Four months ago now, we inadvertently started on our path to our first ‘series’. It kind of happened organically, where we wanted to talk about what an online church could be, and wound up talking about Worship and Community. This last week, we wrapped it up by talking about Leadership and Sabbath.

This was a complicated set of topics. We (and the chat) wrestled with everything from the complexity of detangling leadership and authority and control to respecting the Jewish Sabbath as a deeply meaningful religious, cultural, and spiritual practice.

So, I’d love to invite you to take an hour or so when you have to the chance, take a listen, throw your two cents in on our Discord server (our digital church building), where we are building an emotionally healthy corner of the internet for Absolutely Everyone!

Introduction

* Host names

* What is Hope Digital/Absolutely Everyone

* Tricia’s Birthday!

* 4th of July Parties

Prayer Statement

* Prayer statement slide

Invitation and Care

Invitation

* How do we make friends as adults?

* Why do we invite people to communities?

* What are the barriers to inviting someone to things? What makes it hard?

Care

* What does care really mean?

* Levels of community care

* Healthy boundaries

* “Then I said to them, ‘You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, so that we may no longer suffer disgrace.’”

* “I told them that the hand of my God had been gracious upon me and also the words that the king had spoken to me. Then they said, ‘Let us start building!’”

* “So they committed themselves to the common good. But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they mocked and ridiculed us, saying, ‘What is this that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?’”

* “Then I replied to them, ‘The God of heaven is the one who will give us success, and we his servants are going to start building, but you have no share or claim or memorial in Jerusalem.’” — Neh 2:17-20

* How to care for others in a digital space

* Homework

Affirmations

* Affirmations slide

* Next Scheduled Thing and Invite people to be a part of the launch team

In this episode we explore the dynamic between generosity and service, healthy and unhealthy!

I. Introduction

a. Reminder of what Hope Digital is

b. Reminder of what Absolutely Everyone Is

II. Tricia and Joel – talking through our history in church

III. Prayer Statement

a. Reminder of what our prayer statement is to us

b. Show Prayer Statement

IV. Main Topic: What is Church?

a. Encourage chat to submit questions, comments, etc. Mary will be watching and flash things up on the screen for us. Add them here to give us notice that they’re coming!

b. What is Church?

c. What is a faith community?

d. What does it mean to be part of a church? And what do people get from that?

e. What is Worship?

f. What makes an online church different from other online communities even religious ones?

g. Why do people go to any church?

h. What is a church service?

i. What is community?

j. How do people engage in community and churches?

i. Aldersgate says: “I recently visited our Nazerne brothers and sisters across the pond, and at the end of bible study we held hands and prayed, I cried like a baby i haven’t been able to do that since the Church I was raised in, and they also gave me hugs. I felt at home.”

k. Is a digital church different then an in person church?

V. Affirmations

VI. Outro

Credits:

Special thanks to Dave Harsh (Producer) and Mary Ditchen (Chat Moderator) who we could not have done this without!!

Summary: Welcome to Hope Digital’s podcast - Absolutely Everyone. To start with we are doing a monthly series of ‘preview’ podcasts working up to a full launch later this year! If you are interested in joining a community where absolutely everyone can experience God’s love, join us on Discord: https://discord.gg/r4jGzfw9Gw

Show Outline:

* Introduction - a little bit about us - 5-10 minutes

* Tricia Hermon

* Joel Zeinestone

* A little bit about ourselves, our church/theological history

* Hope Digital

* What are we? A church

* Discord as our church building

* Totally new endeavor with a new group of people

* We don’t have to figure out what our DNA or our identity is - we already know who we are.

* Prayer Statement

* Using a prayer statement to center our community around who we are and who we want to be.

* General practice - introduce the speaker

* Interview with Jennie

* Who is Jennie

* College Ministry

* Hope Church

* Hope Digital Start

* Creation of Prayer Statement

* What does Absolutely Everyone mean?

* How do we protect people? Healthy and Safe

* What is theological thought and conversation?

* What does it mean to live a Christ Centered life?

* Questions from the Chat

* Affirmations

* Outro