How to Transform Mission Work with Text in Church with Zac Minton Ep3.05

Zac Minton [00:00:00]:

We're not afraid of failure, for sure. But what we know is risk is right, and we just have to take risk and we try whatever. And if it works, great. If not, hey, let's not do it again. And the cool thing about being a church planter is we change pretty quickly, like our staff knows. Let's make a decision in 15 minutes. We change entire church times and structures in 15 minutes. You.

Nina Hampton [00:00:35]:

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. My name is Nina Hampton and I'm here with my co host, Jeanette Yates. And we believe that you should spend less time worrying about managing technology and more time doing what you love in your ministry and in your personal life as well.

Jeanette Yates [00:00:56]:

That is right. And today we have a special guest, one of my favorite people on the planet, Zach Minton. He is a church planner and pastor at the Rock Church and is part of the North American Mission Board. He studied systematic theology at Mid America Baptist Theological Seminary and runs the Ministry Collective, a personalized ministry coaching program that helps you reach more people with the gospel. Amen. And someone I consider a friend and fellow ice cream lover. Hey, Zach. Minton. How's it going?

Zac Minton [00:01:28]:

Hey. It is good. We know God loves us because of strawberry ice cream.

Nina Hampton [00:01:33]:

That's right. That's real.

Jeanette Yates [00:01:34]:

That's very it's true.

Nina Hampton [00:01:36]:

That's very true.

Jeanette Yates [00:01:37]:

And it's the time of year where I am. Zach, I know you are all the way. We could not be on further ends of the country. You're in Washington, I'm in Florida. It is hot. We are eating ice cream on the regular here right now, but I know you are too. It doesn't matter what the weather you are. Yeah, I get it.

Zac Minton [00:01:55]:

96 yesterday.

Nina Hampton [00:01:57]:

Oh, then we're all getting it, because I'm smack dab in between you guys. And it was 92 here today.

Jeanette Yates [00:02:03]:

I did not realize it got that hot up there. But now we know. See, we learn new things all the time on the Tech and Church podcast. It's not just about tech and church. We're learning about weather, geography, all the things. Time zones. Got three different time zones here today. But Zach, I want you to tell I introduce you a little bit, but you have a lot going on, so I want to give you the opportunity to share a little bit about yourself, your ministry, and just what you're doing in your church ministry right now. What's going on with you?

Zac Minton [00:02:34]:

Yeah, so a little bit about myself is that I grew up, never known my dad, my mom went through a whole lot, have a lot of trauma in my life. I was physically and sexually abused as a kid. Even though I grew up down south, right outside of Memphis. People wouldn't let their kids hang out with me because of who my mom was. So what happened to me is here I was in the Bible Belt, yet no one came and knocked on our door because of what went on in our house. My mom committed suicide when I was 13. And so just going through a whole lot. I know there's a quote from this guy named Gandhi. Gandhi said, I like Christ, but not Christians, because Christians are nothing like Christ. Now, we know that you can't broadstroke everything, so that's not necessarily fair. But for me, being isolated and not being able to be reached was pretty difficult. But God used all that to help me to where we are today. The last church we started was in 2018, the Rock Church. I've been a church planner. We've started four churches out of our house in 2018, we started the Rock Church. And that's been a hub to start other churches. In a place in the Northwest where we live, less than 5% attend an evangelical church, and the average church size in the Northwest is 47 people. We've baptized 88 people since 2018. And if it wasn't for Texan Church and different things that we do, we couldn't do this.

Nina Hampton [00:04:35]:

That's incredible. Yeah, man.

Zac Minton [00:04:41]:

That'S a lot.

Nina Hampton [00:04:42]:

Yeah, you said a lot in the short amount of time, but my gosh, that's a lot. Well, just when it comes know, just the demographics, I think. I feel like anybody who's in ministry kind of knows that that the Northwest is kind of like its own struggle when it comes to ministry and doing church. It's a known thing that's a different it's kind of a no man's land event. So can you share just different struggles that you've had since 2018 that your church was facing and how you guys were trying, maybe not successfully trying to solve it?

Zac Minton [00:05:23]:

Yeah. So we're not afraid of failure, for sure, but what we know is risk is right, and we just have to take risk, and we try whatever, and if it works, great. If not, hey, let's not do it again. And the cool thing about being a church planter is we change pretty quickly. Our staff knows, let's make a decision in 15 minutes. And I know some people are like, well, we can't do this. We change entire church times and structures in 15 minutes. And so you have to be on the fly. But also there's a whole lot there's a lot of spiritual attack. We've seen elders who have had affairs with over 20 men. We've seen all kinds of things from a lot of married stuff, a lot of people even walking away from their faith. But what I find is great opportunity. I find that there is great opportunity. Like down south. I was a pastor down south, and kind of what we had to do was DeSave people before we save them. It's not that I save them, that's God. But it's the idea that you have to hold the Bible open and tell people, all right, you say you're Christian, but here's yeah. How are you going to reconcile that versus up here? You talk about Jesus or something and it's just, okay, somebody tells you all kinds of stuff and then it's like, hey, I know where to start. So I think that that's pretty cool. So I love opportunities and hard things where people don't want to go. And I think because of my background, that's where I'm driven.

Jeanette Yates [00:07:26]:

Right. And somebody showed up for you. Somebody did the hard thing and reached out to you. I was nodding my head the whole time you were talking, Zach, because, of course, I know you and I have talked about much of your story, and I've known you since before 2018, so I've seen all this church planning stuff. But I have watched you be so open and share about how those hard places and hard experiences have helped you lead so well. And first of all, again, just like Nina said, after the first thing that you said is we just could have five more podcast episodes on just what you said, which we may do. So just stand by because there's a lot that we could unpack there, especially from a technology standpoint. Even like, how do you pivot so fast? A lot of churches can relate to the we don't do anything fast thing. And I think even learning from church planters like it is possible and this is how to do it, I think would be valuable. But again, that's not why we're here today. We'll get back to that on the next episode of the Tegan Church Podcast. Zach, mitten bonuses. So one of the things that I wanted to talk to you about today, specifically because I've heard you talk about this before again in our many conversations, is that you have a pretty unique use case with text and church that I would love for you to dive into, and that is that. So we talk a lot about guest follow up. We talk about plan a visit, we talk about member communication. But one of the ways that you use Texan Church is with missionary stuff. So can you tell us a little bit about what the missionary structure is like and then how Texan Church helps you with that?

Zac Minton [00:09:16]:

Yeah. So, ma'am, what happened? I was pastor down south. The Lord had blessed us very successful. My wife, she managed two hospital clinics. We were in our 20s making six figures. We came from nothing. But what happened was God broke our heart for the Northwest, and we moved to the Northwest. To cut a long story short, we moved to the Northwest. And our goal was we felt like the Lord was leading us to move to the Northwest, start churches, but raise funds from individuals and churches all across the country. And this is solely what we were going to do, which in the northwest. We went from owning our home down south to the northwest where our rent is 2800 a month and no AC. We had to figure out all this. Yeah, I guess that's why I love ice cream.

Jeanette Yates [00:10:28]:

I know.

Zac Minton [00:10:28]:

I was going to say, yeah, come on. But what happened was we had to figure out a way to connect with these people who are praying for us and who are supporting us. And what happens with missionaries? So many people lose connect with missionaries. And some people think that missionaries are just bad at communication. It's not that. It's just, dude, we're going from following up with people to fixing somebody's car, to cleaning the bathrooms at a place that you rent and setting up tearing down. So there's a whole lot and some people see me on social media and think, oh, Zach loves social media. I'll give you a secret. It's not my favorite, but it's an avenue that God has given me to be able to stay connected. But also using Texan Church, we've been support, raised and solely rely on people giving financially since 2014. And we have to raise around $10,000 a month. And I will tell you, since 2014, we have never not met that.

Jeanette Yates [00:11:48]:

Wow, amen. That's awesome.

Zac Minton [00:11:50]:

And we're talking about I didn't have things growing up. I was homeless as a kid, working into all this. It's like, man, that's wild. But we were able to do that when we went to supporting churches and we would set up a booth and everybody was all the other missionaries were giving out cards and doing all this stuff. We just had a QR code to where we would tell people, hey, let's take a picture here. And then what we would do is tell them, oh, if you got another phone, like there's the QR code on there, then you can stay connected with us. And then what happened was then we were able to connect with so many people. Now I'll tell you a secret. This is a secret that is not a secret, but people don't talk about. All right? So when it comes to pastors and missionaries and churches, a lot of times it's hard to get through the pastor funnel to get to the people.

Nina Hampton [00:13:02]:

Yeah, it's true.

Jeanette Yates [00:13:03]:

Yes, it is true.

Zac Minton [00:13:06]:

So even though you're a missionary of a certain church, to go through the funnel of the pastors, whoever that is, he or she, whatever, than to get to the people, that's kind of hard.

Nina Hampton [00:13:20]:

Yeah.

Zac Minton [00:13:21]:

So what we did was I come from the background of it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

Nina Hampton [00:13:28]:

Yeah.

Zac Minton [00:13:30]:

Come on. And so that's how come we just started connecting with all the people instead of the pastors. Now, there's never been an issue with that. Maybe it's because of my personality or whatever.

Jeanette Yates [00:13:45]:

But you do have a winning personality, Zach, right, yeah.

Zac Minton [00:13:50]:

But whatever it is, we've been able to stay connected with over a thousand people, right through Texan church and emails and all this. Now, the downside is, in our Texan church account, always, it says, hey, you've went over so much, but it's like, oh, let's keep going, it's okay, right?

Jeanette Yates [00:14:16]:

So what you're saying is you like to send a long text message, dude.

Zac Minton [00:14:20]:

Come on, let's go.

Jeanette Yates [00:14:21]:

That's all right.

Zac Minton [00:14:23]:

But also, I will tell you when there's hard things, like we were up here, we didn't have any family here. We knew two people in our area. We're starting a church out of our house. A mission team comes up, and one of the guys was playing with my son Isaac. Isaac was five years old. He falls, breaks his femur in five places. And then I have my son, who's never really been sick his entire life, in a wheelchair. I cannot tell you how encouraged I was by sending out a text to these people who are praying for us and giving financially and saying, hey, we're in the hospital. My son broke his femur in five places. Would you please pray? And then seeing all these different things come back, I will tell you, as a missionary, that's very encouraging.

Nina Hampton [00:15:33]:

Yeah, absolutely.

Jeanette Yates [00:15:35]:

Nina that's something we don't get to talk about much on here. We're always talking about serving our community and serving our members and connecting with our guests, but how the community then can connect with us and encourage us and pray for us as church leaders, missionaries, all of that, that's a reframe or a different lens to look through. So that's amazing. Thank you for sharing.

Nina Hampton [00:16:05]:

I think it goes into, like, we're not just trying to reach or communicate with our community, we're trying to engage and be a part of our community, you know what I'm saying? And so that sounds like that's exactly what, you know what I'm saying? That's exactly what it afforded you the opportunity to do, you know what I mean? You can't be in community with people, you know what I mean, if you don't have a way to communicate with them, you know what I'm saying? And so the fact that you created a viable community, you know what I'm saying, through these supporters, you know what I mean? Because of your consistent communication, the fact that you have the wherewithal to say to reach out. To everybody who has been faithfully supporting your ministry for, in some cases, nine years. You're about to hit ten year mark next year. And say that and be vulnerable with these people in a moment and say, like, hey, we need prayer. This isn't about money, this isn't about anything. This is just a real moment between my family and I need you all's help as the kingdom of God real quick. Like, if you could just go to heaven on my behalf, that would be great. And seeing that community, that's the kingdom, you know what saying? Like, and that's why we do what we do. So that you could have moments.

Zac Minton [00:17:19]:

Like, I'll tell you this, I met with a guy, his name was Dakota. This was about a month ago. Shared the gospel with like, he gives his life to Christ. Right before I met with Dakota, I sent out a text message to our supporters, hey, I'm about to meet with this guy. I believe he's right there ready to give his life to Jesus God's working on. And so I do that. Then in that meeting, like, we're praying and stuff. Then after we pray, gave his life to Jesus. And I said, okay, now will you go and share this with your family? And he said, yeah. And then I send a text message back out say, hey, who asked prayer for he gave his life to Jesus. He's about to talk with his family. The next Sunday, we baptized Dakota, his mom and his wife.

Nina Hampton [00:18:17]:

Wow.

Zac Minton [00:18:20]:

That'S just cool.

Jeanette Yates [00:18:21]:

Yeah, it's like, cool is not the right word. We're both sitting here trying to think of bigger words, and Zach's just like, it's cool. And it's that's the yes. This is really what communication does in any form. Word of mouth, face to face, on the phone, in whatever, all the texting, email, all this. It creates the opportunity for us to come together. I love how you said it, Nina, like, go to heaven. Go to heaven for us right now. And one of the things that I think is really interesting, too, is when I was thinking about how you use technology for missionary stuff, I was like, oh, so he sends an update once a month, and then there's the little place that they can donate and he uses tech. I was thinking how it's usually done. There's a little formula, but you are really making building relationships with these people where the connection is even deeper than this. Just kind of you're giving me updates so that I know that you're actually doing what you say you're doing so that I will continue to help support you. That's how it typically feels a lot, but this is like, you're still doing that, but in a way that's like, lives are being changed for eternity. They're seeing that happen. And it's not just what you're doing, but you're asking them to participate in it.

Nina Hampton [00:20:04]:

Yes, that's what I was going to say.

Jeanette Yates [00:20:06]:

I was like, oh, that's where I'm.

Nina Hampton [00:20:08]:

Trying to more congregational, you know what I'm saying? It's not the weekly newsletter of like, here are all the things this is all the things we've spent this money on and you know what I mean? Please continue to give if you feel so generous, but it's like, no, this is what we the kingdom, you all this is what we doing as a people, you know what I'm saying? And this is how God is moving in this thing, and we want you to know. And actually, I need you to be an active participant so like, yes, your $10 is cool, but I also need you to petition heaven real quick. And making this I don't know, I think that that's like, as far as we always talk strategy on this podcast. And so I think what's interesting is that for you, Zach, it doesn't sound like it's this you know what I mean? Like this formulaic. Like, my strategy is to make these people a part of my community, you know what saying? And they're you know what? Like, when I need prayer, whatever, this is just an extension of the kingdom, and I'm going to treat them as.

Zac Minton [00:21:09]:

And, like, we yes, we do use it as far as raising support financially, like, we'll send things like give today to feed two starving kids, isaac and Lillian, those are my no, I don't tell them that. But we do ask for support. But really it's not very much, because when you let people know what you're doing, everything changes. Like, as a missionary, I'll tell you this. There's a church in Jonesboro, Arkansas, called Central Baptist. Really good church. Their pastor, Archie Mason, he's a great friend, and they've supported us as missionaries for years. But Sunday. When was Sunday? Oh, yesterday. Sorry. So Sunday was when they Central Baptist in Jonesboro flew 21 people up here to help us on this mission trip, stuff that we have going on. And this morning, as we were doing some stuff, this girl, she was 10th grade, she came up to me and she said, hey, Zach, when did you all get this property? We're working on this property. I said, well, this property we got back in 2016. And she said, Well, I've been getting your text messages and stuff. And how I got on that was I came here with my parents when you all first got the property. And so this girl who's a teenager, has this connection to this mission field that people like Dakota, who they heard about when they get off the plane, attend a church service. I'm like, hey, here's Dakota. And they're so excited because they know.

Jeanette Yates [00:23:23]:

Him, because they prayed for him, and.

Zac Minton [00:23:25]:

They know about him, right? And it's not that, like, church administration and getting through that pastor funnel, it's not like pastors don't care, because some of the pastors I know, they're overworked, underpaid, they're preaching their hearts out for King Jesus, and other people are upset because freaking coffee ran out, right? So it's not that pastors don't care, but they have their own thing. But that was kind of flipping the script. Well, what if we could help them be like, hey, here's this, and pastors that are kingdom minded have no problem with the missionary. We've only had one church that said, well, you can send stuff. Just don't ask them to give to you all, because that might take away from our giving. That's just one church. But the majority don't, right? They don't care.

Nina Hampton [00:24:31]:

Right? I think looking at how long you've been doing what you've been doing in the capacity that you've been doing it specifically with the Rock Church since 2018, but also just being church planners, missionaries, you know what I mean, for as long as you have and using technology to connect with your you know what I mean? Like, connect with your supporters, build that community and everything. Is there anything, looking back, because you've done this a while looking back, that you would have changed about your strategy? Anything that you would have done differently, maybe any unexpected obstacles that you faced that you're like, I wish we would have seen this coming, and you would have how did you overcome that? Just anything like that? Just hindsight is 2020 sometimes, not all the time, but I don't like to talk about 2020. Yes.

Zac Minton [00:25:23]:

Come up. I think I spazzed a little bit.

Jeanette Yates [00:25:28]:

Right.

Nina Hampton [00:25:28]:

I glitched yeah.

Zac Minton [00:25:29]:

I think which Texan churches came a long ways. Right. And especially when you add talking church in that this is a game changer for me because then it adds this other thing that's very helpful, right. Where if people want to know more, people could click a button and then our vision booklet gets sent to them.

Nina Hampton [00:26:03]:

Sure. Okay. Yeah.

Zac Minton [00:26:05]:

Right. I think where Texan church is now is the most beautiful thing that a missionary needs. Like, for example, there was a lot of different events in some of our thing. We've had hundreds of thousands of dollars stolen from us through a lot of crazy stuff. But when we started the Rock Church, that was right after this big crazy thing. We had $400, right. And we did a website for $350.

Nina Hampton [00:26:47]:

Okay.

Zac Minton [00:26:48]:

Did our database for $50 use this thing and that just took off. But we knew that's what we needed. We needed a website, we needed a giving platform. Now, me going into my new role as far as church planting with the Northwest Baptist Convention and church health catalysts and stuff, no longer am I going to talk about how you need a website and you need giving, but you need a website. You need giving and database and you need text and church because this is going to help you stay connected from the get go. I think for me, the hardest thing was not me and technology, because everybody that knows me knows Zach loves technology. People think that AI is going to destroy the world, but I guess they forget that in Judges, it says that God, like Israel defeated AI, so we have nothing to worry about. Right.

Jeanette Yates [00:27:59]:

I love.

Zac Minton [00:28:02]:

Like, this is a true deal. People just need to read their freaking Bible.

Nina Hampton [00:28:08]:

That's very true.

Zac Minton [00:28:10]:

But the hardest thing was trying to get people like our staff to be on board with it. Right. That's the hardest thing. I just happen to be that one who is the lead pastor and loves technology. Right. Which those two don't mix. I'm a lead pastor, I'm an extrovert and I love technology. I should be in a museum, right?

Jeanette Yates [00:28:38]:

You're a unicorn, right?

Zac Minton [00:28:40]:

Yeah. But really, I think what I would have done differently is instead of being passive as far as our staff really getting involved, I'd be like, hey, here's what we're doing. Here's the why can you just trust me in this? That's what I would have done earlier on. But I am a pretty passive guy. I just think a lot of things in life don't matter that much. There's a lot of preferences that we shouldn't die on as far as those heels. But I think getting that in, dude, we do so much as far as people getting baptized and sending things out or even going live on a Sunday because we are a hybrid church and that link being sent out right then, hey, join us. But yeah, as far as encouragement as a missionary, emails are great, but text messages are way better.

Jeanette Yates [00:29:59]:

I cannot believe how much valuable insight, tips, encouraging stories and everything that you have shared so far in this episode. Zach, this has been so packed with humor, heartfelt stories and practical strategy all wrapped up in a bow. So we thank you for that and I'm sure our viewers and listeners do too. But as we wrap up the time that we have today, I want you to speak directly to a church communicator, a pastor that's in your position that's maybe like trying to figure out if they should get into Texan church or any technology. But what encouragement would you give either to encourage them to use technology or just to encourage them in general? Because as you said, burnout is a problem and we all need encouragement and reminders. And I know that you've got some gems, I know that you've got some goodness to share. So what encouragement would you give an overwhelmed church leader, church communications, missionary? What would you say to them today?

Zac Minton [00:31:21]:

Yeah, I would say this you are doing better than what you think and you're harder on yourself than what God is. That's good, that's deep. But the next thing I would say is when I was a kid, I shared that story earlier on, people didn't want to come to my house. Right now, having Texan church, if you use Texan church, you can reach the Zach Mittens. Like, there is hope for those who people give up on. Right, I know the hard stuff is people are like, well, we don't want to text people all the time. Why not?

Jeanette Yates [00:32:26]:

Everyone else is.

Zac Minton [00:32:28]:

Yeah, why not? I will tell every church communicator and pastor, whenever you see those words stop, come in, don't be discouraged. We have gotten more stops with text messages from our church staff than we have from anybody else. But what they don't know is that I can see it and I add them back on there. It's the most beautiful thing. And so what I would say is trust the I mean, I'm a guy. I just shaved off, like, eight inches of my beard. So, like, Zach Minton's still the same. The anointing is a little bit less, but what I would say is Father's Day was last month, one of the top leading causes for death for men in America is suicide. I got a text message this morning through Texan church from a guy whose uncle committed suicide last night. But because of being able to reach out to people, you can connect with people in the darkest moments. Like, apps are great. I love apps, and communications are great, but they can turn those off. Right. But with text messages and texting church, use it like it's really like the purpose of any automation is to make things easier for you. When automation feels like a robot, you're doing it wrong. That's how come Dakota, who he led to Jesus, led his family. He was one that text this morning because he knew that that text message that he was sending out would get read and he would get responded to.

Nina Hampton [00:34:43]:

Yeah. Right.

Zac Minton [00:34:45]:

So use it like your number, and when you log in texting church and it says you've went over, don't worry about it. It's okay. Send the bill to the Rock Church and we'll take care of. Like, it will be okay.

Nina Hampton [00:35:02]:

Yeah.

Jeanette Yates [00:35:02]:

Zach, you are a gift to me personally. Yeah. But to the people that you serve, your I just I've personally been blessed by your testimony, and I know that many people that are going to listen and watch this today will be blessed by it as well.

Nina Hampton [00:35:26]:

Absolutely.

Jeanette Yates [00:35:27]:

And we have to wrap up today's show, but I do want to thank you so much for joining us and giving us your time. I'm not kidding. We will have you back on the podcast because I do feel like that you have more that you can share that would be helpful for people. And if you're listening today, we want to thank you for listening, watching today, and we'd love to hear from you. I know Zach would love to hear from you. And so if you have anything that you want to share with us, any comments, any questions that you have for Zach or either one of us, if you want to learn more about his missionary work or more about how he uses text in church, please just comment on this video and we will get you connected with Zach. We will get you connected with our team, and we want to help you help people feel no noticed and love, just like Zach and his work up in the Northwest. So head to the comments. Let us know your questions, your tips, your strategies, maybe insight that you got today. We'd love to hear from you.

Nina Hampton [00:36:30]:

Yes.

Zac Minton [00:36:32]:

I just got one more thing.

Nina Hampton [00:36:33]:

Yeah.

Zac Minton [00:36:35]:

Do you know how they make holy water? Do you all know this?

Jeanette Yates [00:36:40]:

No?

Nina Hampton [00:36:41]:

You will.

Zac Minton [00:36:42]:

The hell out of it.

Nina Hampton [00:36:45]:

Can we say that we couldn't end the podcast without a pastor joke?

Zac Minton [00:36:49]:

Can we say that?

Nina Hampton [00:36:50]:

Oh, I love it.

Jeanette Yates [00:36:51]:

Oh, my goodness. Travis, find a way to use these jokes.

Nina Hampton [00:36:56]:

Okay? Right. Truly, please. All right. And if you want to know how tech tools like text in church can help, you spend less time worrying about technology and more time doing what you love in your ministry and your personal life. Make sure you subscribe to wherever you're listening to or watching this episode so you don't miss out on future ones. So the next time that Zach is on yeah. You can hear all these fast jokes, and you can be in the know.

Jeanette Yates [00:37:19]:

We'll just have one episode. That's all bad and faster jokes.

Nina Hampton [00:37:22]:

Truly. Honestly.

Zac Minton [00:37:24]:

Let's go.