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We have our friend Al Descheneau aka XtianNinja back on the podcast for the 3rd time! He is talking about his new book The Art of Digital Influence, teaching Christian content creators how to use their gifts for digital ministry.
We talked about why the people hurt by church, gamers sitting in a basement, and those who don’t leave the house, will never come to your church. We need to go where they are with the Gospel, just like Jesus did!
Be sure to listen to Al’s previous interviews to hear about his abuse story and how he started his ministry!
Bio:
Hello! My name is Al Descheneau, known online as
XtianNinja (Christian Ninja) and the Executive Director of
TACO: The Alliance for Creative Outreach. After 16 years
as a full-time solo pastor, I followed God’s call to become a
full-time online missionary and mentor to Christian
creators. As a Canadian, husband, father of four, author,
and someone who has faced abuse and mental health
challenges, I bring a unique perspective to digital ministry.
My mission is to use my ministry experience and creative skills to create meaningful,
entertaining content and train up a world-changing generation of Christian creators that
can bring the light of the gospel to people that will never be reached by traditional missions.
I’m blessed to lead a pioneering ministry that’s transforming lives—and I invite you to share
in this excitement!
In Jesus’ Parable of the Great Banquet the master of the house, upon hearing that his
invited guests wouldn’t come, told his servants to “go out to the highways and hedges and
compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.” (Lk 14:12-24) In the same way, I feel
compelled to reach beyond traditional boundaries, ensuring that no one is overlooked—be it
gamers, seekers, or the spiritually disenfranchised.
Link Tree
Website: https://dswministries.org
Email: diana@dswministries.org
Social media links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DSW-Ministries-230135337033879
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DswMinistries
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxgIpWVQCmjqog0PMK4khDw/playlists
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dswministries/
Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Google Podcasts, Pandora, Stitcher, Listen Notes
Keep in touch with me! Email subscribe to get my handpicked list of the best resources for abuse survivors! https://thoughtful-composer-4268.ck.page #abuse #trauma
Mentoring https://youtu.be/WWgkERpkIoY
An easy way to help my ministry:
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XtianNinja3
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Wounds of the Faithful podcast, brought to you by DSW Ministries. Your host is singer, songwriter, speaker, and domestic violence advocate, Diana Winkler. She is passionate about helping survivors in the church heal from domestic violence and abuse and trauma. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counseling or qualified medical help. [00:00:26] Now, here is Diana. [00:00:33] Hey folks, welcome to the podcast. We have a great show for you today. We have Al Descheneau, Christian Ninja, back on the podcast for the third time. When you’ve been on the show for the third time, that means you’re a friend of the podcast. And Al Descheneau is definitely someone I consider a friend. He was on [00:01:00] episode 32, 33. [00:01:03] where he tells his abuse story. And then he was on episode 97 during our series on how to do a Bible study for abuse survivors. You really should go back and listen to those episodes because you’ll get to understand who Alan is. [00:01:27] and what his ministry is about, why he is the perfect person to have this ministry on Twitch to those who would never step foot in a church. We’re not gonna repeat a whole lot of his past interviews. He is back here promoting his new book on digital ministry. It’s called The Art of Digital Influence. [00:01:57] And I don’t see [00:02:00] anything out there like that. We’ll also catch up with what else has happened this past year. A lot of things have been going on. He has grown so much from when I saw him start on Twitch and where he’s at now. So very excited for him. Let me read to you the back of the book. This groundbreaking book is a vital resource for Christian creators, offering spiritual insights and practical advice. [00:02:36] to help effectively engage the digital world. It is a concise guide to clarifying vision, creating compelling content, fostering a strong community, and confidently pursuing your creative calling. Well, let me read to you his bio, if you have not heard [00:03:00] his interviews before. [00:03:02] I am Al, known online as Christian Ninja, a pastor and full time streamer and content creator from Canada who is working hard to serve the online community by mentoring content creators and building a meaningful online family through entertaining content, real talk and teaching God’s truth. I grew up in a Christian home, have known Jesus since I was six years old, After a short time of teenage rebellion, I went to North American Bible College, now Taylor College and Seminary, in Edmonton to figure things out. [00:03:45] There, I rededicated my life to Jesus, met my wife Anita, and was called into full time pastoral ministry. Since then, I’ve been serving Jesus in all areas of church life, Preaching [00:04:00] and teaching, writing, music, leadership, development, small groups, tech, sound, graphic design, photography, video editing, whatever it takes to share Jesus and teach God’s truth in a creative and inspiring way. [00:04:20] In September 2020, a new chapter of my life started when God made it absolutely clear. that he wanted me to give up looking for a new traditional ministry position or secular work and dedicate to serving full time as a Twitch streamer and then launching my creator network TACO, the Alliance for Creative Outreach, in 2021. [00:04:46] In It’s been quite an adventure since then And I’ve had God’s call affirmed in amazing ways as He’s changed people’s lives through my [00:05:00] channel. February 2024 was another milestone in my online ministry as Bayview Glen and the Alliance Denomination brought me on as their first digital missionary. [00:05:15] I’m so excited to take what I’ve been learning and help traditional churches across North America establish their own ways of connecting with the lost, lonely, and disillusioned through online ministries. [00:05:30] So yes, you can already tell this is going to be a great interview. We have lots to talk about. Please enjoy my conversation with Christian Ninja, Pastor Al Deschaneau. [00:05:44] I [00:05:44] am so excited to have back on the show for the third time, XtianNinja himself, Pastor Al Deschaneau. I am glad to be here. How are you doing? I am awesome. Yeah. You are a friend of the [00:06:00] podcast. And my listeners always love your interviews. There’s so much to catch up on since you were last here. [00:06:08] Your new book for starters, but you’re not going to get to talk. I’ll just, you just say, how are you doing? And I’ll just go for an hour. Yeah. So I don’t have a problem with that. Remind the folks who don’t know you real quick who you are. And then we’ll. We’ll catch up on your life here. Sure. I won’t fill in all the stuff from the other two episodes. [00:06:30] You have to go and listen to those two. But my name is Al Descheneau. I was a pastor for 16 years over the last three plus, I’ve been a full time content creator on Twitch and on YouTube, and that led me into doing this. Creating a network, a Christian creator network called TACO, the Alliance for Creative Outreach. [00:06:48] I’m the executive director there, and I train and I help with Christian content creators to, to grow and feel supported. And then on my own channel, we connect all around the world and all around everywhere with Christians, non [00:07:00] Christians, post Christians, and people that are from Islam, everywhere, to be able to come and just share the love of God with them and and build community. [00:07:07] That’s what I do now. I’m officially a digital pastor. I work under the alliance, the Christian Missionary Alliance, as one of their official pastor guys. And it’s yeah, it’s been a really exciting three years. You have really come so far. I just remember when you started your Twitch channel, and I listened to your podcast for a while, and then you decided to start this Twitch channel, and you figured everything out from how to do all the tech stuff and raising money. [00:07:37] It’s like a perfect amalgamation of all the things that, that I love. You know what I mean? Like I’ve always been a nerd. So for me, the idea of being able to be online and use technology and have multiple computers and monitors and be able to like figure out all the tech stuff and use the camera and like all that stuff is something I was passionate about the whole time. [00:07:57] Church pastor, like when I was 35 [00:08:00] people in the congregation, wooden pews, me standing at the pulpit in a suit, that guy in the back of my mind and always was the, how can I incorporate internet and how can I put the podcast out and I can make sure that I update the website and how do we get more technology in here to be able to demonstrate that we, We can help more people that need visual learning or need audio, whatever. [00:08:18] How do we do that? Like, it’s been part of me for a long time and I really feel like this mission or what I get to do now is sort of this amalgamation of everything that I love and everything God’s brought me through and everything that I’ve been able to to learn and experience. It’s just poof, it’s right there. [00:08:36] A lot of people online have mental health issues. I’ve struggled with that. A lot of people online. Struggle with connection to pastor or to their dad. I get to connect with those people online. There are people, lots of people who have a question that they want to just ask some random rando christian guy And I get that all the time like all those things And now like today is another great example. [00:08:55] I got a little passionate about like you want to go nerd mode I got really [00:09:00] passionate about vtubing and if you don’t know what a vtuber is it’s basically instead of seeing me the way you’d see me on camera. There’s a cartoon version You of me, or a cartoon version of whatever the character is. [00:09:11] And they, when they talk, the little mouse moves and things like that. And that’s called a VTuber, a video, like a virtual tuber. And so I got, it happens, man. You get excited about something and I’m like, I want to learn everything there is to know about that. And now, this today, I’m going to be a, I’m going to be a cartoon. [00:09:28] I’ll be a cartoon guy on Twitch. And I think that’s the greatest thing ever. So you’re doing that today? Today! I’ll be, yeah, I’m going to be a cartoon. Yeah, I have the day off today and this, we’re recording this on the 4th of July. And so I’ll get to listen to the stream for once, watch the stream. [00:09:45] You’re Canadian. You’re a subject of the crown , right. Okay. So insert, American and English joke here. But yeah, I’ll get to watch your Twitch today and see your avatar. I am excited [00:10:00] about it. [00:10:00] And then you got your taco shirt that I see, I need to get one of those. Because I was part of the taco class, the course. And this is my second passion. It’s just as, I’m just as excited about this. And so like talking about your particular, the Wounds of the Faithful podcast here, which is about the things that happen to people within the church that we don’t often talk about the difficult stuff that either drives them into the dark or drives them away from the faith or makes it difficult for them to become part of the body. [00:10:28] Taco was birthed from that. But for the realm of content creation, right? So there’s a lot of people and within churches and especially outside of churches who love TikTok and go love being on YouTube and love video games and want to do Dungeons and Dragons and all the rest of These nerd things the nerd culture stuff that when they go to their church, whether it be traditional or otherwise They don’t feel a sense of connection there. [00:10:54] So their interest, their main interest, whether it be video games or otherwise, when [00:11:00] they come and talk to the church, they are told, like literally, that their interest is no good. They need to put that down. Every other culture in the world comes to the church. We’re like, Oh, let’s learn about your culture. [00:11:11] We’d love to learn more about what it’s like to be, from Mexico or to be a single mom or to enjoy bike riding or to, whatever, all those others. But as soon as you walk in with like a nerd based ministry or a nerd based interest, I should say, they they look at it and they go, yeah, you’re weird. [00:11:25] And I don’t know what to do with you. Well, imagine if you were a Christian content creator, you’re passionate about making YouTube videos, TikToks, podcasts, writing books, taking pictures, drawing, digital art, and you come to your pastor, your church, and you say, I believe God gave me this gift, and I don’t want to use it for His glory. [00:11:43] And you have the pastor, or the elder, or a Christian, or your, parent for that matter, say, that is an invalid call. You can’t use that for God’s glory. What you love is evil, right? You want to talk about anime? Anime is evil. You want to play video games? Video games are evil. [00:12:00] You want to make cartoons and funny pictures online to, well, that’s just a waste of time. [00:12:04] You should be at the church. That’s where the ministry happens. And so what these people do is Instead of going, oh, okay, I will, I’ll just give up my interest and I’ll come do what you want. They leave the church and they end up going to do whatever they want anyway. [00:12:17] They’re on YouTube, they’re on Twitch, they’re on TikTok, they’re on, DeviantArt, whatever you want. And they are continuing to be passionate about their skill, but at the same time, they’re trying to use it for God’s glory, but completely, outside of the help of a, an elder, a pastor, a teacher, an accountability structure. [00:12:35] And so they’re out there, they’re doing their best and they love Jesus, but they are completely, they feel alone and they feel unsupported. And so over about six months of me streaming, I figured that out real quick because I, people started coming into my stream and I’m the fellow content creator. And I’ve got a deep voice. [00:12:51] I look like a dad and I was a pastor. And so they’re like, I want, the love of a pastor. I want the acceptance of the established ministry and you seem to get it. And so [00:13:00] more people would come in and we created this alliance of created people, Christian creators, who I created a course for to teach them how to do, basically it’s leadership development. [00:13:12] How to understand who God is, how to recognize your call, how to use your gifts for, in the best way, how to, set your schedule, what kind of spiritual stuff do you need to know that it’s going to be a problem, what kind of practical things when it comes to calendar and all those things. I’m able to disciple some of these content creators through and to say, this is, I believe in you. [00:13:31] I believe that God can call you to this. I believe God can use you in this. And I believe that you can change the world in your little area with the interest you have. Let’s go. And. I can’t tell you how many tears there are in these classes when you start talking about this stuff of like, have you felt anybody has really understood you? [00:13:50] Have you felt anybody has really grasped your interest? And they’re just, they’re crestfallen. So many are just like, not really, no. I don’t have people like that. This [00:14:00] is the first group I’ve ever seen who says, you know what, we not only love you, and we want to be, aligned with you, because there’s lots of different Christian networks out there. [00:14:11] We believe in you so much. We’re willing to train you. We’re willing to risk on you. We’re willing to put our name connected to you to pour into your life and check in on you spiritually You know and your quality and talk about really things that you love. And that it’s been an amazing journey We’ve been doing this for about two years now officially give or take and it’s we’ve taken Dozens of people through the class. I just finished a book based on the class and that’s been pretty successful. [00:14:38] I’ve really enjoyed hearing how many people have been helped by that. And so yeah it’s where my heart’s at. This shirt is a, actually a game jersey. It’s a, it’s an e sports jersey. And so it’s got my name on the back. I’ll show you. I’ll show everybody what it looks like. I love it. [00:14:55] Right. It’s a Jersey jerky, like a wheel for e sports. And and it’s crazy to me [00:15:00] that me, this old fuddy duddy Baptist preacher dude who, Always loved tech, but, was an old timey preacher. Gets to sit here in an eSports jersey with my logo on it, where I get to talk about content creator stuff. [00:15:14] God is amazing, and God is creative, and I can’t believe I get to do this. I think I was in the first Taco Group. Was that the first Taco Group? The one that I was in? First or second for sure. One of the early ones, if not the first one. And I think, yeah, you get the validation. [00:15:31] You get other creators that, Hey, I’ve got these special gifts and I want to use them for the Lord, but I don’t know how to do it. I don’t have the specific What does it look like to use my gifts for Jesus online or podcast or streaming? And I don’t know any other place that does this, to be honest with don’t think there is. [00:15:56] Now that, let me say that it’s starting to change out there. [00:16:00] Like, I had a conversation with a Christian university, a Christian college university who was starting a program for digital missionaries, starting a program for how do we train up somebody in like a one year certificate program to be able To understand digital missions, that kind of thing. [00:16:16] They’re processing it. They actually wanted me to come and teach some classes in it and they, to help structure what it was. But unfortunately, because I’m Canadian, the, they didn’t, they couldn’t have me work there. I have no idea what happened, but at the very least I was really excited to learn that there are people out there that, that get it and they are part of universities and they’re part of colleges. [00:16:35] There’s other ones around that kind of a classes about like digital missions or about even gaming ministry that’s starting to pop up, but it’s very rare. You went through such a struggle to get accredited as a digital pastor. Tell the folks what that looks like because you felt yourself unvalidated as a pastor. [00:16:59] You are a [00:17:00] real pastor. Just because you’re online doesn’t mean you don’t have a flock to shepherd. For sure. I would have thought that I’m the easiest sell in the world, right? Because I have a Bachelor of Religion, Master of Divinity, I’ve got 16 years of actual Like full time pastoral ministry in small churches under my belt. [00:17:18] And for me to walk up to the denomination I was part of, or to the pastors that I knew in the area and go, God did this new thing. He’s doing something cool. And he’s brought me into this new, exciting ministry. I’d love to tell you about it. And what ended up happening was I’d get the same thing over and over. [00:17:33] And that was, or same two things. One of it would be the hand, like literally stop talking. And the reason was they would say, I don’t understand online stuff. I don’t really get computer stuff. I don’t know. So there’s no point in talking to me about it. Right? I just don’t understand. So just don’t even try. [00:17:53] And the other side of it, like really, I’m like, I’m not even kidding. And then the second thing that would happen is they would say, I love what you’re [00:18:00] doing. What a great idea. I completely understand how important this is. And I definitely can see God working in you. We have no idea what to do with you. [00:18:07] We’re not ready. We don’t have a clue. Our constitution doesn’t know how to deal with online stuff. Our denomination doesn’t know how to plug you in. We don’t know what your ministry would look like. We don’t even know what to call it. Are you a church? Are you a drop in center? Are you a counselor? What even are you? [00:18:22] We have no idea. Therefore, we have no structure. Therefore, we can’t help. And I bounced off of pastor after pastor, denomination after denomination, leader after leader, who would Either affirm and go, yeah, God’s in this for sure. We don’t know what to do with you. Or we’d be like, I don’t get it. We just don’t, I just don’t get it. [00:18:40] Until I bumped into a guy from the Alliance, Christian Missionary Alliance, who actually said, I’d like to learn more. And I’m like, Whoa, I got one. Like you get the little fish, you’re just starting to pull it up. I got one. Okay, let’s talk. And they he worked with me and we talked about it and I told him my mission. [00:18:59] [00:19:00] I told him where I was going and what the plan was and what I felt God was doing. And he was part of something called New Ventures. New Ventures is the section of the Christian Missionary Alliance for weird people. Ministries, they have a section just for weirdos like me. And so I was able to come in and talk to them and meet some other weirdos. [00:19:16] And eventually, after some months, I was able to be accredited, went through the whole process. I’m a real pastor again, as I was before, where, they checked me out and did my big interviews and did all that stuff. And I ended up I am a fully accredited pastor and I’ve been able to use the alliance And the new ventures thing to validate within this established structure, my online ministry. [00:19:42] Excitingly, in about a week, I get to go and talk to a bunch of pastors from the Alliance about what I do, what we do in digital missions. And I’m really hoping that kicks off some conversations to be able to say, you have content creators in your church. And you don’t know it because they’re [00:20:00] hiding from you because they don’t think you like the internet and because you talk about bad, how bad gaming is. [00:20:05] And so they game anyway, they just don’t want to talk to you about it. So go and, let’s go find these people and encourage them and help them to understand that God loves them. God created them this way. Their interest is able to be used for his glory. Let’s do it. I’m really excited about the next phase of whatever this is, but yeah, basing that for literally. [00:20:24] Two years, two years of, hey, I could really use some support. Hey, I could really use some help. I could use some accountability. I could use some resourcing. I could, I believe that God’s in this. And then to hear repeatedly over and over we don’t know what to do with you and we can’t do it. [00:20:39] We don’t know what that is or we can’t, couldn’t possibly understand that. It really gave me that heart for those content creators out there who aren’t as, I’m out there. Don’t have all the degrees after that. Exactly. I’ve got all the things and I’ve got it all and I’m boisterous enough. [00:20:52] And I’m, I have enough confidence to be able to keep going. And you’ve got these people out there, they’re [00:21:00] 17, 18, 19 years old or for that matter, they’re in their thirties and they’re single and they just want to. Do this for Jesus, and they don’t have the confidence to just fall into a rut, and they just feel like God doesn’t love them, and God doesn’t want them to use their interest, and that what they love is bad, and they don’t know how to reconcile that, and their heart is just wrecked, and so turn on Twitch secretly by themselves, and they will come, and they’ll find me, and they’ll discover somebody, or they’ll find another Christian content creator, and somebody that goes, yeah. [00:21:28] God loves you, and God affirms what you’re interested in, and yeah, there’s a way to use it for His glory. Yeah, not all of it’s great. Don’t get me wrong. I completely agree there are some really bad games, and there’s really bad content online, and we all know that, but we can’t throw the baby out the bathwater. [00:21:42] We have conversations about those things. Let’s do it. Yeah. I saw all the nasty comments on Twitter about you and you trying to start this ministry. And they kept saying, this is unbiblical. This isn’t like the early church. Let me tell you, if Peter and Paul and [00:22:00] Barnabas had the internet, Like what we have, the resources that we have to spread the gospel, they would jump on that. [00:22:09] And they did. That’s what I believe. They would jump on this. They used every resource they had, right? They had letters. They traveled. They spoke. They went to every culture every place that was around. They used illustration. They used like everything they had creative at their disposal to be able to talk to people about Jesus, about God, about the Bible, they used it. [00:22:32] Why is it different for us? There’s probably not toothbrushes in the Bible either, but we use them. It’s true. Cell phones. Yeah, people don’t have a problem with cell phones. Right, yeah, or we had televangelists for since, what, 70s? And that’s the weird part. So let me tell a bit of a story here. [00:22:48] Is that I’m part of a, an eSports group online, and they were birthed out of the Traditional sports movement. So traditional sports movement, which has been around for 70, 75, 80 [00:23:00] years, Christian sports. They decided all at once, they’re like, hey, eSports is the thing. Should we look into that? And they contacted me and a bunch of other people, brought us down to Florida to have a big talk about, what that is, and We learned their story, which was basically, they went through what we’re going through, but with sports. [00:23:18] You walk to any church right now in North America, and you say, I want to start a soccer ministry. I want to start a church baseball team. And they’d go, yeah, that sounds like a great idea. What a wonderful way to unite people. Great. Not, it hasn’t always been that way. You back up. 70 years and it’s, sports are bad and you can’t do sports as a church and, didn’t, soccer has the pentagram on it and therefore it’s satanic. [00:23:40] Like, I’m not even kidding. And there are still places in the world that, that have that issue with traditional sports and church being incompatible somehow. We would never think that over in Western culture now. It’s going to be that for online ministry, video games too, [00:24:00] at some point. It’ll be a no brainer. [00:24:02] Of course you need an online ministry. Of course you need a digital pastor. Of course you need to have a representation online of somebody who gets that culture. Of course you need to have a ministry and a mission that focuses on people who will never ever come to church, who will never ever walk through your door. [00:24:18] Not only because they’re sick or because they’re laying up or they’re at home, but also because they have mental health issues, they have learning disabilities, they have auditory issues, they have social disorders. That keeps them at home. And no matter how many bake sales or missions or VBSs or whatever you have going at your church, they will never come. [00:24:36] Not only that, you’ll never see them at Starbucks and you’ll never see them at the library. They are at home. How do you get those people? How do you reach out to those people? At some point it’s going to be, well, you do it with our digital ministry. Obviously, we love those people too. Why wouldn’t we reach out to them? [00:24:52] That’s how it will be. It’s our generation, or like my being the people that are doing it right now, that have to break down that [00:25:00] wall. That have to show the church to go, listen guys, there are people you can’t reach. I always think of that story that Jesus had with the where he talked about the kingdom being a big meal. [00:25:11] Like there was a rich guy and he threw a big meal, right? And he invited all of his friends. And his friends were like, no. And then he went out, go tell people about it. Right? Go to Just go tell people. And then they went out, the servants went out, and like, invited just randos around to be come and enjoy, my hospitality. [00:25:28] The story was basically God came and talked to the Israelites, they rejected Him, God came and talked to the rest of the world, right? Kind of thing, like talk to the people that were there. Now, The last part of that story is go out into the highways and hedges and just drag people in. Go find everybody. [00:25:44] Go to the places nobody can find. Nobody would go looking. Go pull people out of the bush. Go down in the ditch and pull people out of there. Those are the people I want in here too. That’s what this is. This is me. This is us going to the [00:26:00] hedges. This is us going to the ditch. This is us going to places that nobody else is at in traditional missions and pulling people out of there and going, God loves you too. [00:26:11] Right? Yeah. Jesus himself took the way Through Samaria to talk, the woman at the well, someone he wasn’t supposed to be talking to, and reached her, ministered to her, someone that was hated, and she went and evangelized her whole community. They came back and talked to Jesus. Jesus went where he needed to go to reach the [00:26:37] the oppressed, the women, the hated in his generation. So that’s what you’re doing here is you go where they are. How are you going to reach the Samaritans unless you go and talk to the Samaritans? Or the Gadarene Demoniac, or any culture. Heck, there wouldn’t be any non Jewish people saved if it [00:27:00] wasn’t for the fact that God called Paul to go and talk to the Gentiles, right? [00:27:04] Go and talk to them or, go talk to the really difficult places. Go to the Barbarians. Right. Go to the really crazy places that, that if you walk in there, you’re going to get, you’re going to get in real trouble. Go talk to women. That was going to be a thing too. Like it’s a whole, of course, God wants to love everybody. [00:27:21] And he raises up people specifically with a gift and ability and he empowers them to go talk to them. So of course that’s going to happen online. Why wouldn’t it? Yeah. I’ve, I had a very small part in helping you with your book. I was the one tasked to transpose the videos from the taco class. I was on my surgery leave. [00:27:44] I was literally sitting with my foot propped up on the couch and I said, yeah, I can do it. I got four weeks sitting here on the couch. I transposed all that into text and. Yeah, that was the beginning of the book. You probably add more stuff to it, but yeah. [00:28:00] Can I say there’s nothing like that book. [00:28:03] It is so good. Just transposing it and getting to read all that content again. It was so good. And the reason it was good for you was because it was specifically written for people who have a passion for reaching others through digital content. And I can’t think of any other book out there, and I’m not trying to just push my book, I’m just, it’s sad how many people are out there that write for that group, that encourage that group, that put together resources. [00:28:32] Like, if I wanted to be a music pastor, and there’s a bajillion If I wanted to go to Brazil as a missionary, I can get a million books, I can go to school like crazy for it. If I want to like literally pick anything, there’s even sports ministry classes in the schools that you can go to become that, a youth pastor, you can go like pick a group. [00:28:51] But when it comes to I want to reach people, online. I want to reach people in their home. I want to reach those who are have, crippling mental health issues or [00:29:00] physical issues that keep them from coming out. And I want to speak to them as nerds, as gamers as people who are different. [00:29:07] That’s who I want to meet. There’s no missionary, no ministry, or no ministry, no mission, no school, no nothing they can go to that is going to affirm them and train them. There will be. Fortunately, by God’s grace, there will be one that I know of coming soon next year or the or year after but right now When it comes to people just going. [00:29:27] Yeah, God loves you and he wants to use you. Here’s a book. I don’t know any others that are except this one. So show them the copy of your book I have the digital copy. It’s called the art of digital influence If you go to my website, which is XtianNinja. com, which is X T I A N I N J A. [00:29:46] com, you can go to the my book section or just go to Amazon, type in the art of digital influence and you’ll find it. It’s not long it’s meant to not be, difficult, but it’s very practical. And also one of the things it does [00:30:00] at the very beginning and throughout the first part of it is to be an apologetic for digital missions. [00:30:07] And so even if you were to hand this to somebody who is in the pastorate or somebody who is a denominational leader and go, just read the first two, three chapters of this thing, it’ll take you like literally an hour. They might be able to get a concept of the importance of and the difficulty of being a Christian content creator. [00:30:25] So tell them what the chapters are, like, what exactly are we going to learn here? Well, this is, designed for Christian content creators, not just streamers. It’s not technical stuff. It’s not how to run your computer or how to turn on the video and none of that kind of stuff. [00:30:41] It really is all about how to connect to God, understand yourself, understand your mission, understand your audience, understand how to set up your life in such a way that you’ll be an effective content creator that can use it purposefully. Right. So the chapter titles are, who me, a creator. [00:30:57] As in, is it okay? Does God [00:31:00] say it’s okay to be a creator? Isn’t He a creator? And I’ve been told so many times that I shouldn’t use this. Is that okay? Why being a Christian content creator is so difficult? The, what makes it so hard? Why is it so hard to go out there and grow and go out there and get support? [00:31:16] Well, here’s why. How to discover your audience. Your particular audience, that’s a big one. I banged that drum for the entire class is basically, God has given you an audience. Not just the internet, but people that are usually like you. People who have experienced what you’ve experienced and are, you’re further down the road and you want to bring them. [00:31:35] So let’s find out who that is. The voice you have, the permission you have to talk to that audience. Let’s discover who that is. The character of a creator. The importance of realizing once you step into a mission, the enemy’s going to try to shut you down. So you better be watching your character. [00:31:52] How do I identify and implement a God given mission? How to make the most of your time, how to make good content, how to build a [00:32:00] strong community, how to keep your audience, and then strategic planning for long term growth. That’s very valuable. I hope so. And you have not only got your Twitch that you do Monday through Thursday, is that right? [00:32:15] You have a discord community that’s attached to Taco and Twitch. A very safe community, I may add. I’ve been a part of a lot of communities being an abuse advocate, and you really have worked hard to make it a safe place for people to come and connect. And that has everything to do with how awesome my moderators are. [00:32:38] So when I first started, it was just me and my computer. And I knew after about, three, four months that this thing was going to be bigger than I could handle. And I know from scripture and I know from practice, I’m not meant to do things alone. That’s not what I’m supposed to be doing. [00:32:54] And so therefore what I need to figure out how we can find a team. So I remember I sent out this [00:33:00] absolutely Bizarre email and bizarre message that basically said, I need a team and I cannot pay you, and I want you to do work for me for free. And I’m like, here are all the things I want. And within like two days, God sent nine people to be on my, what I called my stream dream team. [00:33:19] And those people are amazing, passionate, loving, supportive, kind. And then as we launched into taco and really started really creating this taco discord full of communities, the, those people, the stream green team and some others that came along have become the the heart, the backbone of the community that you’re in there. [00:33:39] So it’s not just me. That’s their, like, policing. It’s everybody who’s come in the last few years and had caught the vision for, we want to reach Christians, we want to reach non Christians, we want to build communities, we want to show God’s love online. And the in between part, when you’re not watching stream, when you’re not looking at my videos, when you’re not reading my books or my [00:34:00] blogs, this is where we’re going to meet. [00:34:01] This is like our digital community center. And it’s called Discord, that’s the name of the software. And so our community center needs to be someplace that is Interesting, and fun, and meaningful, and it’s full of prayer, and full of, you place people that can answer your questions and pick up your interests and laugh together, and cry together, and that’s what it’s become. [00:34:22] I’m so proud of our Discord community. It’s amazing. When people join there, I we hear often it’s very different than other communities because it’s active, it’s alive it’s a really important part of it. So many out discords out there are just like dead because people have a discord, they don’t know what to do with it, right? [00:34:38] So what we did at Taco was something really weird, it’s what we do all the time, weird stuff. And that is, we asked the content creators who are part of the Taco team to bring their communities into one discord. Close down your discord. And come and join this. Big ask. Huge ask. Nobody else does this. [00:34:59] [00:35:00] Because it’s just, it’s like saying, close your church and then come and join my church. Like, people would be like, no! I’m not gonna do that. Like, that’s how much, how people think of their discords. That’s their people! But because they caught the vision for what it’s like to become a united, supportive group, they shut down their discords or, and they pulled all their people over to this one. [00:35:18] And then we got an amazing group of five different communities, all loving each other and taking care of each other. It’s wonderful. Yeah. There’s no, you ask a question and you get dog piled or all these hateful, mean comments like you get on Twitter. It’s like. No, the mods are really good at like, that isn’t kind. We have a section if you want to fight. [00:35:38] We, we have a controversial section, go ahead, go nuts. Yeah. But if you don’t want to do that, just like take that channel and mute it and make it disappear because if you don’t want to be part of it, some people, that’s what they want to do. Their favorite thing in the world is to come online and fight about weird stuff. [00:35:55] Go ahead. Knock yourself out over there. Yeah, I’ve seen that [00:36:00] controversial topics, which I don’t usually enjoy because there are people on there that. They’re promoting abusive people. And I tell them this guy is on my list. And most abuse advocates list, this is not a good person. I don’t know why you’re defending him. [00:36:18] He’s gross. We’re going back and forth. But still, there’s no, no disrespect allowed. There’s no name calling. There’s yeah. It’s still the safest community I know of. That’s because of, we know who we’re serving. Right? We are serving people who have been hurt by the church, rejected by Christianity, who are post Christian, who are people who have mental health issues, depression, anxiety social disorders, people who have been rejected. People who don’t have friends, people, there’s a reason that they’re home 24 7. [00:36:51] There’s a reason that they’re not out on their baseball team and hanging out with clubs. There’s a reason for that. And it’s because, usually because they’re hurt. And therefore, if they come into a community, [00:37:00] we need to treat them with not only kid gloves, but we need to be able to make sure that they feel validated and cared for and safe. [00:37:05] Right? Knowing that audience means that you structure your community in such a way that they feel like they are valuable. And that when they share, they feel valued. They’re not going to get pounced on. And you don’t have to be a quote unquote gamer to be a part of this community because I haven’t played games since Pac Man and Space Invaders, and yeah, it’s not a requirement to be in this group. [00:37:29] It’s a fun, fun place to be. In closing, I want to get you out of here on time for your stream today, anything you didn’t say that you wanted to say to the audience? I guess one thing that I would say is if you’re a Christian content creator, or you know a Christian content creator, and don’t think of that as professional YouTuber. [00:37:48] I mean somebody who has a blog and they talk about their favorite books, or someone who goes on YouTube and just shares their life. Or someone who has a podcast about some obscure topic that nobody listens to, [00:38:00] but they just are, they love their podcast, that kind of thing. Or some digital artist just posts things to Instagram. [00:38:05] Or someone who is on TikTok and they just do silly memes. Those are content creators too. If Christian content creators, would mean worlds to them if you would be willing to come and see their stuff, like their stuff, ask questions about their, what they’re doing, why they got into it. Talk to them. Like say it is a gamer, now they’re not all gamers, but if it is a gamer, and you’re like, I don’t understand gaming, then ask! [00:38:28] If there’s one thing nerds like doing, it’s talking about the stuff that they want to nerd out on, you know what I mean? Yeah, you might, it might be a firehose of information that comes flying out of them, because they, it’s all been backed up for so long, but you know what? You’re gonna see their eyes light up. [00:38:41] You’re going to see passion from them that you haven’t seen before about a topic you don’t understand. And when you start, instead of Jesus juking them, and how you can use that for Jesus, go, and why do you care about that? Why, like, what does that connect you to? And you’re going to hear the same stuff you’ve heard for your entire life. [00:38:58] And it’s, I believe that it [00:39:00] tells me a really good story. I believe that it connects to me personally. It connects me to a community of people that understand me. It gives me hope. It gives me a language that I can share that is unique to me, that I can talk to people in a way that they get it, they get me. [00:39:15] It’s all the same thing. It’s all the stuff we’ve been talking about forever, but it’s focused around something that you might not understand. Just open up your heart a little bit. Open up your mind a little bit. Open up your ears a little bit to some of these people, and you’ll be able to see them in a completely different light. [00:39:29] I love it. Love what you’re doing. I’m so excited where you’re at and so passionate about your ministry and your support of me throughout the years I’ve been doing this podcast. And you even made it a family ministry. Your kids are involved in your ministry too. And that’s exciting as well that when your family is a part of your ministry and doing something fun with dad. [00:39:58] If you’re that old [00:40:00] and your dad plays video games and gets to collect them and then you get to play them too, like how great is that? Or, like he’s online and there’s, dozens of people watching and you want to come in and be silly for just a second, and then immediately you get feedback about how funny you are. [00:40:13] That’s great. Why wouldn’t you love that? Yeah. Snack girl. Yep. Good old snack girl. Snack girl, prince Theseus and wholesome owl. Those are my kids. I love it. That’s so fun when they come on. So tell the folks again, how can they connect with you? I’m going to put it all in the show notes, of course, but if they want to be a part of the community. [00:40:38] Everything is on XtianNinja.com. X-T-I-A-N-N-I-N-J a.com. Go there, you’ll find how to support my ministry financially. You’ll find a PDF of what I do. So you can print it and you can read it. You’ll find a six and a half minute video that’ll explain what I do. You’ll find my blog, you’ll find the podcast that I do for Christian content creators. [00:40:59] It’s all there. [00:41:00] Awesome. Alan, you’re welcome to come on the podcast anytime. You know that. I’ll take over every week. Let’s do it. Me and you every week from now on. Let’s start something. All right. God bless you, brother. All right. Thank you. [00:41:12] Thank you for listening to the Wounds of the Faithful podcast. If this episode has been helpful to you, please hit the subscribe button and tell a friend. You can connect with us at DSW Ministries. org where you’ll find our blog along with our Facebook, Twitter, and our YouTube channel links. Hope to see you next week!