The Hybrid Church - Day 1 (My Live Transcript of The Event)

 The Hybrid Church (Day 1)

Speaker - Pst. Poju Oyemade

 

Operating ministry from two dimensions: 

* Digital space 

* Physical space 

 

Pst. Poju believes that God's agenda for this season is that God is building two

things on the earth through which He is manifesting His kingdom now:

1. Strong local assemblies - powerful spiritual families. 

2. Strong earthly families.

 

God's emphasis is on family - spiritual and earthly. Strong Communities. Powerful individual ministries that will come out of strong communities/ families.

 

Offence can make you cut the cord between these families and your power begins to wane. Thinking it is just about you. Where you are brought out of what sustains you.

 

These communities will sustain you. It is the idea of unity and team spirit.

In the beginning of the New Testament church’s birth, it was not about individual ministries. There were powerful individuals but they were conscious of their spiritual families.  

 

Acts 1:14 says – “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.” 

 

Acts 2:1 says – “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.” 

 

Acts 4:24 says – “And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is” 

  

Acts 5:12 – And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch.

 

Acts 5:15 speaks of Peter’s shadow healing the sick and many other major manifestations, but all these miracles stemmed out of what they prayed about together in Acts 4 from verse 29.

 

This is how the New Testament church was born and functions. 

 

They returned back to their company. Acts 4:23-24 says – “And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them. And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is” 

Paul travelled in his own company. Acts 13:13 says – “Now when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia: and John departing from them returned to Jerusalem.” 

The strength of individual ministries was from their company. That's how they sustained power. When you leave such company thinking it is just about yourself, you run into serious trouble. Pride and offence can make you lose your relevance.

If you are not company conscious and you are doing individualistic ministry and do not engage a company of believers in what you are doing, sin begins to creep in. You will also get burnt out.

In the early church, individuals had strong itinerant ministries, yes, but it was sustained by a company of believers. A band is more powerful than an individual. Proverbs 30:27 says – “The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands”

One will chase a thousand and two will put ten thousand to flight. Bands are always stronger no matter how strong the individual appears to be. It is the company of individuals that support their growth and strength.  

God sets the solitary in families. Psalms 68:6 says “God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.”

 

Many are functioning in parched (dry) places because they are rebelling against their families.  

 

Your most important relationship as a pastor is with your members not with other pastors outside. Just like in a physical family, when you leave and cleave. The relationship with your members is more important than your relationship with your mentor. Many members exit because they feel being used; because the set man is not giving importance to certain relationships.

 

The most important support you need is the support of your congregation. Peter and John returned back to their company and prayer was offered up, (Acts 4:23-24).

 

God never came down because of anybody, but He came down when He heard people were in one accord and wanted to build a tower unto heaven, (Gen.11). The type of unity He saw.  

 

Many pastors are not emphasizing people being in one accord in their ministries. The last prayer of Jesus was that we will be one as He and God are One. Building strong communities that are strong and knit together then He will manifest Himself. 

 

A pastor must focus on building this family. Your first job is to feed the people of God, then you set them in folds which have companies through which individuals will grow. These members can go back to that company like Peter and John did for prayers. You must train people who will be able to lead those folds.  

 

Moses was told:

*Pray for the people,

*Teach them what to do, 

*Get leaders who will cater for the people (NB: this last point was assumed and added by writer as network affected viewing at this point).

 

Many anointed people fail in pastoring because they don't understand their job description. Some try to build purely itinerant ministries on the back of the congregation. That is like run the ministry just to get money to fund their itinerant ministry 

 

Many individuals do not have a company that they connect with and that prays for them to be powerful in their ministries.  

 

Success in ministry is understanding your job description and knowing how to allocate your resources in the best way.

 

As a pastor, your priority is the people God has given to you. If you treat it as such, your ministry will grow. 

 

Set people into companies and train people as leaders to cater for these companies.

 

Strong churches and organizations do not source for leaders, they raise leaders. How much you can do from within shows the strength of your church. 

 

A great lesson Pst. Poju learnt from Bishop Oyedepo: 

Genesis 14:14 – “And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.” 

 

Abram armed trained servants who were in his house. This is the measure of covenant strength in your congregation. How much do you depend on people from outside to get things done?

 

The key is not how many celebrity guest ministers you can bring in, but how many home grown leaders can hold their own. 

 

You don't just want one or two people like Assistant pastors, you want to have several people that can minister strongly. Not just full time associate pastors, but strong ministers in the market place who can minister effectively and lead groups.

Effective ministry is how strong and united your congregation is. 

 

Lead Pastor - feed, delegate, create companies (where people's needs can be addressed and they can pray), train leaders to handle these companies.

 

The strength of a church is not how many guest ministers are invited. 

 

Now to the online and offline ministry 

What is best suited for online and what is best suited for offline?

How do these roles and others fit? 

Physical Meetings are fundamental and very important. There are certain things that cannot happen outside physical meetings. 

There are also possibilities for ministry online that are not possible offline. 

A good example is someone who recently had 23 million people viewing a service when their hall could only hold 15 thousand people.

However, just like a marriage cannot be consummated online, certain things cannot happen without physical meetings. 

Paul's online ministry was the letters he was writing.  

Romans 1:9-12 says – “For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers; Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.” 

The book of Romans is very powerful with depths of teachings on the redemptive work of Christ. However, Paul still longed to see them and impart spiritual gifts to them which could not happen just through the letters.

2John 1:12 says – “Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink: but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full.” 

Osmosis - picking up things from others by associating with them.

Covid-19 has accelerated certain things and we have to adapt to these new things. The way people behave has changed. The way people consume things has changed. 

When things like books and TV came on board they changed how people received things. One thing that sped up the healing revival was the introduction of television. People like Oral Roberts switched to this technology and benefited from it. 

The principle remains the same but the methods change. 

The sharp underlying changes brought about by Covid-19 are not yet very apparent but they soon will be. Some cinemas are closing shop......not because there are no movies, but because they are seeing the future.

The way people view things has changed. Certain things are not yet apparent but in 2 to 5 years they will be apparent.

The way you make progress is by keep making decisions as challenges come. 

Recently a survey was carried out on how consumer behaviour has changed since Covid-19 and the following were discovered:

- The market square has changed. 

- The way people consume things has changed. 

- Zoom is now widely used.

This meeting for example may have been called and traffic and many things may have affected many people from attending but all of that was eliminated by doing it online.

Can I communicate what I want to communicate through zoom? 

Yes, but don't forget….. 

More things discovered:

- 20 times more people use zoom right now.

- During the pandemic, more people used Netflix for educational reasons not entertainment. 

- More people buying more online than they do in shops.

- Some businesses experienced physical traffic of ten years happening in just 8 days online.

- In person work meetings are on a sharp decline.

- There is a huge decrease in Socialization. 

 

Now, this can be an opportunity for churches to build communities because people are lacking that (social connect). 

 

- What took decades to happen has happened in days and weeks in the digital world.

- In China, 250 million went to learn online and learnt in 2 weeks.

- People have discovered things online and will not return completely back to offline in totality.

People have changed where and how they engage and our ministries have to reflect this. There are now multiple touch points and we must adapt to this.

Make yourself easy to be found online but don't suffer from over exposure as the set man.

When you come online, you should come online to feed them. For example, you are not to be a cook and reality show person. You can wreck things that way. Don't just want to be seen. 

Develop this reputation that anytime you show up to say something online it is impact full and significant. Things you hear in prayer or while meditating is what you should transfer online. Some things you may not be able to share in church maybe because of the time, you can share online.

Come online to pass across information to people. Something quickened by the Spirit in your heart.

Satan is fighting 24 hours. Online can help you keep reaching out to people. Pst Poju recently put out a tweet about something and it helped a woman from packing out of her husband’s house when she saw it.

Online exposure has led to a shift in loyalty. It is part of the behavioural changes that has happened. When they did not find you online, they shifted shop. Now, some people worship in 4 different churches in one Sunday. 

There are many changes in behaviour taking place because of level of exposure. Computer and social media is now a tool of persuasion; no more just for entertainment. That's what the tech world is being used for. There is a major shift happening in people's souls. Even people who are old. Shifts are happening. Elections are being won with social media. 

Persuasion. People are being persuaded internally. Doctrines are coming in. Social media is making some things viral that have been normal and ignored in the past offline.

A shift in leadership might come in. A major shift. 

Facebook is regarded in the tech world as the most potent weapon for mass persuasion.

People who understand the algorithms are using it massively. If for example, you start putting out things on Facebook about family life, after a while, the system starts looking for anybody who wants to know about family life and starts exposing what you are putting out there to them.

If you then change and start talking about maybe the book of Revelation, the algorithm will stop exposing your content to those people. The algorithm will then take them to someone else talking about family life.

Once you are not consistent in your delivery, you start having a problem online.

You now have two sets of audience: 

* Live – physical. 

* Social Media. 

There are people who will never come to your church, but they always listen to you online.

Social media is larger. However, do not make the following mistakes:

1. It is a mistake to ignore people you have reached because of those you hope to reach. Don’t ignore those already listening to you because you are paying attention to your numbers on social media. Your physical people will notice this and you will have a problem. 

True ministry is organic. Growth comes because those connected to you invite those connected to them. As each individual reaches to their circle of influence to tell them of what they profit from your ministry. It is your people that expand your ministry. 

2Corinthians 10:14-16 says – “For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reached not unto you: for we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ: Not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other men's labours; but having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly, To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man's line of things made ready to our hand.” 

We will be enlarged by you to preach the gospel to people beyond you. Growth comes as you impart your people. Jesus said I am praying for those you have given me and those who will receive me through their ministry.

 

2. Don't pay more attention to imagery than substance. When the chips are down, people will look for substance.

Facebook is about face and image. Most of social media is visual like Instagram. Twitter however, is not so visual. That's why a lot of intellectual things go on there.

Use visual, but back that visual with substance. Imagery rules the world but match your visual with substance. Things inspired by the Spirit in your heart. What you have learnt by obeying and walking with God. Spend time in prayer and the word. Only drop things you have received in meditation and things you have learnt in obedience.

 

3. Avoid ………. (didn’t hear this clearly)

Satan gets a lot of hate spread thru social media. It is a platform for witchcraft - internal reprogramming of people. It was not designed to entertain but to persuade. Engage in persuasion – do not just post a scripture. People are getting indoctrinated. 

 

I (Pst. Poju) believe that this is what is happening now:

Revelation 8:10-11 – “And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.” 

A lot of death is being ministered through social media.

God told me (Pst. Poju) – “Constantly put things out there. People will take whatever they find if there is no alternative. Many people are vulnerable and because they are hurting, they may see and take some wrong things some people say about the church and God. 

Answer questions creating doubts. In the nearest future, ministries not structured to allow people to ask question about doubts they have in scriptures and give them answers, will become irrelevant.

A lot of bitter water is out there for people. 

Social media is not a tool for entertainment it is a tool for persuasion.

 

4. Don’t make the mistake of getting trapped in your desire for likes and shares. 

Don’t allow your sense of success in ministry shift from what is going on in the lives of people to likes and shares.

Manifestations of anger are what gets more viral now. If your sense of worth comes from how people like your posts……you won’t know when you start to shift.

For example, if I post something that is not from scripture and it has more likes, somehow I will begin to get addicted to doing that. Giving people whatever will give me that feeling that comes from having many likes and shares.

You will start following trends instead of being prophetic. Not giving people what God is saying. The likes may not be many but it is what God is saying. When the feelings of people determine your content, you become like Balaam - a hired prophet. You have left true ministry. Jethro said intercede for the people. So when people are not ministered to but you have likes and you feel okay, you are being lured into saying only things that are popular.

 

5. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that it is all about you.

Now there is a democratization of content. Every individual can put out their content. You can't stop this. Understand this democratization and do vision casting to your people. Make them understand what the vision is then allow them take the content they are receiving and give expression to it on social media.

On your pulpit it is only you talking but it is not so in social media. People want to feel empowered. A body grows by the effectual working of every part. Every part should be working and doing something

Social media allows people express themselves. Social media also helps build communities. Give them defined goals. Build communities....not just to grow your church. Build authentic communities where people are ministered to within those communities.

When people are getting blessed they will tell others and invite them to join in. Then translate online engagements to offline engagements. That is the hybrid church - when both the offline and online can be brought together. 

Don’t step back into the old mould now that the lockdowns are over.

Many baseless things went viral during the Covid-19 lockdown. Conspiracy theories and websites had massive viewership. Remember, social media is for persuasion. Some people just try to convince others that what they are saying is real.

Covid-19 came to show people the power of digital. Don't go back to the old mould. Things have radically changed. Crisis is a cradle for innovation.

Certain innovative juices were being stirred up in you during the Covid-19 lockdown, don't drop them. Amplify and scale up things. Don't get back into the old pattern. Think of how you can do what you were doing offline online.

E.g Pst Poju asked his ushers to start thinking of how they can help to usher people online. That is, for example how they can help to direct people who comment during the live streaming. He asked his Protocol to think of how they can assist with the guests who are being invited to minster online like they do in the physical too.

Think of digital parallels to what you were doing physically. 

The drama unit of The Covenant Nation wanted to put up a stage play but because of the lockdown, they decided to do an animation of the script and showed it online. They were still able to communicate their message effectively online.

Now that the lockdown is over, don't leave such things. Rather combine it with what you were doing before.

What can you do online? You can hold vigils now online. You can pray with people online in the mornings. People can now speak from wherever they are without being flown down. Many different meetings can be attended in a day from different countries now. 

Be responsive to the needs of people asking for an online version of what you do. Don't say ‘no’ we don't do that. Don't insist that everything be physical. Don't judge people for asking why you can't do something online. 

People are consuming things differently now. Listen and respond to change and progress. Don’t see online as a threat to offline.

Online is the future. Understand how to merge both. Create digital departments to minister to people in that space.

There are some people you could not reach before but you can now reach them online. 

 

The digital space has created digital highways. Understand how those things are working and make use of them. Study big corporations and how they are distributing things online.

Power is changing. E.g in the UN, the way they know where power is, is by where they have the highest number of activities on the web.

Study and target certain locations and demographics. Do sponsored ads there.

Some members may want to stick to online services….though this is not encouraged. It is a manifestation of something in them....getting tired of Organized religion. Covid-19 was an escape for them from the institutional issues of the church. So they want to worship God without all the institutional issues. We have to look at this.

Some of them are strong Christians. Some will opt for small meetings with their friends. Some are getting this persuasion from social media.

Don't criticize them. What they may be saying is church is about hearing my pastor preach and I can do that at home from my house so why should I go out to physical church building?

America is on the decline in church attendance if you trace history. One reason for this was when the church began to be somewhat political.

Some people think the church is just a big business where their money is collected and when they run into trouble, there is no support from the church. Friends and family help them better.

You have to transfer online engagements into meaningful small groups not for your church growth because they will still see it as business. Have meaningful engagements where people receive impartation and growth. 

Many think materialism has taken over churches and the real work of helping less privileged is no longer done. Some people want real meaningful work. Some people need opportunity to become leaders and help others. They feel that all the gratitude cannot only be going to the set man. 

They want to have a sense of ownership and entrepreneurship in releasing their hidden potential. 

Ephesians 4:16 says – “From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.” 

A more equitable system in the congregation. 

Many want something more relevant to their physical lives. Communities relevant to what is going on in their lives.

Now this is not secularization per se, not like if for example farmers are complaining their crops are being stolen you then take placard and speak of the stolen crops of farmers. No. It is being a prophetic church - a company of people that have a prophetic response. Bring God's response to what is happening in their community.

Daniel shared the challenge (of the king’s dream) with his friends. They prayed and got the answer. Daniel was the representation of the group 

Connected to what is happening in their environment but having a spiritual response to what is going on in their community. 

Not just clichés and slogans.  Stand in the gap and engage in meaningful steps to change things. Bringing the eternal to bear upon the things of life.

There may be some not wanting to go to church anymore because of sorcery and witchcraft. That is being influenced not to come to church again. 

We need to understand the digital space and maximize it for ministry.

We need to understand both places and merge them. Not just about multiplying what you are saying, but a democratization of ministry. Ministry going down to the lower levels for the effectual working of every part. 

There are a lot of possibilities. It is a new thing so there are a lot of questions we may not have answers for yet.

People should thank you for a message you shared and tell you what they are doing because of what you shared. Innovation. 

The church is looking for leaders to lead in this space. People that will understand the old and the new and merge both.

It is a place if creativity and innovation. Saying things being quickened in your heart.  

There is massive potential here. People are getting massive things done in unprecedented way. There is a minister who presently has a church membership of 6000 people but 400,000 online audience.

It's beyond putting your message on YouTube while preaching on Sunday morning. It is about the democratization of ministry.

THE END

Compiled by:

Ifoghale Efeturi,

iefeturi@gmail.com