Experimenting and Improvement - Jate Earhart

Transcript

Okay. Hey, how’s it going, guys? Um, yeah, for me, I’m definitely going to be reading chat probably more because this is like what I do. This is what I really enjoy the most. And, uh, I’m just going to start with a quote. It says, “People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.” And I guess that’s like Samuel Johnson, or at least he’s who’s like given the credit for that.

And I feel like that’s true of just about everybody in this chat. I’ve been kind of stalking a little. Uh, I’ve just for the last, you know, hour probably been clicking through all your profiles and trying to get to know you guys because, um, something that Drewzy said really, uh, stood out to me that it’s like it’s about the people and trying to get to know the people is really important. And so, um, I recognize that there’s, you know, there’s like 33 of you looking in this here and I’m sure some of us have like overlaps, but I I recognize a lot of these names. Like I’ve seen you guys around. Um I’d say at least half of these names and then the other half I’ve probably interacted with you in some way and I maybe didn’t even know it.

So I I don’t think this is there. I don’t want to like I don’t want to write a whole speech and then end up just giving advice that you’re already aware of, you know? And so I really want to be answering questions. If you have something that you want to hop off on, if there’s something that you’re like, “Oh, I have this specific question about my context, I’ll do a very basic fly over first and then let’s get into like what your context is.” Cuz I think that’s really the important part of if we’re landing the plane, if we’re talking about experimenting, then it really comes down to like your context.

And I know what mine is and I know what I’m going to go back to, but you’re going to have like a very different a very a very different context. And yeah, like Jo is saying it’s it’s very important and Joy has a 99% non-Christian audience. That’s very different than somebody that’s talking about well, frankly, discipleship because like I think there’s evangelism and discipleship. And so if you’re talking about this whole thing of like how can I disciple people, you’re kind of in the understanding that person knows who Jesus is. And if they don’t, then like oh we have to start from ground zero. And so these are very different contexts. So, we’ll talk a little bit about both of those things and why I think um it’s beautiful that that’s what you’re doing and that that’s what you have because uh I have worked very hard to try to get that and it’s very hard to maintain. So, uh so real quick, I’ll just talk about myself if I haven’t met you before.

Nice to meet you. My name’s J. I play a lot of video games. Um I’ve played over 3,000 games. At least that’s the idea right now. I’m still working on the list of uh all the games, but yeah, a lot. Played a lot of them. And uh also watch a lot of anime. Uh I’ve got, you know, hundreds, thousands of hours of anime, big otaku, and I’m a Christian. And that’s how I introduce myself to people uh on the regular is just, hey, you know, I believe there’s a God who loves you, cares about you, wants the best for you, and I do too. And so the best way that I know how to do that is to pray. And so if that is something that you ever need, then feel free to ask for it in the chat. And so that’s kind of been my the heartblood of our uh our streams for the last like five plus years now. And I’m going to ask a couple questions uh just to get us going. But the questions are really really simple. And again I I think it’s more of a needing to be reminded more than instructed because I think you guys know these things and everything I’m sure that was said today was sort of like a Yeah. Yeah. That feels right. That feels like where we need to go. So, the first question um that I had on here whenever was asked to come up with a questions was, do you really love God?

And um yeah, that’s uh that’s one I have to ask myself every day. Uh it really is like do do I you know, and so I have a couple verses because I think verses are very grounding for us. Uh there is the time when Jesus is is back from the dead and he says, you know, do you love me? Then feed my lambs. Do you love me? Then take care of my sheep. Do you love me? Then um and you know that I love you, Lord. Then feed my sheep. And it’s this like if you love me, then I will know it because of your interaction with other people. All know it because of how you are um yeah how you’re feeding the people that are around you that need it.

And another one, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. Whoever has my commands and keeps them, it is he who loves me. Uh he who loves me will be loved by my father and I will love him and manifest myself in him. So these are all just like kind of pointing back to this idea. Um, even like Jesus when saying your your family is outside and he’s like who is my family? You know, those that do the will of God. And so if I’m uh if I’m a Christian, if I’m somebody that says that I really love God, then am I am I following what he’s asking me to do? Am I this the lowhanging fruits, the stuff that I know that’s right in front of me? And and then the other question that I think goes immediately with it is do you really love people because there’s the um there’s the the greatest commandment right is to love God love people and to all the other laws can all be boiled down to this. So treat others the way that you want to be treated I think is the the big takeaway from that.

So let each of you look not only to his own interest but also to the interest of others. Just going through a couple quotes here from the Bible. Let all that you do be done in love. Um no one shows greater love than this that he lays his life down for his friends. Um and like something Drew said earlier that I totally agree with is people in in an online space time is like everything. You know, time is like everything.

Hi, Supersonic. Hi, everyone again, Gamer. Yeah, we have a we have so much more time online than we can have in person. And so, I think that’s um it’s like what’s missing from a lot of today’s stuff as well. Uh we we just don’t have enough time to spend with people and so we’re like, man, I can’t figure out how I would ever do this. But like when you have friends that you’re hanging out with in person, then it’s it’s usually not hard to like, yeah, how can I talk with them about God? Because it just comes out naturally. If you really love God and you really love people, then it’s then it’s natural. And so the biggest question for a lot of us is like where are those spaces? And I think that’s where we’re going to want to get a little bit more uh intimate with whatever you guys whatever your context is cuz I know it’s going to be very different and honestly I want to as quick as possible get down to where I can just read your guys’s comments and hear about your individual context and speak in into that. So we’re going to quickly go through this. Where can you create spaces to chat with people who’d never stepped foot in your church?

And this is this this was the uh and I’ll turn this down. I think this is maybe a little hot. Yeah, this is this is really really important and probably the maybe the most important question really you could ask about any of the the spaces that you’re doing in online is like where can I have these conversations? It’s very similar to what they were just talking about with setting a table. Like what is that? What is that? What is the table that you’re setting? And what does it look like? Um what are the people that are going to be at it? And it’s fine if they’re Christians, but then like how are you growing the Christians that God’s put in front of you? Um if it’s non-Christians, awesome. You know, how how can you How can you have conversations with those people that have never they’ve never known a relationship with God? And you as somebody that has answered yes to both of these things, you really love God and you really love people. And God even has most of his quotes talking about like what does it look like to love God are pointing to loving people and this being a way to show.

It says what when did we do these things for you Lord? And he’s like, “Anytime that you gave a cup of cold water in my name, you did that as if you were doing it to me.” And it’s just repeated again and again and again. So, it’s just like, “So, where are those places for you?” You know, and it’s experimental, but it’s very very personal. Uh, and talking spaces are mostly gone today. And that’s that was partially why actually that’s the main reason I was in digital. I was going to start a church. I was going to start a physical building church. Uh I had a church planning residency. I had already gotten ready to go do a church for gamers and recognized that uh through Discord I could have so many more conversations with people before I did that. So I went ahead and just started a Discord, invited a bunch of people. Before I knew it, we were playing video games and it turned into like a thousand people. I mean, there’s a couple steps in there, but we didn’t we didn’t really do a whole lot, and it just turned into like a thousand people just grouped up.

And when I prayed about like starting a church, I realized that 99% of the people in my Discord could not be there just cuz it was a physical space. So, that by itself was going to make it impossible for most of my community to be a part of what I was going to be doing with most of my day. And uh digital just made sense. It it was the only way for me to reach all of these people at the same time. So, um I have a couple I have a couple understandings about where you guys are at right now. I know that’s a very quick fly through, but I really think that this time would be better spent if I can just answer some questions instead.

So, let me uh my understanding right now with some of you in here like Malala, from what I’ve seen, yeah, you’re talking about like a spreadsheet uh a spreadsheet for um discipling people. I think this is very good. Yeah, assumably most of your group is probably Christian is my guess if you’re still in here. And I’m checking to see if you’re in still in here or not. Maybe not. Might have had to deck out. But yeah, they were talking about like um having a spreadsheet for their group and like yeah, you should you should definitely know where people are at and Drewzy talking about that as well, saying like keeping notes. Um Joy Jet with your non-Christian community, but you’re connected through crew, so you can have people that you talk to that way uh that are Christian. I know that there was the suggestion to have like three Christians come alongside you. I think that’s good. Like do your context. I don’t know where your gaming communities come from if it’s from streaming or for in person, but definitely bring some others alongside you. They went in groups of two when they were doing um like in the Bible. And like Simeon, if you’re still in here, I don’t know if you are, but yeah.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Simeon Skate, good to see you. Yep. You’ve got VR. You’re doing like VR MMO uh type stuff as well. Super cool. Like be be in that space, you know? We talked about VR being kind of almost awkward because you have so much communication with the person and I’ve had some of the best communications I’ve had with friends um in VR.

Dr. Levelup, you’re doing your ta your tavern videos of light. You’ve got blessing boat. You’re helping other people. Um Andrew with uh Sue Scotland and like yeah Scotland 85% uh gamers between the ages of 16 and 25 and that’s like down from like 90 something the year before.

Like it, like Scotland’s definitely doing gaming and you go to your website and it’s like mostly in-person events, but like, you know, there can be, uh, there could be gaming things too. And there’s probably lots of people that would love to do that. And so, so I, I guess my point is a lot of these things are, are you already know, they’re already really low-hanging fruit. And so I more just want to hear what, what you guys have questions about, you know, if you’re, if you don’t feel like you’re doing this effectively, you know why? And if you feel like you are, then like it’s working. And like, let’s just talk about that. So let me scroll through these. I tried to just get all that out really quick so that we could read these instead.

Are you a born-again believer Christian apart from hardcore, uh, gamer? Yes, absolutely. What kind of boundaries do you, uh, you keep yourself away from getting yourself out of track of being a faithful Christian?

Yeah, it’s a really great question. Um, yeah, more often. So for me, I’m kind of in a similar space, maybe, to you. It’s a little different. I’d say my goal is 50/50 Christian, non-Christian. So I’m primarily most of my day trying to find non-Christians. And it’s a little, it’s a little difficult because if you’re an outspoken Christian, it’s going to push away people who are like adamantly against Christianity.

There might be people that are searching, um, but most people are not searching. Most people are just kind of existing. And if there’s something that we disagree with, we tend to just like drop it. Uh, happens with social media, happens with everything really. Like, if there’s, if there’s somebody that you’re hanging out with and all of a sudden you just like find out something weird about them, you’re like, “Yeah, I mean, I have lots of other options.” Just people just drop them. It’s really sad.

So instead, um, people don’t really care how much you know till they know how much you care. And getting to really know people is, I think, key. Um, I know Bubba Love Nerd has said that like, you will know that I’m a Christian, but it may not be the first thing you know. And I, I, I think that while it’s the most important thing to me and about me, it’s, it’s like doing it in a way that, uh, I can actually have a relationship with you. So you don’t, your, your perceptions don’t like get in the way. And that’s probably the right way to put it, ‘cause I would rather just be able to come right out and say like, “Yeah, I’m a Christian. I want to talk about it.” But people have perceptions of what that means and they will just assume things that are not true. And so I have to like ask you what your favorite game is first and I get to ask you what your favorite anime is first, and then we talk about it.

And through those conversations, then it’s going to come up naturally. And when I say come up naturally, in my opinion, in my context, uh, it’s prayer. Like, prayer is almost always the first step. I, if I have a relationship with you, things are not always going to be good. And pretty quickly, most of the time, people recognize that like, oh, this is, uh, this is somebody who seems like they’re pretty open. They’re pretty like willing to talk about stuff. I’ve got this thing I’m dealing with. Cool. Like, let’s pray about it.

And online, the best and worst thing about online, I’ve said this a lot, is that it’s anonymous. So it’s the best thing because it means that you can, um, very quickly. It’s, it, well, okay, let’s do the worst thing first. The worst thing that it’s anonymous is that people can just disappear. If I, like I said, if I say something and the person is not, they’re not having it. They just don’t like whatever I said, they can just disappear. And so that’s the worst thing about anonymous. The best thing is that people can just disappear. So if they decide, you know, hey, I can just say whatever I want right now. I’ve got questions about God, I can just let it rip. And if this, if I don’t like this guy, then like that’s fine. I can just block him and I’ll never hear from him again. He doesn’t know my address. And so it’s not, he’s going to come find me or anything like that. So it, it is, it is the best and worst thing.

I get people very quickly who I say I pray for them and they’re like, “Cool, yeah, you can pray for me, but just so you know, um, I hate God.” And it’s like, oh, okay, cool. Let’s talk about that.

Yeah, no drive to online meeting. Um, how many more touch points daily than just one week? Yo, many more touch points, right? Yeah, for me it’s usually a lot of hours. When I first started streaming, it was 17 hours a day for about a, about a year, and then now I try to keep it down to like 8 to 10 hours a day, um, six, six days a week. But that’s not everybody can do that, and like I’m single and that’s a thing I can do. But I think for a lot of people having even just an hour a day is way more than you would have if you were just even at a church, for instance, you know, um, where you’ve got 30-minute sermon, 45 minutes, something like that.

We do Games in God. We read through a chapter of the Bible on Saturdays. Um, that’s kind of our main connection point is let’s, let’s talk throughout the week, let’s play video games, whatever. I’m hoping that at some point people will come to a Saturday, like they will just see it in the corner of their eye and be like, what the heck is that? And then come to it and let’s just talk. And, uh, and it’s been, yeah, like five years or something of us doing one chapter of the Bible, and it takes about like four hours a lot of the times because people just have questions or we get off on a different topic and, and it just becomes that kind of a thing, which is why I was like, let’s not write too much, which I did write some notes I wanted to go over really quickly, but I, I mostly want to just like read what you guys are saying here in chat.

So I’m up in chat, but I’m going to keep reading these on the way down. Gaming Gospel going parallel is completely, uh, new thing in the Indian context. How do you think, uh, this can actually become a reality in India successfully where gamers can grow daily? Yeah, I think, uh, for the context in India, um, well, for one, you will know better, better than anybody. What, what does this, I, I will, I will connect this to your thing, but this is for everybody, and this is the same thing that like I’ve thought a lot about as well.

If we’re thinking about a context of somebody that is very, very different than us, we have to think very, very differently than we currently think. So anything that you’re currently used to, you need to attach a different word to so that you can think about it from the perspective of somebody else, right?

A lot of us grew up in the church, and um, maybe not the case in India, but for many of us, like we grew up in a church, and so for me, whenever I think of church and I’m talking to a non-Christian friend, I think about like, what would it take for me to go to a mosque? And I’ve never seen a mosque. I don’t, I think I, like I’m like, I don’t know what religion, like maybe that’s a Muslim thing, like that, oh, why, that sounds like sacrilegious, and so on and so forth, like that sounds really bad to me. I would never want to go to a mosque, right? Okay, perfect. That’s the right kind of thinking. Then this person has really negative connotations to whatever your church is, and so they don’t want to come to your church because they will be ostracized by their friends and it will be a bad thing. Like, so what would it take for you to go to a church? What would it take for you to go to a mosque on a Sunday? And just seeing a really nice graphic won’t do it. And having a, [clears throat], really nice band isn’t going to cut it. And having nice coffee in the lobby is not what’s going to get them to come to you, your mosque.

So you have to, uh, like, re, like, really seriously think about it. What would it take? What does it mean to, uh, treat others the way you want to be treated? And for me personally, if I had a close friend, if I had somebody that I played video games with throughout the week, and that person said, “I’ve been going to a mosque recently.” And I know it’s kind of weird. I know it’s not like the normal thing, but it, um, yeah, it, it’s a thing. And like what they’re saying makes sense. And so I would love to just chat about it with you, but like I need some context. Would you just come with me to the mosque? I know it’s going to be kind of weird. Here’s what we do. We go to the, the entrance. They got coffee. You’re going to go and you’re gonna sit down. You’re going to drink the coffee, and then we’re going to stand up and it’s this thing and they do a prayer. Don’t worry about it. Music. Sit down. Listen, sermon, and then we’re going to leave. But like afterwards, I’ll pay for dinner and like we can just talk about it. I want to hear what your experience was, what you thought was strange or not. And like we just discuss it, you know? And like if somebody asked me to do that, they’re like, no pressure. It’s just I, I would like you to just try it. Sure. I would go to your mosque. Like I, I would do it. Um, and I would, I would just, just to see, you know? And then, um, so same, same thing. Think about that through anything that you’re trying to get people to go to. Anything you’re trying to get people to talk to, replace in my head. I replace, uh, when we’re talking, I replace the word, um, like God or Bible or religion with science because, uh, if we’re talking about in my, in my head, if I’m trying to invite somebody to something, if somebody asked me to come to, uh, a science, let’s see, how do we, a science study? I would not be interested in a science study. No, I’ve, I don’t want to study science with you. It studying is like there’s a test at the end or something. I’m not interested in a science study. Okay. But if you said, let me phrase it. Would you want to come to a science discussion where it’s people that are not the, they’re not the like leading experts in science or anything like that? It’s just something that like is, it’s an important topic, and so I think we should discuss it. There needs to be spaces for discussion, but discussion is mostly out these days. And so it’s just a place for us to talk about it and to give like a first, a first look for people that have maybe like not thought about science in a really long time or maybe even ever. I’d be like, “Oh, okay. Yeah, maybe, you know, maybe not really up my alley, but if I’m, uh, available on a Saturday, I might do that.” So it’s what we do. That’s why we don’t call it Bible studies. We don’t say, “Come to my Bible study.” That’s a very Christian thing to say. So instead, I said, come to our Bible discussion where we talk about the Bible. It’s the first time. Maybe people have never read the Bible before, never been to church. I get it. I’m not a pastor. I’m not like a super smart guy. It’s not like I’ve, uh, I’ve read the Bible a couple times though, and like I’d be willing to talk about it if anybody’s interested and like discuss it because I think it’s too important not to. But like, you know, it’s a first, it’s a first passing over for people. And, and so thinking about your context in whatever way it is is like, how do you phrase whatever the thing is that you’re doing in a way that makes sense to people who have no context to the words that you use? And like you’re going to use Christian words that sound very natural and normal to you. And it’s like you’re speaking a totally different language to them. And so think about it like through a different, um, a different context, a different, a different lens, I guess. Um, hopefully that was some, something in there is helpful.

Totally. That’s where I’ve been. Um, care loads together. Yep. Yep. Yep. My contacts this Friday. I’ll be challenging gaming students to a week of spiritual starting spiritual conversations in their favorite games.

I’m suggesting they start with today. I’m asking um about people’s faith. Could I ask you few questions about what you believe? Yeah. I mean like that might that might work.

Again, my for me, a lot of it is the having a space, creating a space. Yeah, let’s talk about that for a second. So, they’re going into the games and and they’re talking to people for the first time.

I’ve seen this and I’ve seen it be effective. So, I know that it can be, but for me personally, it’s not something that’s been super effective.

Although, I have done it through Destiny and like a couple things at the end of raids where it’s been okay. But most of the time, those conversations are kind of one-offs and they’re with random people and they’re not like with friends.

And for me, I’ve had a lot more lasting relationship success with people that I’ve become friends with. So, um, that’s the the problem that I kind of hit on earlier, but I think we should fly back over is that there’s no talking spaces anymore.

Like part of why Twitch is so awesome and even what we’re doing right now is so awesome. Um although they’re not I mean we kind of get some but yeah it it’s not um there’s no places to talk anymore and this happened before COVID but COVID didn’t help.

Uh well COVID did help but it helped with with pushing the digital even harder. So there are not there’s not places to just talk to people.

You can go if well a lot of them are places of addiction. Um if you go to a bar, you can drink with somebody and talk at the same time.

If you go to a if you smoke, you can stand out and smoke with somebody. If you’re an Uber driver, you can talk to somebody as you’re driving them on Uber.

If you’re next to somebody in a plane, um outside of those things and maybe a bowling alley, like there don’t really exist spaces anymore for talking.

You can go to the park, everybody’s walking their dog, they’re not interested. You can go to a grocery store, they are getting their groceries and not interested.

You can go to the mall, people already have their clicks. Like you you don’t just randomly walk up to somebody and talk, which is why places like VR Chat are so interesting to me.

VR Chat’s like an online VR space where you can literally just walk up to somebody and chat with them. And it feels so strange at first because it’s like this is the opposite of real world.

But because of that pseudo anonymous that you can just block somebody and not ever have that conversation again. I think that’s why that’s allowed that to become a space like that.

But you have similar spaces in video games where you’re just playing a video game and you already have some context of like we both play the same game.

But I think it’s trying to get past that. how to move it beyond just that like first time interaction. And if it’s adding somebody in a game so that you can play again, then like awesome.

Um, and then praying for those people like make a list and think about, okay, where where’s that person at right now and how can I have another conversation with that person?

I think these are just Yeah, I think these are just super important like first steps, but I’m going to keep trying to uh scroll down so I could catch more I could catch more of what you’re saying.

Um Jade, how do you move from fans to personal connections? Um and opening up in a community. Well, yeah, I don’t I don’t know that I mean I don’t think I have a lot of like fans.

I think I just like get to know people and so I think it’s kind of all connected to that. But yeah, being really open, people will reciprocate.

There’s a a funny thing in Japanese um and it happens in English too where in in Japanese the way that you ask a question is the way somebody responds.

So if you say like the words you use for what’s your favorite food, then it gets it’s the same words they’ll use for like my favorite food is and it’s just sort of a that’s how it’s framed.

And I think the same thing ends up happening a lot with pretty much all of our communication where people will naturally reciprocate the what you’re doing.

If you’re if you’re really open about something, the more open that you’re you are to them, the more open they’re willing to be. um because it’s like breaking down a a wall.

So, I try to be very very open. I I crave moments that I can be more vulnerable than Yeah. Like on stream that’s the case.

If I find something that I’m like, “Oh yeah, this would be a really kind of vulnerable thing to say right now,” then I know that’s something I should say right then.

And cuz being vulnerable, I we tend to want to like I want to have all the right answers. I want to have like all the right Christiany answers.

And if I have the right answers, then I’ll be able to answer people’s questions really well. And then that will like convert them to Christian.

More often, it’s like, hey, I’m having lots of questions, too. These are all questions what you’re asking. Me, too. I’ve also thought about that.

And yeah, that’s a really good point. And I don’t have all the answers, but like let’s explore it together. let’s look it up uh on Google and like yeah I don’t know according to this it’s saying such and such thing and like what do you think about that and people are more often

like oh okay so like I’m not strange for having a couple questions about like the anger of God this is a confusing topic let’s talk about it you know and if if people know that you’re willing to be uh like well you have to be willing to be wrong.

You have to be willing to like maybe what I’m saying is right. Maybe what I’m saying is wrong. And can can that be okay?

Can it be okay that I don’t know all the answers because otherwise the other person’s going to be afraid to ask questions that like they maybe they don’t have the answers to, you know?

So yeah, I would say opening up in a community is really like you have to open up the level that you’re willing to open up to.

People will open up to you. It would be good to have some type of discipleship tool um I can give and speak about. Um yeah, I I mean tools are really good.

I think tools are tools tools are helpful and I think especially in discipleship it becomes more helpful because both of you can agree to like download a tool and go through it together.

But in evangelism, which is more the space that I end up, it’s like kind of less um I don’t want to say less about the tools, but it really is I went through the whole process of of getting as many tools as I could for evangelism.

like, “Yeah, I’m going to have this. I’m going to say this thing and then, oh, I’ll do the whole thing where like, you know, this is the gap is sin and like I’m going to draw a little cross across it and like, you know, I had this whole whole little spiel planned out.”

And then uh I like went in the real world and uh it was like people just want to talk about video games and it’s like, “Oh, okay.” like how can I how can I have a conversation with you about whatever your favorite game is and like oh that game really talks a lot

about like some deep topics and stuff and like oh yeah but it really hit me at a time in my life when I was like considering suicide oh snap dang like how did you get out of that oh you know I had some friends and some stuff but like I don’t know I

don’t know if I ever really did shoot man like do you want to talk about that is something I can pray for you for and like I I didn’t have to do a whole gap thing talking about like well you know the reason that you’re dealing with suicide is because the gap of

sin is actually pretty wide and like I mean I I get maybe some people that’s the like thought process but it’s it doesn’t translate for this person that’s like dealing with some really dark stuff and the answer is in the Bible but like if you really love God and you really love people

and you’re thinking how you know how how can I treat others the way I want to be treated like I I don’t when you when I tell you something really deep and that’s going on in my life.

I don’t want you to like sit there and draw me a little like diagram. I want you to be like, “Dang, yeah, I’ve dealt with some stuff, too.” And like, “I’m sorry that happened.” And is it okay if I pray for you?

Like, can can I pray for you? And I’ve even told people who are like, “No, I don’t really believe in prayer.” I’ve literally said like, “You can think of it like good vibes if you want.” Like, honestly, it’s okay if you don’t believe in prayer.

If you don’t believe in God, I do. And as somebody that loves you, cares about you, wants the best for you, the best way I can show it is to pray.

And so, like, please give me the honor of doing the thing that I believe is the only thing I can do in this situation.

I’m online. I’m just a talking head on the internet. I I can’t go to you and give you a hug like I want to right now.

Can I please pray for you? And people are like responsive to that cuz you’re being open. You’re not trying to be like some scripted robot.

And it’s going to get even worse with AI, guys. It’s going to get much much worse. It’s going to get much much harder for you to have these relationships with people when like AI exists and they’re already used to having um all their answers just answered by some like robot and they are

going to crave ever more. Gen Z is like the craving of having conversations with people and intimacy and having like close connection to people.

It’s going to become more and more and more important that you do that. So lean into that as much as you can. We’re hybrid in person and uh digital small groups fellowship and sometimes keeping the in-person uh is the priority folks happy and the digital is where the reach lost the priority uh

happy is challenging when we know both are important. Yeah. Um like if you can do I I for me it’s like if I can do in person then I will.

If I can do digital then I will. And for the people who want to do in person because that’s what they know and it’s what they’re good at then like great do that you know um do that.

But the people that are good at digital like do that. Let let them do that and encourage them to do that and support them in doing that and fund them in doing that.

Like let it’s crazy that the in person is the ones that are like that’s all it’s funded. And I think that’s just kind of archaic.

a hundred years from now, it’ll probably be flipped. Where we’re like, well, why would I put a bunch of money into a building? Building costs are uh a million Bitcoin.

Why would I do that when I could just do a digital? And so, I’m sure it’ll flip at some point. But right now, all the funding goes to um it just goes to in in person and it’ll probably flip at some point.

So, we’re just we’re just in a weird switch between it’s where God’s placed you. God put you in this earth for this time for a specific purpose.

We are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works so that he prepared in advance so we that we might walk in.

This is the time that God put you here for a specific purpose. Whoever you are, whatever your context is, I 100% believe that God is like put you on this earth for a purpose and he will set you and the world up to do that purpose.

So even if you’re like ah it’s like so much harder than such and such doesn’t matter. There’s lots of hard things that people have done before you.

You’re lucky you get to do a hard thing because if it was an easy thing, then you wouldn’t want to do it anyway because you’re all here because you’re like the type of person who would do the hard thing that would do the thing that’s the weird thing.

You know, you’re used to being that kind of person. And so here you are and like God did this for this purpose. And I think a hundred years from now it will be much easier.

But they’re going to have their own hard thing. They’re going to have their own how they’re going to be like hundred years from now.

How can we, you know, disciple people in the AR generation. Everybody’s got me blocked. My avatar, no one even sees me anymore because they use the blah blah blah to like block me out.

And so it’s like it’s going to be just a totally different landscape moving forward. But for now, we look at like where we’re at right now in our context, you know?

I’m listening, but I’m still working on the meme invention journey. That’s awesome. Yeah, Jack, I see your like your avatar and uh definitely want to, you know, talk about anime with you sometime.

That happens to be all the time. I was asked for a call back number for somebody to at work and suddenly got bad things that happened this week.

Yeah. And it can be really hard, but it’s also like lean into that a little bit. If that that person doesn’t have anybody else to talk to and maybe that’s something that God prepared you for.

Imagine if the person who is it’s easier in the context where we’re looking at the eunuch in the Bible, right? Who’s like, “Oh, how can I understand this Bible if nobody teaches it to me?” And like that’s what we want, right?

We’re like, “Why can’t God just teleport me somewhere and have somebody appear to me and just be like, ‘Oh, this Bible, if only somebody would teach me what it is.’ Me, I read it.

I know it. I know how that is. But like we get that all the time, right? Where there’s people who are saying there are things that I am dealing with.

If only somebody would have an answer for like what this thing is and why I’m dealing with this and why hard stuff happens and why difficult things happen to good people.

And you’re like, dang, yeah, that’s uh that’s the Bible. Um that is actually what they’re asking. They just don’t know that they’re asking it.

You know, are you coming on? Am I out of time already? I’m I’m literally just trying to reach chat.

Oh, no. You’re totally doing great, which is one of the reasons why you were one of the first people that we said we we wanted to have you on because you are really engaging. You’re answering the questions people have. We will have more time for Q&A and we will have an afterparty. So, there’ll be plenty of time where rather than just reading chat, we can have a video calls which I think are are much much better to engage in.

Anyway, so I I did post in there a five minute warning, but you at this pace are 10 minutes away from reading the five minute warning.

So, no no worries on that. Uh let’s get some fives in the chat for Jade. And if there were any other questions that you had, make sure you bring those back when we we do the Q&A or when we do hang out afterwards.

Uh but dude, just such good stuff, man. Thank you.

Yeah. Um I’m Yeah, I mean I see so Okay, five minute warning now.

Are we? No, we’re down. Okay. I I see the um Yeah. Yeah. I I I’m seeing like a lot of things and I’m trying to to scroll through, but I also know that it’s like there’s like walls.

There’s walls of stuff. So you guys are um Yeah, I see that was from Yeah. 10 minutes on there. If uh if you have any questions, obviously just feel free to message me.

If you use Discord, you can just click my name and send me a friend request or a message request and I’ll just go through and um you know, I’ve seen all your names in here, so I’ll I’ll know who to accept.

And um I one one more thing here that Dr. Level as my big question I’m wrestling with is how do I create the content people want to see while not Jesus juking them?

Particularly while focusing on video content. um for the most part. Yeah. Like same, you know, I mean, same same kind of stuff. And that’s I think I think it’s difficult because especially when creating content, video content.

Um I believe that that’s like you have to do it in the most subtle ways. um just so that you’re continuing to be in algorithms that are not just all Christian.

It’s not the mindset for a lot of people is like, “Oh, I don’t want to be shy about my faith and so if I don’t specifically say it, then I will come off as like a shy Christian.” And that’s not true for me or for anybody else that’s a Christian.

Like just don’t think that way. You’re what you’re doing is like how do I make something in a context that is just not Christian but I want to bring that kind of aspect to it and there’s things you can say that will let people know that that’s like who you are and I talk about that too. Yeah. What’s up Andy? Well, I was going to say like there there seems to be a personality type though that really thrives in getting out of the Christian algorithm.

Like Level Up, it does like you do, but people like like uh Flat Cap and I, we don’t necessarily thrive outside of that lane.

I think we thrive a little bit more inside of the um it was like flat cap was talking earlier about finding your one and like our one is might be those that are convinced but searching and growing and all that whereas your one might might be Yeah.

Like you said 50/50 like Christian non-Christian.

Yeah. That’s a that’s a lot of non-Christians for a bunch of Christian people, you know, for for a lot of Christian mindsets.

And so it’s almost like finding your personality type and then gripping it with two hands and making sure you hold on to it. Have you have you found that in your life as well?

Yeah. Um, it I will say it’s it’s a little difficult for me to like I I believe that’s true and like both are really necessary especially as somebody that’s grown a lot from getting content of another Christian and um you know like Tim Mackey is a huge huge thing for me and I just listen to a ton of Bible project and a ton of like exploring my strange Bible and stuff like that that’s been really helpful to me.

So of course I’ve consumed content from a Christian that has helped me grow. So I know that that’s necessary, but I also like came from the context of mostly being in church, only talking to church friends, only having a very Christian lingo and like God really working on my heart that like I was only going to ever talk to Christians and that that was not what I was supposed to be doing. So if I am um Yeah.

I So I guess that that’s really like between you and God because for me that was natural. What what you’re saying is literally all I did.

I mostly did teaching content. I literally made videos where it was Christian videos talking about making the game and how can the video game, you know, express what’s going on in the Bible and like I thought that I I made videos that were like short form content through LoveClan uh talking about this is how we can pray and stuff like that. And my context is totally different now. But it was not because I thought, “Oh, this will be much easier for me or because this is just more natural.” It was just literally the things I’m talking about.

I started to think through and say, “This is not like what God even tell me to do.” Like God is telling me I need to go into these places that are kind of weird for me.

And if only if the only people that ever do that are people that are just kind of like they don’t really know the Bible very well and so they’re just sort of on the fringes and they just became a Christian and so they’re already there then it’s like people will only get like a wishy-washy Christian and that’s their only context they’ll have. And so instead, it’s like I really do have to think about how can I phrase this in a way that it it means okay like last night I was in VR chat and one of the people I was talking to um the person next to me was just using the Lord’s name in vain all the time and it is super awkward for me and it’s it’s really hard for me to like be in spaces like that.

But it’s like yeah cool. This is like where God has me right now. This is where I am today. And if I um if I can have a communication with this person, I know already right off the bat that any amount of Jesus I can give that person will be the probably only experience that person gets for the day, you know, and so I don’t know like what’s what’s important to you? um is it it it does kind of you know not to like but there is a leaving the 99 for the one and there sometimes you’re going to be like dude but I could have 99 times the success if I was openly Christian about everything that I said in my videos. Like I if I just reached the Christian audience, I could be 99 times more uh uh big.

I could have a 99 times bigger stream. My YouTube videos would be 99 times bigger. And that’s like, are you willing to have uh only a thousand views if it means that that what you’re doing is what God told you to do?

And this is why I say it’s so important that we do we really love God. Are we really like praying about is this the thing that God has for me?

Because if you get a feeling in your heart that’s like I’ve had things that were very successful but were not um effective for what I felt God told me to do and just being successful is not a good measurement for like is this what God told you to do and only you can know that like only you and God can can talk that out and uh that’s really that’s very difficult for me and also very heavy on my heart because it’s stepping out stepping outside of yourself and being like I don’t have a good metric for success outside of this is what God said for me to do and so I just do it. And that means your view count is not the most important thing. You know, you’re even just like having lots of friends isn’t the most important thing.

If you have one friend and it’s the person that God said to reach and you’re reaching that person, then you’re doing what God told you to do.

And that’s um very very difficult because I like logic. I like the metrics. I like I like saying, “Well, I’m successful because blah blah blah.” And giving all my like reasons for success, and it’s just not it’s just not how it works in God’s kingdom.

So, yeah. Yeah.

Awesome. Yeah. One, thanks, man. Um Oh, go ahead.

I just wanted to Yeah. Sorry. You you just said one thing there, where God has me right now.

And I I think that’s an important thing to think about as we’re asking all these questions. That’s one reason why I want you to go back and think about this in 6 months and a year from now.

Because who God’s calling you to right now might change as you grow in your faith. Because maybe right now you’re called to one person that you need to reach, but in 6 months or 3 years from now, God may have prepared you to reach someone else and you need to move to another new place, which is what I admire about some of the stuff that you you are always talking about, Jade, of experimenting. I need to change because I’m not reaching.

Suddenly I’m attracting Christians and they’re not who I’m called to. God is telling me no. So you have to figure out ways to move into the space where the people are.

It just just inspired me uh in many ways which is partly why I’m doing things in person to do those very same things that you were talking about.

Where can you make a place for someone to be able to come? So love that. Jade, would you be willing to hang out in your uh in the Jade Fox room a little bit later?

Of course. Of course.

Awesome. Awesome. If you guys have more questions, send them to Jade. But I’m going to stage dive him back into the audience right now.

Everybody, fives in chat for the one, the only Jade Fox. Goodbye.