Digital Parish: Digital discipleship and worldwide community

Ryan Dunn (00:00):

This is pastoring in the digital parish, your resource and point of connection for building digital ministry strategy and bringing your congregation into the digital age. Hi, my name is Ryan Dunn. In this session, we're exploring the story behind a couple fully digital ministries, the chapel online, and becoming more These two groups reach thousands worldwide through their Facebook groups and other digital touchpoints. The uniting factor in these groups is Anne Bosarge, who founded and coordinates both groups. She's gonna provide for us her story of beginning these digital ministries and provide how these ministries build daily connections and weekly rhythms. What's especially exciting to learn about is their pathway of discipleship and how it's implemented digitally. Anne Bosarge works for the South Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church as the Director of Leadership Strategies and local church resources where she provides leadership development for both clergy and laity. In addition to our role with the United Methodist Church, she's the founder of Digital Discipleship, which you can find digitaldiscipleship.online. That is a digital discipleship organization reaching thousands around the globe. We're gonna hear plenty about that, so let's get talking. It's good stuff. Anne. Thanks for giving me time during this Lenton season. How goes it with your soul so far today?

Anne Bosarge (01:28):

Ah, it's been good. I had lunch with a friend and we had some really great conversation about ministry and life and laughs. So today's been a good day.

Ryan Dunn (01:39):

Glad to hear it. Well, we're gonna talk some digital ministry in making more connections in the way that you've kind of used several online platforms for <laugh> really building relationships worldwide. From my perspective, it sounds like you kind of got into digital ministry in much the same way that a lot of us did <laugh> in 2020 and just kind of thrown into that space. And besides the pandemic what really led you to start your digital ministries? Like becoming more in chapel online?

Anne Bosarge (02:11):

Yeah. So isn't it funny how God uses the whole of our lives to really shape us and prepare us for the next thing? So when I started my career, I have a degree in early childhood education, and I taught in the classroom for seven years and then left the classroom to write curriculum and organize groups of teachers to submit lesson plans online. Like this was a big deal. This was cutting edge stuff back in the day in, in the education circles. And so in, at the State Department of of education in, in here in Georgia we were looking at, okay, what does it look like for teachers to be online and for us to be, you know, using as a curriculum platform to inform people and all this kind of stuff. And so for four years I worked from home writing lesson plans, training groups of teachers to youth technology and those kinds of things.

(03:13):

 And then creating kind of a database of lesson plans for teachers in the state of Georgia. And from there went on to ministry. And so this idea of using technology, digital technologies for education just was a part of my history. And then of course, it's a part of my ministry, right? Because it just seemed so natural. And so I had been asking our church for the longest time Hey, when are we gonna do an online campus? When are we gonna do an online campus? And then the pandemic kit. And I was like, when are we gonna do an online campus <laugh>? And they they were like

Ryan Dunn (03:57):

Yesterday, no, we needed it yesterday. Yeah,

Anne Bosarge (03:59):

They didn't gimme the go ahead for the campus, but we decided that our women's ministry, which was, we were in a nine week teaching series, and it was six weeks in when the world shut down and our women were like, and we can't just stop. We have three weeks left to go. And I was like, okay, well, let's take it online and let's you know, Gracie Martin, who is my administrative assistant ministry sidekick, all the things. We were like, well, we'll just go ahead and and go online and start a Facebook group and get this thing going. And the 30 women in our ministry started inviting more of their friends and more of their friends. And then we, we, by the time the curriculum was over, we had been kind of posting every single day and the, you know, three weeks when we were going to shut it all down, we had like 300 women in this Facebook group at the beginning of a pandemic. And everybody was like, we've gotta keep going. Yeah. And so we just said, okay, <laugh>. And, and that's kind of what, where it took off. So it started with women's ministry in becoming more

Ryan Dunn (05:12):

So what did, when things were taking off and you ran through your curriculum, the three weeks were over. What did the process look like for developing the, the what's next? Like come the ne the next Monday when you have these 300 people who are expecting something. What were you delivering?

Anne Bosarge (05:31):

<Laugh>? Yeah. Yeah. So remember when I said I was in education writing curriculum? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Well, that comes naturally to me. So I have written curriculum for many, many years. I, I was writing children's ministry curriculum when I got into ministry, and I never thought that I wanted to write women's ministry curriculum. I nothing against women, but I just was like, I don't think I'm a ministry kind of person, you know? And then here I am leading a women's ministry online with a couple hundred people and I start writing curriculum. And so we ended up coming up with weekly themes because our women's ministry is called Becoming More. We would come up with weekly themes and like, you know, one week would be becoming more creative. And then another would would be becoming more appreciative. And then another becoming more, you know, whatever it is prayerful, fill in the blank. And so we would provide daily devotionals for women and and take that through. We did live prayer experiences. We would do kind of live chats where we would be on with with the women and be streaming at the same time. And some of those kinds of things were how we really got started in the very beginning.

Ryan Dunn (06:54):

So did becoming more become the chapel online, or, or was the chapel online a different expression when the value was kind of established?

Anne Bosarge (07:04):

Yeah, so becoming more, actually was a year before we established the chapel online. So about six months into becoming more, when the pandemic restrictions began to loosen up a little bit, women were wanting to get together in person. And so at that point they were like, well, Anne, we need you to write us a curriculum for this. And so being the person that just steps in and says, let's figure it out I wrote a curriculum book for for our first small group series, and we began doing that twice a year. So we started with Becoming More Peaceful, and then we did Becoming More Grounded was a six week curriculum series that you can actually get the book on Amazon. So that's a, a print book that you can order on Amazon. And then about I guess it was about nine months in, we probably had maybe like six or 700 women in our group by that point.

(08:08):

And things had taken off. We had multiple in-person and online small groups through Zoom. And I began talking to our pastor and leadership team once again about this idea for an online campus, please, can we do it now? <Laugh> <laugh>. And and I did get some significant pushback, but finally after years, they they were like, just, okay, go do it and get it up and running by Easter. And so we called our campus the Chapel online. The name of our church at my church at the time that I was on staff with was the Chapel, and we launched on Easter, which was April the fourth of 2021. And so that is when the chapel line was born. The difference in the chapel line of becoming more obviously the audience because becoming more is just women. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And this was to be very much a ministry for kind of the nuns and the Dunns, the people who have no religious affiliation, the people who are just done with church.

(09:16):

We wanted to really be right where they were right when they needed us. That was kind of our thing, is that we wanted to be the church all the time, not just the church on Sunday morning or Wednesday night or whatever, and, and really be very accessible, very relational, very conversational. Those were, those were really our goals and be very clear in presenting the gospel. So we wanted it to be focused on discipleship in a way that was clear and concise, that was that was attainable for people who did not have a faith background or had not been in that space for, for a long time. And so that's, that's kind of where we started.

Ryan Dunn (09:59):

So when, when you started the chapel online expression, did you start with like, a worship service? Because oftentimes it's how we start new ministries, right? Or were, did your, I guess, online presence look a little bit different?

Anne Bosarge (10:13):

It did look a little bit different. So we actually started on YouTube and TikTok <laugh>, those were the places that we started TikTok. Okay. Yeah. Cool. And what we decided was, okay, we're gonna generate some interest with these little snippets of conversations that we called Little Things, big Difference. And we talked about little things that make a big difference in your life. So we didn't want to be like Uber churchy right at the beginning. We just wanted to say, Hey, here's what a little thing that makes a big difference in your life, and if you want another thing that makes a big difference in your life, join us at the Chapel online. We have, you know, daily discipleship and worship on Sunday mornings. And so that began to generate interest a little bit. But all of a sudden when we started with worship services and really with our daily discipleship about six weeks in, it just, we began to see people that we didn't expect to see.

(11:17):

 We began to engage with a more international audience. We still have, you know, the bulk of the people in the chapel online are from the us. But right underneath that, if you look at our analytics in Facebook is Zimbabwe. It is Uganda, it is, we have Pakistan, we just have all over, I think there were the, the last time I, I counted wa were about 50 different countries represented in the chapel online. And so all very, very quickly I began to say, okay, I think we are reaching a different group of people than we originally anticipated. I did not anticipate a global audience, and so we were not necessarily programmed for a global audience, you know? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, the, the little things, big difference, those kinds of things that we were doing, they didn't translate to a global audience. A lot of those things were very American in nature.

Ryan Dunn (12:18):

Sure. Okay.

Anne Bosarge (12:20):

So, so we actually stopped that and began to say, okay, well what is it that these people have in common? What is it that they are connecting with? And what we realized is that many of them at that point were still disconnected from their churches, because even though a lot of our churches were back in person globally, it was a bigger deal. And they were still isolated in many, in many cases, and their churches were not meeting. And so this w this really became their church community in, in many aspects. But also the thing that we noticed was these people were hungry, hungry for more than just a Sunday morning experience. Hmm. they were, they just had this sense that there's gotta be something more than just a one hour a week you know, experience or a one hour a week lifestyle of, of being a Christian. And so the fact that we were consistently online every single day was a big deal to them and, and really created this sense of loyalty and community and engagement.

Ryan Dunn (13:38):

How do you think you first hit <laugh> with these people in an international audience? I mean, sounds like you weren't directly trying to be present in places like Uganda, so why, why were people in Uganda responding to you?

Anne Bosarge (13:55):

So, I, you know, I don't know how they originally saw the chapel online in their Facebook feed. Okay. You know, so many people have, you know, claimed that Facebook is the tool of the enemy. And I'm like, well, the Holy Spirit was working through the algorithm at some point because he some these people to me. Right, right. So I don't know how the first couple of people found us, but you know, the more you say yes to certain people, then the more those people come to you. So once we opened the door to the first, I would say, you know, couple of people that began to create a domino effect. And really, I think that a lot, from what I have heard from a lot of people that have a digital ministry, a lot of times they, you know, get request for people that are international and they try to vet these people to make sure they're real people.

(14:58):

And I didn't do that. I just said, yes, my name is Mio. How are you? You know, friend requests. Yes. I mean, if you're trying to scam me, you still need Jesus. So I'm not gonna withhold Jesus from you just because you're a scammer or you're asking me for money. I'm still gonna tell you about my Jesus <laugh>. And so I just kept saying yes to people and, and having conversations with people. And I remember, I, I remember the first time that we got someone from Zimbabwe and I ran into Gracie's office and I was like, Gracie, Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe <laugh>. And so I began having conversations with Martha from Zimbabwe, who is now my Zimbabwe and daughter. I love her so much. We are, we have been since that day in regular contact multiple times a week. And she has become my family. And so I just think what I would've missed out and what our community of faith would've missed out on had I said no to any of those requests, any of those people. So I mean, it sounds ridiculous, but it's just saying yes to people that you're not quite sure about.

Ryan Dunn (16:12):

Hmm. And what were they reaching out with? So like, for example, I, I sometimes get requests of people who are just saying, you know, we have a community here and, and we're just looking for somebody to present at some point. Were you getting those kinds of requests or was it really like, Hey, my husband is, has cancer and wants to leave you $1 million. Were you reacting to that as well? <Laugh>?

Anne Bosarge (16:37):

I have heard all of it. I have heard all of it. So I have heard yes, there's a prince that wants me to leave me a million dollars <laugh>, there's, yes, we want you to come speak to our organization. But the reason that they ended up responding to me was the minute they would join the group. This was when we were still starting. I do not, I cannot do this anymore just because of the scale of where we are. Okay. But when we were first starting, I would respond to every single person that joined the group and introduce myself and say, hi, my name is Anne. I'm, you know, the leader of the chapel online. We're so glad you're here. Tell me a little bit about where you're from and, and your life there. And so I would just initiate a conversation.

(17:21):

 I wouldn't, you know, I wouldn't go too deep in that, but I would just, you know, initiate that conversation. And then what we did at the very beginning was we had an assimilation plan that we ran through, and and like I said, I, we can't do this anymore just because of the limitations that Facebook puts on us right now. But we would go through and every week we would reach out to our members through through Messenger and begin to send them, like the first week was you know, just an introduction for me. The second week was a prayer request. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, do you have a prayer request? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, you know, we pray live every Wednesdays. Is there anything that you would like for me to be praying for? And then the third week was Hey, we have weekly worship services.

(18:09):

Don't forget, you know, the fourth week was, Hey, personal time really matters to God, and we wanna make sure that you're digging in and that you're in the word. And the fifth week was Hey, would you like to schedule a one-on-one with Anne? You know, and a phone call or, you know, something like that over messenger. And so it was, it was, it was those kinds of things that we would begin to develop relationships with people. And so that really helped us to make connections with people and get in people's lives and just become friends more than anything. Yeah.

Ryan Dunn (18:45):

Hmm. Well, all this is, is quite a jump from online curriculum development. So <laugh>, so there, there's, I mean, for sure Ann, there are pastoral skills involved in that, but also there are some technical things. I mean, you were making videos, you're coming up with a posting schedule. What were some of the ways that you were being raised up or trained for that <laugh>? Were you just figuring it all out as you went along?

Anne Bosarge (19:11):

Yeah, I think Gracie and I used YouTube a lot to figure things out and, and to say what's possible. And we, we really just listened to a lot of people and learned from experiences. I'll never forget, there was this young, young child that was in a foster family that was a part of our church, and he came and sat with me one day and told me all the things that I needed to know about how to be a YouTube star. So, you know, I I listened to Travis, you know telling me how to be a YouTube star and realized some things that I could do differently in order to to be more engaging in our, on our platforms. One of the books that we read early on when we started, before we started the Chapel online, was from social media to social ministry from Nona Jones.

(20:09):

Yeah. Mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. And that was very informative. A lot of it just confirmed what we had already discovered through becoming more since we were on Facebook already. But we did learn some good tips and tricks and, you know, had some good ideas about posting schedules and things like that from her. So that was a very significant you know, way that, that we learned and we grew, but then we just we just began to ask people, what do you know? How do you do it? You know, what are the things that we're doing that are working? What are the things that you're like, eh, it's not helpful. Well, let's get rid of those and do more of the stuff that is working. We expanded our ministry onto WhatsApp. I would say probably maybe like eight months into the chapel online.

(21:02):

 Martha, who I mentioned before, she kept telling me, and we must have a, a WhatsApp presence. And I'm like, Martha, yeah. I don't know anything about WhatsApp. And she's like, well, I do. And I said, well, I will hire you to be my WhatsApp administrator. So Martha is the one who started our WhatsApp presence and, you know, continues to keep everything going. Not only do we have one WhatsApp group right now that is active every day for devotionals and prayers and things like that, we now have location specific WhatsApp groups. So we have found that we have groups of people that are really active in different parts of, particularly in different parts of Africa, are our most active groups. And so now what we have seen is a desire for people that are connected with the chapel online to meet in person and to get to know each other in person. And so we have put together some WhatsApp groups that are facilitated by leaders that we have raised up through the chapel online. And as a matter of fact, tomorrow I have a meeting of my WhatsApp group leaders through WhatsApp video to talk about the things that are going on in our groups and how we can better discipleship people through these avenues as well. So all of that came about. All of that came about because Martha was like, Anne, we must get a WhatsApp group. And I said, Martha, go do the WhatsApp group <laugh>.

Ryan Dunn (22:37):

Awesome. Have some of those leaders then, have they taken over some of the content creation within the, the different places that the chapel online is present?

Anne Bosarge (22:48):

Yes, they sure have. And one of the things that I began to discover early on was that the typical way that you would move through a discipleship pathway in a, in an in-person church does not work for a digital space a lot of times. You know, because we would, I mean, I do, I do church consulting is a lot of what I do for my full-time job with the South Georgia Conference now. And a lot of times I will work with churches to develop a discipleship pathway like wor worship, grow, serve, and go, or something like that mm-hmm. <Affirmative> mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, but the same things don't really work in a digital space or, or they weren't working for what we were doing with digital discipleship. And what I began to see is that really what we wanted to do was to move people from consumers to contributors to creators.

(23:43):

And what I began to see is that we would have people entering as consumers where they would be watching our worship services. They would, you know, join us online for live prayer. They would be you know, watching and engaging with the daily devotionals that we put out, those kinds of things. And then all of a sudden I would see them after they had been around a while, and we had gotten to know each other that they would be contributors, meaning that they would make comments or they would share, or they would you know, pull someone else into the, into the conversation or they would be commenting and praying for each other in the comments. And they began to like lots of posts and those kinds of things. So they began contributing to the conversation in the community in that way.

(24:30):

Hmm. But then eventually some of them have moved into the creator role. And so we have used some of our leaders as creators of that content, specifically in our WhatsApp groups. So we have Okay. A lot of creators in our WhatsApp groups. I do not do any kind of content creation in any of those groups. And all of those are run by our WhatsApp group leaders. And so they are creating that content there and really encouraging each other. It's a very it's a great space for them to express themselves, and it's very locally contextual in the way that they do that, because these are all people from a specific geographic area. Yeah. Hmm.

Ryan Dunn (25:18):

Well, for what you're doing now specifically I guess around areas like Facebook, what kind of content really seems to connect with people? Like what is garnering the most engagement?

Anne Bosarge (25:30):

Yeah, so one of the things that works really well for our chapel online group is online prayers. Every Wednesday at about five o'clock in the morning, there is a post that goes up, I'm going live for prayer today. What can I pray? How can I pray for you? And that's when the comments start coming in. And we usually end up between 25 to, you know, sometimes even 45 comments on that post. That will be things that people will want us to pray for them about. We do the same thing in our WhatsApp group, and we don't go live in WhatsApp, but we pull those prayer requests over to our Facebook group. And when I look at where we get the most engagement, where we get the most views and all of that, a lot of times it is our live prayer. Because prayer is something, you know, when you look at the global nature of our group, prayer is something we all have in common, and it's something that we all share.

(26:35):

And there's nothing contextual about prayer. It just, it just is, it's universal. It's, it's a, it's a global need. And so I think that that is one of the things that is most powerful for the chapel online for engagement for sure. For becoming more, we still have becoming more, and I have a leadership team that is working on that now. They are doing more of the content creation than I am. They have become creators there. And so we're still doing daily posts there that get a lot of good interaction, and every so often we'll do something silly in becoming more, and that's where we get all the ladies to respond. So you know, which, which cup of coffee are you? You know, are you this coffee with all of the juhi stuff or are you the straight black coffee? Like, you know, those kinds of, of fun posts often lead to lead to some engagement and interaction there too. So.

Ryan Dunn (27:36):

Cool. Hmm. W within these prayer times are you, is that something that you're elevating some of your people who are on the pathway to discipleship to do, are they taking over some leadership in those prayer times?

Anne Bosarge (27:50):

Yeah, so I have one of the guys on my team, on our leadership team from Uganda is Derek Malda, and he is a seminarian. He's a young seminarian in Jinja Uganda, and he is an a Lutheran seminary, and he's also a pastor, and he is in charge of our ginger discipleship group there in WhatsApp. And he is also responsible, he's the oldest of 19 kids responsible for 11 of those kids in his home. So he has a lot of responsibilities, but he is amazing. And so he does some of those online prayer times with us. You will find him Saturdays. He does live teaching for us on Saturdays, and he does a beautiful job. Sometimes he will do the preaching for me for the worship service on Sunday morning. Just, it just kind of varies. And then sometimes some of our becoming more women will come over to the chapel online and do some of those things as well. But Derek is definitely he is one of my teaching partners for sure in in what we do.

Ryan Dunn (29:06):

Okay. Well, you have a lot going on. You have the chapel online becoming more, and it looks like there's, there's another layer onto this. There's the digital discipleship.online. Can you tell me about that?

Anne Bosarge (29:20):

Yeah, so about, let's see, it was about the fall of 2021 and the leadership of the Chapel, which was the church that I was on staff with, decided that this digital ministry was not really the direction that they wanted to go anymore. And so instead of kind of dropping everything that we had, I mean, at that point, I think we were at 800 people in our discipleship group. We still had a good, probably 800, 900 and becoming more. I, I just was not, did not feel that God had released me from that. But I did feel that God had released me from being on staff with the chapel. And so I said, I think that now is the time that I need to take this, that God is doing a, a big work in, and I need to continue that. So I came off staff there and we formed a nonprofit.

(30:21):

 The the two women that were a part of becoming more with me and on my, on my leadership team, we all three formed a nonprofit called Digital Discipleship. And now the chapel online of Becoming More are all part of Digital Discipleship, which also now includes a sponsor, a child sponsorship organization in Jinja Uganda called Rainbow Ranch Children's Outreach, where we are putting our discipleship into action and making an opportunity for people who are a part of the chapel online to invest in some kids that are in very vulnerable situations. And so we have that organization now that comes under the digital discipleship umbrella, as well as a strategic partner partnership with an organization in Jin as well will kind of in Uganda outside of Jin too, called Lift Up Girls, which provides an opportunity for young girls and young women to learn skills to help them earn a living wage. And so that is all a part of digital discipleship now. So it's a, it's a big thing. Something I never knew at, you know, March of 2020 was going to exist at this point in 2023 <laugh>.

Ryan Dunn (31:42):

Wow. Hmm. Y there's this this kind of what kind of minister test that sometimes makes the rounds. It's called a aest, and it's kinda labels you as either an apostle, a prophet an evangelist Shepherd or teacher, and I mean, <laugh>, trying to, to pin down Ann, which one you are in there is pretty tough because you have the experience of of doing the teaching. You've certainly been engaged in shepherding, but it sounds really like you might be an apostle in starting all these new and and fresh movements. What are you dreaming of next?

Anne Bosarge (32:22):

So at the same time, I came off staff with the chapel an established digital discipleship. I took a full-time job as the director of leadership strategies for the South Georgia Conference. And in that we are doing a bunch, starting new things. So that is definitely, that is definitely something that God has, has gifted me to do here. But I think with digital discipleship the thing that we are looking at is trying to raise up more leaders. This year is very much a leadership development kind of year in that I feel like God is calling us to be even more contextual even and, and smaller as we grow bigger and larger. And so I really want to be able to put some more of those WhatsApp groups together. We have just had two WhatsApp groups that have met in person for the, for the first time and they've gotten together and they are working together now to make a difference in their communities.

(33:32):

We have the MET group in Uganda that just met, and they're planning an Ava evangelism outreach in their community. And Ginger is working with these two organizations that we have there. And Buene actually, they have been doing some evangelism and outreach there're with their group. And so there's all of this that's happening where people are taking what they're learning digitally and then bringing it into their communities in a way that is contextually relevant. And, and I think that that is the beauty of digital. I think a lot of times we, so we so quickly think that digital in in person are at odds, and I just don't see that in mm-hmm. <Affirmative> in the way that it actually works. Yeah. is that digital is not the point. It's the tool that helps you become a disciple. Discipleship is the point, and there are in-person opportunities that help you do that.

(34:32):

There are online opportunities that help you do that. And so, and, and I just see them working so closely, hand in hand. And so we want to continue to do more of that. We are certainly not getting away from the online component at all. We wanna use online discipleship in order to make a difference in real people's lives and help them right where they are, right when they need us and reigniting this passion for discipleship within the local church. And we're not even saying, Hey, you don't have to go to church because you're a part of the chapel online. We're saying, go be the church <laugh>. Yeah. Be in your church. And so, and yeah, that's kind of where our emphasis is. And then expanding to, as we, as we expand our local contextual groups we want to expand some of those possibilities for organizations like Rainbow Ranch and Lift Up Girls to come into those spaces and continue to do that on the groundwork. Because Jesus was about the spiritual healing, but he was also about the physical healing and the social healing and all of those. So we want this to be a holistic picture of discipleship for sure.

Ryan Dunn (35:49):

Hmm. Right on <laugh>. It's so good. Discipleship is the point. I love that. It's that's, that's sticking with me. Well, thank you so much for sharing this story with us. It's so inspiring.

Anne Bosarge (36:01):

Thank you for having me.

Ryan Dunn (36:02):

Big thanks again to Anne Bosarge for the time. Did this episode just kinda wet ear appetite for learning about digital ministry. A couple other relevant episodes include New Wineskins for Faith and Community with Reverend Joe Webb. That was from January of 2023. It's another great case study in founding a digital ministry. And also just because this episode is releasing in Lent, I encourage you to check out Lent Madness and Digital Spiritual Formation. That was from February of 2022. And it also provides a snapshot of community coalescing online. Again, my name is Ryan Dunn. I would like to thank resource unc.org, the online destination for leaders throughout the United Methodist Church. They make this podcast possible, and of course, they host our website, pastoring in the digital parish.com, where you can find more online resources for ministry. If you want to connect, check out our own Facebook group, pastoring in the Digital Parish. You can also send me questions and ideas for future sessions at Digital parish@umcom.org. Another session comes out next week. In the meantime, I'll leave you with this peace.