EP379 - The Third Invitation: XtianNinja on Caring for Digital Missionaries
Who cares for the people doing digital ministry?
XtianNinja, who pastors on Twitch, was a preacher for 16 years before he started streaming full time five years ago. On Becoming theChurch.digital he tells Jeff Reed how other Christian streamers kept stumbling into his stream with no support and sometimes no church, and how that led to the two roles he holds now: content creator and digital community maker with Power to Change Canada, and director of missionary care for Hope Digital Missions.
They talk about what counts as a digital missionary, why the people doing it are hard to find and rarely funded or connected to a local church, the steps between an online ad and a mentor that most strategies skip, why churches keep saying no, and whether missionary care can scale. XtianNinja reads the great banquet in Luke 14 as the job: the third invitation goes to the highways and hedges, to people who did not know there was an invitation. And he offers some hope from how churches once treated sports on a Sunday.
In XtianNinja's words: "We as digital missionaries are reaching people nobody else can reach."
CHAPTERS
0:00 Welcome, and the Scattered devotionals start Monday
4:10 Why the ninja: Matthew 6
7:03 From preacher to Twitch, full time
13:37 Pastoring the Christian streamers
20:30 Where digital missionaries really are
32:10 What counts as a digital missionary
35:59 The steps between an ad and a mentor
38:37 When churches say no
40:45 Can missionary care scale?
49:08 The highways and hedges
54:41 Some hope from sports ministry
1:00:22 Where to find XtianNinja, and closing thoughts
XtianNinja's site: https://xtian.ninja
Going deeper:
What is a digital missionary? https://thechurch.digital/guides/what-is-a-digital-missionary/
Church on Twitch: https://thechurch.digital/guides/church-on-twitch/
Digital missions in gaming: https://thechurch.digital/guides/digital-missions-in-gaming/
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This season: Scattered, one Bible study through 1 Peter for the whole digital church, at your own pace, with a short devotional every morning. Optional live sessions Tuesdays at 5:00 PM ET on Twitch: https://thechurch.digital/scattered/
Becoming theChurch.digital is the show for church leaders figuring out digital ministry in public.
https://thechurch.digital
@bethechurchdigital
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