 8 o'clock service. And I get to go from 6 a.m. until noon to six different churches all in my community. And we all go from one church. And nobody's going to say yes to this. So I put it out. But I want it so bad. I want to take the raid experience to the church and we go raid from church to church and we bring the love from what we just celebrated. We just had communion and we had Eucharist and we had, you know, like and roll that. Nobody's going to do that. But it's a dream of mine. So somebody tell me when you're doing it and I'll show up. So.

Papstio: It's like the bar racing, the Bark 5Ks. You just go from bar to bar with the same group of people.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Papstio: Pub crawls and that stuff.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, we have a pub crawl in my community that will go from bar to bar to bar. Or we have cookie walk. where you go from restaurant to get a cookie at each one. That's the closest that we have is things like that. But I want the church to figure this out. I mean, come on. If I keep talking about it for the next 10 years, somebody's going to do it. And when you do, invite me. That's all I ask.

Papstio: All right, everybody, our sermon is over here, but we're going to be raiding. Yes, we're going to be raiding over.

Leighton Seys: When the sermon is done, everybody get in your vehicles and go over to the community over here. The praise team is already going to be started when you get in there, so just pile in. Come on. Yeah. Church crawl. There we go. Mel has coined the term church crawl. There we go.

Papstio: All right.

Leighton Seys: The idea is planted.

Papstio: The idea is planted. Got to get a bunch of churches on it. Yeah.

Leighton Seys: Now, honestly, I don't know that that could happen or ever will. But I do love the idea of what if we could do that globally? in twitch with with worship services on an easter that's a more realistic thing where we could go starting in easter that's going to happen in in uh new zealand um before we even have so they do a they do a service there and they raid out to australia that raids out to the philippines that raids out to singapore that raids out to pakistan that raids out to india that like that just blows my mind that we could do that So we need to start working on that one because that one can actually happen. But then there's a problem of if I help make it happen, I'd have to watch all of it. And that would be a long, long day because it would be a long day. Time zones. Time zones. Yes. Yes. So you could actually have two or three in a time zone as you're going because you'll need that gap and barrier a couple of those time zones. So it'd be more than 24-hour stream to get all the way around the globe and to get to the West Coast and to get to Hawaii and Alaska to end the celebration of Easter. But boy, wouldn't that be a fun day.

Papstio: Yeah. Online possible in real life. We might get there.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. In real life, I'm only looking for six churches to do this, you know. Online, I want the global, everybody's going to do that. And yeah, various churches in your town gather, worship in the park. Yeah, I've done those things as well. But I don't want it to just be a we gather in one place. I want to celebrate in your church your way and go to the next church and go their way and experience going to a Catholic, going to an Episcopal, going to a Baptist, going to a Lutheran. And I know half people don't want to do all of that. But I think it would be an honoring way to Christ to be able to participate in the way that you want to celebrate and worship. But, you know, I guess I'm one of those weird people. Oh, wait. Yes, I am. So have there been so that that's a way that and maybe there's another way that that you have experienced a blessing in your life. Have there been other ways on stream that you've done that or you've felt that? Um.

Papstio: I would say particularly in the modding space. So when I started Twitch, like I had said, I didn't find a lot of people being openly Christian. It is funny how... That eventually comes out. But I was in the music community. One of my favorite Twitch artists is Raina Mystique. She has several songs in my playlist that I play on my stream. I have two of her songs already on my DDR list, and I'm doing a third one. Hey, Ziggy. Ziggy's a mod for Reina. Oh, okay, okay. It was interesting to see her go from just music streamer to Christian music streamer. Well, Christian streamer, actually, because before she had to take a break... she was actually doing bible reading on stream so like the transition there and you know she had a few influence influences already in stream um but i don't know if that really helped um i don't know how many like there weren't very many open christians there were definitely open non-christians because when she made her transition people in her community were outraged, like to the point of, you know, I will never talk to you again if this is the way you're going to do your stream or things like that.

Leighton Seys: Like, yeah. And it seems like, I don't know how long ago this was, but it seems like. this last year in different platforms and then different public people have suddenly shared that they are a Christian after they have built a community. And it is interesting how some will instantly have that, well, I'm out of here, peace out, but they're not really friendly about it. I was going to pick on a generation. I'm not going to go there. But some way, you know, some people are hostile when they leave a party and let everybody know that I'm leaving the party and they gather people on the way out as they leave the party. And. Instead of just quietly just saying, oh, it's not for me. I'll go away. No, no, no. They make themselves a nuisance on the way out and gather a posse to leave with them. There's those kinds of people.

Papstio: Are we talking about the Bible now? I mean, the angels in the.

Leighton Seys: No, no. I was thinking of a different group of people that I won't mention. I'm not going to throw them under the bus, but. If you are that people and you're feeling guilty, then you know I'm talking about you. I'll just put it that way. But I've seen that happen in churches is one of the things is they're upset about something that's happening. So this isn't about Christian, non-Christian. There are people who that's just the way they are. They get upset about something. They rally as many people who are upset about it who might not be upset. But as soon as you point out, they should be upset. They decide they are and go with you because it's easier to go with them than to resist that. So she's had a struggle there. So what has that been for you observing that then?

Papstio: And so... from my end it was a i guess encouragement to you know be like oh this is something you're exploring well you know i can tell you i've been in these communities there are people who are going to accept and people who are not um and you know this is a choice that you have to make you're the streamer you know it is your community and if you're wanting to take it in that direction and the people can follow you you know it's Just me being there as a Christian voice, I guess. Right. Saying, you can't be any less Christian than you feel. And it's going to come out. And if you just want to suppress it for stream, it's not going to last very long. You're not going to be your true self.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, yeah. Right. There's, you know, what a joy to be able to be there, to speak into her as she's walking through that, to be able to give courage, to be able to, you know, like we already were talking about, you know, be a sounding board, be a, I'm frustrated, I'm struggling. These are the things going on and just be able to. yeah tell me tell me all about what's going on and and then i can give you encouragement about you know you're right and oh i understand and uh you know i've been there and and it stick with it if this is where you're leading yeah like don't hide it uh maybe you weren't trying initially to hide it you just weren't on the surface with it but now that you've put it to the surface

Papstio: now you'd be bearing it under a rug you'd be you'd be you'd be putting it under a bushel and right you know and it's it's just been amazing to see because you know even even her husband who was dead set against converting is now also uh going to church with her and everything it's it's been a wonderful transition to watch yeah that's that's really cool i don't i i don't think that that um

Leighton Seys: I've watched her. I think I've heard of her and I know of her. So, yeah, definitely. You know, there are there are people that are going to be upset where the streamer changes directions of what they're doing or they're just going to not hang around like and it doesn't even have to be coming out with faith. We already talked about how you you switched games that you were playing. There are people that are going to be upset when you switch games. There are people that are like, this is the only game I'm doing. So as soon as you change... So there's lots of reasons that people will leave community. Some are because of what you choose to do as a streamer. Some are because of what's happening in life for them. So there's those varieties of things. But if you're chasing, pleasing everybody in your stream, you're going to end up not pleasing anybody in your stream.

Papstio: Yep. And that's... Pretty much even outside of streaming everywhere. If you're going to try and please everyone, you're not going to please anyone.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. Yeah. I think Abraham Lincoln had some quote about that of, of, you know, if you try to please all the people all the time, you won't, you know, I don't remember how it goes, but I think he, you know, you'll end up pleasing none of the people all the time. Yeah. Something like that, you know? Yeah. One of the books on my shelf back there was Lincoln on Leadership and had a bunch of those different quotes and things and stuff that he learned. And I love books like that, by the way, that are like a page. to three pages chapters and then you're on to the next chapter those are fun books like they're just like another another one of those just to throw it out here because i i like i brought it up um victory secrets of attila the hun like that is a fantastic book i love that book victory secrets of attila i think it's like you know just like a three-page chapter like he learned this and he did this and boom here's the lesson next chapter like Yes, I could like it just like made a lot of sense to me. Short and sweet. I read something. Boom. I learned one thing. I can put the book down, pick it up tomorrow, read and learn something else. And and and or you can just it's like binge watching a bunch of episodes of things, you know. So it's. it's fun to to learn from others it's also fun to be able to be there and encouragement for other people when they're walking through that um and i love how you said yeah i got to to be a mod and and you learn from being a mod as well as from being a streamer because you absolutely are in the community as a mod just the same way you are in the community if you're the streamer I love hearing stories of blessings that people have experienced. I do want to shift and I know I want to be respectful of your time. You normally stream three hours and you're going to end. So I'm just leading to wrapping it up here. We won't try to go long today. What does it look like for you the rest of the year? What are some things you're looking forward to in your life or as a streamer that you're trying to work towards or you're trying to plan for something new to bring into your community or, like I said, also in life? So what are some things you're looking forward to this year that are going to be exciting moments for you?

Papstio: So in life, I am trying to plan to see my family. I used to go to my family reunion every year when I had my kid and my wife started having her complications. We were no longer able to travel to Texas. And so I haven't seen them, I guess it's seven years now.

Leighton Seys: Okay.

Papstio: and uh so i i really want to plan a trip to get out there and see them i also am trying to get to reach um which is slightly harder because my kid will be in school and as i've mentioned before my wife needs a lot of help and so if i go off she needs somebody there to help her out um but those are those are the two goals in life that i have for this year okay for stream i have actually started um one of the things i wanted to do when i first started streaming again when i stopped streaming warframe and started dancing was to get twitch artists into my ddr list okay I have started I have two songs so far, but I built a branding kit that I plan on sending to some of the other artists that I got into their community. You can't see it on this, but the I have about four or five Twitch artists who I want to send out this branding kit to and say, hey, would you be willing to let me use your song in my stream?

Leighton Seys: Yeah.

Papstio: And then I don't have to mute the VOD.

Leighton Seys: Right. Right. So how does I'm just curious on that. So you talked about what you're using earlier. I don't remember the name of it. Is that convert any song into DDR? Is that why you use it?

Papstio: right so it doesn't it's okay a wrapper for a program for a set of rules called step mania okay um and so you can create files that basically tell the program hey these are the steps for the song okay okay what i found was a step generator from like 12 years ago okay okay but it but it's been working um yeah so it's uh it's now become a oh i can actually do this kind of thing where i'm like now i just gotta reach out to these artists and get some more songs um but yeah that and then i want to look into the christian content um license the license that ukulele uses for her stream to see if that license would be fine to use for the same thing like generate steps and play their music on stream i don't know whether or not there's any caveats to say, like, oh, all you can do is reproduce this music or you can cover this music or... Yeah, I do know that you cannot modify anything.

Leighton Seys: So, for instance, churches will want to... Take a song, change a couple of words to it. You can't 100 percent. You cannot change change words to it. I know that, for instance, because I've dealt with with the licensure like ukulele has CCLI. There is one that allows you to use it in your church. There is another one that allows you to use it on a broadcast. So so. But I don't, those aren't designed for individuals. So ukulele had hers because she was using it for church. So I don't know enough to say you can or can't, but you're adding another step to it that they may not care about. um you know but the vod is an issue as well so that would be another thing that you would need to explore and and find out about uh but i don't know enough to to say yes or no on what they do but i love the aspect of let's bring in artists who are creating their own stuff and let's that put them into the space uh do you know slyfe i

Papstio: I know of Slife.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. Okay. Anyway, he is working with new artists and some stuff. So he might be a person to connect with around new artists. They're not all Twitch streamers, but they're new artists and stuff. So he might be able to give you some advice and stuff in regards to that as well. He's in the music industry and some stuff. So I love making connections with people. So there's another place to go that might be another expansion of what you were thinking that could go beyond that. So maybe you can't get the Christian license stuff. And frankly, I'm frustrated on some level that the Christian... uh industry has created more of a problem with licensure and usage than the secular community has um but uh we're not going to tackle that and we're not going to solve that problem so um so that's cool i'm excited for you that sounds really fun uh so that is the future yeah super cool Any last things that you want to just share with people that might be listening to this or that are here now watching it about your journey or advice on anything to do with being a Christian intentionally in a space or streaming or anything?

Papstio: Not really anything extra, just kind of a reiteration of if you are thinking about streaming and you are not, sure what your content is going to be don't focus on being a christian content creator you are christian yeah that is a part of who you are yes all content you create will be christian yeah yeah absolutely if you are genuinely who you are it's going to come out in what you're doing absolutely i love that love that

Announcer/Intro Voice: All right.

Leighton Seys: I love to ask, who could we raid so we can do a double raid over to somebody and just celebrate and bring joy over to somebody else who's not going to be expecting it?

Papstio: That is a good question. I was saying the other day I need to start unfollowing people because my list is too long. There are a lot of people on.

Leighton Seys: Well, I actually did hit the cap. Was it last year or the year before? I hit the cap of the number of people I could follow. I had to go through and delete people. So I actually went back through and looked at... people that had no logo and realized they're not really streamers i should quit following them but when i first got on it was an initial way that hey this person is a christian and they followed me i'm going to follow them so if they stream i'll find them later they never did stream so i i got rid of them so yeah that's there are some people don't unfollow me

Papstio: No, no, Ziggy, I need more content of you and your mom. Yes, there is a follower cap. You can only follow so many people.

Leighton Seys: I can't remember how many it is, but I hit it. So that was a fun experience to learn.

Papstio: So I have not gotten a chance to raid over here.

Leighton Seys: Okay. Where are we going?

Papstio: But a... There we go. Um...

Leighton Seys: streamer i know who frequents i'm watching you people stream okay um there we go big bad dirty dog doing code names at the moment okay well let's say our our final goodbyes and then i will count us down and we'll hit raid and we'll try to raid as close to the same time or it's five seconds apart it doesn't matter so you're gonna say your final goodbyes to to anybody

Papstio: um well yes because i didn't get to do it after my dancing thank you everybody for being here for chatting for lurking for doing all the things thank you for all the requests um as usual i had a fun time i hope you did too um thank you again flat cap for having me on um for the first time

Leighton Seys: rob thanks for being here thank you for lurking i always appreciate it um and uh i hope we get to do it again just not for the same reason right there we go there we go well awesome um thank you thank you thank you everyone for being here i appreciate that people want to hang out with me that the community comes over here from my stream there's another community that comes over from people who have been on my stream and i love the mingling together of the stream and thank you everybody who is listening to the vod and makes it all the way to the end like i love you thank you uh All those who are doing that, I don't even have to tell you to like and follow. You're already doing it. I mean, I just don't even bother. I figure you know what to do. But thank you, thank you, thank you. I appreciate you. I love you. I wish you the best. And we'll see you on the next one.