The Church Digital Podcast

Church Online is relatively new, and while many churches are broadcasting services online, few are developing a digital strategy using Church Online. What if your church looked at Church Online as a digital mission field? What if church online was used to create biblical community? For church planting? For launching multisite campuses? Can discipleship happen online? What if we used Church Online to make disciples, empowering them with Gospel to reach their family and friends? All of a sudden, Church Online isn't an afterthought. It's vital. This, and more, through The Church Digital Podcast.

The Church Digital Podcast is a religion podcast hosted by Jeff Reed, with 372 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Jeff Reed hosts The Church Digital Podcast, a religion show with 372 episodes published.

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  Episode #377

  EP377: A Global View of Platforms as Places with Jason Morris

  Oct 1, 20261h 2m

  What does it mean to treat a platform as a place? Jason Morris, theChurch.digital's equipping and mobilization director, had just taken his "Platforms as Places" talk to mission leaders at the Missio Nexus conference in Orlando. On Becoming theChurch.digital he tells Jeff Reed how the room responded, and walks through the four digital disruptions he landed on preparing it: consistency, proximity, permanency and immediacy. They talk about why consistency, not geography, is what builds culture now; what the gathering is actually for; why mission organizations should budget for platforms the way they do mission fields; Jesus as the church's chief technology officer; ministry without proximity, from Paul to 2 John 12; whether theChurch.digital feels too American; new AI tools for missionaries; and Jason's closing case for digital obedience: if you disciple someone digitally, make their obedience steps digital too. In Jason's words: "Jesus is our chief technology officer as he is building his church." CHAPTERS 0:00 Live by accident, and back from Missio Nexus 4:51 Four digital disruptions: consistency builds culture 11:38 Gather for what? 16:13 Platforms as places, on the Missio Nexus stage 24:21 Jesus as CTO 30:05 Joy without proximity, and 2 John 12 39:53 Too American? A survey and a WhatsApp ask 41:33 153 Collective and AI tools for missionaries 51:45 Digital obedience: prayer-walking a feed 56:34 After the show: why we're listening one-on-one His DMC session, Platforms as Places: Rethinking the Digital Map: https://youtu.be/_wqNF3cmWlU Going deeper: What is a digital missionary? https://thechurch.digital/guides/what-is-a-digital-missionary/ Online discipleship: https://thechurch.digital/guides/online-discipleship/ Theology of digital church: https://thechurch.digital/guides/theology-of-digital-church/ --- Becoming theChurch.digital is the show for church leaders figuring out digital ministry in public. https://thechurch.digital @bethechurchdigital Full notes, chat and shorts: https://thechurch.digital/377

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  Episode #376

  EP376: The Stream Ends. Then What? Arno Pretorius on Church That Keeps Going

  Sep 30, 20261h 25m

  The stream ends. Then what? Arno Pretorius, founder of Kingdom Spaces (Next Is Faith) in South Africa, has spent two years and about 2,800 hours building an answer, largely on his own. On Becoming theChurch.digital he tells Jeff Reed what he found when he looked at how churches actually work week to week: not a lack of technology, but tools so fragmented that the Sunday gathering and the rest of the week feel like different churches. They talk about the person who has watched a church's YouTube thirty or fifty times and still isn't connected to anyone, why notes are the feature churches underestimate most, turning anonymous viewers into people who are known, the 250,000 hours of church content that go up every Sunday, why the church should own its own platforms, and what accountability looks like in a digital church. Arno's advice for a church whose stream ends with nothing after it: decide what the stream is for. Jeff's: if he led a church under a hundred people, he'd double down on digital. In Arno's words: "I would say success is if we can convert those anonymous people into people that are known." CHAPTERS 0:00 Welcome, and next week's Town Hall 7:18 Meet Arno, and a call into digital ministry 14:09 What Kingdom Spaces is: one church, not two 18:02 Two years building alone, and a digital ark 20:21 What churches actually lack 24:24 The stream ends. Then what? 27:54 Notes: what churches underestimate most 33:21 Bad days, and how many AI agents 44:45 Success: from anonymous to known 50:46 250,000 hours of church every Sunday 54:19 Why the church should own its platforms 58:40 Coaching churches, and what accountability means 1:08:00 First advice: know why you stream 1:10:54 Small churches should double down on digital 1:17:10 Chat in the room and online 1:23:46 Closing: the gap between Sundays Kingdom Spaces: https://kingdom.online Follow: @kingdomspaces · @nextisfaith Going deeper: What is a digital missionary? https://thechurch.digital/guides/what-is-a-digital-missionary/ Hybrid church: https://thechurch.digital/guides/hybrid-church/ Church online: https://thechurch.digital/guides/church-online/ --- Becoming theChurch.digital is the show for church leaders figuring out digital ministry in public. This season: The Listening Tour — less broadcasting at digital ministry, more listening to where it actually is. https://thechurch.digital/guides/what-is-a-digital-missionary/ https://thechurch.digital @bethechurchdigital Full notes, chat and shorts: https://thechurch.digital/376

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  Episode #375

  EP375: Platforms as Nations: Dr. Sam Hayes on Digital Missiology

  Sep 23, 20261h 12m

  Digital platforms now hold more sustained human gathering than the streets of most nations. So what happens when the church stops treating them as tools, and starts treating them as mission fields? This week on Becoming theChurch.digital, Jeff Reed sits down with Dr. Samuel L. Hayes Jr., author of Global Digital Missiology: A Framework for Christian Leadership in the Digital Age (ElevateInk Academic, 2026). THE BOOK Sam's book, with a foreword by Jeff Reed, gives digital ministry what it has mostly been missing: a missiology. Grounded in research with apostolic leaders across six continents, it lays out the Nine Processes of Global Digital Engagement - how to build the plan, develop the team, and execute the strategy - so digital mission is strategic rather than accidental. https://amzn.to/3T5Dxq1 WHAT WE'LL TALK ABOUT - Why platforms function like nations, and what "make disciples of all nations" means when a nation is a platform - The Nine Processes, and where most churches skip straight to posting - Stewarding physical-first churches through digital change, and unleashing digital-first ones - Who pastors and equips the digital missionary ABOUT SAM Dr. Sam Hayes is a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel who served more than two decades, including Special Operations assignments in 12 countries. He holds a Doctor of Global Leadership from Fuller Theological Seminary, where his doctoral research first crossed paths with theChurch.digital. He teaches as an adjunct assistant professor of management at Fayetteville State University. He is Co-International Director of the International Coalition of Apostolic Leaders and founder of Samuel Hayes Ministries, and lives in North Carolina. https://www.samuelhayes.org --- Becoming theChurch.digital is the show for church leaders figuring out digital ministry in public. This season: The Listening Tour — less broadcasting at digital ministry, more listening to where it actually is. https://thechurch.digital/guides/what-is-a-digital-missionary/ https://thechurch.digital @bethechurchdigital CHAPTERS 0:00 Welcome, and remembering Steve Reed 6:16 A new fall season, and a partnership to pray for 8:39 Town Hall, October 7 9:28 Time zones, and the events calendar that fixes them 10:26 Meet Dr. Sam Hayes 12:50 Why write a five-year academic book on digital missiology 17:05 Writing for the seminaries that aren't listening yet 18:37 Platforms as places, platforms as nations 21:44 The mother, the gamer, and the bishop on Discord 24:50 The surprise in the data: every leader had a digital native 26:34 A person of peace inside the platform 27:32 APEST: digital pastors, digital apostles 29:40 Talking to a pastor who isn't sold 32:45 The shadow side: data extraction and vulnerable people 36:30 Vanity metrics, and a year spent earning a church's trust 37:15 A success story from Africa 42:50 Steve's story: the people group he already had 50:12 Three horizons for a physical church 55:17 Avatar churches, and who actually gets persecuted 59:36 Trained for one war, facing another 1:03:54 A Bible study coming: Peter, and a scattered church 1:05:35 What should a church not do digitally 1:09:50 All you need is a cell phone 1:10:59 Next week: Arno and Kingdom Online Full notes, chat and shorts: https://thechurch.digital/375

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  Episode #374

  EP374: The Listening Tour Begins: Platforms Are Places

  Sep 16, 202658 min

  Episode 374 launches the Listening Tour. For the rest of 2026 Jeff Reed wants to stop broadcasting at digital ministry and start hearing from the people doing it, from Africa, Pakistan, India and Southern Asia to churches here in the U.S. theChurch.digital is rebuilding, money is tight, and he takes a line from a Kansas City microchurch leader as the rule for the season: don't create anything until you really need it. The big idea is platforms as places. Using digital to get people into a building is no longer radical in 2026. What still is: treating Twitch like Argentina and Discord like Paraguay, and equipping and sending missionaries into platforms the way an agency sends them into countries, because platforms have culture. Jeff also lays out a healthy church digital strategy, evangelism, discipleship, generosity and empowerment, and the long road of solving a church's problems before it trusts you with the ones you care about. Then it gets personal. The digital missionaries struggling most are the ones living inside a platform, facing persecution from Christians who say the church doesn't belong in virtual reality, and doing it alone. Jeff is candid that he was one of them: a year of depression and isolation, a season of pushing God away, and the moment he told a missionary who was praying for him that he didn't need more prayer. What brought him back was a question from his leadership, is this yours or is it God's, and the conviction that if God gets the successes, God gets the failures too. He closes with a word for anyone in the field who feels alone, and a preview of the Listening Tour guests: authors on digital missiology and theology, success stories, and people who are struggling and willing to say so. Full episode page — transcript, chapters, and the live chat alongside it: https://thechurch.digital/shows/becoming-thechurch-digital/ep374-platforms-are-places/ Going deeper: What is a digital missionary? https://thechurch.digital/guides/what-is-a-digital-missionary/ Caring for online pastors: https://thechurch.digital/guides/online-pastor-care/ Hybrid church: https://thechurch.digital/guides/hybrid-church/ The EDGE framework: https://thechurch.digital/guides/edge-framework/ CHAPTERS 00:00 Old lo-fi and a tired week 06:05 Launching the Listening Tour 08:15 Don't create it until it's needed 10:37 Wings with a global mission leader 13:37 Click-and-mortar churches 16:28 Platforms as places 20:29 You're not wrong, you're early 23:35 A healthy church digital strategy 28:02 Persecution from inside the church 32:53 Depression and doing what God asked 38:05 Apostles, shepherds and teachers 41:29 Nobody should do this alone 43:24 A year of isolation 46:25 Carrying the missionaries 49:52 God gets the failures too 51:15 Is this yours or God's? 53:51 What my family has carried 57:54 Still early: be encouraged 1:00:49 Next on the Listening Tour ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ JOIN THE FAM Discord — https://discord.thechurch.digital/ WhatsApp — https://whatsapp.thechurch.digital/ MORE FROM THECHURCH.DIGITAL Website — https://thechurch.digital Subscribe — https://www.youtube.com/@bethechurchdigital FOLLOW Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/bethechurchdigital/ Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/bethechurchdigital ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ theChurch.digital exists to empower the rest of us to make disciples. Beyond the building. The great commission, but digital. #DigitalMinistry #DigitalMissionary #ChurchOnline #BecomingTheChurchDigital #DisciplesMaking #ChurchTech Full notes, chat and shorts: https://thechurch.digital/374

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  Episode #373

  EP373: GTA 6, Dating AI, and the Loneliest Job in Ministry

  Sep 9, 202654 min

  Episode 373 opens with bad timing and good humor. Jeff booked a 2pm Wednesday stream and Apple scheduled its foldable iPhone announcement on top of it, on the same week a sprinkler repair cut the fiber to his house and left him offline for three days. It is a solo, unscripted hour from a ten-by-ten guest bedroom in Miami. The first real turn is GTA 6. Miami is renaming itself Vice City for the launch, and the new game lets players date a character powered by AI: texting, holding hands, planning dates. Jeff's line is that digital relationships can be just as damaging as physical ones, and that the church is quick to believe that and slow to believe digital can be restorative. Then the provocation: there needs to be mission work done in the GTAs of the world, the same way people are called to inner-city Miami. If someone wants to plant a church in GTA, he will sign on the dotted line. The title comes from a conversation with Dr. Sam Hayes about a fall conference Jeff has decided not to hold. What he senses instead is a moment for pastoral care: digital missionaries in a season of strife, frustration and persecution from inside and outside the church. He calls it probably the loneliest job in church ministry, and names how easy isolation has become, especially with AI doing more of the work. His answer is to give God the failures as well as the glory. The last third is a case study. A Miami church plant launching its mobile app the night of the stream, whose pastor trusted Jeff only after months of solving the problems he actually had, first production and then the unglamorous digital work. Now people arrive at the guest center because ChatGPT, Instagram or a blog sent them. His conviction for 2026: the number one thing you can do for a physical church is help it get people into the building using digital, with AI making work possible that no church that size could otherwise afford. Full episode page — transcript, chapters, and the live chat alongside it: https://thechurch.digital/shows/becoming-thechurch-digital/ep373-the-loneliest-job-in-ministry/ Going deeper: What is a digital missionary? https://thechurch.digital/guides/what-is-a-digital-missionary/ Caring for online pastors: https://thechurch.digital/guides/online-pastor-care/ Hybrid church: https://thechurch.digital/guides/hybrid-church/ AI for churches: https://thechurch.digital/guides/ai-for-churches/ CHAPTERS 00:00 A foldable iPhone and three days offline 09:55 Released, and what comes next 15:58 Miami becomes Vice City 17:06 Dating an AI in GTA 6 22:53 Mission work in the GTAs of the world 25:06 The loneliest job in ministry 29:51 Giving God the failures too 37:51 A year of earning one church's trust 48:55 Digital gets people in the building 51:46 Why AI makes it possible ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ JOIN THE FAM Discord — https://discord.thechurch.digital/ WhatsApp — https://whatsapp.thechurch.digital/ MORE FROM THECHURCH.DIGITAL Website — https://thechurch.digital Subscribe — https://www.youtube.com/@bethechurchdigital FOLLOW Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/bethechurchdigital/ Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/bethechurchdigital ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ theChurch.digital exists to empower the rest of us to make disciples. Beyond the building. The great commission, but digital. #DigitalMinistry #DigitalMissionary #ChurchOnline #BecomingTheChurchDigital #DisciplesMaking #ChurchTech Full notes, chat and shorts: https://thechurch.digital/373

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