Equipping Digital Missionaries for Every Context and Culture

all right hey welcome to the digital missionary conference jeff reed here church digital and i've got audio loop playing in my head at that moment that was that was an awkward start for me you guys sitting gal sitting on the outside lurkers here uh with the digital missionary conference if you're watching us in altar live here's what i need you to do Click on a seat, sit next to somebody, and don't be on the outside. Come in, grab a seat in Alter Life. Click on one of those squares that you see on the bottom of the screen. If you're in virtual reality, like, sit next to somebody. Sit next to an avatar. Find someone that maybe you don't know and just grab a seat next to them. Now, the beauty of the Digital Missionary Conference, let me just say up front, is that we have somehow, thank you, God, connected to 85 countries around the world. I'm watching the data on my computer right underneath my camera right now. We've had almost 1,400 people register for this idea of being a digital missionary, of using digital evangelism, digital discipleship to extend their missionary reach, their missional reach digitally. to engage in the digital communities as communities that are worthy of a church that need the gospel to reach into unique and, well, unrealized missional spaces. So I'm using a bunch of big words that maybe some of us don't understand. Let me back up. My name is Jeff Reed. I'm founder of The Church Digital. Real quick, if you don't know me, my story is that I had a calling to be a digital pastor. I can honestly say this. All the way back in 1992, I was like 12 years old. I read the word multimedia in a magazine and immediately had this vision of how technology would be able to be connecting, how technology could help people find Jesus and how the church could use this space. And arguably everything since 1992, 30 some years of my life, has been dedicated towards helping people understand this. And we, the Church Digital, we are here to help you in this. And so I'm so excited. because we've got 1,400 people who have said, and I don't know where these 1,400 people came from, from 85 countries, but 1,400 people have said, hey, I want more information about this. I'm thinking about this, but I don't know how to do it. I'm doing this, but I'd love some help on that. And so if that's you, welcome to the Digital Missionary Conference. If you're a skeptic and someone asked you to come in, I get that too. Welcome to the Digital Missionary Conference. What I love about what you're about to experience is that we've got dozens of people that are already doing this. Hundreds of people that are involved in our communities on Discord and WhatsApp that are doing ministry in these digital and virtual spaces. And they're seeing success. And so the skeptics that say, well, it can't be done. It already is. The people that are saying that the Holy Spirit does not move in digital and virtual spaces, and believe me, they exist out there. He already is. And rather than saying, no, he's not, let's look at how he's moving and join him in his work. And so if we are going to have through the conference, we're going to have now we've already said this. We have two different stages that are happening. A lot of you are watching us on digital broadcast and I see you in alter live. Feel free to jump into the chat and throw questions in. And as you're going through the experience today, in all seriousness and alter live. Click a seat in the pew in the aisles that you see. We're going to be interacting and we're going to be dialoguing together. This is not a webinar that you can passively just have in the background. This is an online experience that you are going to be a vital part of. Plus, you're going to get to talk to people from literally around the world. Like I'm already seeing in chat continents globally, countries that are miles away, people that I've never met yet are an active part of my life are engaging in this space. And so I would encourage you. be known come in and sit in in a pew log in and be part of this seeing some content or some comments already come up yeah dalton love you man thanks for coming in and being a part of this oasis coming in as well excited to see that man i seriously i am so jacked up excited oasis talking about that vr tiger man he is doing a he had built a custom world for us in virtual reality And so like, if you're bored during the day and you want to go check out what our virtual reality world looks like, we've got actually exclusive keynotes that are being shared in virtual reality, active leads, listening, preaching into the metaverse. Like there's some really unique concepts, gaming, how gaming fits in, into the metaverse. There's some unique concepts that are happening in the alter life stage. And I want to invite you. I want to encourage you. Maybe some of the content for you. might be over in the Altar Live stage. And so throughout the day, we will have two stages happening simultaneously. What's happening here in the Altar Live and the digital broadcast experience. And then at the same time, some of this is happening in spatial at our virtual reality stage. Now, if that's confusing for you, that's okay. I get it. It's a complex idea. Two things happening simultaneously. 11 keynotes, 10 keynotes, I think, across the two platforms, some exclusive, some shared. 30 some breakouts happening throughout the day as well all sorts of people sharing their knowledge and insight on digital uh mission work you know what's interesting i got an email tell a story real quick i got an email from a lady uh who says jeff i signed up for your conference uh i'm not sure it fits for me because i looked at all the breakouts and to be honest i have no idea what these words even mean like i get it some of the technology that we're leading into is really advanced really like cutting edge, bleeding edge, pioneering type stuff. And some of you, that's awesome. Some of you, that's not you. That doesn't mean that digital mission work is bad or it doesn't work for you. It means that you have to pick another path. And some of the breakouts that we're doing, especially centered around member care, mental health, some of these things are actually very poignant for even a non-technical person. How the church digital can help your ministry work. It's beautiful. I want to say this. My mother, I'm not going to say how old she is, but let's just say I'm 46, 47. I don't even know my age. I'm 47 years old. And so my mother, is actually going through and being training right now as as a digital missionary she's let's just say she's a mother age from 47 mom i will not say your age on the broadcast but the the fact is is there is opportunities for all of us to learn And so as you're looking and interested in what's happening in our virtual reality stage, and maybe you want to go back and forth between virtual reality and broadcast, what breakouts fit best for you and what you want to do? Go to the website, missionary.digital, www.missionary.digital.com. dot missionary dot digital and that will have all of the answers for you okay so i said we were going to lean in i said we were going to actually talk with each other i want you to meet people and so i'm going to throw a poll question up whether you are in virtual reality watching an avatar form whether you're in alter live i want you to interact with this where are you from So here's what I want you to do. The poll question's gonna come up in Altar Live chat. Feel free to engage and talk about it there in chat. But in Altar Live, I really want you to have a seat and actually talk with somebody. Click on a seat that's got a couple icons next to it and join the conversation. Where are you from? Meet the people that are there. Virtual reality. Grab an avatar. Where are you from? Take a minute and let's talk through it. Where are you all from? Now, don't be the awkward guy, the awkward gal standing in the back, not talking. Don't be like, hey, that guy Jeffs, he's not talking to me. Click in, engage, lean in. There is so much you're going to miss if you are not having a conversation right now. Conference is going to be boring unless you're talking. Let's go. Lean in. Have a conversation. We had 85 countries. register for this thing unbelievable i'm seeing a chat right now it's funny i just looked at it real quick uh colorado orlando philippines dayton ohio london ontario uh church online from maryland uh it is exciting to see i know we've had in and i will say this we had 40 was us-based 40 of the registered people for us was us now this is a us the digital missionary conference this year is us-based it's us-based time zones uh and and so like up front i want to say We don't always operate that way. And as a matter of fact, we're actually moving to not operate that way with the church digital. The church digital, our digital missionary sending agency, we'll talk about, we're moving towards a global focus. And in the near future, we're going to see more and more opportunities coming from this. And so like Lean, just realize globally, we're going to be having more and more opportunities opportunities to engage globally. I'm going to introduce you to some of our global friends at some point. We're going to talk more about that. Hey, I'm understanding that some of our polls are not working within chat. That's okay. We're going to roll without the polls. What I want you to do, and I'm talking to Chino, who's running behind the scenes. Bro, don't worry about the text polls. We'll roll without it. And let's lean into the second question. How comfortable are you with technology? so you're thinking about being a digital missionary maybe you're you're digital savvy maybe you're not digital savvy what i would love you to do is put that in in chat on on alter live how comfortable are you yes no very i love this idea i'm terrified by it but i feel god calling me to do something else talk to the person next to you uh in the in the um in the pews in the aisles whatever you want to call it in virtual reality Grab that avatar next to you and have the conversation. Okay, if you're like you're an avatar form in virtual reality, you know, maybe you're a little more comfortable. By the way, I should say, like those of you that are watching digital broadcast, the spatial world, the avatar world that we created, the virtual reality stage, actually it does work in a web browser. So you don't need the, I mean, you have the headsets, good for you, but you don't need the headsets to engage in that. I want to shout out to our host over in virtual reality, Flat Cap, Leighton. Leighton Size is over there right now. And so he'll be talking more to the virtual reality crowd. But how comfortable are you with technology? Okay. DJ Andy. I really feel like I want to call him DJ Andy because he's in the background. But I don't know. I don't know if that's cool. We can do a poll. Should it be Chino Mage or DJ Andy? Chino Mage. That's better. How comfortable are you with technology? Vote in that and let's see. know what's interesting i i would actually suggest that you don't have to be savvy in in this uh to build relationships now listen there there are people and god bless them there are people that are talking about using ai and we can do this and we can build this and we can code this and and uh you know if i had you know if i had 500 000 us dollars i could you know and and often i mean those are great ideas i would almost suggest before we get crazy thinking big let's get a proof of concept on a small you know somebody that wants to build a mobile app and wants to start preaching and reaching millions of people across the planet or creating something creating this virtual reality world and in complex you know what have you done with youtube What have you done in a free world like Spatial or even Facebook Meta's Horizon or something? Instead of thinking big and complex, there's often simple answers. And to be honest, some of the most effective digital ministry I'm seeing globally isn't in massive, expensive platforms. It's using Facebook. Instead of building these massive digital things where people are, it's where you want people to go it's it's almost more like well let's just go over where the people are and asking questions where are the people and so like you want to be a digital missionary how much does a facebook group cost nothing how much does a zoom account cost 15 bucks a month google meet and there's ways to even get cheaper than that um and so Don't think that it has to be massive technology. Let's roll into the third question. The idea of being a digital missionary is. Let me hear from you. The idea of being a digital missionary is. So ask this. Is it complicated? Is it hard? Is it scary? Is it new? Is it something you're already doing? I'd love to know. The idea of being a digital missionary is. Let's just take a moment here and talk about that. Interesting, seeing a lot of very comfortable, I want to explore, a good number of I want to explore. That's exciting to me. that you're wanting to give it a chance. And that's what we want to do with the Digital Missionary Conference. We want to give you a chance to explore. All right, hey, let's pivot into something here. You know, of course, Jeff is wordy and winded and taking us long. when we look at the theme normally we do a conference there's a theme and this is the first digital missionary conference and i was like you know what i really i don't want to do a theme let's just let's just explore it but as we've been building out the digital missionary conference more and more we've been hearing this language centered around um new wineskins like this is a new season it's new wine skins and you know that's honestly that's been like a internal um Mantra may not be the right word. It's a theme in my life, new wineskins. Honestly, I tried to get hired as a digital pastor when I graduated from college in the year 2000, and I was shocked when no church in America would actually invest time into doing digital ministry on AOL, American Online back in the day. Yeah, I was a little ahead of my time. And so the idea of new wineskins is something that I've carried over the past 25 years and so let's throw up this verse Luke 5 37-39 and no one put new wine into old wineskins otherwise the new fermenting wine will expand and burst the skins and it will be spilled out and the skins will be ruined but new wineskins must be put into fresh wineskins And no one, after drinking old wine, wishes for new, for he will say the old is fine. Now, what I love about this is, and it was interesting, even today, as I was reading the verse again, I saw a unique perspective, something that I don't know that I had read before into this. Verse 39 stood out to me a little more than it normally would. Historically for me, I would look at 37 and 38 and no one puts new wine into old wineskins because it's going to work. So we need new wineskins. We need new ideas. We need innovation. We need to look at things differently. And I would champion the idea of, hey, we need to be ahead of the curve. The church needs to be leading in that. And it's interesting. The church ecclesiology actually drags behind technology often and innovation because they're worried about ecclesiological concerns. But missionaries are actually a little more aggressive. Everything short of sin. They're more willing to explore, in my experience, more than churches tend to be. And so I would look at... what a missionary is doing in the current concept, stronger in evangelism, exploring the space, like many of you are doing today, and saying, hey, this is the opportunity. Here, 3738 is saying, we need to be exploring and pushing the limits and wanting and challenging the church to do that. But then I read 39, and 39 resonated something to me today. Let me just, I'll say it out loud. And no one, after drinking old wine, wishes for new, for he says the old wine is fine. And for me, coming back, this is the verse which to me says it's okay to do something different. 37 and 38 is challenging us to do wineskins, to do something new, to handle and reach new people, different people. 39 is what's starting to challenge us to also recognize that the old model. And so often in my life, and I'm just gonna share it a little bit personally. So often in my life, as I've been pushing new ideas and challenging new focus, I've been wanting to do something new, something new, something new, and really angry against an old model because they would not move. But really the lesson is, is that the old model is gonna reach the people they're going to reach. But there's an opportunity for a new model, for a new idea, for a new wineskin that's going to take us into a new season to reach new people. Really, the theme of The Church Digital is this. We are challenging people to do something different to reach someone different. And in our experience, you're going to reach people in digital ministry, digital mission work, virtual reality, Twitch, Discord. You're going to engage with people in these digital communities that are not interested, that will not go to a physical church building. And rather than competing with the idea, we want to complement other ministry ideas towards the goal of completing the Great Commission. It's not competing, it's complementing. And that's what I'm seeing here. We need the old wineskins for the old wine because the old people like the old wine. We need the new wineskins for the new wine because there's different people that are going to engage in that. That is the challenge that we're going to talk about here with you today. Now, listen, with The Church Digital, you're going to hear us talk a lot about platforms as places. We're a digital missionary sending agency. We look at Facebook, at Twitch, at Discord the way that a normal missions agency is going to look at Korea and China or Brazil. Like we want to send missionaries out into these digital communities, into these digital spaces. We want to help physical missionaries understand how to utilize digital to extend their missional reach beyond what they can do physically. This is what we do. This is a radical idea. Platforms as places. We get it. But it's grounded in biblical truth. And we're very concerned about that, that our missionaries, that the people we're training and equipping, understand that focus. We do a equipping, you're going to hear us talk about this, equipping digital missionaries. It's an online cohort course. that we offer you can find information at that about the church.digital slash edm and and we're offering this in in global context we're offering this in different platforms context gaming and vr and things like that listen our hope is to get to the place where we're empowering you to even get to the place where you're multiplying digital missionaries. We have people that have done this course that are now multiplying and applying this course into Europe. We're moving into India, Southeast, Southern Asia. We're doing it in Oceania, Asia Pacific. And we're talking to other regions, gaming, like I mentioned earlier. Like for us, We wanna be a network of digital missionaries. And we're gonna talk about, actually, here, let's do this question. Let's throw up the poll question real quick. And if you know me, you've heard this conversation. So like, if you know me, don't spoil the secret here, okay? Is it better to have a one million person church, a church that has one million people, or is it better to have 100,000 churches of 10? It's probably no wrong answer, but get in those groups, throw it in chat and talk about this. Is it better to have a million person church or 100,000 churches of 10. Yeah, so if you know me, if you've heard this conversation with me, many of you have, it's 100,000 churches of 10. At least that's my opinion. Listen, a million person church, maybe. I don't know that it exists. I know that there are people that are trying to get to that point using digital and physical and more power to them. But what you miss by having a million, it's big, it's bulky, it's unwieldy. what you gain with a hundred thousand of ten is contextualization it's funny i'm just looking at chat as it's flying around right now yetope is my friend in uh in africa uh sub-saharan africa excuse me i mentioned i forgot to mention you earlier tope he's he's actually adapting equipping digital missionaries for the african context and it's interesting he and i have been diving in and and how i would do edm in america It is 100% different than how EDM equipping digital missionaries is in Africa. Let me say that again. How I would equip a digital missionary in my US-based context as a 47-year-old American is completely different than how Yotope would build a missionary in Africa, which is completely different than my friend Simon Dirks in Europe, which is completely different than how my friend Flatcap Layton would build it with somebody in gaming, which is different than how we would do it in India. Rather than trying to assume that everybody is the same, we want to lean in and recognize that digitally everyone is different which is why we look at okay we can reach somebody in virtual reality that we can't reach in a building or that we can't reach on facebook we can reach somebody using twitch in in the middle east or excuse me uh tick tock in the middle east that we're not going to be able to reach like we would in in australia this is flipping the script digitally the culture says it's all about amassing a huge number of following and instead what we communicate is the idea of contextualization of it's almost like a micro church network approach it's not big it's small it's multiple small it's multiplying that small creating more missionaries for different contexts it's interesting we actually have uh loosely connected uh vr mmo church where we're doing some work with them and they are a virtual reality church okay so a church that exists entirely in virtual reality i'm going to blow some minds right here virtual reality church and they're reaching into different video games they're literally doing church in a video game right now called final fantasy I just did an interview with him a couple days ago, a couple weeks ago. And I was like, hey, talk to me about, you know, Final Fantasy versus like Rust or Black Desert Online or some of these other video games. And she told me, Pastor Coco says, oh, Jeff, like, I can't explain to you Rust and Black Desert because even in different video games, there's different cultures. And instead of trying to amass everybody and treat them the same way, it's thinking micro and adaptable to lean into it. As a 47-year-old who lives, American who lives in Miami, Florida, I would, because I have a huge Hispanic influence where I am, I'm going to do things completely different than my friend Leighton would physically up in Ohio where he's at. and so uh up in the actually it's not ohio layton i forgot where you live up north i'm sorry flat cap my apologies and so like because he lives in in a smaller town compared to me in in the city even even like andy mage chino is working in the background here uh tampa where he lives it's five hours from me to be a car but his context is completely different physical than mine and so digitally it's hugely important for us to recognize that micro context and we the church digital we want to help digital missionaries like you learn how to flip that script and so which really it's just so fun because we get to to help people reimagine not how to reach masses but how to reach an individual TCD, The Church Digital, is here to help you flip that script. And so for more information on who we are, check out the website, thechurch.digital.