Leveraging Live Chat for Enhanced Church Connection

Exploring the Next Frontier: AI's Role in Church and Society

Digital Discipleship: The Exponential Potential of Innovative Ministry

Embracing Digital Discipleship: The New Era of Church Digital Engagement

The New Frontier of the Digital Church:

In an ever-evolving digital landscape, The Church Digital Podcast's latest podcast, EP276 - "The New The Church Digital," featuring host Jeff Reed, has deeply explored digital discipleship's dynamics and role in modern ministry. The episode encapsulates a pivotal shift toward digital solutions for spiritual outreach, with conversations revolving around using digital spaces for evangelization, particularly in countries where physical evangelism encounters legal barriers.

Aquatic Leadership and Collaboration:

A significant highlight of the podcast is the discussion on The Church Digital's rebranding and introducing new leadership with Bernie Mapili as CEO and Andy Mage as COO. Their focus on collaborative efforts, like the partnership with organizations such as NewThing and Gloo, points toward a broader vision of empowerment and innovation within the digital space. The episode paints a future brimming with synergistic relationships to bolster The Church Digital's presence and reach.

Creating a Movement System:

Bernie and Jeff talk about the exciting developments at The Church Digital, including the Movement System, which is taking the popular disciple-making system into the digital realm. The Evolution of Leadership:As we witness the transformation of leadership roles within The Church Digital, the podcast provides a candid look at the personal challenges faced by Jeff Reed, which led to a redefined structure at the organization. The transition highlights the importance of resiliency, introspection, and the adaptive nature of leadership that aligns with the fast-paced changes of digital ministry.

The Power of Digital Community and Innovation:

Tom Pounder and Andy Mage's contributions spotlight the innovative strides made within the digital ministry. Pounder's TCD Sidekick podcast addresses the critical role of online components in ministry, whereas Mage's 'From Text to Testimony' delves into pressing concerns like mental health within the digital paradigm. Jeff Reed's recognition of these works underscores the transformative power of digital platforms in providing valuable resources for spiritual guidance and support.

In a lighter vein, the podcast participants discuss superhero tropes, drawing parallels between superhero team dynamics and the leadership group at The Church Digital. The entertaining interplay serves as a metaphor for the collective strengths and unique skills each member brings to the table, ultimately forging a powerful team focused on digital missionary work.

Closing Thoughts:

This episode of The Church Digital Podcast crafts a narrative that not only embraces the new ventures of The Church Digital but also celebrates the individuals who drive its mission forward. As we navigate the digital age, episodes like this remind us that regardless of challenges, the church's digital engagement continues to be a beacon for those seeking spiritual connection and discipleship in the digital domain.

00:00 Church digital future, new logo and website.

09:47 Unexpected connection leads to a deep bond.

13:40 Church digital representation, strengthen, lift others, entrepreneur.

17:38 Meeting Bernie in Florida, a surprising, cool experience.

24:38 Focused on discipleship, tools now ubiquitous. Partnership for discipleship in communities.

27:39 Missed church attendance improves with digital engagement.

32:12 Church reaching people digitally, expanding its reach.

37:38 Discussion about digital church network expansion and support.

47:47 Building Avengers-type team of thought leaders.

54:41 Resource for digital missionaries and ministry support.

59:34 Podcast featuring ministry leaders discussing digital ministry.

01:07:58 Combining two organizations into The Church Digital.

01:08:52 Church planting dedication strengthened, digital discipleship emphasized.

So we took a little break from the podcast, and now we're back! With a fresh outlook on digital ministry for pastors, planters and practitioners, The Church Digital Podcast is a great opportunity for your church to find innovative ways to use this digital technology for kingdom purposes.

With this Season 6 Trailer, we'll be exploring how your church can be the church not just on Sunday morning, but 168 hours a week!

Check out the return of The Church Digital Podcast and the launch of Season 6: 168 Church, coming on Monday, January 1, 2024. Find The Church Digital Podcast on Podcast Apps, and YouTube.

Saddleback has always had an experimental culture. Seeing Saddleback adopt a digital strategy literally a decade+ ago, and then move into decentralized and micro church strategies…Saddleback has learned that failure is not the end of the experiment. Failure is just one step closer to finding success.

But, how do you get your church to experiment? With services coming every Sunday, even with the push for “excellence” every week…how do we do something different? These are the questions we’re bringing to Jay Kranda, Online Community Pastor at Saddleback.

By the way, these are the issues that we’re dealing with in our Leadership Network’s Digital and Metaverse Learning Communities. Through these Learning Communities, we’re helping churches explore how to take next steps in their digital and metaverse ministry…and experimenting plays a huge part! So check out the Digital Learning Community and Metaverse Learning Community and find out how your church can join Leadership Network in what’s next.

So jump on this podcast with Jeff Reed and Jay Kranda as we are exploring how your church can experiment! Find out, right here, on The Church Digital Podcast.

In Dave Ferguson we trust! Visionary Leader of Exponential as well as NewThing Network and lead pastor at Community Christian in Chicago, Dave has been a huge supporter of Digital Church! In fact, Dave let us borrow B.L.E.S.S. practices to be the framework for digital missionaries! I’m continually blown away by the love and support he shows to digital ministry and digital planting. (You’ll catch a bit of this at the beginning of the podcast.)

Now as we’re talking how to take your Digital Ministry to the Next Level, Dave and Dr. John Harris (my co-author for Sharing Jesus Online) jump on a podcast to talk about the power of a digital missionary, and the potential to have that missionary reaching into digital community to connect with a digital person.

As we explore the potential of taking your digital ministry to the next level, digital missionaries are a big step towards your church reaching people the buildings aren’t reaching.

Looking to release a team of digital or metaverse missionaries in your church. Jump in a Leadership Network Learning Community and find out how to take your church to the next level.

http://leadnet.org/dlc - keyword “Tyler” for $100 off

http://leadnet.org/mlc - keyword “Stunami” for $100 off

In 2023, many churches are going back to an old mindset of digital ministry. Let’s broadcast those church services! But, and maybe I’m talking crazy here, what if your church didn’t. Instead, what if your church did something different.

This is what we’re highlighting here this week with Tyler Sansom, from "First Capital/Church Anywhere." For a medium sized church in the middle of a small, blue collar town, "First Capital" is doing some incredible things digitally. Digital Discipleship, International Ministry, even releasing Christian Long-Form Films… the thing I love about "First Capital" is that they find ways to do some incredible stuff when other churches of their size would never dream of trying.

But this really gets to the heart of this podcast. How can your church unleash the next season of ministry? How do you get your attenders to really engage and support creative ministry in and around the church? This is what we asked Tyler, and his answer is somewhat surprising: Discipleship.
Lean into this podcast with Tyler, and learn about Leadership Network’s Learning Communities, and how your church can learn more about "First Capital’s" Discipleship Process, and how it can help take your church to the next level. More information at http://leadnet.org/dlc and use the coupon code “tyler” for $100 off.

According to Pushpay’s "2023 State of Church Tech Report ," 25% of American churches are looking to plant a church in the metaverse. So, doing a learning community on planting a virtual reality church should be a no brainer!

So that's what we did. Partnering with Leadership Network, DCN is doing a learning community helping churches like yours explore virtual reality, even helping churches go on mission trips into virtual reality. 

For the podcast here we’ve got Stuart McPherson, metaverse pastor from Lakeland Church, who is co-leading the learning community with Jeff. Come learn about the community we’re creating, and see how churches like yours can fit into the metaverse learning community, or the digital learning community.

Season 5 of The Church Digital Podcast is well underway. Come dive in and learn how your church can go “to the next level” in 2023. Start here!

Welcome to Season 5 of The Church Digital Podcast, as we’re talking about how to take your church’s digital and/or metaverse ministry to the next level. And do we have a great conversation for you here, right off the bat!

This idea escalated quickly. Not that long ago Ryan Sidhom, Lead Pastor at the Church Plant River City Church approached me with an idea: let’s do mission trips into the Metaverse. He even pitched his church as the guinea pig to test the model of an actual “mission trip” in the metaverse, where we take people into Virtual Reality to be on mission. We’ve built trainings around my books VR & The Metaverse Church as well as Sharing Jesus Online. Evidently, word got out.

The test idea exploded. Leadership Network is doing a learning community where we’re helping US Churches understand the missional implications of the metaverse. Similarly, GACX is doing a similar learning community with our metaverse mission trip for international mission orgs. Oh, and let’s not forget about Relevant Magazine writing about what we’re up to.
This is what we’re diving into with this podcast! We’ve got Ryan coming in and talking about the mission trip, and how Leadership Network wants to help churches like yours host a metaverse mission trip THIS YEAR! So chuck out the launch of Season 5 on The Church Digital Podcast, and for more information on Leadnet’s Learning Community and the Metaverse Mission Trip check out http://leadnet.org/mlc