Building Systems with Technology for Your Church with Josiah Petermann Ep 2.01

Josiah Peterman  0:00  
Systems are meant to remind us not replace us. So we give time to the details and to the impact and then things run and we hear from people and we care for people while things are running 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Jeanette Yates  0:18  
Hello, and welcome to the Tech in Church podcast where we talk to everyday church communicators who use simple tech tools to go from frazzled to focused. I'm Jeannette Yates, and I'm with my co host, Nina Hampton. And we believe you should spend less time worrying about technology and more time doing what you love in your ministry and in your personal life.

Nina Hampton  0:34  
Yeah, so recently, we interviewed Josiah Peterman, he's the connections pastor at Christ Community Church in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and I mean, Genet, like he had so many great insights and practical tips on how he uses technology. And just some of the things that he shared specifically about, you know, how he manages his to do list. There was something that he said that he, you know, he basically, like really manages what he allows to interrupt him in the day. Yes, I yeah, I'm still thinking about that, it still blows my mind.

Jeanette Yates  1:01  
He really did have so much insight about that to do list. And let's face it for him. For Josiah, just like many other church leaders that to do list is long he was talking about, I think we spent a few minutes talking about the many hats or in pieces, we said, it's just all the hats, all the hats, or there are no hats that Josiah does not wear. Right. Of course, most of our church communications friends can relate to that very much. Our ministry, friends in general, not even if they're not in the church communication part, they can get that and I really loved what he talked about in the sense that he was able to utilize simple, inexpensive, sometimes free tools to prioritize and organize the multiple facets of his ministry. So he's really being a good steward of his time, and their resources that they have. So I really thought that was great.

Nina Hampton 1:57  
Yeah. And he like he even shared about how he gets to like Inbox Zero every week, and why that's important for him, which I personally, you know, can't really relate. I'm not an inbox zero kind of girl. But the way that he talks about, you know, sharing that really just was so encouraging, and it felt attainable. Yeah. For me, I don't you know, I share how much is in my Gmail inbox, but it doesn't feel

Jeanette Yates  2:20  
Well. And that's the thing is like, for most of us, it's like inbox zero. That's like a unicorn, right? Like, it's actually it's never gonna happen, right? It's not attainable. And yet he's like, No, I do it twice a week. What do you do?

Nina Hampton 2:33  
And he man, I'm busy, right? And it's not it's not that he's not busy. It's not that he's not getting the emails he is. But he has so many practical tips to make it attainable for you. So without further ado, let's go ahead and jump into the interview.

Jeanette Yates  2:49  
And we're live inside the ambassador Facebook group. Hello, everyone. As you know, I am Jeannette gates, Community Manager and biggest cheerleader. And I'm joined today by my fabulous colleague, Nina Hampton. If you don't know who she is, I feel sad for you. But I'm going to introduce you to her today. She is the member Success Manager at Texan church. So she is here to make sure you as a member are successful in all of your text and church endeavors that I am. Yeah. Hey, Nina, how are you?

Nina Hampton  3:24  
I'm good. How are you? I'm excited that we're doing this.

Jeanette Yates  3:26  
I know I'm really excited to and so he doesn't sit there and just, you know, have to twiddle his thumbs too long. Right? Let's go ahead and introduce our good friend, Text in Church member, Josiah Peterman Josiah. How are you?

Josiah Peterman  3:42  
I'm good. I am so good. You're good? Yeah, good. I was looking for another word. There isn't one. Yeah,

Nina Hampton 3:48  
There really isn't. It's honestly good. It's like the best thing that somebody says I'm good. I'm like, Okay, I have no further questions. That's great.

Josiah Peterman  3:54  
I'm gonna do later, we can wrap it up. All right.

Jeanette Yates  3:57  
And that wraps up today's in the new series. That's right. Oh, yeah, weekly episode, we just check in with Josiah. He's good. Everything's all good.

Josiah Peterman  4:10  
That's good. All right.

Jeanette Yates  4:11  
So for those of you who have not yet had the privilege of meeting Josiah, he's actually been a Text in Church member for a while. He has also spoken at one of our engaged conferences. Hey, that's actually how I met him is through engage and you serve Josiah as the connections pastor at Christ Community Church in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, but I have a feeling you probably wear more than one hat

Josiah Peterman  4:37  
It is actually more than one hat. I have all the hats. I post right there.

Josiah Peterman  4:44  
Oh yeah, I guess I'm getting there. Yeah, right. I started I've been here for six years started as youth pastor transition that the New Year two connections and that has transitioned four or five more times since then. So that's my title. So am I executive youth outreach? Teaching? Yeah, stuff.

Jeanette Yates  5:08  
So well, I want to know, what does that actually look like for you, though? So like a day in the life of Josiah, which I'm sure every day is different, but just in general, how does your workflow How does your day go every day? Like for you, it

Josiah Peterman  5:21  
Goes, for those of you who have shared office space, however, the conversation of the room goes, right, you know that, not just kidding. It goes, I'm detailed and structured, crazy, like nuts, like people telling me to chill out sometimes and do something that's not planned, and I just can't do it. But I have checklists. And I have processes galore, daily things day of the week things. It's just not I get in and I go, I tell people when I'm at work, I want to work. Yeah. And I'll talk to you later. That's your boundary. Important. I just I love getting in and, and getting stuff taken care of. It's good. Yeah. That's great.

Jeanette Yates  6:04  
Do you have a set start and end to your day? Or do you just is it one of those, like, when it's done? Yes.

Josiah Peterman  6:08  
Yeah. Ideally, a number one is, I'm a husband. And number two is I'm a dad. And then I'm on staff somewhere, or a pastor or a youth friend or whatever. So yeah, we have set times. But when we're not in set times, we're expected to have the team know by using a calendar or something to communicate. So usually, I get a good five to seven hours where it's just work. I'm here doing stuff. So yeah, that's,

Nina Hampton 6:37  
That's good. That's good. Gotcha. So in the end, kind of like, as you're trying to get through all the things that you're on day that your day entails, when you're going through that what's like your biggest challenge, right? I would say in your role, but there's not just one in your day to day, kind of as you're doing all the things, what's kind of the biggest, the biggest wall that you hit,

Josiah Peterman  6:58  
I think coming through the season that we all have shared. And I'm tired of talking about COVID and all that stuff, too. If there's a chatter a comment thing on this, at some point, whenever this is, oh, it's live now, isn't it? Hey, if you're there, say I agree, but I'm just tired. But But biggest challenge that? I would say, thinking of work, though, in my many roles, and the first people Yeah. Wow, you agree with me? Can you say Amen? Praise hands emoji. Again, the last few years, many people are in there just hurting there. Yeah, the brokenness of the world is much more apparent, obviously. And they don't have they're not being inspired with awe, or passion for what they're doing. Yeah. So when they do that, they give themselves to meaningless things. And they're disappointed and discouraged over and over and over again. And because that's who are leading and loving, but it's also challenging, because then we care for those people. Yeah. And what's cool is we're seeing the people, those same people that are just giving themselves to anything, because they're not inspired or driven to TA is they're stumbling into our message as church leaders, and as pastors and teachers, they're looking for something and without even knowing it, when they're being exposed to the hope that God gives. Yeah, so that's cool, personally, biggest challenge is probably fighting apathy, the mundane and routines of everyday convincing me that there's not really a possibility for change are good, or more better the results from what is already currently where we're at. So So fighting that, again, even with my own awe with, with being in the word with being around people and community, to be encouraged by them to just tell it to the word and have hope. Yeah, those are those are the two biggest things that say, are challenges for me right now.

Jeanette Yates  8:57  
Well, and I think what you're saying really speaks to something that we that's a big struggle for all of us as people in ministry and people that work with churches, is we want to focus on coming close to those people and meeting the needs of those people. But we also have that list of things that have to get done in order for us to be able to do that ministry work. And so, you know, one of the things that it's hard for us to switch to or focus on but it's necessary is, you know, and something that we really like about our jobs, Josiah, and I know that you're a big fan, too, is the use of technology to help us get those things done so that we can connect to people. And so speaking of tech, that's kind of what we that's kind of what we like to talk about. We want I wanted you to share with us because I know you and I talk about this all the time, Off mic, but what are some things what are some tools that you use? What are some pieces of technology that you use to help you in your desire in your calling to meet the needs of people. What are some things that used to help you get that stuff done?

Josiah Peterman  10:10  
They're big. Are you ready? Yes. If you're watching, are you ready? Watch

Jeanette Yates  10:13  
Three tools.

Josiah Peterman  10:15  
Take notes. Take notes. Get your pen. Write it on your whiteboard. Here we go. Number one. Text in Church. Okay, write that

Jeanette Yates  10:23  
writing it down.

Josiah Peterman  10:27  
Number two, write it down number two write it down. Text in Church. Yes, got it. Number three. Again linebreak get there write it on the whiteboard and number three we check my notes. Yes texts in church. Okay.

Nina Hampton 10:44  
Let me check my notes is what took me out.

Jeanette Yates  10:46  
Yeah, yeah.

Josiah Peterman  10:47  
Yeah, gotta check your notes. No, I'm kidding. Yes, I'm a fan. I had my I got because I have layers of text and

Nina Hampton 10:58  
I wasn't ready for that.

Josiah Peterman  11:00  
I haven't worn my socks yet. But I had them on this morning and my daughter is almost two and she comes up and she knows several words to describe things and she just said crazy socks. It's true like crazy socks. And then she told me they were blue. And then she even saw like hey, your socks match your shirt and your shirt matches your hoodie and your hoodie matches the beanie that you're getting for you go anywhere like her name is Atlanta like Adeline someday I will teach you the way is the force now Texan church? Yeah, number one is text in church I goodness for information for contact info for care for people for continuing relationship outside of a button or a text that's a conduit to those things, but texting churches number one, I just made a post a couple of weeks ago I think it was an and people were loving it I was like good I guess it's true for more that's that's encouraging. But I like I listed things I was like hey, I need to I need a phone number texts and church I send a text in church I need to follow up with a plan is it guys for this site texting church? I need to get into follow up workflows Texan church and I was like, come on. Come on church Texan. Come on somebody put a put blue hearts in the comments. If you're there. I have a copy and paste it right on my desktop. Just a part. It's awesome, because I use it so much. So Texan churches, number one, number two is Planning Center. Most people are familiar with that. Scheduling. Again, I am a give the time up front to something and then be free to go and do something else to care for people to invest in people. So I have templates set up for the teams that I schedule and lead that just automatically send schedules out and send reminders out when it's that time. Yeah, sir. Flow and service notes, all kinds of stuff. And then Asana, I put Asana slash Monday, because monday.com is the beast if you guys have you used that monday.com Even that name kind of pulls people in and they're curious. And I'm like, oh, it's because Monday is thought but this doesn't. So monday.com we used it we did the free trial. And then we realized that it costs a lot of money. So we did the free Asana which is

Jeanette Yates  13:16  
I liked. I liked that. Church leaders around the world can relate to let's use that free one.

Josiah Peterman  13:27  
Free, you know, the commercial credit report.

Jeanette Yates 13:30  
Oh my god. Yeah. 

Jeanette Yates  13:32  
Saanvi. That spells free. We're allowed to say that. I don't know. We're gonna get busted.

Josiah Peterman  13:38  
Not a sponsor. Now, right. Now. This video. They're gonna pay us too high now. Right? Yeah. So Monday is, I think, the workhorse of everything. Asana is a close second. And our favorite because it's free. Again, there you're sure.

Nina Hampton 13:58  
So kind of like as you're going through, right? Because at some point, like now you use all of these tools, which is amazing, right? And so you're killing it in that game. But I think at some point, you had to have the aha moment where like, I need tools. And so when did you first kind of realize and stumble upon that realizing that these tools were helpful, like, tell us about the story, the journey to get to the point where you started using tools and realize that they were helpful. Yes.

Josiah Peterman  14:22  
Oh, my goodness, what  Text in Church it was when I was in college, and I kept getting messages and seeing sponsored ads, which are like the very first time Facebook could do that. And I always thought it was like an encouragement, like to get people texting in the church service. I just didn't, yeah, and then I started here, and they're like, hey, well, we use this and I was like, Wait, isn't that? No, it was much different than I expected. But a personal thing. I think this is probably more personal than job related. I was in a bad car accident when I was a senior in high school. And before that, I was real chill and laid back and whatever happens happens, you know, be in the moment. it go with the flow. But after that, I just woke up like a detailed monster I've been told. So through college, even still being honest, my college experience was not the best because we got the whole syllabus the first week, and I completed everything the first week. And then I turned it in as the dates came. But between that time I just went to work. Like I just, I was a hermit, it was not the best. Wow. But I Yeah, so to answer that question, to bring it back around, I think it's more of a personal thing. Yes, this kind of stuff helps. Yeah, it helps. Yeah, in a day that is so demanding of time and energy. Yeah, we need things that that support our purpose in our passions.

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Nina Hampton 16:50  
Well, I think it goes back to kind of like what you said about you know, some of your biggest challenges, like if the temptation is to be apathetic, I mean, I've talked to my husband about that extensively. Like we've been in ministry for a long time. And that his temptation he's like, it's, it's it can be very mundane and everything, but using tools and tech and systems to so that you can keep the main thing the main thing, right, which is reaching people with the hope of Jesus, right. So like, it's like, it allows you to do that. Yeah. And I'm saying so like, it's, you know, I think it goes back to that, that original thing of like, I don't want to do what I've always done the only mean and doing the same mundane thing day in and day out. I want to reach people who are hurting and be available for them. So that's great. For sure.

Josiah Peterman  17:33  
I think that's the big way that my day to day stuff has been changed, is giving time to the tools that help us accomplish the goal and move the mission forward. But then move us beyond the tasks and help us either people that are behind the systems or in the systems Janette. You said it last week, I wrote it down. I quoted it. Oh, wow.

Jeanette Yates  17:53  
What did I say?

Josiah Peterman  17:56  
In the comments? I think it was yeah, it was during lunch and learn. You said systems are meant to remind us not replace us. Yeah, yeah, that's good. Come on. And then I put that in the chat of that call. And she was like, Hey, I say good stuff. And I was like, yes. Systems are meant to remind us not replace us. So we we give time to the details and to the impact. And then things run. And we hear from people and we care for people while things are running 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So it's so good. So

Jeanette Yates  18:27  
so how much time do you think you spend? And you can talk about, like, how much time do you spend in Text in Church or Monday and Asana to kind of prep, you know, prep that so that you can let that go? You know, let that run so that you can do the other things like what is your? What does that balance of time for you look like?

Josiah Peterman  18:47  
So I have let me show you this as best as I can without showing you my brain dump. I have. Again, I'm detailed, guys, I apologize. So I'm afraid. You can see up top of this, this checklist is my weekly checklist. So this column is things that I do every day. And this is day specific things. So right now, like, like on a Monday of week one, I send out what's coming for the month at church. On the Thursday of week four, I go through and go over our people system and see who has been checked in or created for the first time, all that kind of stuff. But daily I have for several whether it's our Google ads that we have running or Text in Church workflows. I have a time set aside every single day to just improve. Yeah. So in managing our time, which is another thing we can talk.

Jeanette Yates  19:36  
We'll have you on for another another. Yeah.

Josiah Peterman  19:41  
That time is set aside to hey, I'm going to I'm going to get better whether that's getting in one different workflow every day of the week and making small tweaks and changes. Or it's the daily very first thing I do everyday is checking boxes, anything that is an app that has an inbox that somehow I get something that's the first thing so I'm out of the office. I'm with Family. I'm intentional about that in the evening. I'm not right here with Text in Church. But we have something set up that says, hey, we're away. For we're back tomorrow and this time, and you'll hear from us then. Yeah. So the very first thing I do is, who do I need to get back with? Get all the inboxes to zero so that during the day, those other tasks have my complete attention and energy and focus. So every day, it's a daily thing. But again, it's not daily, all the technical work within its daily sharing and keeping things consistent for us, which is monitoring.

Josiah Peterman  20:36  
Yeah, yeah.

Nina Hampton 20:37  
So then how do you like, I mean, you kind of hit on this a little bit. And so if you can kind of go into it, I think one thing that anybody who works in church communications, struggles with the unplugging, right, like still, like, there's messages in you don't I mean, like in the inbox, there's people responding on maybe social media, you know, all the things. How do you unplug from that? Like, how do you be intentional spend time as a husband first, as a dad sit again, you don't I mean, and really be able to be present in those moments.

Josiah Peterman  21:04  
I think it comes down to, again, the systems and the tools that help us guard our time in a way but also deciding in advance what's gonna get my time.

Jeanette Yates  21:13  
That's gonna so number of T shirt, y'all hooded, t shirt.

Josiah Peterman  21:18  
It's I love Carrie Neuhoff. And I'm a part of their leadership academy. It's from him somewhere, but he says everything. The second we download an app or start something new, it asks for permission to interrupt our lives. Okay. At any time, do you want to allow this app to notify you? And we're saying yes or no, yes, I give you permission to talk to me whenever you want. Or no, I have some self control and some boundaries set up to determine who's allowed and what is allowed to interrupt me. So that's key. Yes, managing time away. The second biggest thing is I don't know when the iPhone came out with it, but focus modes.

Jeanette Yates  21:53  
Hey, man, they are mine.

Josiah Peterman  21:57  
If you're an Android, I pray for you every day. An apple is in Genesis chapter one or two. So it's obviously God's favorite. So yeah, I don't know what you got not quite as good as Apple modes, I don't know. But those are set up. My phone is constantly I've got an icon at the top of my screen, because it just tells you which one you're in. There's never a point where I'm not in a focus mode. Whether it's work or personal, or sleep, or Do Not Disturb there's something that filters. Yeah, yeah, the permission I give to be interrupted. So when I'm with Family, I'm with Family. That's there's always things i Something I tried to do. And I can't even say I'm good at it. Because right now I have 27 unread emails in my inbox I just checked, but inbox zero. So Monday, I get in. I check inboxes on zero Thursday, before I leave for the weekend. Inbox Zero. Wow. That way when it comes up on the checklist throughout the week, check inboxes there might be two to three, four or five but there's not 35 to what is it charity Lane shout out to you 10,000 something

Nina Hampton 23:03  
dirty girl, I feel you, hey, we're not were the same kind of were the same kind of person.

Josiah Peterman  23:08  
There's this beautiful feature where you can check a box at the top and then click action. I think this is awesome Text in Church. So shout out to you guys. But you can click Mark all and then delete. Some of us need to archive Okay, all right. I'm not encouraging you to not care about people. But if you got that much noise coming in man, and you're not able to respond, yeah, then let's just clear it. Let's unsubscribe. I took three months at the beginning of the year. And everything I got. I then asked myself is does this add value to right now where I'm at? Or our churches that or can I let go this for a while or completely? And if it doesn't help doesn't add value, then I have permission to let myself let it go. So yeah, that's awesome. 

Jeanette Yates  23:55  
think that is such an important thing. You know, it's not one of the tech tools you mentioned. But the idea of being intentional with those apps. I do always recommend that if people are downloading the Text in Church app that they do allow permission so that you can actually see somebody's messaging. But other than that, like being intentional with that. And then of course, being able to set things up to to not disturb you or distract you so that you can focus. Yeah. So switching back on to a ministry ministry mode. Yes. See my shirt. Oh, there you go. Coming soon to a to a swag box near you. I don't know. Anyway, you are intentional with your family. You're intentional with your work. You're intentional with the time that you give to us today. Right? But what is one of the things if you could pick the one thing if you could play favorites and ministry what would be what do you love to do? What's one thing that you love to do? Your very favorite but just one one thing that you love?

Josiah Peterman  24:58  
Yeah, apart from systems just my favorite, I could sit in a little square box room with a desk and I couch for a nap every now and then all day, and just use system stuff. But again, I'm alive. I'm, I love it because the systems are the key to it. But I'm allowed to go out and do something. I'm allowed to meet with people in person and help develop people develop leaders within our church and on our teams. Because I'm not doing something by thinking, Oh, I gotta keep up with this and check this and do the sin and set this up. And I'd like to be with people. That's my favorite thing I get connections is kind of my first title. So being over LifeGroups, being over our host team, guests that come plan of visits, all that kind of stuff. Being able to invest in that is my favorite thing. Because I'm confident that other stuff happens while I'm doing that. So because of the system. Yeah, yeah.

Nina Hampton 25:58  
So with that, I think that just kind of gets to, you know, kind of as we wrap up here, like, what encouragement what advice I mean, you already given a time, but you know, somebody who is an overwhelmed, church calms

Josiah Peterman  26:13  
me and I can give systems and process encouragement all day. And I would just say, give the time to that, like, more important than your job function, or your job description. Yeah, I'm especially in this season. And I would say two things. One, and this is pre jury preach ish teaching. Because I do that to it once a quarter. But you man, you need to return to your first love. Yeah. And that's Jesus.

Nina Hampton 26:40  
Guess if he goes down, man, hey, that's real. 

Josiah Peterman  26:44  
You got to return to your first love. Because we're talking about productivity and caring for people. But that's not your first calling. Yeah, that's right. You're not called to be productive. Yeah, you're not called to be passionate about Text in Church, or monday.com or something. You're called to Jesus. And if you're walking with him, and you are returning to him, you're close, you're abiding in your with your first love, because God revealed Himself to you. And you accepted him before. You said, oh, I want to be a connection to pastor I want to be a kid director. I want to do that. That was second. That's right. So let's get back to the way before we get into the details of all the what and how and all that kind of stuff. And the second, still preaching, preacher teaching, whatever goes right with that, we need to not only return but we need to recover the hope. Here's a big, big church where we need to recover the hope of the resurrection. Because our circumstances and our goals and our tasks and to do list and communication schedules. I didn't even show you that's insane. All that stuff. Yes, man. If it's on us, then it's going to fail. But if it's framed in hope, and we're walking in hope, then as leaders, it's true. We can only we can only give what we have. I can help people all day connect to the Text in Church out or text a keyword or playing a visit. Yeah, but if behind that, there isn't the motivation of hope and a pupil finding life. Yep. Man, we got to get back to our first love and the hope that we have of Jesus being alive. That's why we're doing this. That's why the internet is working right now. Praise the word. Yes. That's why the lights are on. Because Jesus is alive right now. So so we need to hang in there. And I just heard First Corinthians 1558. There's 58 verses in that chapter. split it up into two or three readings. So that's too long, but it says this. Therefore my dear brothers and sisters be steadfast, immovable, always excelling. In the awards work, excelling is tied to excellence, and not to self promo, but I talked about that in the engaged session a few years ago. And we said excellence I didn't do this. I have serious excellence. And she said, it's a quality that surpasses the rest of her steadfast and immovable. Walking in excellence in the Lord's work, reminded that our labor in the Lord is not in vain. Then we're walking and we're walking in life, and we're gonna see impact you guys just put on mugs. I just got it. I don't know if I'm supposed to say this. Go ahead. I got a mug and it says dream big, prioritize people create impact. And that's key in that order, too. Right? I got another one from church marketing University. It says dream big, pray bigger, but start small reminder of humility. We got to do those things there. So that's it. That was my preaching. Sorry. I kept it down to

Jeanette Yates  29:51  
Listen, fastest sermon

Josiah Peterman  29:53  
I've ever given.

Nina Hampton 29:54  
I come from a church context. I know we have all different church context, cultural backgrounds, that I'm an agent's all of that. come from the context where I shout, okay, if somebody's preaching, I don't know how to not respond. And it took everything in my mic right now.

Josiah Peterman  30:09  
Yeah, I went to the right now media conference two weeks ago, I was there in Texas right now. And it was specifically designed for church leaders and users of right now media, but there are a couple 1000 there. And I've never heard people saying, and even like, you just just get it during the message or any braid. i Oh, my gosh, I was like, we should just all meet together as church leaders and having Sunday, which is I haven't asked for so it's gonna happen anyway. But, man, we gotta get we gotta get back to that. Yes. And just sit still and be quiet. Yeah,

Nina Hampton 30:44  
I'm sorry. I can't, I can't keep it in.

Josiah Peterman  30:48  
You've heard it if the joy of the Lord is your strength. He says that we're at your face, because you're talking about on stage. But let's our our entire being. Yeah, let's, let's respond in a way that reflects that.

Jeanette Yates  30:59  
Amen. Listen, Josiah, I am I'm, I'm overwhelmed. I'm a cleanser. I'm new. And I cannot thank you enough for your for preaching to us today, but also for sharing how you serve your church and how you live out the calling that Christ has played on your place on your heart. And I just thank you for your time today. I thank you for being our our guinea pig in this new format. They worked. Yeah. And I look forward. By the way, if you didn't have the comments open during this, you need to go hop in. You had people dropping the hearts, you had people with the crazy number

Josiah Peterman  31:47  
And I saw a drop and I was like, none and if it gets to zero.

Jeanette Yates  31:53  
So go hop in and check those out. But thank you so much, Josiah. I'm going to close this time out. And thank you for those of you who joined us in the chat. We appreciate it. Guys. See you soon. Let's see Yep.

Jeanette Yates  32:10  
In this episode, we heard from Josiah Peterman, the connections pastor at Christ Community Church in Bartlesville. Oklahoma, say that more time is fast. Anyway, we were inspired by his dedication to using technology to help him stay organized and efficient in his multifaceted role. He detailed his approach to using checklists and how Inbox Zero has become a part of his weekly routine. Wow. Yeah. Right. It was refreshing to hear about how he can use those simple and inexpensive tools such as asana and Gmail to be more focused and less frazzled

Nina Hampton 32:46  
Each week, we really just hope that you're encouraged by Josiah story and have been equipped with ideas for utilizing tech tools in your ministry role. So thank you, Josiah, so much for sharing your experience and working towards efficiency while maintaining healthy boundaries with us.

Jeanette Yates  33:01  
Yes, he had such great insights about those boundaries. Man, that may have been my favorite part, too. Yeah. Smalls, I don't know. Those boundaries, and just he was so wise. So wise. And so and he even did a little preaching.

Nina Hampton  33:17  
That's all just about to say, above all else, it was the refocusing the why at the very end, yeah, you know, Yeah, about that. Why am I here? Why we do this?

Jeanette Yates  33:25  
Remember your first love? 

Nina Hampton  33:29  
Yes, it is Jesus. Yes. And he clarified that.

Jeanette Yates  33:31  
Like, just right. So yeah, that was great. You know what I really love that you can use his ideas with different technology. So he has the tools that he uses. But really, whatever you have on hand right now is what you can use, you know, to create a checklist or keep up with your projects. Everybody has email, how you get to inbox zero as you check the email. Yeah, that's right. But you can use what you have. Because the technology you use is important to build the relationships with people, but really, it's the relationships that are going to outlast technology. So yes, we use that technology to help us have time to build those relationships, that those relationships that community you're building, that's what outlast.

Nina Hampton  34:13  
That technology is just a conduit for the relationship essay. Yeah, but if you know what I might okay, there's really easy ways to get one share made I might just do it. Yeah, we need it. So if you want to watch the full interview with Josiah or download a copy of Josiah is weekly and monthly checklist, head over to our show notes at podcast.textinchurch.com.  And remember to subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen so that you can spend less time worrying about technology and more time doing what you love in your ministry and in your personal life.