Jeff isNot DeadYet

Jeff Reed: All right. Hey, everybody. Hey, I can hear audio in my head. That's not a good thing. Let me see if I can turn this off. There you go.

Jeff Reed: All right. Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Church Digital. Becoming the Church Digital. Hey, this is a new show. And for a second, I thought, what am I actually calling this thing?

Jeff Reed: Jeff Reed here, founder of the Church Digital. And it's been a minute. I want to say, hey, welcome. Glad you're here. I have not streamed. Actually, when I opened up, I use Ecamm.

Jeff Reed: When I opened up Ecamm today to check and see what was going on, Ecamm told me that I have not streamed in 10 months. Last time I streamed, the settings were on December 2nd. That was when we did our Giving Tuesday live stream. And I've been AWOL. I've been out since December 2nd. And so, first off, thanks for letting me come back.

Jeff Reed: Thanks for sticking around. Thanks for still being in touch with what's happening at The Church Digital. Oh, it has been a fun run. We'll get into that here in a little bit. But, you know, God has made one thing clear.

Jeff Reed: My calling in my heart is with you all. Now, my heart for a little bit wasn't with anybody. I have been very sick through 26. 26 has been a really interesting year. 25 was a hard year. 26 kind of powdered on as well.

Jeff Reed: And so, as most of you know, i had a bypass surgery heart single bypass surgery in uh let's call it january uh january 26 earlier this year and uh survived um audio kind of sounds like you're in a tunnel well that's not good Hey, Michelle, how's it going? Like I said, I have not used these settings in a very, very long time. So I'm gonna assume.

Jeff Reed: I'm gonna assume everything's right. Let's see. Yeah, let's try that. It should be. Maybe it's coming off my ears, but it should be coming off the mic here. My settings look like they're right.

Jeff Reed: I'm going to take this out of the mix just in case. Check one, two. It's not that bad. You're okay. I appreciate that. Magnificent Pacific.

Jeff Reed: Hey, Octopus. Good to see you, man. I don't recognize that name for you, but I'm assuming that's Daniel Heron because I don't know too many octopuses that are around, especially in the Pacific, but... Man, so I had a single bypass surgery in January. I had a, which recovered from pretty well. I thought, honestly, I thought I was gonna die in March.

Jeff Reed: There was a situation where the bypass surgery went well, but I started getting a lot of fluid in my lungs and in my, centered around my heart. My heart wasn't beating, so it wasn't distributing oxygen and I couldn't breathe, so no oxygen was coming in. Blood pressure was 200 plus, over 100 plus, really high. It was during the day, and I was so unaware. It didn't even occur to me to call 911. And so instead, I got in the car.

Jeff Reed: Tesla put it in auto drive, typed the number of the emergency room, and Tesla drove me to the hospital. And it occurred to me along the way, you know, what happens if I actually die in this car and it shows up? Because I just was, it was unbelievable what was going on. And the doctors were great. But I've spent maybe a month in 2026 in the hospital.

Jeff Reed: So a lot of good stuff. But God is good. Doctors have clean bill of health at this point. I'm still obviously very careful with what I eat. I've lost a lot of weight over the years. Yes, Tesla is self-driving, Sonic.

Jeff Reed: This is true. Hey, Rambo, good to see you, man. It's been a minute since I've connected with you as well. But I am still alive. I jokingly tell people I'm not dead yet. The fact is that I, it was scary for a stretch.

Jeff Reed: I remember I was working at a location and I wasn't answering my phone. And it was like six o'clock at night and I was the only person at the location and my wife was expecting me to answer the phone. And I didn't answer. And so she immediately freaked out that I was dead at the location all by myself and got the kids in the car and drove up, panicked, trying to make sure the kids knew, you know, make sure that I was still breathing, which I was. I just, you know, had put my phone down and wasn't near where I was working. And so I actually, I've written a mobile app.

Jeff Reed: It's kind of funny. So this is the Aura Ring, I think is what it's called, O-U-R-A. I saw it last night, actually, when I was watching the US Open. But it tracks the pulse and blood ox and respiratory rates and all sorts of stats. Actually, better stats, in my opinion, than the Apple Watch does. But it's all for me.

Jeff Reed: Like, it doesn't share it with others. And so actually, I wrote an app. I called it Not Dead Yet. And it shares my stats with my wife and my kids and others. Actually, you can visit it, I think. The website is notdeadyet.fyi.

Jeff Reed: And so if you're ever curious what's going... I did a mobile app, but I also did a web version. Notdeadyet.fyi. You're curious where I am, what's... Not necessarily tracking, but like where I am health-wise.

Jeff Reed: It tends to say, I program like a bobblehead version of Jeff, like living his life, and it's kind of funny. But it constantly says that I'm on the verge of getting sick. I never actually get sick. I think what it means is he's constantly tired. Tired is a thing that I'm still going through. It was funny, I told leadership this morning, had a global meeting, and I was like, yeah, I sleep every other night.

Jeff Reed: If I can sleep a full seven hours every other night, that's normal for me right now. Last night I was watching the U.S. Open, actually, where I forget who the number one male is, but he almost lost in round one. Dude came down to like two points. And so that was fun. Kind of got pulled into that match, and that match went to like 2 a.m. Been doing a lot of programming late at night as well into the late hours, so doing that. But for whatever reason, just not really sleeping.

Jeff Reed: Or I'm sleeping late. Last night I slept. 3 to 9, almost 3 to 10. So I'm getting the hours. It's just time shifted a little bit. But, you know, God was faithful to get me through.

Jeff Reed: You know, it was funny. I had Instagram posts that I was doing, like reels, social media, kind of selfie videos, kind of mocking the situation. And it's funny, like a lot of my friends and even some of you have said, well, Jeff, that wasn't scary. It seemed like you were in great spirits and having fun. I was freaking out.

Jeff Reed: I was 100% like, I don't want to be here. I don't want to do this. The surgery itself was a nightmare. I don't think I slept. I think they knocked me out, but they knocked me out 90% of the time because I swear I felt everything when I was supposed to be under.

Jeff Reed: It just was this horrible, horrible experience. I did have a video go viral, though. They were moving me from one emergency room to another emergency room in March for the surgery. No, for overnight observation. I ended up being in the hospital for like seven or eight days.

Jeff Reed: When they moved me, they moved me. They wouldn't let me drive because I was a health risk. I didn't have any family there. So they moved me via ambulance. And, you know, I'm freaking out. But I'm like, hey, when am I going to be in an ambulance that's running with the sirens going?

Jeff Reed: And so I recorded like a five-second selfie of me freaking out, posted it on Instagram. You can actually go see it. It's on my reels. And, yeah, I mean, last I saw it was maybe 250,000 views, something like that.

Jeff Reed: Oh, man, I got ripped. Oh, 100% people were like, dude, if you're sick enough, if you're well enough to take a selfie, you should not be in an ambulance. And, you know, they're not wrong. Actually, it got picked up by the medical community is really who promoted, who got attached to that one, the algorithm put on my recording. But it was interesting. One guy, one guy, was like, no, this is what's happening, and described the situation to the T. Like, even having multiple sensors on my chest that were in the right spot, but they were different types that they don't put in the ambulance, they put at the location.

Jeff Reed: Like, he described, he said he's getting moved from, it was just beautiful. The guy was like the hospital ambulance whisperer or something. He just knew the situation real well. Anyway, I'm not dead. But what am I?

Jeff Reed: That's a good question. So I have been working with a number of churches in addition to being connected to the church digital. And, you know, the church is the bride of Christ. I love working with churches. I have been working with churches.

Jeff Reed: I'm actually trying to think when I did my first youth internship. Let's call it 1993. How many years is that? 93, 20, 30, 33? I have been working with the church 33 years. That may be bad math.

Jeff Reed: Let's call it 33 years. Maybe it's 43 years. No, that's too many years. 33 years. And, you know...

Jeff Reed: I want to say the words lover-hater. That's not what I'm trying to say. But there's some challenges in 2026 working with the American church. And so while I've been doing those things, thank you, Sonic. Sonic reaffirms 33. I'm not a moron.

Jeff Reed: My wife is a calculus teacher. My son is taking, as a sophomore, is taking college calculus. My daughter, as a senior in high school, is taking... junior level calculus, 301 calculus, and I can't come up with 33. Ironically, that's the year that Jesus died, when he was 33 years old, which tells a really interesting story here.

Jeff Reed: There's some challenges working with the church in 2026. I mean, we don't need to tap dance around that. And so some of the work has been going really well. Some of it hasn't. And I had been, I mean, I'll just say it. I was actually fired from a church last week.

Jeff Reed: And so love the church, love the leadership, love what they were doing. The first words out of the mouth when they basically communicated that I was released from my role. I looked at the leader in the room, and I said, thank you for the clarity. Because I, to be honest, I was not sure if I was doing what I was supposed to be doing. And I was doing it, I thought I was doing a good job, and they didn't think so, for whatever reason. What's funny is, in hindsight, some really interesting stories.

Jeff Reed: And I'm going to get to the heart of what I want to talk with this stream. But this is Jeff's coming back, trying to figure out... how to stream, and gonna start talking again. So this is gonna be the rambling episode of The Church Digital. Becoming The Church Digital is the new version of episode 372 and beyond is. Get more into that here in a little bit.

Jeff Reed: We'll get more serious. But this episode, this is the unfiltered Jeff. Congratulations, you're watching the unfiltered Jeff on Becoming The Church Digital, episode 372. Yeah, man, I got fired. And what I was doing wasn't what the church appreciated, what I wanted to do they didn't want. What they wanted me to do, I'm like, yeah, okay.

Jeff Reed: It just wasn't as interesting to me. And they decided to part ways. And so all of a sudden I went from, man, I've got a full-time job and a bunch of contracts to I got a bunch of free time right now. And so, yes, there's a, oh, a filter Jeff. That's funny. Ian, Ian, Ian making the cracks.

Jeff Reed: uh making the jokes uh yes yeah i got i got i got i got the the nice way to say it is i got released from my contract i was not an employee so technically they can't fire me but they can say you don't show up here anymore which is actually kind of what they did My son is still attending the church. He's actually playing in the youth group tonight. He's playing bass. So like I said, I love the church. I love the people.

Jeff Reed: The lead pastor texted me on Sunday, kind of checking in to see what's going on, and so happy of what God is doing in the Bride of Christ here locally. But there's something different about us. You know, we've always been, I'm kind of like just looking here on the screen of people that have popped in to say hey in chat. We've always been the island of misfit toys. The people that are doing ministry in unique ways that don't necessarily fit in paradigms and models. The people that are paving the road for what the future will be, but...

Jeff Reed: We're still a little early. You know, it's interesting. We launched a new website at The Church Digital. You can go check it out, thechurch.digital. It's public. We'll talk more about kind of that later, maybe in a future week.

Jeff Reed: By the way, you can totally watch this stream right now on The Church Digital. I embedded, programmed it so YouTube goes over there. You can even, I didn't know this. I was working with AI last night. I was like, hey, I love how you put YouTube on there. Could you actually put the YouTube chat room?

Jeff Reed: embedded. And so like, you can watch the church digital and chat with YouTube on the church digital website. So I'm like, I was like, is this legal? Does YouTube, because YouTube, why would YouTube not want you to be on this site? And yeah. The fact is, and Ian's teasing it right now, we're still early.

Jeff Reed: We are still early. You would think COVID was a fast track, and it could have been. uh the fact is is that covid really did not uh was not a pleasurable experience for a lot of churches and let's just call it this way and we've said it before a lot of churches maybe didn't have the right um model mindset structure they didn't get some things and so not being in the building was really was really a loss was really a painful experience And now there's maybe an overcorrection back. I'm feeling it. You're probably feeling it.

Jeff Reed: And so you're not wrong. You're not weird. You're still early. And so I want to encourage you, many of you that are out there doing ministry, those of you that are listening to it on demand or online or on the podcast, that are forging ahead, paving the road where there is no road, laying down markers so you don't lose the path and so that others can come behind you doing what you're doing. You're not wrong. You're not wrong.

Jeff Reed: You're early. Continue doing what you're doing. and being proud, being before God in this season of it. Listen, I mean, some of the greatness of my position right now is, yeah, I got released. I got fired from a job. That was my primary paycheck.

Jeff Reed: And so I have no idea where the money is. I actually, I spun up a real quick, another business. I am convinced that, and I've told leadership this, the church digital is never gonna be a million dollar business. I don't even think it's a nonprofit. I don't even think it's gonna be $100,000 nonprofit. I'd be happy if it was a $25,000 nonprofit.

Jeff Reed: Like money just is very... hard for us. And to be honest, I told one of our board members this the other day. I was like, if somebody came in with a $50,000 check for the Church Digital, I honestly don't think I'd put it towards the Church Digital. I'd put it towards some of you that are out there doing ministry on the front lines. I don't want money coming to the network.

Jeff Reed: I want money coming to the people that are actually doing ministry in the field. The soldiers are the ones that deserve the care, not the network. And as a result of that logic and that perspective, yeah, we're going to have to run really tight and lean as an organization. which means like you, we've got to figure out where the bills are coming from. You know, Stacy's got a full-time job. And so her availability with the Church Digital is much more limited than it used to be when she was between jobs.

Jeff Reed: Andy is doing some incredible work with Lux and other organizations, and he's making some good contract money right now. But dude is working it from all sides. And as a result, his availability is limited. And so the church digital, as always, I feel like I'm always saying this. Ian corrects me all the time. He's like, don't say beta.

Jeff Reed: Okay, we're not in a season of beta. We're in a season of alpha. We're in a season of, no, I'm kidding. But we're in a season of change.

Jeff Reed: Some of this is, to be honest, like the leadership is shifting a little bit. And some of this is the ministry forecast, the ground floor, what's happening. is changing a little bit. Drastically, I would probably say more than a little bit. It's interesting, this church, one of the churches I'm contracting with right now, it's a, let's call it a 200-person, 250-person church, physical church, here in Miami, Florida. It's a 100-year-old church.

Jeff Reed: Now, this time last year, it's coming up right now. It's coming up and celebrating its 100-year anniversary next week, two weeks. Like right now is when it kind of kicked off the ground. This 100-year-old church was basically replanted. It's a rejuvenation church plant kind of merge thing. It's kind of cool.

Jeff Reed: The church a year ago had 30 people. And it was, when I say next to dead, I'm not criticizing 30 people sitting in an 800 person worship center. I'm saying that like the average attendance of those 30 people, the average age was like 90 something. It was a very old, it wasn't that bad, but it was 60s, 70s, 80s.

Jeff Reed: No youth, no children, no young families, and it was dying slowly. And leadership came in and rejuvenated this church. But it's interesting. The church itself, if you ask the lead pastor of this physical church, um what one of the one of the things is over the past year that's greatly impacted the church growth and it brought people in what's helped disciple what's helped communicate what's helped elevate the level of spirituality in that church taking a 300 a 30-person church to just short of 300 really in the course of 12 months this guy will tell you digital digital was what did it And I'll tell you, with the digital work that I'm doing for him, I value organic SEO 100%.

Jeff Reed: And for a 250-person church, we are actually beating out mega and giga churches, multi-site churches here in Miami on organic SEO. Like the stuff we're doing is phenomenal. The stuff we're doing with AI, we're taking a sermon and obviously turning it into blogs. Everybody's doing that. Multilanguage, I'm taking an English sermon, taking it into Spanish, multiplying the spread. We're doing Bible studies, a small group Bible studies.

Jeff Reed: We're doing daily devotionals that's fed to the mobile app so that people are staying connected, where they can create small communities called circles where... Two, three, four, five people can go through a Bible study together and then digitally connect and encourage each other and pray for each other over the course of the week. We're taking a Sunday faith and bridging it over into a Monday through Saturday life. And the reality is that digital played a huge part in doing that. You see that Sunday faith bridged over to a Monday through Saturday life? I like that.

Jeff Reed: That's the first time I've said that. I want to call attention. I'm saying that. That's my line. Don't steal that. I've said it in different ways, but that's the best I've said it.

Jeff Reed: Sunday, faith. Monday, Saturday, life. Digital played a huge part in that. Did I feel cheap helping people get into the building? No. Did I feel like I was...

Jeff Reed: disrespectful to you guys and those that are doing ministry in digital spaces. Maybe a little bit. I felt worse with the other job I was doing. I won't get into that.

Jeff Reed: But the fact is, is that I can tell you names of people that read blogs, that found the church through search, that read blogs, that got them in the front door where they heard the Savior, where they connected, where they're serving, and where they're giving, all in the course of 12 months. And what a beautiful opportunity for people that think outside of the box. Yeah, okay, we get really frustrated with the physical church. I do too. But what an opportunity for us to come alongside them and help them with our expertise. Yeah, okay, they didn't.

Jeff Reed: They weren't too nice to us before. They didn't get us. I was called pastor of Photoshop for a while, mocked for the church online platform hand-raised button. I get it. I've been there. I've got the scars.

Jeff Reed: It's not a bruise. It's a bruise. It's not a tattoo. That's actually Dave Lopez. Thank you. I've got it here on my desk.

Jeff Reed: It's not a bruise. It's a tattoo. It's a bruise. It's not a tattoo.

Jeff Reed: But I do know this, there is a percentage of churches now that will listen. Not everybody has forgotten about COVID and the lessons that I've learned. And while the, especially in US, but even some of the international churches that I'm talking to and some of the international digital missionaries that we work with, they're talking about some of the struggles and pivoting back to the way that it was and really forgetting some of the digital lessons.

Jeff Reed: not everybody is that way. You're not wrong. You're just early. And I believe this right now. I believe that there's a wave of, while we may be the pioneers, we're still the pioneers in this. I believe that there's a wave of early adopting physical churches that are willing to lean in.

Jeff Reed: This church that I work with, by the way, you can go to humbledisruption.com, humbledisruption.com. I wasn't planning on talking about this. This is the church that, this is the startup company that I started really just trying to pay my bills.

Jeff Reed: I developed an AI system that does a lot of content management and sermon and web and mobile app and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But off of every English sermon, I create 17 HTML pages, different contexts, all SEO friendly. And so literally, this 200 person church, 250 person church has over a thousand page website. Talk about credibility among SEO. Like even ChatGPT is pointing people to this church. Like we've done an incredible job getting it organically fine-tuned.

Jeff Reed: We've written 2.5 million words this year. And by we, I mean the AI. I read it. I proof it. I edit it. But 2.5 million words for this church this year.

Jeff Reed: And it's working. It's helping get people connected to the church. And because we tied the same sermon to Daily Devotionals, which is the driving force behind the mobile app, because we connected Bible studies as well, it's not just getting people in the building. It's taking people that do come into the building and pulling them deeper into the discipleship system. We turned the sermon into the front door of the discipleship process, and it's all centered around digital.

Jeff Reed: I don't say this to goat, bloat, boast. I don't say this to brag. It's been a while since I've talked. That was weird. I don't say this to brag, but I say this, that there are people that are interested in this.

Jeff Reed: And it's easy to give up and move on. So Monday of last week, Monday at 3, I had a meeting that released me from my contract, full-time contract. And on the way, I did not want to tell this story. Dude, I forgot how to get the lo-fi to work, man. I've got to figure it out. My settings are off.

Jeff Reed: And I came in and pushed the button. It didn't come on. Lo-fi is coming back. I promise.

Jeff Reed: I couldn't also, I couldn't think of the name. It's Stream Beats by Hal. Is it Hal? No, it's not Hal Howler. Stream Beats by somebody. I couldn't think of the name of the artist.

Jeff Reed: It's been 10 months, bro. It's been almost a year. I don't know what I'm doing back here. I've forgotten everything.

Jeff Reed: That's funny, DeMarcus. Man, DeMarcus, I'll come back to the story. DeMarcus and Leighton. I don't know if Leighton's on here. I don't think I've seen him yet. These guys have done an incredible job keeping the streams going and the content going over the past year.

Jeff Reed: Man, I was AWOL. I was a freaking wall. I just was out of the loop.

Jeff Reed: I was just... not when i say not in a good place i said like i've said that before people are like should we take away your shoelaces and i'm like no no no i don't mean like i'm gonna kill myself just like mentally it was it was a very exhausting frustrating season because i wanted to be with you all i wanted to be involved i wanted to be here i wanted to be connected I couldn't get time. I couldn't get the structure. I couldn't get the life balance to make all of this happen to lead these teams. Coming back around, I'm excited that I'm in this position again that's allowing me the opportunity to rebuild and restructure for it.

Jeff Reed: It was funny. That actually leads into this. I was released from this contract on Monday at 3 o'clock.

Jeff Reed: And so on the way to the church, I had a meeting that came up that was like 1 o'clock at a Starbucks with a youth pastor, a friend of mine. And so I show up for this meeting at 1 o'clock. Hey, you know what? I'll sit here, have coffee, catch up with him, talk for a while. Well, I can hit the road and get to the church by 3. I didn't know I was being released.

Jeff Reed: I had no idea what the meeting was about. And so I stop at this youth pastor meeting in the Starbucks that I go to all the time and sit down with the guy. And we end up just talking, you know, chewing the fat, telling stories. I know this guy decently well, but really haven't talked to him maybe in a year or so. And so it was good. And we start...

Jeff Reed: I don't remember if he said something about depression first or if I said something about depression first. But we've both been kind of coming in and out of a depressive state over the past six months or so. And so kind of telling some stories about that and talking about that, encouraging each other. You know, two Christian guys opening up about that. I don't... I don't have that conversation with people outside of the church, I'll be honest.

Jeff Reed: I have that conversation with people inside the church. But I said something to the guy, to this youth pastor that surprised me. So I said to the youth pastor, I said, and by the way, I've been depressed over the past year or so. To be honest, I don't know if it's a lot of medicine to this day. I still don't know if it's just where I am in life or what's going on.

Jeff Reed: I don't know. I'm not going to take my life. I'm not doing any damage. It's nowhere near that level, but things are just off.

Jeff Reed: But I said to the youth pastor, I was like, you know, sometimes I think this depression is really just my physical body fighting against what God is telling me I need to do. And so those words came out of my mouth. Sometimes I think that my depression is my physical body fighting back against what God told me to do.

Jeff Reed: And as soon as I said that, I literally, I didn't say this to the guy, but in my mind, I'm having like an out-of-body mind experience conversation with myself where I say the words to myself after saying that sentence, where the hell did that come from? What? You've never thought that in your life. Sometimes I feel like my depression is my physical body fighting against what God is telling me to do.

Jeff Reed: And so in that moment, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna have to, I gotta have to sit on that. I'm gonna have to chew on that. That is something that's important. I've never had that thought before. I need to unpack that. I need to not forget it.

Jeff Reed: But that's gonna be an important thing in my life. Like that's important. And so we talked a little bit more. To be honest, at that point, we were kind of both looking at the clock and saying we got out of the meetings. He had to go do a first-party thing at a middle school near where the Starbucks was, like a youth pastor thing. And so we ended up separating and driving off.

Jeff Reed: And less than an hour later, I was, hey, Jeff, we really are not interested in your services anymore. And so you're released. And instead of being depressed, there was clarity of, well, God just told me what I need to do.

Jeff Reed: To this day, I told the guy who fired me, I understand the words that you're saying. I don't understand the reasons why you're saying you're releasing me. What I don't understand is how you can look at me and say that I've done these things. And it wasn't immoral, it wasn't unethical, it wasn't unbiblical, nothing at that. It was performance level. But the things that they were accusing me of doing my weaknesses are my strengths.

Jeff Reed: And it's like, that's not the problem. Like if you, that's not, that's not what's happening. But rather than fighting it, I looked at and I was like, God is pointing you in a different direction.

Jeff Reed: Now, paycheck would be nice. We're praying through that, working through that. I'm excited about Humble Disruption. I think there's a potential there if we could find some churches to line up on.

Jeff Reed: We'll talk more about that later. Digital plays a part. To me, the real challenge in 26, hey Troy, how you doing, man? The challenge for me in 26 is to set it up so that digital can make physical churches better.

Jeff Reed: That's my challenge. I do think that there's an opportunity for digital churches to still thrive, for digital missionaries to still exist. And I do think that there's a huge ministry opportunity there. And that pioneers like you need to be digging in and going down those roads. I still love the ministry that's happening in digital and virtual spaces. And we need people to be on that front line.

Jeff Reed: We need people carving out those roads to go down there. but we also need the reinforcements to be able to come along as well. And so while the pioneers are already fighting in the spaces of virtual reality and digital spaces, I think there's a season of early adopting that's coming where we're gonna get a lot of churches more on board on digital by solving the problems they have now and helping them see the potential of what could be. You know, we've talked about, crap, I don't know that we have talked about. We talk about hybrid ministry, physical and digital ministry. To me, I look at the standard of edge.

Jeff Reed: What does evangelism look like, E? What does discipleship look like, D? What does generosity look like, G? What does empowerment look like, E? What does edge look like through a physical church on your digital platform? Are you being evangelistic?

Jeff Reed: Are you utilizing digital for discipleship? Generosity, are you echoing? Are they able to give? Are they contributing even outside of physical? Are they contributing via digital mission and vision? And even empowerment, getting into equipping people to be missionaries in those spaces.

Jeff Reed: And that, for me, is an incredible opportunity. Like, if we can really get churches to catch that vision of edge, man, we could see some powerful stuff happen for the kingdom. It takes time.

Jeff Reed: It takes time. We're not weird, we're early. Now, the sad reality is that some of you doing ministry on the front lines in digital spaces in an environment that is far more toxic than the physical environments, by the way. Let's not kid ourselves. Some of you are not in good shape emotionally, spiritually. There have been stretches of my ministry career in digital space where I wasn't.

Jeff Reed: I've confessed that publicly to y'all. And so we, the Church Digital, we still need to be the support for that. You know, I've sat in the room with the DJ Soto's, the Mark Lutz's, that crew. You know, and they've said to me, Jeff, you're our pastor. Nobody else cares about what we're doing as much as you do.

Jeff Reed: Bishop DJ Soto calling me pastor. That was kind of a surreal moment. But the reality is, is that where no one is providing that pastoral care and support, we at The Church Digital need to.

Jeff Reed: And we will not abandon that. To me, that was the resonating thought. I don't know why I keep looking over here just off camera, but I'm just looking at myself, like looking off camera. That was the resonating thought when I was released.

Jeff Reed: I get to go back and I get to care and be part of a team that cares for the pioneering crew. Because right now, nobody cares about the pioneering crew. And there's huge opportunities. There's huge misses. I sent an email out yesterday to a mass email list announcing, so if you didn't get it, you're not on an email list. What's wrong with you?

Jeff Reed: Thechurch.digital, figure out how to get on an email list. But I got an email. I sent an email last night to yesterday morning to 5,000 people, 6,000, 7,000 people, basically saying I'm not dead yet and I'm coming back. And I had a lot of people reply. I had a ton of people reply back.

Jeff Reed: You know, welcome back. Glad you're here. Mostly positive. All positive. Well, mostly positive.

Jeff Reed: But there was an individual. There were a couple individuals. I'm not going to drop names. Digital missionaries, digital pastors, people I respect, people who have been on my streams and shows, people who have written blogs for The Church Digital that are hurting.

Jeff Reed: There are, it's funny with the new website, I actually started to do some deep research on who, on like where people are who have written blogs and who have been guests over the years. Like what are they doing now? Where are they?

Jeff Reed: I didn't write down the percentage number, but a strong percentage of them aren't doing ministry anymore. Like not even by vocational ministry, they be out. And that's not a bad thing necessarily.

Jeff Reed: But it's fascinating that that calling can get lost, ignored, shuffled, discarded under the pressure of life. Who was it? Was it Rachel that took Genesis? Rachel that took matters into her own hands? Abraham and Rachel?

Jeff Reed: I'm trying to think. Abraham, you're the father of many nations. They weren't pregnant. Rachel had the handmaiden go in and sleep with, which ended up being the head of the Arab nation, as I recall. But I can't think of the kid's name right now. The point being is that's biblical when we take things into our own hands and it doesn't work.

Jeff Reed: So many times I feel like that's me, if I confess, if I can't confess. I'm often taking things into my own hands. It's funny in my head, I'm like, well, but it's not that it doesn't work. It's just that you bullied, A, others away from the opportunity, and B, didn't wait for God to go with you, because if God went with you, it'd be better, or it'd be better aligned.

Jeff Reed: I'm looking forward to this next season with The Church Digital. We'll do an open office. No, open offices, I'm back on Tuesdays. Tuesdays and Thursdays, I believe, doing open offices. Tuesday, I'll do an open office early morning US time so that I can connect with our European and African friends. So you can look for that.

Jeff Reed: I'll also be in doing the stream here, two o'clock Eastern on Wednesdays. I want to go into a season here called the listening tour. I don't know how long I'm going to do this in my mind. I told my AI, I was like, yeah, I'll probably do it through the end of the year. I don't know if that's true, but I want to hear what's going on with you all. So through the open offices, through the streams, basically interview, talk, and learn what's going on in your ministry, in digital ministry.

Jeff Reed: I've been out of the game for a stretch. I haven't streamed in 10 months. The conferences kind of beat the junk out of me and I was already sick and not breathing and I was in bad shape. Elmichael would love to have a conversation with you among this. But the fact is, is that I wanna start to have conversations to learn about what's going on in digital ministry.

Jeff Reed: Because the reality is that I want to help. It's funny, I had a conversation with God. Every time there's a life change for me. Change of job, change of location, frustration, whatever. hey, God, is this my time to plant the church? I told you the story.

Jeff Reed: Actually, I have a check written to me already, to me directly from my pastor I had when I was growing up, because he believed that I was going to plant the church. And many people around me believe that I would one day plant the church. And so I had a conversation with God last week. God, is it my time to plant a church? And I'm not saying that the noise that I heard after that question was laughter, but I can for sure say that I am not planning a church in 2026. And so it's not my season to go.

Jeff Reed: It is still my season to help. In the church digital, the leadership that's here, Leighton, Ian, Stacy, J-Mo, I'm not sure if who else is on or what. I don't have the guest list open on my screen. We want to help purpose the outpost leaders. I could go on and on and on. We want to help in the ministry that's happening.

Jeff Reed: But for me, we're flipping the script. I don't want to build something and then try to convince... a digital missionary to use it. Been there, done that, didn't work real well. Instead, I want to figure out what the problems are, get word from the field, and then build towards that.

Jeff Reed: much more interested in meeting your needs directly instead of trying to guess and figure it out and build it on our own. It's a little slower that way. It's all right. God's got it. And we're good. So come hang out with me in an open office.

Jeff Reed: Come hang out with me in some of these streams as we start to dig into... What's going on? What's the scope of digital mission work look like in 2026 and beyond? And where the problems are and how we, the Church Digital, can help.

Jeff Reed: By the way, just a couple housekeeping, I guess is the word. A couple housekeeping items. Just kind of throw it out there. New website. Go check it out, thechurch.digital. Also updated...

Jeff Reed: missionary.digital, and launched a new website, hybrid.church. And so all three of those are existing. It's a family of sites. A lot of shared content between the two. The church digital is what is the, I think the word is canicle, but it's the owner of all the content. Everything happens at the church digital first, and then it pushes out to the other domains.

Jeff Reed: along the way, but coupled with those, coupled with the church digital launch, some couple new really fun features with that. And my friend Yotope, I don't think Yotope's on here. I think it was for a second, but Yotope's gonna appreciate this. Time zones suck. I mean, can we agree that? Like, you know, we say five o'clock Eastern.

Jeff Reed: That assumes it's UTC minus four unless it's in the winter in America, which means it's UTC minus five. I don't even know what UTC is. And so like it's times jumps around like crazy. I'm trying to have a meeting with Stacy in...

Jeff Reed: in the West Coast. Where is she? New Mexico? But is New Mexico in Pacific or is it in Mountain? What time of the year is that?

Jeff Reed: I want to talk to somebody in India, but they meet on the 30s. They're 30 minutes ahead or behind. They're the only country in the planet, the only time zone in the planet that's not aligned on the 00s. It's 30 minutes off. It's... It's very confusing.

Jeff Reed: Although I salute them for the entire country, India being all in the same time. That's impressive. Maybe one day. But we're launching a feature pretty soon. The church.digital slash events.

Jeff Reed: online calendar, all the events, all the open offices, all the streams, myself, Leighton, some others that we're going to start to pick up and push out. But the beauty of the Church Digital events, and hopefully even all the times listed on the Church Digital website, is all the times listed are going to be based on your time zone. working on the code now. That was one of the things I did till 3 a.m. last night when I was watching the tennis match.

Jeff Reed: But trying to fix it so that Utopia doesn't show up for a meeting at 10 o'clock when the meeting was from 9 to 10. And he shows up at 10 ready to, hey, I'm here. It's happened more than once. We've talked about it. We've laughed about it. It's funny.

Jeff Reed: But we want to have these things that are available for you. We want to hear from you on the open offices, on the streams, how we, the Church Digital, can help you. Jason and Nesh and others are going to be jumping in to helping on the equipping side. How can we build tools and resources to not just help you in digital ministry, but how to use digital in ministry and head in that direction? And then Ian Layton's Heading Up Community, heading into that space and doing a lot there. And I'm looking forward to working with a lot of our streamers and content creators and starting to figure out.

Jeff Reed: I mean, I'd love to pick up a couple more shows. I love the work that DeMarcus has been doing. I love the work that Leighton's been doing. Thankful I get to come back for another round myself of doing this and streaming on. I personally really want to see more international kick in.

Jeff Reed: somebody from India, somebody from Europe, somebody from Africa, somebody from Australia, Oceania. Get some other voices in here. By the way, if there's an Australian guy who's in digital ministry, or even gal, anybody with an Australian accent, I automatically do whatever they tell me. Like, I just love that accent so much. They could say, take off all your clothes, give me the wallet, and run around the neighborhood naked. I would probably do that without even thinking.

Jeff Reed: And so maybe don't do that if you do have an Australian accent. Don't take advantage of me that way. But in all seriousness, we do want to get more global, more international with the feeds towards that. And so look for that conversation coming soon as well here with The Church Digital. This is an incredible season. Now, one of the things that is interesting for us is that...

Jeff Reed: I'm going to say it differently. Yeah. Sorry about that. I had...

Jeff Reed: The church digital is the thing that I have ever done the longest in my life. I've never... Before the church digital, I never had a job longer than five years. I would, and I used to think it was character flaw. I've talked about this. You know, I'd work at a church for five years. I'd accomplished everything that I could.

Jeff Reed: I'd hit some walls. I'd get frustrated and go somewhere else. And so, like, I bounce around a lot. And I'll be honest, like, to me, lately, even my contracts are like six, 12 months. If I'm involved with somebody 18 months, two years, it's weird. Like, that's just, that's not the way that I operate.

Jeff Reed: Everything's quick. Run for a stint, get a team underneath, train well, and release. The AVL company I just sold had that for maybe four years, five years.

Jeff Reed: Stadia was two years, two and a half years. Exponential, I guess, was a year and a half, maybe a year. Leadership Network in there as well. I'm not the longevity guy.

Jeff Reed: And I don't think it's a bad thing. I'm just a builder. I like to build things. And what I discovered, well...

Jeff Reed: In this season of me working at the church and trying to figure out what God was calling me to do and the depression of me fighting against what I felt like God was calling me to do coming back here, I'll just be honest. We had lots of conversations and thoughts about what to do with the church digital. Like me, my wife, family, even leadership, getting in here. because time-wise, I wasn't able to give it what it was doing because I was getting pulled in too many different directions. If you've ever worked for a physical church, you understand.

Jeff Reed: And actually, I had the thought. I confess, I had the thought. If we shut down the church digital, would anybody even notice? I'm not proud of that thought.

Jeff Reed: But I did have it. It's been hard. It's been a hard stretch, a hard season. Even some of the accountability and resources that I've tried to bring in didn't pan out the way that I was hoping. Some of the donation help that I was wanting to get didn't come in. It's always been...

Jeff Reed: just short, just short, just short. And I'll be honest, there was a stretch where if I asked the question, would anybody really miss us? I really thought the answer was no. And it was about that season of me asking that question, I started to get the answers of yes. and started to hear other people's testimonies of how the Church Digital had helped, and how we were making strides, and how we were being used by God in ways that were different than what I was expecting, different than I was wanting. maybe not quantifiable to the level that I felt like I needed.

Jeff Reed: But that's just it. A lot of what I was looking for was things that I was deeming necessary when God was saying, here are the facts, you just need to accept it. Don't fight it.

Jeff Reed: And my depressive nature wasn't, once again, It was me, at this point emotionally, fighting against what God was telling me to do. I'm depressed because there is no purpose behind the church digital. When God is clearly showing me there is a purpose, I just was not looking the right way. I was not looking in the right areas. I was not asking the right people.

Jeff Reed: And I was defining what success was instead of letting God define what sex was. Sex was what success was. Sex. Well, this podcast just got a PG-13 rating.

Jeff Reed: Hey, Claude, let's go back. No, I'm kidding. I don't let Claude cut that. That'd be funny. All right.

Jeff Reed: We're looking for people to jump in with us. As a bivocational ministry, we're not going to slow down. Bivocational means that everybody that works with us has jobs outside of us. I don't get Leighton's primary. I don't get Leighton's secondary or thirdary or fourth, you know, tertiary, whatever the terms are. I get Leighton's fifths.

Jeff Reed: Same thing with Ian, same thing with Stacey. I mean, and to be honest, I don't give the Church Digital my primary either. That's not a bad thing, but it means that I can't mandate something and then all of a sudden everybody spends 40 hours a week putting that together.

Jeff Reed: But being bivocational doesn't mean we slow down or we back away from what God is calling us to do. It just means we involve more people in the process. And so we are looking for opportunities to connect with other people. to bring others in to the serving opportunities, to the leadership of the Church Digital Global. Met with a bunch of our people today. I'm just doing a quick head count.

Jeff Reed: Asia, Europe, America, I guess Africa. Yeah, so four continents we're on today. I want, yeah, this is about, I'm going to say it this way.

Jeff Reed: I want more voices in there so that we don't miss what God is doing in global space. And to me, it's the best meeting I do a month. Because I get to hear and see what God is doing in harsh areas and in not harsh areas. Some of our friends in India are under immense persecution right now.

Jeff Reed: Can get thrown up, can get thrown in jail, can get their lives taken away from them just at the mere perception of being a Christian and evangelizing specifically. Literally, there are missionaries living in India sharing the gospel who could be locked up in jail for preaching the gospel. Hey, thanks, Life Capture. Good to see you, man.

Jeff Reed: But that's the reality. And I'll be honest, a lot of my problems dwindle. When talking to the guy who can go to jail, can lose his marriage, his family, his life, at the mere suggestion of sharing Jesus with someone.

Jeff Reed: it's humbling, it's God-honoring, and it's an incredible opportunity to learn at a global level what God is doing and how, A, we can be a part, and B, we can take some of those lessons and help others in the same space. So reach out if you're interested. Check out the schedule. The rough of the schedule is at church.digital slash events, E-V-E-N-T-S. I'll actually update the calendar and get it in primary nav. Built it last night, this morning, and it's 90% there.

Jeff Reed: But if you're watching on demand, it'll be working by the time it gets there. The church.digital slash events, we'll have more streams and things lined up on that. Come hang out in the community, ask questions, lean in. If you're interested in connecting, talk to one of us in leadership. And we are looking for...

Jeff Reed: The mission hasn't changed. The vision hasn't changed. Maybe some of the delivery vehicles have. But the reality is that we want to help people get connected to God, and we want to see digital missionaries disciple people at a global level using digital, virtual, any method possible. So, y'all, that may be it for me. If you're watching on demand, feel free to drop a prayer request or something.

Jeff Reed: Give a holler out in chat. If you're watching in the chat room, man, thanks for hanging out with me. It was fun today having some people on the stream here live. Looking forward to what God has in store as we're coming back on Becoming the Church Digital episode 373 and beyond. Next week, you'll probably get me again, and then we'll get back into doing some interviews and things like that mid-September and beyond. Go check out the website, thechurch.digital, and everything that's on there.

Jeff Reed: Thanks, y'all. You have a good one. Bye.