Season 2 Wrap-up/Tech In Church Ep 2.09

Nina Hampton  0:00  
I think one of the undercurrents of tech in church, right of the conversations that we have is like stewardship. I think that's one thing that's so encouraging is hearing how all of these different people whose lives look very different, who are in different seasons of their life, how they're stewarding their ministries, and how they are taking every opportunity, taking every chance. They're like, Hey, I'm trying to serve my people. And so this is, you know, that's how we got to know them. And so I think that that's, that's one of the things that's just been so encouraging to me is watching and hearing about how all of these different people literally across the country.

Jeanette Yates  0:42  
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 focus. I'm Jeanette Yates, and I'm here with my co-host, Nina Hampton. 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. Hey, Nina.

Nina Hampton  1:01  
Yay. So it's official. Season two is a wrap. Okay. And so in today's episode, Jeanette and I will share some of our favorite tech tools and tips and just random comments and conversations from all of our season two guests. We're also going to be giving you a little preview of what to expect in season three coming up in a few months. And by the way, there are some things coming that we are super excited about. So let's go ahead and get started. Jeanette, we made it to the end of season already. Can you believe it?

Jeanette Yates  1:31  
 I honestly cannot. I still feel like we're just starting to build our momentum and we're getting, like we're getting into the groove and it's been a whirlwind. We've had a lot of great guests this season. So many great conversations with all types of church leaders, pastor. Some are on staff. Some are volunteers, part- timers, full-timers. One thing they all had in common- they were all multitasking. Everybody has the multiple hats. We determined we have a whole collection of hats and T shirts I think that we need to make because everyone-

Nina Hampton  2:00  
I think if we could make Tech in Church Podcast merch, that's what it would be all the hats.

Jeanette Yates  2:04  
Yeah, it would barely even say Tech In Church. It would just have all the, which we're going to talk about some of those. I don't want to get. I don't want to jump in too early. But some of those t-shirts were the comments for sure. But everybody that we talked to had their own ways of maintaining their focus of grounding themselves, of staying on task, and getting all of their stuff done, all those multiple tasks done. And so we're gonna dive into it. I'm ready.

Nina Hampton  2:28  
I am too, and I think that, I think one of the funnest things for me I love getting to know people personally like I love hearing people's story. And so just week after week, just hearing about people's personal lives and like how they wind down and some of them like, 'Hey, I like to, you know, spend time with my family. I like to fish. I like to zone out on, watch a Netflix show, and binge it. I'm like, you and I should be friends. It was just cool getting to learn about, you know, I think all of us across the kingdom and how we, how everybody in their own respectful areas their own respective lanes, are winding down and trying to do the best they can to juggle and steward all that God's given them. So yeah. 

Jeanette Yates  3:08  
Well, so we started Season Two off with Josiah Peterman, and I get to hang out with him online. He's a big in our Text in Church community Facebook group. He helps us out during lunch and learn sometimes. He comes in. He's very supportive there. So I felt like I already knew him well, but I had not seen him wearing his like Pastor slash church leader hat really. Yes. And I was blown away.

Nina Hampton  3:32  
I was too. That's what I was gonna say. He's like a familiar face around here. The Text In Church team. There's nobody really on the team unless they're like new new that doesn't know him. You know what I'm saying? Like, we know him very well. And I was like, Oh, I like, I've got a handle on what Josiah is going to talk. No,. I don't know. I didn't. I was blown away. All his checklists. Oh, okay, who knew? All the thing? Like this man was that organized? And he just like out here dropping bombs. The thing that he said that still sticks with me is like, when it comes to your notifications on your phone, it's basically you giving an allowance, allowing things to interrupt you. That changed the way I thought about enabling notifications. Every time I download a new app. I'm like, do I want this thing to interrupt me in my day? No, I did not. That's right. Like, yeah, it blew my mind. So you know, just coming out here with all that.

Jeanette Yates  3:32  
Oh, yeah. And he was so- Okay, first of all, his checklist were a big hit. I think they're in the show notes to Episode One. But they are, you know, he has weekly, monthly, daily checklist. He even has a system where he gets to Inbox Zero. You guys every week.

Nina Hampton  4:38  
I wish I can relate. 

Jeanette Yates  4:39  
I know. I know. But that was great. And then he wrapped up that episode with just some really intense words about the power we have to control what distracts us, but also really just spoke some really great encouragement into church leaders, yeah, in their ministry. So that was just really what a great way to kickoff Season Two for sure.

Nina Hampton  5:01  
Well, and then we go into our next episode, which is an interview with Victoria Counterman, which was just awesome. She was just so bubbly and so loving, and so kind, but at the same time, I got really stressed out here and about everything that she tries to do with her life. I know, she's one of the volunteers. She's not on staff per se at her church. She volunteers in her role. She homeschools her kids, right? Okay, I just want to emphasize that as much as I can, and then does all of the things that she does at her church, which feels like all the things. 

Jeanette Yates  5:34  
Well, and if you haven't listened to that episode, yeah, you guys, she volunteers. And so you might be saying, oh, yeah, we have volunteers. I'm pretty sure. And I would have to go back and listen again, but I'm pretty sure she volunteers 40 hours a week. Yes. All of her time is volunteer time, but it's still full-time. 

Nina Hampton  5:51  
Yes. Unpaid staff member.

Jeanette Yates  5:53  
Yeah. And she does just like many, many of us who have been in that church communicator role know, she does the social media. She does the text messaging. She does the email. She does the all the things. So and then she like you say and she manages to do it all with grace, and with her kids in tow.

Nina Hampton  6:11  
And I think that that was a one of the really beautiful parts of the interview was hearing about how she gets to incorporate, you know what I mean, her children and raising her children, and having them watch her do all that she does in the way that she serves for their front lines and have how she loves to bring them and make them a part of of what she's doing. I love that I thought it was just the best. 

Jeanette Yates  6:30  
And my favorite was her tech tool that she utilizes. This is what we mean when we talk about everyday church leaders. We're not talking about some fancy pants. Yeah. high-falutin. As my family would say. Her favorite tool that she uses in order to maintain focus is Do Not Disturb on her phone. Right, y'all how many of us are actually utilizing Do Not Disturb on our phone? Right? I am now because I had to learn. 

Nina Hampton  6:59  
Without even looking at it like or even looking at it as something to serve you. You know what I mean? This is something that we all have, and it can serve you in what you're doing. It is a tech tool. Use it, please. 

Jeanette Yates  7:09  
Yeah, please do. And also, I don't know, she probably does a better job at this. But I'm notorious for putting my phone on 'Do Not Disturb' and then just checking it every five seconds. So it's on Do Not Disturb. Like, if I would not look at it, it would not disturb me. And I'm allowing it to disturb me. So, but to your point, being intentional, using the tech tools that most of us have in our hand right now. You may even be listening to this on your phone while you're walking. And like, oh, wait, I have this right now. So yeah, I really love that. And then of course, she had that great reminder for us at the end.

Nina Hampton  7:41  
Yeah. It's beautiful, that you're doing it all for Him. You're doing it for the Lord. You're not doing it for people.

Jeanette Yates  7:46  
Not for the likes. For the Lord. Put it on a shirt.

Nina Hampton  7:49  
Not right. Not for the likes. For the Lord. Hey, man, we actually might need a coin that we might need to get right into copyright that. Just maybe. That's good. But yeah, that's what it's all about. That's why we do we do. It's not even necessarily for the people that we serve, because I think that we can tell ourselves that. You know what I mean? It sounds benevolent. Like, yeah, I'm doing this for, you know, my community. Nope. It's for the Lord. It's for Jesus. 

Jeanette Yates  8:11  
Yes, because there's going to be people in your community that aren't going to be happy with what you're doing. And so if you're doing it to please them, it's not.

Nina Hampton  8:20  
I'm having to stop myself from preaching right now. Because we have a whole podcast episode to get through. But I have a lot of thought and biblical scripture, okay, that I will throw down on this thing.

Jeanette Yates  8:29  
All right. So let me just, let's go ahead and move to episode three, Amy Wilson Payne brought it big time. First of all, I had no idea how many roles she had. You actually had the opportunity to meet her in-person. Is that right?

Nina Hampton  8:41  
Oh, it was the best. So her and I were both at a conference. And I don't know if you've ever had the thing where like you see someone outside of the context that you expected to see them. And so it was, we're at this huge church conference down in Dallas, Texas, and I went with the staff of the church that my husband and I are serving at right now and going there with them. You know, all the church leadership stuff, you know, taking notes, all that stuff, and you're just kind of like your brain's blown out from all the stuff that you've, you know, learned, and she, like, be like that to me, right after a session. She's like, 'Oh, my gosh, Nina' and I had a moment I had like, an out of body moment where I'm like, Oh, wait, what, why? Why? Like, why are you and then we gave each other a huge hug. And I got to meet everybody on her church staff. I got to introduce her to all my friends. It was awesome. And, I get to catch up with her like multiple times throughout the conference. It was great. She's literally the best. It made this conversation all the more sweeter. Because the people that she talked about, she talks about how awesome of a team that she's got. I got to meet them, and she's not kidding. They're awesome. They were so loving. Everybody hugged me. It was great. It was the best.

Jeanette Yates  9:46  
Well, one of the things that I really loved about her, you know, her session with us, her interview with us, was that she admitted like this is a tech podcast. We'd love talking about tech, but her biggest thing was my biggest struggle is that tech is constantly changing. And I keep trying to, like, figure out the new things and learn. But she really loves to lean into learning about a technology and how it can help her connect with those that she serves. And so instead of being afraid of it, or overwhelmed by it, she says, Yeah, you're right. I don't understand this, but I want to, so I'm gonna go seek out the resources I need. And that's why like, you know, on our team, at Text in Church, we, one of the things that we spend a lot of time doing is making sure those resources are there, because we know that tech can be overwhelming. And yes, and it's constantly changing. So we do try to provide that. But she, you know, she talks about the different tools that she used. One of the things that she said that the COVID really, you know, for all of the trauma that it brought to our society, that the downtime that they experienced, just like the rest of us did, during COVID, allow them to set systems in place. So now that they're experiencing a season of growth, they are ready, because they have the systems in place. And I thought, and if we are utilizing, you know, sometimes we have those downtimes in ministry, and it may not be because of COVID, it may just be because and things aren't very busy, or there's not a lot of people showing up or there's you know, things are lean, whatever. And to go into those times and say okay, well, we could sit back on our heels and do nothing or we can, since we only have one guest funneling in every week, let's go ahead and get that follow up system in place now. More guests are coming every week. It's already in place. So I just love that perspective and that she shared that with us.

Nina Hampton  11:42  
I think one of the undercurrents of Tech in Church, of the conversations that we have is stewardship. I think for me, especially just being in ministry, in the specific capacities that I am right now, in this season, in my life, you know, because it hasn't like what I do now for the house that I serve is not, that hasn't always looked like this. I think that's one thing that's so encouraging is hearing how all of these different people whose lives look very different, who are in different seasons of their life, how they're stewarding their ministries, you know what I'm saying, and how they are taking every opportunity, taking every chance, you know, and they're not being like that. I think that's the other beautiful part is we're talking to everyday church leaders. No one's arrived yet. You know what I'm saying, like, and I want that to be clear, like, we're not talking like, I see them as experts. And Jeanette, I know that you do too, because they're killing it every week. And we get a real life, you know, kind of front row seat to that, you know what I mean? But like, at the same time, we know them, because they're a part of the Text in Church family. And we just see what they're doing. They ask questions in the Facebook group. They're like, Hey, I'm trying to serve my people. And so this is, you know, that's how we got to know them. And so I think that's one of the things that's just been so encouraging to me is watching and hearing about how all of these different people literally across the country, because Amy is down in, she's down in the south. And then Natalie Butler, who we're going to talk about next is in Vegas. Just totally different demographics, totally different people- 

Jeanette Yates  13:10  
Which automatically made me think like superstar. I'm like, Oh, she's from Vegas. Like she's a rockstar, I don't know, right?

Nina Hampton  13:17  
She was born and raised there. You know, and just so just hearing about the different ways that they're serving their ministry and how innovative they are all in the heart to serve the Lord first and foremost, but there are people to serve their house, who they shepherd. I just think that's beautiful. And this is kind of a little aside. Also, one of my favorite parts about Amy's interview is hearing about her baked goods that I would have loved to have some personally.

Jeanette Yates  13:42  
Yeah, she talked about some cookies. She also said something that was so hilarious to me. And I'm still pondering it to try to see if it's really true in my own life. But she said this is another t-shirt worthy. She said if you can freeze it, you can fry it. I think is what she said. And I'm like, let me think of all the things in my freezer and can I fry them? So I'm still thinking about that Amy if you're listening.

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Jeanette Yates  15:11  
But let's go ahead and dive into Natalee. Like you mentioned, she's from Vegas. She serves in a couple of different capacities, but her heart is for the youth that she works with. She also was part of I think she also said that she does some, like, Guest Services type things as well.

Nina Hampton  15:27  
Yeah, her role was split. Yeah, she's split between. She leads the youth ministry, but she also does all their guest services guest follow-up, their connections person. She's that. She kind of does both roles. She's on full-time doing both roles. 

Jeanette Yates  15:40  
And I'm pretty sure she blew our minds. This was the episode that. 

Nina Hampton  15:43  
She did. 

Jeanette Yates  15:43  
Okay, so tell tell everybody about that.

Nina Hampton  15:46  
So for me, it was hearing the way because one, I love talking to Natalee, because I love authenticity. You know what I mean? And when people are real about where they're at. Because I think sometimes like, you know, you think like, oh, I'm having conversation. Somebody's asking me all the questions about my life. Let me make sure that, you know, I leave out the parts that aren't perfect. And she didn't do that at all. She was like, I personally have really struggled to get this area of my life together. She's like, it's not my strong suit. It's not my strength. And so I want tp, I just appreciated her being that honest, because a lot of us don't like to say what our weak points are allowed. And she was just so forthcoming with that. But I think for me, what blew my mind, Jeanette, was when she was talking about how she follows up with her first time guests. And then how like, intentional she is. She tracks everybody. And she use specifically, was using Text in Church to follow up and celebrate their milestones. So, after somebody has been a part of the family for six months, they celebrate like their half birthdays. Hey, you're like, 'this is your half birthday with you being like a member at the church. You've been coming for this long. We're so happy that you're here at a year. She'd like, it sends a message that, you know what I mean, this person has been here for a year. We're so happy that you're a part of our family. I've never heard of that. I've worked for Text in Church. And for years, I've never heard of anyone doing that. I like to talk to people about how they're using the system. And I've never heard of that.

Jeanette Yates  17:12  
I think that was the really cool part is we both know all about the reminders and the workflows. That's part of something that we teach, as, you know, when we work with members. We teach them how to use the workflows. We tell them you can send a reminder to yourself to remind you to make the phone call. And she's like, Yeah, and we also instead of following up for, you know, six weeks. We're following up for a year, but the second half of the year isn't necessarily sending them the new member or the new connection, something specific. It's sending me a reminder that this is where they are in their journey, so that I can reach out to them. And we were both like, what? So that was really amazing. And of course, I love how she also took the guests follow up, you know, workflow that we talked about for new guests coming to your church, and she uses something similar. She's tweaked that for her guests follow up for youth, because sometimes that whole like youth group can be its own community in itself. Yeah. And you have kids that will only come, I know, this is true at our church. We have kids that are faithful members of youth, but they go to a different church, their family belongs to a different church, but they're just faithful youth members. So having that whole guest follow up and journey with them separate from maybe what their family might be doing. You know, that is just so important. But my favorite thing from speaking with her other than our jaw dropping moment, where we literally felt I felt kind of dumb. You know, like for a second I was like I work for Tech in Church, didn't never even occurred to me to do that. That's why we love our community. It's because they teach us things, right. We'reexperts in some ways, but also we learn the way you get to be smarter is by learning from other people that are utilizing the same tools you are, and that includes the one that we worked for. So, but I love that she said, you know, we talked about when we talked about Victoria, her saying, you know, we're doing it all for God. Well, Natalee said something similar, which is you can't be the savior. So when we are serving, we have to remember we're doing the serving. He's doing the saving, like only He can. Another t-shirt. See? I'm telling you. We're on a roll here. Just I remember, this is a total side note, but now, I'm thinking this is the design of our t-shirt. I've got it. So I used to get I used to hang out at this place that had a lot of bands. And so like every year you would buy the t-shirt and all the bands that went to this place were listed on the shirt. I think that's what we need is just all the quotes on one shirt. 

Nina Hampton  19:36  
No, I totally second that. 

Jeanette Yates  19:38  
Yeah, we'll have to get on that. We'll have to get on that. Okay, let's move on. This was like the perfect like mid-season episode with Mike Elliot. I was so grateful to him for agreeing to come and talk because he was a unique guest because he was not currently serving in an you know, official capacity. I guess you should say so. That was just a sweet time that we had with him.

Nina Hampton  20:02  
I think it was just such a rich conversation because because of where he was in ministry. He was, again, really honest, really authentic about just kind of where it's been, and, you know, some of the hurts that he's had in ministry and just him being on sabbatical, because that's where he was. But I think there's something that was beautiful about his story, you know, just kind of where he's at right now, is the fact that like, is he currently like, on staff somewhere, you know, serving in a pastoral capacity? No, he's not. But he, they're still in his area of the country. There were still so many churches who are reaching out to him because he was the way he is, right? He's the guy who has all the answers when it comes to church tech and church communications. And so he still had such a heart to serve. And I believe even the church that he had just came from, you know, still helping them, you know, get situated with stuff, make sure their systems are all to go, all to serve the kingdom. And so just hearing about that, and the ways that he does it, I mean, I've personally worked with Mike. Like, he's an innovative dude. He has all the ideas all the time. And I think that's something that is just so great. And I know that you know, this, like, from firsthand experience in it. He is such a willing and giving member of our community, like anytime. Yeah, man. Anytime that anybody has questions, it does not matter. Like Mike is one of the first people to comment. And usually this thing, if I try to go and comment and try to like, address a question, he already, he beat me to it. He's in charge, he beat me to it. He said exactly what I was gonna say. And he's got it in the bag. And so just being able to talk to him in-depth and hear just his heart behind that, because we've always known him as that  guy. Mike's been that guy in our community for a very long time. And so being able to have an in-depth conversation here about his season that he's in here about his heart, you know, for ministry, I thought was awesome.

Jeanette Yates  21:49  
Yeah, I love that he, you know, he was experiencing this time of transition. And instead of saying, Well, you know, while with me? He said, This is my sabbatical time. This is my time to really dive into sabbatical, which I've been like, really into lately. I've been learning a lot about this, that Sabbath rest. And so that really meant a lot to me that he talked about taking that opportunity, that could have been something really negative, you know, when you're experiencing that, like, I don't have a, you know, an official job right now, you know, like that can be rough, but that he was using it for a sabbatical, but also understanding that God could still use him to serve the kingdom in that moment. That was like the biggest takeaway. I do want to give an update though, on Mike he does, he is now serving in church in an official capacity again, but he's also still a very active member of our community, which we do appreciate. But that was a great conversation. 

Jeanette Yates  22:42  
Okay. Now, Liz Dolan. 

Nina Hampton  22:46  
Her and I need to get coffee. 

Jeanette Yates  22:47  
Yeah. Okay. Coffee. Yes. But also remember, she's the one, one of her ways that she stays grounded. And one of the tech tools that she uses y'all is a hot tub. Right? I mean, come on now, that was awesome.

Nina Hampton  23:01  
She said, I bought inflatable hot tub is the best investment I've ever made. And I was like, You got to make me go buy one because they were on sale the other day. Right now, Liz. And I think that that's from all of our guests. I think I've said it the last three times. Like she was just so real. She was so authentic. She was honest. One thing that she hit on, which I don't feel like we talk about this much, because it's like, we're not supposed to. But like she talked about how much used to struggle with comparison. Like, which is just such a thing. I have my own story of dealing with that, especially in ministry, being a pastor's wife. I can talk about it for a long time. And so her talking about that, and just the history of her life and ministry and being at her family's Church and the roles that she's kind of gone through.

Jeanette Yates  23:45  
How relatable would that be if I stuck in the coins? I bet everybody that grew up in a church has some period of time where they were stacking coins. You know what I had to do? When I was little, and my family was serving in the church. I sat with-Our church had choir practice, and my parents were in choir, and there was an actual person whose only job was to provide refreshments for the choir people afterwards. And I was in charge of helping her prepare the station for the coffee, tea, and lemonade and small, little, what do we call them? Pinafores or whatever, you know, like the little treats. And so I got to make- actually it was coffee and tea and water, but we have lemons for the water. And so she would let me take a bunch of sugar baggages and a bunch of lemons and make my own fresh squeezed lemonade. So that was my first foray into like little church service was-

Nina Hampton  24:39  
Mine. I'll share a little bit of mine. My mom, we started going to, started going to this Bible study at our church that my home church that I grew up at, and I did not go. They had awesome, amazing youth and kids stuff. I didn't go because I was with my mom. And so I would go with her, and my mom, back in the day she loved to cook. Now that's a different story, but back in the day, she loves to cook. Okay. And so she wasn't just like, Oh, I'll make you know, a breakfast casserole for our, you know, for our class. No, my mom, I have been called extra many times in my life and I know where I get it from. She would make like a four course meal for for our Bible study class. Okay, and so we would wake up because she had like this conviction, like, she was like, I want to start. We didn't. We were not volunteers. We just attended. That's all we did. But she like had this personal conviction that all these people need to eat. It's early in the morning on a Sunday. Everybody's hungry. So some mornings, we would wake up at 4AM. And it get to like a bakery, like a local bakery, to work making this entire bread, right? It was a big class, like there was like, probably like 50-60 people in this Bible study class. And we Yeah, I went to work every morning to cook for this class. And eventually, like, on days where mom didn't feel good, or mom was sick. Breakfast still happened. I just had a little bit more work to do that day. So yeah, that's my early church as a little kid, you know, cooking breakfast to people as a 12 year old.

Jeanette Yates  26:08  
Another thing Liz dove into was she talked a little bit about mental health, and how she uses some. One of her tech tools was really how she stays grounded and calm. I think she was using like the Headspace. And so she talks about that. So if you're a person that you're experiencing a lot of stress. Maybe you're experiencing some depression or anxiety, that's a great episode, Episode Six with Liz Dolan. And then of course, she also, I love that she, we kind of talked a little bit about how they use the workflow to help people walk through. They send their new believers or new people that are walking through their early stages of accepting Christ through a book, and how they use the technology to kind of keep up and encourage them to stay focused on walking that path. And so that was just a really great conversation. 

Jeanette Yates  26:55  
All right. I don't know about this next episode, Nina. I don't know. It was all right, I guess. So Episode Seven was us.

Nina Hampton  27:05  
It was just us you had there was no other guests, just hearing from us talk about all the things. But in all seriousness, we gave you a peek behind Text in Church, grand wizardry curtain of how the team keeps their lives together. And the tech tools that we use on the team, and I think I don't know. Obviously, you and I do this tech podcast until we may be a little passionate about tech a little bit just. Yeah, just a little. And so I think for me, it was cool to talk about the things that like I love, you know what I mean. Hey, this has actually saved my life like this. Like I don't know what I would be doing. I don't know, the kind of worker that I would be, the kind of employee, the kind of manager that I would be if I didn't use this thing. So I think for me, I just, I'm glad that I got to kind of I got to contribute, I got to share, I got to contribute to the conversation of tech tools that are helpful. 

Jeanette Yates  27:55  
Yeah, so you can go check out Episode Seven, if you want to hear how Nina and I get it all done with the tech that the Text in Church team uses. We shared a little bit about things that we do to communicate with our team. 

Jeanette Yates  28:05  
And then episode eight was actually and this may become a trend that we might just, I'm not gonna say it's gonna be last episode of every season. But it's starting to be a trend. But we asked Caleb Miller, who is our Chief Experience Officer. Is that his title?

Nina Hampton  28:20  
It's, yes, Chief Experience Officer and my personal nemesis. 

Jeanette Yates  28:22  
Okay. And Nina likes to say personal nemesis, but they're really best friends. But you know, he really, we were thinking, you know, we're going to ask him on because he uses a lot of automations and tools. And so we knew he had some tech to share with us. But then he blew our minds, because he was telling us things that we did not know. And we thought we knew it. And we just thought we were gonna invite him to share all that with you guys. But what we did not know is he had a whole bunch of secret tools that we did not know he was using. He shares all of those. And one of the things that I thought was really kind of him to do was to share more about like the philosophy that he has that the Text In Church team has that we try to foster of service, and how when he's deciding what you know, because he loves technology, just like we do when and you can get kind of you can get drowned. And all of the technology, if you just adopt every if you're an early adopter to every single thing, you can get lost in tech tools and not actually serve the people that you're called to serve. And so his philosophy of service is to choose tools that help manage time, so that we can all serve people better. And I think that's such a good marker. And I think it's a great thing for pastors and church leaders to think about too, is like, is the tech tool, helping you save time so that you can serve people better? That's probably one of the first things that you want to ask yourself is if you're struggling, is there a tool that can help me do this better so that I can spend less time managing the tools as we like to say, and more time doing the ministry? And so I really loved that he talked about that.

Nina Hampton  28:39  
Well, and one thing that I think was really great about his conversation where he talked about, and I think it really rounded out the season, honestly, was the fact that you have to have a strategy for your tech tool before you ever just use it. You don't- if you just expect, whatever tech tool you pick up to just do whatever it is for you, it's not going to be effective for you. You have to create a strategy around that or borrow a strategy. You don't have to make one from scratch. There's plenty of strategy out there. But you have to, you have to have a strategy of how you're using your tech tool before you start to use your tech tool. Because you know, kind of like, you know, going back to the one that I use Reclaim. If I don't have a time on my calendar automatically that I know that I enter new stuff into Reclaim every night, Reclaim will not work, right?

Jeanette Yates  30:43  
It doesn't just read your mind.

Nina Hampton  30:45  
Yeah, it can't. It can't just take the things out of my brain. I wouldn't want it to. I am, yeah, the AI stuff freaks me out. You have to- I have to have a rhythm. I have to have a rhythm. I have to have a strategy that that works for me. And he really hits on that in this episode. Because that's for him. And kind of like, you know, I kind of hinted to that in the episode like, I've watched Caleb, walk into the role that he's in now, truly, I really did. When I started to my understanding, like, he started to lead our team, not soon after I started, when I started, we were peers. And now he's running things as he should be. And so like, watching him walk in, I watched, I watched him create a strategy, try strategy out, kind of, you know, and doing what he also talked about, which is having the freedom to evolve. And if something doesn't, when a moment, try something else, try something new. I've watched him do trial and error over the past four years, and so it's so true. And I think that's a big part that we don't talk about when we talk about tech tools is like you have to find a way to use it first. Figure out the strategy for yourself.

Jeanette Yates  31:49  
Yeah, you know, we were talking about the cell phone earlier, and how you can have a cell phone. But if it has no apps, and it doesn't have a number attached to it, then it's just a big hole. It's a brick. And so and then, of course, if you put all the tools on there, but don't have a strategy, then you're constantly distracted, and you get nothing done. Right. So anyway, well, that is a wrap on the wrap on the recap, the wrap on the recap, I don't know, anyway. But there were so many great tidbits from season two. We hope that you go back and choose some to listen to, listen to them all again. But we're gonna be going into prep mode for season three. And we'll be sharing a little bit more about that. I want you Nina to give them a little bit of a taste of what like we're changing things up just a little bit. We're still talking tech tools in season three about what's going to be different.

Nina Hampton  32:38  
So we are very excited to announce that season three of the Tech In Church podcast will be available on your favorite podcast app, as always, but we will also be dropping each episode on our YouTube channel, y'all. So like you said, like you can hear us, but you've never been able to see our face. You've never been able to see our reactions. Every time that our jaws drop, you don't actually know what's happening. You will in season three. You will be able to see our face all the things. This will allow you to interact with us and our guests in the comment section of each video. So we'd highly suggested to do that. Please be a part. It's going to be awesome. We're so excited. We're prepping and doing all the things. We're in full on prep mode to get this thing ready. 

Jeanette Yates  33:18  
Yeah. So I'm just through the roof about this. Through the roof. And part of the reason is because my favorite thing about the job that I get to do for Text in Church is engaging with our members, engaging with people online church leaders. And so having this piece where when we dropped the episode, we will have already obviously recorded it already. So we're going to be dropping it. But that means that allows us to actually hop in the comments with you and engage with you and our guests are going to be doing that as well. And so we want you so that you're ready. We know you're already subscribed right here. I hope you've done that already, to wherever you're listening. But we also want you to go subscribe to our YouTube channel, so that when we drop Season Three later this summer, you will get that notification and you can come hang out with us in the comments. We've got some great church leaders that have some amazing strategies gonna blow your mind. You're not gonna want to miss it. So again, be sure to go subscribe to our YouTube channel. Text in Church is there you'll see it and you won't miss out. And you can also check out all the awesome stuff that we've been putting on there for you guys. There's a lot of resources, a lot of tips, a lot of tools, all the things. 

Nina Hampton  34:26  
If you find the Tech In Church Podcast helpful if you'd enjoyed it, please leave a rating. Please let us know that 'Hey, this is helpful for me. This is a great conversation. I have a lot of fun' All the things so leave us a rating wherever you listen to this podcast. Rate us. Help us. It helps people find us. We want this conversation to be as helpful, as helpful to as many church leaders as it can be.

Nina Hampton  34:52  
Right Thank you for listening to today's episode. Remember to check out the show notes to grab our resource links 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.