The Sidekick Podcast

Being a Digital Missionary is not a new option for people. It has been around for a few years now and I have been talking about it for a while as well (here, here, and here). Tyler Sansom at Church Anywhere has been leading the charge of being a Digital Missionary by being one himself and encouraging others.

Today Tyler joins me on the podcast to talk about what it looks like to be a digital missionary and how you can mobilize digital missionaries in your Church. There are different ways to be a digital missionary today. Discover what skills do you need and how you can do that at any age.

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When the pandemic hit, most Churches and ministries were focused mainly on just creating online content. Quality was secondary. Now that we are over a year in, we can focus more on creating quality online experiences for our Churches and ministries.

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It’s officially crunch time for Easter Prep. There is one month to go before one of the biggest ministry opportunities you have each year. Are you ready?

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Social media is a beautiful train wreck. It’s amazing that you can connect with people from all over the world. But, it is also train wreck because in the blink of an eye you can go viral for all the wrong reasons.

That is why there is so much potential and hope for us as ministers. The world is at war with each other. It’s a war of words. They use a variety social media platforms to attack each other at one point and then to affirm each other in another moment. And, the sad thing about it is that ministers and believers are not immune to this. They can fall into traps of these conversations and it is causing more division rather than unity. This happens way to often.

That is why Sly King is on the podcast today. Sly King is in charge of Social Media and the Online Church at the Worship Center Christian Church and is actively looking for ways to engage people online. Today we share about how we, as ministers, can be polite online and encourage each other rather than tear each other down and lose our witness. Ministers and believers need to stop fighting online and start offering hope, the hope found in Christ alone.

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Social media is ever changing. What was once useful and state of the art 2 years or even 2 months ago may not be useful today. For instance, Snapchat was once the new kid on the block with their Stories feature. And while Stories is very impactful today, there are other social features that are really taking hold these days.

To discuss both TikTok and Clubhouse with me today is Sammy Kelly. She co-owns Digivangelism and is very active on TikTok. She has also been on Clubhouse and has written a great post about “Why You Need to Pay Attention” for Churches and Ministries. We talk about how Churches can use both of these social media apps for ministry and how she is working with Churches today.

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It’s time to stop messing around and start getting serious about preparing for Easter. Hopefully you are already planning and preparing but just in case you are not, today is your start date.

Ben Stapley joins the podcast today to talk about this. He is the Weekend Experience Director at Christ Fellowship in Miami, Florida. Ben shares simple and effective steps you can be taking right now to prepare for Easter in a Phygital world. He has a great resource at http://PlanEaster.comto check out.

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When Covid hit and shut most everything down in March and April of 2020, many Churches were caught in a bind because they had not invested any money or equipment into streaming their Church services before. So many Churches had to scramble and figure things out on the fly. Christopher Wesley is a friend of mine and was tasked with figuring things out for his Parish. We talked about what they did to get up and running(you can listen to that episde here). Here is also a list of great live streaming tools and devices out there with one of them being Mevo.

Since those beginning times, Christopher has made a ton of advancements and improvements to their current structure. So today, Christopher and I catch up and talk about what it looks like to go from beginner to next level in streaming services.

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What I love about social media is that every year I discover new people that I learn from and follow. Then, what I like to do is to share them with you all. In fact, I take 6 people or groups and highlight them once a year, usually at the end of December or early January. To find out my lists from previous years you can just like the year (2016, 2017 2018, 2019 and 2020).

While 2020 was challenging, the reality is, if you were following any of the digital ministers I have shared about in the past, like Ben Stapley, Dave Adamson, Jeff Reed, Katie Allred, Jeanette Yates, Seth Muse, just to name a few, you would have gotten a lot of great encouragement and help in 2020, especially with the onslaught of COVID.

The criteria that I have is that they are involved in Church Communications, Social Media, Student or Family Ministry or Online Ministry. They also need to be producing great blogs, vlogs or podcasts on a consistent basis. If they do not post regularly, they aren’t one the list. I am not going recommend you follow someone if they aren’t being consistent in their postings, no matter how great their content is. And that’s it.  

Here are the top 6 to seek out in 2021:

Rey De Armas. I met Rey a few years ago from a mutual friend, Jeff Reed. Rey is the Online Pastor at Christ Fellowship in Miami, Florida. He is passionate about people coming to know Jesus and mobilizing others to minister to their friends and family (I have had him on the podcast before talking about this).  

Tyler Samson. Tyler is the Lead Pastor at Church Anywhere. He is also an Admin for the Online + Digital Church Leaders Facebook Group. The group is designed for Online and Digital Minsters looking to learn from each other. It’s a great group with tons of help. 

Digivangelism. I first discovered Digivangelism on TikTok in 2020. Their goal is to help “church leaders reach people with the love of Jesus ONLINE”. And, they do just that. What I really appreciate about what they do is that they are very active on TikTok which not a ton of minsters are at the moment.

Brianne Fleming. She may not be a minister but she is someone who has so much great content about brands and marketing. She hosts a very popular #PopChat on Twitter every Friday and Making the Brand podcast.

Jate Earhart. Jate is extremely gifted in digital media and motion graphics. He uses Twitch to stream and chat with people while he plays.

D.J. Soto. D.J. is the first person people go to for VR Church questions and thoughts. He is the Bishop of Virtual Reality Church.

Follow up from a ministry event is always important. And the great thing about it is that there are a variety of ways you can follow up with people after an event is over. One of the biggest events of the year for your Church or Ministry is Christmas. So how do you effectively follow up after Christmas services at your Church?

Check out her Facebook Group for Christmas Follow Up.

Learn more about the Engage Conference.

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Creating student discipleship opportunities is a primary objective for Student Ministers. And while Christmas time is a festive and celebratory time of year, there are also plenty of discipleship opportunities you can have with students.

To talk about student discipleship opportunities over Christmas is Cory Sullivan. We go over some very simple things student ministers can do and welcome you to share about your ideas as well.

Hear Cory and I discuss and then share your insights below or with us on Twitter.

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