EP379 - The Third Invitation: Allan Descheneau on Reaching Isolated Adults
The people the first canvass never saw.
On Becoming theChurch.digital, Jeff Reed talks with Allan Descheneau — digital strategist for Power to Change and director of missionary care for Hope Digital Missions, who pastors on Twitch as XtianNinja.
The assumption he corrects first: Twitch and video games does not mean fourteen-year-old boys. In his own words: "The average person I minister to is a 36-year-old adult living with some sort of neurodivergence like autism or ADHD." Some abused, some with social anxiety profound enough that leaving the house is close to impossible. They live alone, work alone, and nobody sees them.
His numbers, for Canada: of every 100 people, 17 have no close friends, 15 live completely alone, 3 have not seen anyone outside their immediate family in six months. Over 100,000 in Ottawa alone that traditional ministry does not reach.
His frame is Luke 14. The invited make excuses, the poor and the blind are brought in, and there is still room — so the third invitation goes out to the highways and hedges, to "the people who during the first canvas of the area, they didn't see."
WHAT WE'LL TALK ABOUT
- Who the isolated actually are, versus who ministry assumes they are
- What the church cedes when it leaves lonely people to an industry that sells them the illusion of intimacy
- Livestream to Discord to a room with other people in it — the handoff problem
- Five years in: what is working, and what it costs
The line the hour is built around, his: "What if, instead of the prayer of 'Lord, get them out of that room,' we changed it to 'Lord, please raise up a Christian who understands them and can meet them in their room.'"
LIVE Wednesday, October 14 — 2:00 PM ET
Chat is open the whole hour.
Going deeper:
Church on Twitch: https://thechurch.digital/guides/church-on-twitch/
Digital missions in gaming: https://thechurch.digital/guides/digital-missions-in-gaming/
What is a digital missionary? https://thechurch.digital/guides/what-is-a-digital-missionary/
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Becoming theChurch.digital is the show for church leaders figuring out digital ministry in public.
This season: The Listening Tour — less broadcasting at digital ministry, more listening to where it actually is.
https://thechurch.digital
@bethechurchdigital
