Episode 1: What Is the Digital Pavement Podcast?

Announcer/Intro Voice Welcome to the Digital Pavement Podcast, where digital ministry and the urban church collide. Each episode features pioneers and ministry leaders from Black and Brown communities who use technology to shape the future of faith. From streaming worship to online outreach, discover stories, insights, and impact from those redefining digital ministry in our cities. Welcome to the Digital Pavement Podcast.

DeMarquis Battle what's going on everyone this is demarcus battle host of the digital pavement podcast and we're so excited to be with you for our very first episode come on y'all go ahead Put your hands together. Give us some emojis, some hearts, some likes, whatever you're viewing us on. Go ahead and let us know where you're watching from and join in with us as we prepare to share with you how digital ministry and the urban church collide. Listen, we're so excited about what God is doing in and through this brand new podcast. And we want to give you the backdrop of how it all came together. But before we do that, we do want to let you know that this podcast, this ministry is powered by the Church Digital Streaming Network. We're going to share with you a little bit more of what that means a bit later in this podcast. But again, we're just so excited to be with you for today. the Digital Pavement Podcast. And so on today's episode, we are going to be focusing on what is the Digital Pavement Podcast. I think it's important before we get too far deep into episodes and seasons that we start off by laying the groundwork. and laying the foundation. What is the digital pavement podcast? Well, a couple of months ago, I was sitting down just thinking about, you know, how I was functioning within the digital space, what God was using me to do as a black African-American pastor and preacher and content creator, influencer, whatever you want to call it. And I felt an impression on my heart that it was important that we communicate to the world. The stories of black and brown ministry leaders that are functioning and functioning at high capacity within the digital space. That's right. There are digital missionaries and content creators and churches that are functioning all across the globe. And perhaps you just don't know about them. And so as I began to walk more intentionally with the church digital in the leadership within that organization, they also agreed that they felt it was important that more black and brown faces, ministry leaders, those that are leading churches would begin to rise to the forefront to share their stories. to share their impact within the kingdom of God, specifically as it pertains to digital ministry. And so from that brainstorming, from seeking the Lord on how we can share more of what's happening in the digital space and in the kingdom of God. The Digital Pavement Podcast was born. And so I'm excited to talk about this and to share more about that. From a point of reference and definition, I think it's important to know that digital speaks to the online community, the online space. That's social media, whether it's Facebook or Instagram, whether it's YouTube or Twitch. Twitter, now known as X, Threads, all of the social media platforms. That's virtual reality. And we know what's happening in the VR space. That also includes streaming and broadcasting of church services. And let's not forget about all the activity that's happening through direct messages on apps like WhatsApp and Telegram. And those in black and brown ministries, those that are leading from that urban church context are impacting the kingdom of God from the digital space. And then when we look at the word pavement, I think it's important to understand what that means. It is the paving of a road or a street or a sidewalk. And that's typically associated with the street. And the street gives us a picture, a visual of the urban context where many of black and brown ministry leaders and churches are found. And so that's how we came up with the name, the Digital Pavement Podcast. Are y'all trekking with me? Give me some hearts. Give me some likes. Give me some emojis if you're feeling what I'm saying about that. And so as we prepare to open up in this very first episode, what is the Digital Pavement Podcast? Before we went and interviewed anybody else and brought a guest on, I felt like it was pertinent to share my own story. Yeah, that's right. I'm going to share with you how myself and my wife as a team began to minister in the digital space and be a part of this amazing, trailblazing story of how... Black and brown ministry leaders and churches are impacting the digital space. And so let's talk about it. So somewhere around 2020, during the height of the pandemic, My wife and I were really trying to sit back and understand, listen, what are we going to do from a ministry standpoint in this season of our lives? We had been serving in a local church for a number of years and myself, I started off as a deacon and moved on to a minister and from there a youth pastor and an associate pastor. I then started doing equipping ministry and most recently as a campus pastor. But somewhere around 2020, my wife and I were sitting down and we were saying to ourselves, hey, we've served in a number of ways, but we've never been able to do it together. She would always be like over in women's ministry and or prayer or or serving in hospitality. And I would be serving in pulpit ministry and teaching and preaching and all that sort of thing. And as a husband and wife, we wanted to do ministry together. And so we decided, listen, I think this is a great time to start something called Bible with the Battles, a preaching and teaching ministry. But we said, listen, we don't wanna just do it the same old way. No, we want to do it different. And at that particular time, there was a shift. There was a move. There was a pioneering movement. for ministries and churches and content creators to begin to minister the gospel of jesus christ online and so we said to ourselves listen i think we should get online and have our focus be there for our preaching and teaching ministry and so around 2020 and 2021 we were commissioned to go out and to begin serving in the online marketplace in the digital community preaching and teaching the gospel of jesus christ and and our mission was very simple was to help people to hear the word believe the word and apply the word of God to their lives. And what better way to be able to communicate that very simple mission to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ than to do it online. And so we started ministering on Facebook and started ministering on YouTube. And we just simply sat at our kitchen table and together as husband and wife, as co-founders, of Bible with the Battles begin to teach on a number of different topics and Bible studies. And you can go to BibleWithTheBattles.com or you can go to our YouTube page and find all of that material even now. And that's how we began our start. And and we didn't see too many couples, especially in the African-American community that were serving in that particular capacity and that method of ministry. We call it that expression of church. And so that was great for us to do something different, to do something cutting edge. And now we're seeing it more and more. And so that's the start of our trailblazing story of how Bible with the battles was begun. So, hey, listen, we're going to continue on with this podcast, but we're going to take a quick break and we want you to view this quick commercial. Hey, what's going on family? Demarcus Battle, host of the Digital Pavement Podcast. And this episode is powered by The Church Digital. The Church Digital resources digital missionaries and pioneers to make disciples in digital spaces. So if you sense a calling in your life for being a missionary in digital spaces, or if you want to take your ministry through the digital age, connect with us at thechurch.digital and join our Discord server or our WhatsApp community. We look forward to connecting with you real soon. Hey, listen, so that was The Church Digital. If you haven't connected with them yet, we encourage you to do so. You can go again to thechurch.digital and you can join their WhatsApp community or you can join their Discord server. And we have people from all over the world, from the continent of Africa. Europe in Asia and of course here in North America we have so much going on over at the church digital you do not want to miss out so please go ahead and check them out and so our very next segment that we're going to share with you is called the blueprint this is a segment where individuals and guests can share their strategies and the unique way that God is using them to serve in the digital space, specifically those from black and brown communities, those in leadership and that have churches within those communities. We want to get the blueprint. What is God doing in and through your ministry that others can use as strategy and be inspired and even equipped by. And so with that segment, I want to share my blueprint. Very simple, very simple. All right. My blueprint is three principles that our ministry Bible with the battles operate by. All right. Check this out. Number one. victory over views victory over views when we minister the gospel of jesus christ we are not solely doing it for entertainment purposes but we want to have victory those that are watching us we want them to have victory victory over death, right? Through the blood of Jesus Christ, but victory in every facet of their lives. And so our emphasis is found on communicating a message that gains victory over views. And you know what it's like in the digital realm, in the digital space, especially in social media. We often function desiring to get views. But that's not what digital ministry and being a digital missionary is about, just simply gaining views. And of course, through more information about the algorithm, that doesn't speak and tell us that much as far as your view count, right? That's only a small sliver of the equation. But we want to measure our impactfulness by the victory that people are experiencing in their lives. So the first part of my blueprint is to share with you victory over views. Number two, souls over subscribers. Oh man, let me say that again, y'all. Souls over subscribers. It's more important that we minister to your soul than gain you as a subscriber. Oh, yeah. At the end of the day, we want to minister the gospel in such a profound way, in such an impactful way that it ministers to your soul, that we gain another soul into the kingdom of God as opposed to simply gaining another subscriber. And then lastly, and I believe this is the place where many digital missionaries and digital ministries and hybrid functioning churches have to have their focus. And that is community over content. What good is it to produce content if you have no community? oh come on y'all community over content is so important as a matter of fact your content should be pushing people toward community let me say that again your content should be pushing people to community and that is where discipleship And that is where true spiritual transformation occur is in the confines of community. And we know there's a lot of discussion theologically and biblically over what is a formation of community. And some might disagree on that, but I wholeheartedly believe that you can have community in the digital space. As a matter of fact, we see it in Facebook groups, we see it in mighty networks we see it in group chats such as whatsapp or telegram we see it all over the place communities forming over like interests right so you have a i love dogs community i love cats community you have cooking communities you have sports communities you have all of these different communities and they are forming online What more should you expect from God's church, the kingdom? Well, we should also be forming community. And so again, these are my three principles that my wife and I, Bible with the Battles, operate by. Number one, victory over views. Number two, souls over subscribers. And number three, community over content. If you borrow these principles, I believe that you will be on the right track specifically for growth and development within your digital space. Whether you're a content creator, whether you are doing digital ministry as a digital missionary, or if you are a church with a hybrid option. an online congregation. I believe that these three principles will guide you as you communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ. Hey, listen, we're going to take one more commercial break, and then we'll be back for more of the Digital Pavement Podcast. Hey, check this out. Hey, what's going on family? Dr. Demarcus Battle, co-founder of Bible with the Battles. And this episode of the Digital Pavement Podcast is sponsored by Bible with the Battles. Listen, Bible with the Battles is an online preaching and teaching ministry whose mission is to help you to hear the word, believe the word, and apply the word of God to your life. And our vision is simple yet profound. Revival begins at home. That's your physical house and all the inhabitants, husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, children's brothers, sisters, the whole family. And it is your spiritual house. Revival begins there. And so we just want to share with you that Bible with the battles is here for the sole reason to help you go to the next level in your faith. Visit our Web site at Bible with the battles dot com. or follow us on all of our social media platforms under the handle BibleWithTheBattles. I'll leave you again with our vision, which is simple yet profound. Revival begins at home. I love that. I love that. Revival begins at home. Oh, that's our vision, y'all. I'm proud of it. I'm excited about it. So check this out. The very last segment of today's podcast is the pavement ahead. This is our opportunity to look at the future. What is God doing? What is God saying? as it pertains to the future of the church and the future of digital ministry. And so, you know, as I look at the future, I see more and more people getting online. 15 years ago, I worked in the cell phone industry, almost 20 years ago now. And at that time, flip phones were still a thing. As a matter of fact, the number one phone I believe was the Motorola Razr. Y'all remember that? That phone was sweet. I wish I had one now. I know there's one out now, but it's not quite the same. But anywho, I was in the cell phone industry and smartphones, tablets and things of that nature, PDAs is what we used to call it, but the actual smartphone was just coming on the scene. And a lot of the customers were a little indifferent about it. They weren't sure if they wanted to wholesale just switch from their usual flip phone or standard brick phone and go to a smartphone. And the statistics at that time were pointing to something that would happen in the future. The cell phone industry was prophesying, y'all. Did y'all catch that? The cell phone industry was giving us a prophetic word that there was a shift coming to digital space. And so the smartphone would be about 90 to 95 percent the type of phone that would be available in cell phone stores. And what wouldn't you know, just a few short years later, the iPhone came out and then Android continued to develop what they had as far as smartphone technology. And now, instead of having just a few smartphones and mainly flip phones or brick phones. Now we have mostly smartphones and you can rarely find a regular flip phone. What does that say about the future and the direction? Somebody understood that we would move from a large PC computer to a computer in your hand. And from that computer in your hand, you would have the power to communicate with anyone around the world. What am I saying? In regards to the pavement ahead, I believe that we must, we must begin to integrate more digital ministry within our churches because everyone, absolutely everyone is walking around with a computer in their hand. And what better way for the gospel to reach the ends of the earth than for it to come directly to the cell phone? And so I think one thing as far as the pavement ahead is we must become accustomed to operating in the digital space. That includes training those who are not as technological, training them on how to just simply do a broadcast, to do a streaming service. We need to train those in ministry how to create a podcast. We need to train those in ministry how to get involved in other social media platforms like Twitch and to be able to utilize Discord. Right. All of those things that are available right in the palm of your hand. And so that's one thing I wanted to just speak to that we should not be adverse to. the growth of technology, but we should embrace it as a methodology, not changing a message, but shifting in method. The other thing that I would say as far as the pavement ahead is this. i think that churches must have hybrid models what does that look like maybe your church congregates in person 75 80 percent of the time but there must be a digital element There has to be an online presence for your church. And I'm not talking about just simply having a website. I'm not talking about just simply streaming your service. I'm talking about functioning in the digital space as digital missionaries reaching the highways and the hedges of the online world. And you can do that by forming online digital communities for your small groups, for your discipleship. You can do this for having watch parties and other expressions of ministry that are happening online. I think that every church should have a hybrid option that is ministering to those. Because please understand that there are many people that are sick and shut in. There are people that have families that are complex, that have disability, that may not be able to come into the in-person environment. We have to. Be willing and ready to invade new terrain. And that's what it's meant to be. Or that's what it's about being a trailblazer, a pioneer, an innovator is being able to infiltrate these digital spaces for the kingdom of God. And so listen, that's it for episode number one. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Listen, we got some amazing guests that are lined up. Don't you miss another episode of the Digital Pavement Podcast, which is powered by the Church Digital Streaming Network. You can find us on all of the various platforms where podcasts are available. But listen, Make sure that you connect with us on our very next episode. We want to see you there at the Digital Pavement Podcast, where digital ministry and the urban church collide. God bless you. We'll see you real soon.

Announcer/Intro Voice Thank you for joining us today. You've just experienced another episode of the Digital Pavement Podcast. We are your source for the powerful stories of black and brown leaders at the intersection of faith and technology. This podcast is where digital ministry and the urban church collide. If this episode inspired you, please subscribe and share it with a fellow leader in your faith community.