What an Online Christmas Season Looks Like

[Tom Pounder] Today we're going to talk about what one church is doing this Christmas online and in person to minister to their community. What is it? Well, get ready because it's time. [Announcer/Intro Voice] You're listening to the Church Digital Sidekick Podcast, part of the TCD Podcast Network. [Tom Pounder] Hey heroes, my name is Tom Pounder and this is the Church Digital Sidekick Podcast. This is the podcast where ministry leaders come and we talk about how you can do ministry more effectively in this very digital and online world. And today I've got my friend Jake McNamara from Compass Church here with me. And Jake's been on the podcast before, but he does online ministry. And actually, a little tease, he does a little bit more than just online ministry. He'll talk about that on the interview. But Jake's going to be on, and we're going to talk about Christmas and what they're doing this Christmas to minister to their community. So we're going to talk about that, but before we get into that, I want to highlight thechurch.digital. At thechurch.digital, we have tons of resources, tons of blog posts, tons of podcasts, tons of coaching that you can get for your church for online ministry, whether it's digital ministry, metaverse ministry, or online ministry. We've got a lot of different resources for you to check out. So if you've never checked out thechurch.digital, do it today. I'll include the link in the show notes, but it's a great opportunity. to help get support and encouragement as you look to grow your ministry in the years to come. All right, so we're ready to begin the conversation. Let's talk to Jake McNamara about what they're doing this Christmas season online and in person to serve their community. Okay, with me right now is Jake McNamara. Jake, how are you, man? Doing great, Tom. How are you doing? I'm doing great. It's great to have you back on the podcast. It's been a while since you've been on, but we still follow each other on Twitter really regularly, so I still feel like I'm in touch with you. [Jake McNamara] Yeah, absolutely. Honestly, it's just the place where online pastors go to hang out and rub shoulders. [Tom Pounder] It's good. Well, let's just hope that Twitter stays. By the time this podcast goes, it may be gone. Who knows? Oh, man, I've been tracking at least a little bit. [Jake McNamara] Nuts. Everything in the world is nuts. And now, you know, Twitter was always included in that, but even more so. Yes, that's true. [Tom Pounder] So that's true. Well, Jake, I know who you are. And again, we've had some great conversations about online ministry in the past. But for anybody who doesn't know who you are, why don't you give a quick little bio about who you are and what you do? [Jake McNamara] Yeah, so Jake McNamara is the name. I work at the Compass Church, which is a church in the western suburbs of Chicago. Married, been married for almost 15 years, three kids that are nine, seven, and five. So life is crazy from the family end of things. At my church, I officially now wear two hats. I don't know that we've had that discussion at all. So I'm still the pastor of Compass Online. But we're a multi-site church and just ended up... um adopting another campus uh so i'm an in-person campus pastor there as well so uh days are full days are full i'm running two congregations yeah okay wait so is that a temporary thing or is that a kind of a permanent a temporary permanent thing [Tom Pounder] To be determined. I think from all ends of it, to be determined. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, well, we might have to talk about that depending on how long you hold that position, how that works. Yeah, so as our friend Jeffrey would say, that's very fidgetal of you. You've got the in-person aspect and you've got the online aspect. Absolutely. And then Dave Adamson would cringe at that word, but there you go. Yes, absolutely. And then they could fight maybe. No, just kidding. Dave, Jeff, we don't want you to fight. Okay. Well, as we're in this holiday season, I thought it'd be good just to start us off before we get into what we're going to talk about. It's just, I would love to hear from you. What is something that you're thankful for? What is something that you're really excited about in your ministry right now? [Jake McNamara] yeah in terms of being thankful for uh finally have a second person at our church helping with compass online so nice had hired her name's cassie absolutely great and there's just something recharging overall about having another person who's in the day in day out thinking through ministry and how to do it digitally and do it well um so it's just been a really reinvigorating thing for me personally been incredibly thankful for it that's awesome and do you guys actually is she in person like where do you guys get to meet together and be in person or is it all online stuff It's more online than not. So she lives about an hour away from our campuses. But it's one where about once a week, I see her in person. And once a week, I see her online. And it's been a good thing so far. That's awesome. From all ends. [Tom Pounder] yeah that's awesome that's very encouraging so that's great that's something i very encourage you to be thankful for i'm actually just thankful for that i get to have conversations and talk with people like you because you know online ministry can be very isolating and you know when you're In my experience, I see a lot of churches going back to not doing as much online. So to be following people like you is just really encouraging to me because having these conversations, I'm like, man, it just kind of blows my mind. I'm like, I want to do this now. So you guys really inspire me. So I'm thankful I get to have these conversations because it really encourages me in my ministry and helps me not feel so isolated. And I like listening to them every week. That's great. That's great. All right. Well, let's get into what we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about Christmas. And you guys have, we've talked about Christmas with your church in the past, but I just want to talk about what you guys are going to do this year for Christmas, because I still think there's time for people. especially from an online perspective, to hear different things and say, hey, we could do that this Christmas at our church. It's still possible for us to do that. So why don't you share with me a little bit about what you guys are doing, and then we can kind of break it down a little bit more. [Jake McNamara] yeah so we'll start with the large concept of just what's our theme for our christmas eve services um in particular and really what that comes down to is just very common thing of peace on earth and we're using a whole snow globe motif um so just as a real big spoiler alert it's going to snow in person and for our online recordings and it's going to be a lot of fun oh that's great going to be a lot of fun. So that's kind of the starting point of all of it is just we craft message out with everything we do for every online and in-person service. And this is no different. So we kind of do it in two different ways because we're the oddball church that still pre-records and we'll pre-record just about everything. And this year's no different. So we're trying to work some different cinematography aspects into what we're doing for our online recording. And the fun part of that is we'll take what we do for online and then reuse it at our in-person locations to give them some different video elements mixed into everything else that's happening. That's awesome. [Tom Pounder] Okay, so again, since you do pre-record, have you already recorded it or are you getting ready to record it? [Jake McNamara] November 30th is the date for recording. So it's right around the corner for us. [Tom Pounder] That's great. And so break down what your Christmas Eve services will look like. Is it an hour long? Yeah. Yeah. So talk to me a little bit about the different elements in your Christmas services. [Jake McNamara] Yeah, absolutely. So for our online, we try to keep it for a high holiday, 40 to 45 minutes. In-person is going to be closer to 60 to 65. But overall, not doing anything crazy in terms of the structure of our service. But it'll be kind of an icebreaker moment up at the top. Going to be playing some games together. So that'll be a little bit of fun. And then moving into our time of worship and all of that. And then we'll mix some video elements in just kind of like the bumper for those that are kind of in that realm of church ministry and understand all of that kind of language. And then we'll dive straight into the message and then we'll break it up into a couple of small. parts um and then when we get ready to close it it's the um our worship team has pulled together an original song for this year which we're really excited about um that's when it's gonna snow which i'm really excited about nice um and then our church just tradition for as long as i've been there which is a decade and a half at this point is just ending with the candlelight singing of silent night And it's encouraging everybody online, grab a candle, take a picture, share it to social media, use a hashtag, right? Like let's make it known that this really is a community. Yeah, that's awesome. I love that. [Tom Pounder] And will you be giving the message or do you have a different role in the service? [Jake McNamara] Yeah. So I would be like the online host and emcee and vision caster, but I'm not the one who's giving the message. That's our main teaching pastor. Yeah, that's very similar to me. [Tom Pounder] You know, so I have different roles in the Christmas service. But again, the main message comes from our senior pastor. So that's cool. OK, so let me ask you about then when will you be showing this and how often will you be showing it? [Jake McNamara] yeah so we uh have landed on the uh week of christmas is when we will premiere on youtube and then we'll leave it up okay um so the 19th of december is when our christmas eve service will go live and we found it's been a good invite tool a good way for people to get a taste of and then if they're in the area they can decide to walk in the doors and get a little bit of a different experience But it's also a good way for our congregation to, one, share, but two, to let their friends and family know a little bit more of what they're going to be getting into. There's always a big hesitancy walking in the door of a church, especially if it's not something you're used to doing. We found just being able to do a prerecorded message that's meant to live online, that's a very similar message and concept, but also slightly different. It's a really good bridge for doing just that, inviting your friends to come. [Tom Pounder] That's great. And will you be sharing that on other platforms or just on YouTube? [Jake McNamara] yeah so we still work through chop as well um we'll just do two services on christmas eve um probably about two hours apart is where it's landed on all of it um but beyond that everything else will be we'll do the premiere early and then it'll just be up and running but if people want the live chat experience or just the sense of community that comes with gathering with other people at a specific time we do have two of those options open [Tom Pounder] That's great. That's fantastic. Now, here's the million dollar question here, because I know there's much debate on this. Will you be doing a Christmas Day service? [Jake McNamara] Yeah, so yes and no is the complicated answer to that. We are going to not do an in-person service at any of our locations except for one. So just one of our campuses out of the five will be doing an in-person. But we are doing a separate devotional with all of us campus pastors kind of coming together and doing a video element for like a family Christmas devotion. So we are truly pushing people online. [Tom Pounder] That's actually really encouraging. So are you encouraging your other campuses, if they want that in-person experience on Sunday morning for Christmas Day, to go to that one particular campus? [Jake McNamara] Yes. Yep, absolutely. And the rest of us get a break. [Tom Pounder] That's great. I think that's a good balance, to be honest, because I think I've heard so many conversations about you have to have it on Christmas Day and it has to be in person and all this stuff. And I just think there's a lot of both. You can do both and, you know, so. [Jake McNamara] we wanted to make sure that we weren't burning out our staff our volunteers and when we were really sitting down and going and wrestling through it was the value more of getting everybody together or having people have a family moment together and for us in this season we just wanted people around their christmas tree to have the chance to just have a family moment together before they move on with the rest of their day Yeah, I love the devotional aspect that you guys have and that you're going to be doing. And I'm assuming you're going to be sharing that on YouTube as well. Yeah. So we are, again, with the whole snow globe motif, we're giving out at all of our in-person locations, and we're going to give directions for people online to do it, but handing out a snow globe that they can build themselves at home. And mixed in with that, there's going to be two QR codes, one for the devotional and one just for a bunch of worship songs that our worship team has recorded and pulled together. And it'll just be a playlist for people to have in the background as they're opening their presence. I love that idea. [Tom Pounder] I'm taking notes because that's what I'm going to look at doing for next year. I think that's a fantastic idea. I love how creative. That's why I love talking to you because you guys just really think outside of the box and think of different ideas. I love what you guys are doing over at Compass. That's fantastic. That's Christmas Eve and Christmas Day kind of stuff, but you're also doing a game night. What's the game night about? [Jake McNamara] Yeah, so this goes back to don't neglect the power of a good survey and just asking people what they want. As Cassie and I were just kind of wrestling through what's going to be the next best thing to connect with everybody that's joining Compass Online. we had a lot of different ideas wanted to try a bunch of different things do we do something in person do we do something online do we do something hybrid do we figure out uh we were just wrestling and really as we were wrestling landed on let's just ask So for a couple of week period, we would put a QR code up on the screen for our online services and we bribed people. We offered the, you know, we would pull one winner for whoever filled out the information to let us know what they most wanted from us with some Compass Church swag, some shirts or whatever. And it was just a great way to incentivize it and get people to give their honest feedback. And we were blown away that... by far the most popular feedback we got was can we just do a digital game night wow um so we're working through you know the things that aren't out of the ordinary uh but we're gonna do some in-home minute to win it kind of things we're gonna do like a jeopardy kind of concept just sit down have fun and be a community during christmas time Okay, so are you going to do this on Zoom? [Tom Pounder] Yeah, well, Teams was going to be just that. But yeah, same concept. Same concept. And so you're encouraging families to participate together in these different variations of games? Absolutely. yeah that's awesome i what encouraged me about your online game night is that when we were really starting off in the pandemic you know everybody was doing stuff with zoom and everything and then you kept on hearing the zoom burnout and all that kind of stuff and then so instead of like continually do like cut back a little bit and continue to do so people just cut back completely and stop doing zoom And I still think it's a tool that we can use to connect with people. And the simple fact that you're doing this Christmas game night with families, that's so fun. That's just a really fun and creative way to engage your community. [Jake McNamara] yeah and you brought up a great point i think at the beginning of the pandemic everybody used zoom as the only tool as opposed to just a tool and a option or an option sorry uh any english majors out there but as we were you know going through it we've just landed on we don't want to completely neglect it people know how to use it we can still do things with it but we don't have to solely do things with a tool like that And I think that helps get away from the fatigue and burnout of Zoom that everybody was dealing with a year and a half ago, two years ago. [Tom Pounder] Yeah, definitely. [Jake McNamara] That's awesome. And when are you doing that? What day are you doing that? It'll be a Thursday night, if I'm remembering the dates correctly, middle of December. So I'm trying to get... well ahead of Christmas yeah um but close enough too that we can still do some Christmas theme yeah and I'm assuming you're you'll do some promotion for your Christmas services and all that kind of stuff on that yeah that's already started all right are you doing um are you doing any giveaways during that um game night too like fun giveaways we haven't landed on that yet but now that you bring that up I'm taking notes I think that's a great idea yeah that's a great idea [Tom Pounder] Yeah. Well, I'm just used to working with teenagers. And so the only thing I can get them to do anything is I have to bribe them with a gift card or something like that. [Jake McNamara] I play to win, but some people play to win things. So that's a really good call. [Tom Pounder] There you go. There you go. Okay. Well, the last thing I want to hit on is that you talked about your podcast and the Christmas season podcast theme. Talk to me a little bit about that. [Jake McNamara] yeah so uh we landed on needing some ancillary church-based content for the compass church and just based on bandwidth and personality and styles landed on a podcast called midweek at the compass and the intent of it is just to have further faith conversations around what we're talking about for a weekend message for christmas season we're doing kind of an abrupt shift So we are making it fully just random Christmas themed elements, but it's been really fun. So I'm recording a podcast here in two hours from when you and I are recording this with our senior pastor to kick all of that off. So his name is Jeff Griffin, and he's big into using props. Every message always has some tangible prop that gets mixed in and worked into his sermon. So don't spoil it for me, but on our podcast today, we are going to do the props of Christmas past, and I'm going to be just quizzing him on the eight years that he's been at the Compass Church. Let's talk about the props he's used for Christmas. What does he remember? What's been his favorite? All of that sort of stuff. But moving past that, we realized that there's a lot of other things that happen within the Christmas season. And our church is just kind of uniquely wired to be able to talk about some of it. So we have a multicultural and multilingual staff. So we decided to have a conversation around just what are Christmas traditions in different continents across the country. So... We have a guest services pastor who's from South Sudan. We have a worship leader who's from Ecuador. We have a kids pastor who's from Greece. Just like what are things that are part of their heritage and experience? And then what can we ultimately learn from it? What have they carried over to the States? And then what still unites all of us, even with all the different experiences? Because I shared my Christmas traditions and they're not as exciting as theirs. My Christmas tradition is I watch Christmas vacation every Thanksgiving, right? Like it's a different bar than what some of them pull off. [Tom Pounder] Yeah, dude, that is awesome. I actually saw that they were on TNT or TBS, one of the stations that they had the Christmas vacation already on one night this week. And I was like, wow, I mean, I love Christmas, but I'm like, wow, that's they're getting really into it right now. [Jake McNamara] yeah um we'll also we're recording with uh one of our worship leaders just to talk about Christmas music the song that they're writing and recording uh but most importantly I think from my seat is the the last week before Christmas we've already recorded a conversation with the spiritual director um really just to make sure like how can we intentionally carve out time in the midst of hurry and busy and last minute Christmas shopping and last minute plans and family and work gatherings and all of that. How can we actually use a podcast to carve out intentional space to just slow down? And that's something that I like a lot because I don't slow down very well or very often. Shame on me for that. But if I'm struggling with it, I know other people are as well. Just so how can we kind of take a concept like that and turn it into something usable on a podcast? [Tom Pounder] Wow, that's awesome. I mean, I think that message is really important because, as you know, I mean, Christmas is a great time of year. It's a wonderful time of year. It's just like this magical feeling. But there's a lot of stresses that people go through. And so for you to focus them again just on what the real meaning of Christmas is and just about settling down and focusing on Christ, I think that's awesome. That's great. And so have you already, so wait, you have not started the podcast theme for Christmas yet. It's coming up in the next week or so. [Jake McNamara] Yeah, it will be released starting next week. Most of it's recorded. I think we've got one to go, two to go. [Tom Pounder] And is this, it's just a separate podcast or it's just one of the, it's the same podcast that you're always doing, like same hosts and all that kind of stuff. It's just, you're choosing a different theme. [Jake McNamara] Yeah, so the latter. It's the same host, so me as the host, same concept of bringing on guests. But instead of just having a conversation around the weekend message, it's let's just talk all things Christmas. Let's have a little bit of fun with it. [Tom Pounder] Yeah, that's awesome. Okay, that is fantastic. Okay, so since you've already brought it up, one of your traditions is to watch Christmas Vacation. Do you have any other traditions as we kind of wrap up, like just you and your family? [Jake McNamara] all right so i'm going to be ashamed to admit this but because i'm talking to a friend here let's do it so back when i was young my parents decided that they weren't going to promote santa but they weren't going to do anything else with it it was always just a what do you think kind of thing yeah so as we were young all of a sudden we started getting one christmas gift a year that was from santa claus and very quickly we realized that that one gift a year was always socks and underwear So that tradition has now lived on, but the best part of it is we're doing it with our kids now and they know what the gift is. Like they figured it all out really quickly, but the best part of all of it is my seven-year-old, my middle daughter sat down with us this Christmas season. And it's like, dad, why does Santa Claus only bring us socks and underwear, but he brings other people so many cool things. It's like, oh, kid, I'm ruining it for you. I'm sorry. But it's also like, I love it. [Tom Pounder] Oh, my gosh. That is hilarious. That's really funny. So that's awesome. Well, Jake, this has been awesome talking with you about Christmas and what you guys are doing at your church. As we kind of wrap up, is there any final thoughts that you would have or any final encouragement that you would give us from an online ministry? [Jake McNamara] yeah i'd love to do two things one everybody just don't neglect the power of an invite whether that's a video invite whether that's a pdf whether it's an email blast to your subscriber lists whatever it looks like there are so many ways that you could creatively come up with a good invite to encourage people towards the next step um just always be intentional right like that's shame on us if we are not doing everything we can to creatively broadcast the good news and get people to resonate and connect with it yeah um the last thing I would say is just Tom I would love to know one thing that you guys are doing for Christmas oh gosh well one thing that we're doing for Christmas um is you know one of the things I like to do is [Tom Pounder] i i do i i believe so we use chop as well and we use youtube but um we don't pre-record our stuff but what we what i do is i like to take the the christmas eve service and after we're done with our services to post that every hour on the hour through Christmas Day. And this year, we do have one service in person that we're going to have for Christmas Day at our church. And I'll take that then and post that every hour on the hour for Christmas Day. And I just feel like, again, with that, we have an opportunity to reach people that we may not be able to reach locally, that someone in a far off land might want to you know, catch a Christmas service. And lo and behold, it's showing at midnight our time, but six o'clock p.m. their time or something like that. So that's something that we've been doing. And something I like to do is just take it and share it every hour on the hour and just see what God does with that and see if we can get any new interactions there. that's a great call I like that so well thanks I appreciate that um but uh yeah we we really need to start looking at we need our church needs to start planning further ahead so that we can have some of the stuff and it's just it it's a lot of churches we all are like this and so that's why I like talking to you guys you guys are so far pre-recorded on stuff it's like it's awesome I actually talked to another church the other day that they had already finished their Christmas record and I'm like man It's not even November 15th and you're already recorded, but I mean, it's good for them. It's good. Yeah. All it does for me is alleviate stress, right? [Jake McNamara] Like if we have more things done ahead of time, then I just feel more comfortable. [Tom Pounder] That's all it comes down to. 100%, 100%. Well, Jake, it's always great having you on. As we wrap up, just how can people connect with you? Where would you leave them? [Jake McNamara] Yeah, Twitter, Instagram, I'm at JakeMac84 on both of those. Twitter is probably the best bet, at least as we are recording this for right now. But, you know, we'll see how that all adds up. [Tom Pounder] Yes. And I'll include Jake's profiles in the show notes so you guys can just click on those and start following him. He's a great follow. He's a great encouragement. And if you're looking at some online ministry encouragement, definitely be following Jake today. Jake, thanks so much. Have a great Thanksgiving. Have a great Christmas too. You as well, Tom. We'll talk again soon. Okay, so what did you think? Man, I love it when Jake is on the podcast. In fact, I shared with him after we finished recording the episode. I was like, man, I love it. I learned so much and it's so encouraging to hear what they're doing and the thought process they have. on doing it and the fact that they're willing to try new things in different things even going back to the christmas game night where that would have been something we would have done like two years ago they're still doing it why because they surveyed their community and they figured out that's something that they're really interested in so let's do it so i'm really excited to hear from him later about how that worked out and about their christmas services as well but what encouraged you during this episode what would challenge you what questions do you have definitely put in the comment section below or you can hit me up on Twitter that's where I love to live assuming it's still there when this goes live but it's gonna be there I have a feeling it's gonna be there but the reality is You can hit us up on Twitter at TA pounders my Twitter handle Jake's in the show notes. Definitely talk to us a little bit more I love to hear what you're learning and also what you're doing this Christmas season for your community All right, heroes. Well, thanks so much for joining me. As always, if you enjoyed it, definitely subscribe to it. Go to YouTube and subscribe to the church at digital. Subscribe to it. Go to all the other platforms such as Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It's on there as well. Subscribe to it so you can get these when they come out. All right, heroes. Well, I hope you have a great rest of your day, a great rest of your week. Until next time, have a great one.