The Church Digital Podcast

If there's a lesson the church needs to learn in this Global Pandemic: Physical Church & Church Online need to learn to play together nicely. In the pre-COVID season of our life (that was merely two months ago) Physical Church was king of the hill, leaving Church Online as the red-headed stepchild. In the midst of COVID, Church Online is the only game in town as the Physical Church doors are l...

In the midst of this pandemic, we're taking a moment to talk with one of the pioneers of the Church Online movement. Nils Smith was there from practically day one, diving into Church Online when the social media platform of choice was MySpace (yes, Myspace). This conversation is unique in that Nils isn't a a technology expert, at his own declaration. Nils is really good at reading, anticipating cu...

COVID-19 has brought a lot of confusion into the church. It's hard enough to be an existing church navigating this season. Try being a church that hasn't even launched yet. That's where Ray Hudson found himself. A Church Plant slated to launch Fall 2020, Ray launched early, digital only. And this is what makes Ray interesting. Ray is running a digital only church, but not wanting to limit himself...

When we look at the idea of a Phygital Church, one that truly utilizes digital and physical, there is going to be a tension of who is priority? The majority of churches spun up their Church Online quickly in order to do ministry in this COVID-19 season. Did we learn anything in this season? Or are we attempting to go back to status quo? The idea of a digital first mentality is challenging to some,...

What does a church look like in Virtual Reality? Greg Nettle, President of Stadia Church Planting and DJ Soto, Lead Pastor of VR Church... who's discipling and shepherding people in the digital community of Altspace VR (and Rec Room)... jump in on a conversation helping to redefine what the digital church looks like tomorrow... scratch that... what the digital church looks like today. COMPLETE SHO...

In the hectic-ness to build a Church Online, we often forget the biggest part... okay, Jesus is the biggest part. Didn't mean to Jesus juke you there. So let's call it the second biggest part, and no I'm not talking sermons. Church, we are in the people business. Oftentimes that gets forgotten among all the hectic-ness of COVID-19, or life in general. Church, we cannot automate away discipleship....

We're wrapping up here on our our 3rd part of the Biblical Functions of a Digital Church. We've covered the easy stuff coming into this episode. What's left is the hard stuff. Justice. Compassion. Mission. Body Ministry. How do you do these things digitally? Global Mission? Local Mission? All of a sudden, there's a challenge to Digital-Only church. I'm not saying that it's impossible. I am saying...

What is a Digital-Only Church? Well, thanks to COVID-19 we've got maybe a couple hundred thousand of them right now in America. Pre COVID-19, though, the idea was quite controversial. Stadia is passionate about planting Digital-Only Churches, and even still in this COVID-19 season we're still wrestling with how to make Digital-Only churches effective. To that end, I want to present this conversati...

The hardest thing in Church Online is meeting people. I recently had an online pastor tell me that he had over 500,000 people attend Easter services online and thru television, but only collected 11 connect cards over the entire weekend. Meeting people through our Online Services can be a difficult thing to do. I've been learning something with this new Stadia relationship... Rather than going big...

Covid-19 is challenging, stretching the Church. As we've discussed... the Church has responded well, but at what cost? Our newfound love of Digital Church in this season of Coronavirus has churches growing at incredible rates, but the consensus of many of our pastors and staff is that this environment, at the pace and expectation we're executing, is becoming unmanageable. There are pending philoso...

Church, you should be celebrated. You survived Easter 2020 Church Online. A month ago most of you weren't even broadcasting online, and now you just completed the biggest Sunday of the year. Congratulations!!! Well, what now? As we continue the learning experience that is this Coronavirus season, there's a word we all need to learn... PHYGITAL: the combination of Physical and Digital. You see, we...

Don't forget about the Kids & Students. In the midst of the Coronavirus season, with the pressure of Easter looming, what are we doing with Kids and Student ministry? Like everything else in the church world today, everything is new. All the playbooks, all the strategies are done. While we're reinventing church for adults, don't forget we need to reinvent church for kids and students. Enter in...

My favorite part of this podcast episode is that it is everything I expected it to be, and I had set the standard very, very high.. Larry Walkmeeyer is the Lead Pastor of Light and Life Christian Fellowship in Long Beach, CA. Larry is also author of one of my favorite books of 2020, The Mobilization Flywheel. The heart of this episode with Larry is centered around multiplication, disciple-making,...

You know that playbook you had? The strategy that you built for your church? For the foreseeable future it's trash. Not to mention, when the dust settles on this COVID-19 season, I don't think we'll recognize the world we'll see. So, in the midst of this new season, how does the church find its voice? This is the heart of this podcast, bringing in friend of the pod, Ben Stapley, one of the lead ch...

What is the role of the Church? In this Coronavirus season, that is a difficult question. How do we broadcast our church service online? By far this is the most popular question the church is asking in this Coronavirus season. While it's a valid question to ask, for me a much more interesting question is: How do we stay on mission? Better yet, in this new Coronavirus Season, has our mission, has o...

Evidently, even the Easter Bunny has to worry about Social Distancing. So, have you come to the realization yet that Easter is only going to be online yet? Or are you still holding out hope that the world will somehow miraculously solve a global pandemic in the next couple weeks? It's time to embrace the facts. Easter is going to be online. What we do with Easter in the midst of Coronavirus? How d...

Need a break from coronavirus? I hear you. Hopefully this podcast is what you're looking for. My favorite book so far in 2020 has been Daniel Im's No Silver Bullets . Yes, it was written 5 years ago and I'm late to the party, but the book hit me with the right message at the right time. Discipleship, Disciple-making, Multiplication, On-Mission... whatever the term is... I've been noticing that a l...

The Church [Office] has left the building as well. But how do we office, how do we as a church staff function digitally? This is the heart of today's conversation. And we brought in experts: Janie Mehaffey and Heidy Tandy. Janie and Heidy work with Stadia Church Planting, a 100% virtual office company with 50+ employees scattered across 20+ states. How do you lead people when they're not gathered...

Well, church, we survived. Coronavirus took its shot at us, and we made it. We survived. We figured out how to stream the service. How awesome. We did it! Wait, so it's not just one week? We have to do this again? Two weeks? Three? August? Are you kidding me?!?! Church, we survived. Church Appreciation Sunday is a fact. Church Online Platform reports over 10,000 new accounts created. Countless mor...

"Reducing large gatherings." - President Trump said it in his broadcast Wednesday night. Whether Coronavirus gets to a full-fledge pandemic here in America, we are seeing the effects culturally. Virtually, all of us are on lockdown at this point. What's next? Here's our reality. Our world, our culture is being impacted by Coronavirus. How is your church responding? Church Online is part of the sol...

Whether coronavirus is a legitimate fear or not is not the topic of conversation here. Fact is, we face all sorts of city-wide emergencies on a regular basis. Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Earthquakes, Bitter Cold... Institutional churches face challenges like this on a regular basis in situations that prevent them from gathering. So what's the plan? How would your church respond in a situation where you...

What makes a successful Digital Church? Church Online? Church overall? What is it? I'll tell you what it's not: our Sunday morning attendance numbers... yet this is where many of our analytics (and attention, for that matter) stop. A quote from Ed Stetzer years ago has always haunted this line of thought for me: "When you build your churches like theaters, don't be surprised when your parishioners...

Can a digital-only expression of church hold up to the Biblical standard of a church? This is the question that we, here at The Church Digital and Stadia Church Planting, are wrestling with. Can you create community online? Sure! Can you worship? Of course! Can you pray digitally? We do all the time... can you operate as a church exclusively in digital space? Therein lies the topic of the podcast,...

The hardest lesson I've learned in my technology-based ministry life can be boiled down into five simple words: it's not about the tech. What is it about, you ask? Enter Aaron McClung, President & CEO of AM, a Creative Agency that works with churches, non-profits, and corporations doing, well, creative things. The company pivoted several years ago because it discovered something: its clients d...

What if we ran Church Online not like a Pastor would run a church, but like a missionary would run a missional movement. Crazy idea, I know. But that's really what we set out to do through Christ Fellowship Miami years ago. To that end, we're introducing Mike Christian to The Church Digital Podcast today. Mike worked with Jeff over at Christ Fellowship Miami as the Online Small Groups director. Mi...