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X-WR-CALNAME:EP374 - The Listening Tour Begins: Platforms Are Places
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BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:3cf7csgir713ves9ijt8o9dijq_20260916T180000Z@thechurch.digital
DTSTAMP:20260918T054316Z
DTSTART:20260916T190000Z
DTEND:20260916T201500Z
SEQUENCE:1789603602
SUMMARY:EP374 - The Listening Tour Begins: Platforms Are Places
STATUS:CONFIRMED
URL:https://thechurch.digital/events/2026-09-16-ep374-the-listening-tour-be
 gins-platforms-are-places/
LOCATION:https://youtu.be/cj1Pm7GUzok
DESCRIPTION:Episode 374 launches the Listening Tour. For the rest of 2026 J
 eff Reed wants to stop broadcasting at digital ministry and start hearing 
 from the people doing it\, from Africa\, Pakistan\, India and Southern Asi
 a to churches here in the U.S. theChurch.digital is rebuilding\, money is 
 tight\, and he takes a line from a Kansas City microchurch leader as the r
 ule for the season: don't create anything until you really need it.\n\nThe
  big idea is platforms as places. Using digital to get people into a build
 ing is no longer radical in 2026. What still is: treating Twitch like Arge
 ntina and Discord like Paraguay\, and equipping and sending missionaries i
 nto platforms the way an agency sends them into countries\, because platfo
 rms have culture. Jeff also lays out a healthy church digital strategy\, e
 vangelism\, discipleship\, generosity and empowerment\, and the long road 
 of solving a church's problems before it trusts you with the ones you care
  about.\n\nThen it gets personal. The digital missionaries struggling most
  are the ones living inside a platform\, facing persecution from Christian
 s who say the church doesn't belong in virtual reality\, and doing it alon
 e. Jeff is candid that he was one of them: a year of depression and isolat
 ion\, a season of pushing God away\, and the moment he told a missionary w
 ho was praying for him that he didn't need more prayer.\n\nWhat brought hi
 m back was a question from his leadership\, is this yours or is it God's\,
  and the conviction that if God gets the successes\, God gets the failures
  too. He closes with a word for anyone in the field who feels alone\, and 
 a preview of the Listening Tour guests: authors on digital missiology and 
 theology\, success stories\, and people who are struggling and willing to 
 say so.\n\nFull episode page — transcript\, chapters\, and the live chat
  alongside it:\nhttps://thechurch.digital/shows/becoming-thechurch-digital
 /ep374-platforms-are-places/\n\nGoing deeper:\nWhat is a digital missionar
 y? https://thechurch.digital/guides/what-is-a-digital-missionary/\nCaring 
 for online pastors: https://thechurch.digital/guides/online-pastor-care/\n
 Hybrid church: https://thechurch.digital/guides/hybrid-church/\nThe EDGE f
 ramework: https://thechurch.digital/guides/edge-framework/\n\nCHAPTERS\n00
 :00 Old lo-fi and a tired week\n06:05 Launching the Listening Tour\n08:15 
 Don't create it until it's needed\n10:37 Wings with a global mission leade
 r\n13:37 Click-and-mortar churches\n16:28 Platforms as places\n20:29 You'r
 e not wrong\, you're early\n23:35 A healthy church digital strategy\n28:02
  Persecution from inside the church\n32:53 Depression and doing what God a
 sked\n38:05 Apostles\, shepherds and teachers\n41:29 Nobody should do this
  alone\n43:24 A year of isolation\n46:25 Carrying the missionaries\n49:52 
 God gets the failures too\n51:15 Is this yours or God's?\n53:51 What my fa
 mily has carried\n57:54 Still early: be encouraged\n1:00:49 Next on the Li
 stening Tour\n\n━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━\n\n🗓 LIVE Wednesday\, 
 September 16 — 3:00 PM ET\n\n━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━\n\nJOIN TH
 E FAM\n💬 Discord — https://discord.thechurch.digital/\n📱 WhatsApp 
 — https://whatsapp.thechurch.digital/\n\nMORE FROM THECHURCH.DIGITAL\n
 🌐 Website — https://thechurch.digital\n🎧 Podcast — https://open.
 spotify.com/show/1m7zKqEJL1UdY5N6pDVhES\n📺 Subscribe — https://www.yo
 utube.com/@bethechurchdigital\n\nFOLLOW\nInstagram — https://www.instagr
 am.com/bethechurchdigital/\nFacebook — https://www.facebook.com/bethechu
 rchdigital\n\n━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━\n\ntheChurch.digital exists 
 to empower the rest of us to make disciples.\nBeyond the building. The gre
 at commission\, but digital.\n\n#DigitalMinistry #DigitalMissionary #Churc
 hOnline #BecomingTheChurchDigital\n#DisciplesMaking #ChurchTech\n\nJoin: h
 ttps://youtu.be/cj1Pm7GUzok\n\nDetails: https://thechurch.digital/events/2
 026-09-16-ep374-the-listening-tour-begins-platforms-are-places/
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