[00:00:00] I do think, you know, where the younger generation hangs out online is there some sort of way to offer some theological teaching so that they can experience it. Because for most of them, I mean, the phone is a seamless part of our lives now, and especially for younger generations. I mean, that's where they're getting almost all their content, right, wrong, or whatever.
[00:00:26] Welcome to episode 441. Sometimes we need to just grab a cup of coffee and talk church. That's what Jesse and I did last week, and we're doing it again today as we continue our conversation on Lifeways 12 Trends of 2026. Hopefully it sparks some ideas on how to best communicate with the people we're trying to reach. So grab your coffee and join us today on The Reclaimed Leader. Welcome to The Reclaimed Leader Podcast. I'm Jason Tucker.
[00:00:55] And I'm Jesse Skiffington. We're two pastors in the trenches who are passionate about church health for greater gospel impact. We share the ups and downs of ministry, strategies that worked for us. And some that didn't. Best practices and practical tools for church leadership. The goal? To help all of our churches flourish. Let's get started. Hey everyone, welcome back to The Reclaimed Leader Podcast. It's so good to have you.
[00:01:22] All the folks who have been joining us in the last couple of months, a very special welcome to you. Thanks for finding us and tuning in. I always want to encourage people, leave us a review, help other people find us. And what Jesse and I are trying to do is just to be a resource and encouragement to all of you pastors and church leaders out there. Because it's tough out there, man. It's so hard being a pastor. It is.
[00:01:49] And we have to navigate so many things all the time. Yeah. And we're expected to do so much. We're expected to be spiritual leaders, shepherds, chaplains, leadership experts, fundraisers, all these things that you probably didn't go to seminary to do. So, in a world that is just challenging isn't even the word for it, right? It's a lot.
[00:02:20] It's a wonderful way to live, in my opinion, in that we get to partner with God and what God's doing through the local church in the world. But man, does it take it out of you. That's a worthwhile thing to spend your life on. You know, it's like, you know, there's a purpose to it, I hope. And part of why we wanted to talk shop is to know that we're not alone in the leadership challenges that come from being a pastor in the local church.
[00:02:46] And so, you know, for 441 episodes, Jason, we've been riffing on things and talking to guests and, you know, in the trenches and just talking shop on the church because we think it matters. We believe that deeply. And we want to not only be thriving in our own leadership, you and I, but to encourage other pastors and leaders to do the same and to be encouraged by you all listening in. And it's so much fun when we get to have a conversation or get an email or whatever, and we're just kind of in it together. So I'm grateful to be a part of it.
[00:03:14] And what a fun thing that we've been talking shop for so long. Yeah. And so we started last week just kind of riffing on this list that Lifeway Research did, or there was an article by Lifeway in January, 2026 about the ministry trends of 2026. So there were 12 trends and really just that churches ought to be paying attention to them to kind of learn, you know, what's going on with their congregations and who they're trying to reach in their communities.
[00:03:42] And again, we talked, it's like kind of grabbing a virtual coffee with us. So pastors, if you've got coffee, you know, that's, it's right. Smoke them if you got them kind of thing. No, but you know, I don't know. That didn't really work, but, but get some coffee. And it's really just, just, we're talking through these.
[00:04:01] We did one through six and we do seven through 12 here today as a way of just kind of sparking ideas, reflecting on sort of an up periscope moment on where we are in culture and church and everything in this time between Easter and summer. And maybe what's next for us. So that's right. Yeah. If you're down for that, you're going to be down for this episode. And don't miss number 13. I don't know if we're going to do this for sure, but we were like, there's a 13th. I think we should. I think we should. We'll save it. Stay tuned. We'll save that for the end. We'll tease it up for next time.
[00:04:30] But we're talking these 12, but we think there's a 13th. So don't miss that one. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, yeah. So hang in there. Stay tuned. That was a nice teaser. I thought so. It's like a hook. We got it. Gen Z has a complicated religious outlook. This resonates with me. So basically Pew Research, and I would say also Ryan Burge, if you know who Ryan Burge is, who does a lot of church.
[00:05:00] And I think Ryan has a book coming out as well. But basically they're putting the kibosh on kind of the over-exuberance. Oh, Gen Z is now they're all becoming Christians. And, you know, they're turning to faith and they're moving the needle on faith in America. And actually both Pew Research and Ryan Burge would say not so fast. They said there's no clear evidence that this kind of nationwide religious resurgence is underway.
[00:05:30] That a lot of the information is anecdotal. Mm-hmm. And yet in this same post, it says, What do we make of all this? Again, we've made a lot of Gen Z on the podcast, and I'll stand by it.
[00:05:55] What I am seeing in our culture and what I am seeing in our particular culture of Tower Hill is a complete surge of Gen Zers, the oldest of whom are in their late 20s and the youngest who are still in high school, searching for and finding Jesus and trying to figure out how to live out their faith in the world. I'm seeing that. I can't deny it. It's absolutely happening everywhere. So is it a Northeast phenomenon?
[00:06:24] Is it a phenomenon of this area of New Jersey? Mm-hmm. Am I only seeing the reports out of little pockets of resurgence? I don't know the answer to those questions, but I am seeing a huge, huge move in Gen Z. Yeah. Even in my own kids. Yeah. Yeah. No, I would resonate with that too, Jason. I actually think it's interesting because for a while there, we kind of had,
[00:06:51] and every so often 20-something will come and get involved in the life of the church and whatnot. And yet I say the last maybe year or so, like every week I'm like, who is this and why are they here? Like, I mean, how did you find us? What are you doing? But there's this younger crowd that is showing up increasingly. So again, that's anecdotal. You're experiencing that. I am. We've heard that from other pastors and church leaders. So I don't know.
[00:07:19] Maybe they're not answering on these surveys or like... Well, maybe that's it. Maybe the surveys haven't caught up. Yeah. I hear a Marine View. It's not like a flood of young people coming in, but it's a noticeable difference in the number. Like, it's not... It's like every week we're like, that's a 20-something. That's... They're new. And I don't know. So I'm still figuring out what that means and whether that's a long-term sustainable thing or what.
[00:07:49] But it's definitely something we've noticed. So maybe the jury's still out on Gen Z, but we're noticing something that's a little different than the attendance patterns of maybe the millennials. So I don't know. Yeah. I mean, and even with... So we are... My wife and I personally, but also we as a church support Fellowship of Christian Athletes in the area. My son is heavily involved as an 11th grader.
[00:08:15] And they had their big banquet for Monmouth and Osh... Actually, it was all of New Jersey. Their celebration banquet. And Monmouth County in New Jersey here, they continue to grow so much that they keep needing to raise money to add new staff members. They get FCA huddles in more and more high schools and middle schools all over the state. They've never seen it like this before.
[00:08:43] And it's really cool with the student-athletes who are part of FCA. Part of the banquet is they send them out and they go around all the tables in this giant ballroom of a hotel and they just tell their face stories and how God has used FCA in their lives. And it's very, very powerful. And every year we've gone... So I would say we've gone maybe five times over the last 10 years to this banquet.
[00:09:12] I've never seen it this packed and have this many kids represented. So something's happening. Something's definitely happening in our schools, everywhere. So I guess in fairness, they said Gen Z has a complicated religious outlook. That's probably right. Sure. But I don't want to poo-poo it and say, you know what? Well, there's no resurgence happening or there's no...
[00:09:40] Kind of, yeah, draws us back to the first one last week about Christianity is no longer in decline. Well, how do these two work together? Because if that's true, Gen Z would need to be a big part of that, I think. So maybe more to be found out about that in the coming years. Yeah. But I'd say this. One thing, I had the chance to speak with a couple of churches since last time, well, since Easter. Yeah.
[00:10:05] And one of the questions that I've been asked more than once was, what happens if your church doesn't have a lot of Gen Zers? How do you support and reach them? Well, find organizations like Athlete Center Varsity and Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Young Life and whatever it is to send resources to help fund those ministries that do have a reach into those communities. It doesn't mean don't ever do stuff in your own church. Of course, you want to try to build what you can.
[00:10:34] But at the same time, find these organizations that are crushing it with young people and give them more resources because they are stewarding it well. All right. Next, number eight. Church attendance growth may be driven by men. It's very noncommittal. Right. Right. That's kind of funny, isn't it? That's right. Maybe.
[00:11:00] It says around half, 52% of congregations increased their worship service attendance by at least 4% in the past two years, according to Lifeway. Much as likely, they say, from COVID bounce back, some of that. That seems like a long time ago. Sure. Maybe that's true. But that it does seem like particularly younger men, which again, this is a little bit of a butting heads with the previous one. Sure.
[00:11:25] That Gen Z men are coming back to church in a different way than Gen Z women are disengaging from church is all the kind of reporting we're hearing all over the place now. Again, that has not been my experience anecdotally. But I have definitely seen, I've heard others, and there have been lots of articles about the Catholic Church.
[00:11:58] Mm-hmm. Yeah. You know, rebelled and largely wanted their own. Anyway, that's how we get contemporary worship movement.
[00:12:25] Then you have a lot of these Gen Zers who grew up in contemporary churches are rebelling against that. Like, oh, there's going to be something more. Yeah. Or I find it more meaningful to go back. So, who knows? But I think it's an interesting thing to think about. Yeah. Well, we've noticed. We have a couple guys that are driving down from Seattle, University of Washington. They grew up in the church, but they're coming home to church every weekend. And I'm like, what are you guys doing here? And they're like, I mean, I don't ask them it like that. But it's like, it's just kind of fascinating to me, right? And all that.
[00:12:54] And so, yeah, I think there is something of that that's anecdotally true. Again, the numbers, you know, we'll see what the story tells. But then move back towards tradition. We had a young man who came and spoke at his mother's funeral. She, you know, I think late 40s and passed away. It's kind of tragically. And he spoke on behalf of half of the family. And they're not really a church family, but he got really involved in the Greek Orthodox
[00:13:20] church and came and shared some things from his time and experience there and is really connected there. And I was just, I'm fascinated by it. What? I mean, here's a young guy. He's 19. Like, what was appealing about it? What drew you to that? And I do think there is something of a reaction to, you know, generational trends or whatever. And I remember you and I were at the North Point, the drive conference. It was a while back.
[00:13:45] And I think Andy Stanley or one of the guys there said, you know, we, we were, we met the moment when this generation needed something different than the church that, you know, their parents were a part of those traditional churches. And so the warehouse church was the thing that became the baby boomer expression of church and worship and how we were going to connect with God. And now, and then he said, I think this was like maybe 2016 or 17, something like, I
[00:14:12] wonder what the next iteration will be because it's, it's, it is a generational move that kind of happens. So maybe it's a trend back towards something of a traditional expression, but I would guess in the context of technology and some of the stuff that we rely on for our worship today. So I don't know. I've got more questions than answers. Yeah, same. It's to see. But even look at like the passion conference every year and thousands and thousands and thousands of college kids. Sure. Yeah.
[00:14:40] And it's about as contemporary as can be. So it's just interesting. Yeah. So which is it? Maybe some of both or, you know, depends on who you ask probably. Right. Yeah. But, but here's my takeaway about young men, you know, coming back to church or wanting a more traditional expression is maybe those things that we think weren't going to work anymore as far as traditional discipleship models.
[00:15:06] Maybe we need to reinvestigate those things and think, well, maybe, maybe there's something to this. I think the other thing is men really desire a sense of adventure. Mm hmm. And how do we build that in? If more men are coming, how do we build in more opportunities to really where Christianity isn't just this kind of passive? You know, I come to church and I receive, but rather, what is it that I'm going to do? Yeah. So anyway, a lot to think about.
[00:15:35] See, this is what I mean. Yeah. This sparks a lot of different ideas. Totally. Totally. Yeah. Really good stuff. Okay. Number nine, pastors face theological confusion among Americans and churchgoers. Again, not particularly shocking. Yeah. True statement. That there is significant confusion around core Christian doctrines like the Trinity, for example. Yeah.
[00:15:59] I will say I did see a particularly appalling one of these on social media this week. Like a pastor, I'm not going to say it because I don't remember what church it was or what denomination, but she got up and said that teachings, a lot of the teachings in the New Testament are problematic and should be ripped out. And we need a third Testament.
[00:16:28] And, you know, if you don't agree that that is outrageous, then you're probably listening to the wrong podcast. Oh, man. But, but no wonder, no wonder there's so much theological confusion when where's, where are they getting any sort of clarity? And this makes me think about as much as I hate the idea of being more visible online, I do think, you know, where the younger generation hangs out online, is there some sort of way to
[00:16:55] offer some theological teaching so that they can experience it? Because for most of them, I mean, the phone is a seamless part of our lives now. And especially for younger generations. I mean, that's where they're getting almost all their content right, wrong or whatever. How do we leverage that and maybe do some theological teaching? I don't know.
[00:17:20] I, I'm, people have been trying to convince me to post on TikTok, you know, that sort of thing. And I just shudder at the thought. Yeah. Because I'm just not, that doesn't, uh, that's not exciting to me. That's terrifying. But I think there's something we need to think about with that, right? Yeah. Well, I think it's a challenging world to navigate with so much information. There's so much information available that it's hard to, to know what to trust or to, you know, I, I don't know. It's a, it's a unique challenge.
[00:17:48] And so do we throw another voice into the midst of all that information or do we steward the handfuls of people that God sends our way and, and try to lead them in the way they should go and have a faithful understanding of theology and scripture. And, you know, so I think maybe some of both, you know, a voice in the marketplace and a voice in the church to really cultivate a deeper understanding. But I think there is something of a call. This kind of speaks back to what we were just talking about, but to how are we helping people
[00:18:17] onboard the foundational beliefs of the Christian faith that are rooted in 2000 years of tradition and interpretation, interpretation, and ultimately in God's word. And in some ways, do we, maybe we need to bring the flannel graph back and teach the, the one, two, three. If it's going to work, man, let's do it. So it's like, um, you know, you know, I've told you before, if I thought wearing a robe and worship would help people know and follow Jesus, I would do it. And I don't wear a robe because I'm not convinced that's the case.
[00:18:46] But if you're a robe, awesome, crush it. But for me, it's like, how are people learning the basics and the foundational things of Christian understanding? And, you know, in our reform tradition, do you can, can, is there a catechism of sorts that we can provide for people to give that foundation? So this is something we're thinking about and working on here because like so many of our churches, probably yours, Jason, and so many of the pastors and leaders listening in, people
[00:19:13] are coming from a whole variety of theological backgrounds. So even the church people that know some of the fundamentals are coming with all kinds of other perspectives or teaching that they've maybe got. And so we're all kind of theological mutts in some ways and trying to sort through all that. So, and one of the challenges with that I've noticed is that people really don't want to leave their theology behind. Sure. Yeah. So they're just always adding to it, which creates more confusion sometimes. Yeah.
[00:19:41] And so someone will come in maybe out of a Baptist tradition and they'll go, you baptize infants, like how does that work? I mean, it's an easy example, but then there is a lot of confusion around just sort of the, the sort of Nicene faith, if you will. And, and what is just the basics even? So let's write a catechism and we'll call it the reclaimed catechism and, and I don't know. That's great. Great name. Those just fly off the shelves. It's going to be great. Um, all right. Number 10.
[00:20:11] Again, this is another, uh, yeah. Yeah. Number 10. Economic uncertainty worries many pastors. Fair enough. Yeah. That's a trend. It is, it is, it is, that has a, is that trend existed from the beginning of the church? Is that like, right. I mean, 2026. I mean, certainly, certainly this is something that, uh, I mean, we feel very fortunate to be
[00:20:39] in a situation where we're not worrying if we're going to be able to stay open. Yeah. And there are a lot of churches that are, and that's, that's a pressure for pastors. I, I can't even really imagine. I mean, that's really, it's a lot. Yeah, it is. And my heart breaks for pastors in that situation, because I know that if it were me, I'd have a hard time focusing on anything else. And, and I don't know, my survival grip on things would be so, I feel like I'd be walking
[00:21:05] around with a closed fist all the time, just, just nervous about it. But yeah, there's so much economic uncertainty. I mean, all of us are feeling it one way or another. And are we going to be able to accomplish those things that we've been dreaming about, that we feel like God's put before us? It seems like we put our faith out there, but then the bottom line doesn't seem to add up. What does that mean? What do we do? I get it. There's a lot of anxiety around this.
[00:21:33] Yeah, well, and I think some of the trends related to that too, generations and their patterns for giving and stewardship and how do we understand it and teach it well and all of that alongside, you know, for the younger generations, what is a challenging economy for them to navigate. And so, I don't know, it's a complex thing for us. And what does that mean for how we think about funding the church? I think it's a real question. That's probably a series of about five podcasts. It is.
[00:22:01] And I do think part of it's just really paying attention to whatever systems behind your giving, your stewardship. We look at this every year. I feel like in some ways we're always trying to reinvent our messaging and think about how do we help people connect. And the biggest thing, and I really don't know that there's something better than this, but really trying to help people connect with the mission and the urgency of what you're
[00:22:29] doing as a church with giving of what God's blessed them with. Yeah. Yeah. That's scary. Yeah. Super important. And one last thought I'd throw into the mix there is just, I think sometimes when we're introducing an opportunity to give or something, just acknowledging, you know, thank you for giving. In a time of economic uncertainty, it means a lot that we're in this together. So we don't take that lightly and we're glad that we get to live out this mission and ministry together.
[00:22:56] So I think there's some ways to express maybe what's on everybody's hearts and acknowledge even some of the sacrificial giving that is taking place in that environment. Yeah. And to be transparent about where the money's going. Totally. Yeah. You know, so that people can feel confident that you're not squandering what they're giving so sacrificially. So, all right. Number 11, fewer Americans see religion as important in their daily lives. So even amongst Christians is interesting.
[00:23:25] 49% of Americans say religion has daily importance for them. So less than half the lowest level since 2007 when Gallup first started tracking this. Interesting. It's almost that moralistic, therapeutic deism version of God where God sort of got at a distance or a divine butler. And if you need something, you ask. But other than that, I go about my daily life. I don't know. Yeah. No, I think there's something to that, Jason.
[00:23:55] I hear people say, I don't think this has always been true of people. And maybe they don't mean it quite this way, but they talk in terms of their faith being a part of their life and not the core of their identity. Yeah. Many of us. But yeah, it's, you know, that's kind of disheartening to hear if more Americans or more of us are
[00:24:23] just saying, you know, yeah, I dabble in that or it's there, but it's not the focus of my life. You know, that is discouraging. Yeah. Yeah. And it shows that, you know, kind of circling back to discipleship is a discipleship problem. Yeah. There's some sort of disconnect that's, and I will say this, for all the things that we're really happy about the way things are going at Tower Hill, there are some things that we're concerned about.
[00:24:50] There definitely is a bit of the transactional, we come to church and we receive religious goods and services, but we're not particularly involved. Yeah. And which nobody's happy about, but it's a reality. It's a reality. So I think church can feel transactional and God, I pray that you give me what I want.
[00:25:16] And, you know, and if you do, then I'll be faithful. You know what I mean? Again, it becomes very transactional. So I don't know, but I think what does this mean for us as churches is we have to consider this as we're developing messages and we're thinking about scriptures and how to present the life of faith in a way that acknowledges that it's not just a slice of the pie, it's
[00:25:45] the whole pie. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Or even I think in your practical application, it's like, where does real faith intersect with real life and the real world? And I think that's sometimes where I'll look at a series or a couple of sermons I've preached and I'm like, I've given them good theology and even some implications, but the intersection of real life and real faith, what does this mean for me when I'm standing in the line at the
[00:26:12] grocery store or on the road or dealing with my kids or navigating marriage or facing, you know, retirement and uncertainty about my finances? Like, so finding ways to really bring those things together so that faith really is something that people look to in the midst of their real life rather than going, oh, that'll be nice when I need it someday or whatever. So I don't know, more work to be done on that front. Yeah. Yeah. All right. 12.
[00:26:38] And this, again, this almost feels contradictory, but it says Americans trust in the church rebounds slightly. Slightly. This is a, I thought this was kind of a funny one. So 36% of Americans have some level of trust in the church. It sounds like, which is up from 31% in 2022. So. Wow. Yay. It's better than 32, I guess.
[00:27:05] I, this is right there with that pastor trust level at 30% or whatever. That's pretty tough, man. Yeah. No. Yeah. Yeah. It's a reality, you know, like what, what's that come from and what are we going to do about it? You know, I have an uncle who's very outspoken politically on Facebook who sadly I had to like snooze for a while. Yeah. Um, I, and I really, I dearly love him.
[00:27:29] Um, and, um, he, he was one of the reasons why I snoozed him is because he doesn't say a lot of nice things about the church. I don't think he really doesn't really like the church. And I'm like, dude, what? Your nephew's a pastor. Um, but he was saying something about why he thought, uh, churches should be taxed. And of course he's thinking about like, he's always kind of against Joel Osteen and, you
[00:27:55] know, and, um, and I, I took the bait and I was like DMing him and I'm just like, you know, Hey, these, uh, we give away from our church. We give away about a quarter million dollars a year to local missions and missions all over the world and, uh, supporting, you know, it's going out the door. And if we were taxed, that would severely hinder the amount of money that we would be able
[00:28:25] to help our community with. And his response was, well, it would still be a tax free gift on people's incomes. And I'm like, you don't understand what I'm talking about that, but this all comes from a place of not trusting the church because the church has behaved badly. Yeah. Um, some, some churches have behaved badly. And so I just always think about him and I, that makes me very sad, but I think about
[00:28:53] again, how do we build trust is if, if it, this all comes back to, again, an Andy Stanley thing about endearing yourself to the community or North point, endearing yourself. If, if the community loves you, if they realize that, that what you're doing in the community is irreplaceable that if, if, even though they would never come to church at your church, they are so glad you're there because of all that you're doing. I think that is what helps us build trust.
[00:29:23] And I think that's the only trust that really matters is the trust of our own communities. Yeah. No, that's spot on. It goes back to the Bishop question, you know, ask my neighbors, are they glad I'm here or whatever? How's my faith going? And I think that's right. I mean, we've talked about this before, a good thought experiment with your leadership team is to say something like, what would our neighbors notice is missing if our church one day was just gone? Would they even notice what it, would anything be different about their, their lives or this community?
[00:29:52] And it's a useful thought experiment just to kind of go, you know what? No, maybe we need to be doing more to impact our community so that people would miss us. Or you're like, you know what? Actually these, these five things are unique things that we bring to our community that we are making a difference and we are known. And so building trust maybe by thinking in terms of not just who's in the building and how you're discipling them in that as important as that is, but how are we, how are we reaching
[00:30:19] out to our community around us and being good neighbors in a way that kind of builds relationship and trust over time. So you're not going to win with everybody, but can you be winsome enough in your life that most people are like, I'm glad they're there. I might not believe like them or agree with them on a lot of things, but I'm glad they're there because they do these good things. So I don't know. Just a couple of thoughts. Yeah. And then we teased, we would do a 13th. All right. So this was not on the list. This was something that we feel like we have not really addressed.
[00:30:50] And I think the time has come, we're going to need to really do a deep dive on this. And that is the rise of AI in our culture and the possible implications of faith and life in America, in our churches. I mean, it's a big one that, you know, you just can't ignore. It started out with almost like a, a parlor trick would chat GPT. Write me a sermon with these notes. I'm like, oh my gosh, that's really interesting.
[00:31:16] And, um, but no pastor was going to take a chat GPT sermon and try to preach it as their own as my man. I didn't think so. Um, are you sure AI continues to, you know, what is the, what are the ethics around it? Yeah. What's it going to mean? We are going to see Jesse, at least in the, in the marketplace, we're going to see such a huge change in business life in America because of AI. We've already started seeing it.
[00:31:43] What are the ethics and impact of AI on life of the church? Yeah. I think this is a really important question. And I think this is a trend that we all need to be paying attention to, which I think it would be easy to say, well, I don't really need to pay attention to that. But I don't think we realize how much AI has even already become a part of the fabric of culture. Totally. Yeah. And the way we do things, the way we interact with things.
[00:32:13] So I think to pretend it's not happening isn't very helpful. So what are some things that we can do? So I, I think I smell some future episodes. We're going to be talking about this. That's right. Um, I don't know what, what are some of your initial thoughts? Well, I need to disclose something to you today. This is actually an AI version of myself talking to you today. So I hope. Wow. Yeah, no, no, I, yeah, no, obviously not that, but I think there is a lot to wrestle with here.
[00:32:40] I mean, in a good way for us, how do we use this in the, in the best sense as a tool for our mission and ministry? Um, what can we do? You know, I mean, you know, creating, uh, a sermon series logo in chat GPT is way easier than trying to dream up something by yourself. Right. So there's a lot of things that this is going to help us with and maybe some shortcuts for administrative things. And where does the line, where's the line crossed? And when it comes to the ethics of, uh, creative things, sermon writing or teaching your stuff like that.
[00:33:10] So, um, yeah, curious to explore this more and thinking back to that other part of our conversation, where does real faith intersect with real life? This is something that our, the people in our churches are dealing with on a daily basis too. So just even having a conversation about the wider implications I think is important. And, uh, being aware of any robots that show up impersonating us and, or the coming from the future and, you know, we'll see. Skynet.
[00:33:39] Um, well, I, I will say something we are going to see in the next five years are the trend of at least in the marketplace, people making sort of digital copies of themselves in a sense that sure is so that an AI that's been trained by you could respond on your behalf.
[00:34:05] And it's not too far a bridge to say, will there be pastors who will, for the sake of efficiency and reach, create digital versions of themselves to respond on their behalf when people have questions, concerns, uh, at a scale that you couldn't do otherwise.
[00:34:55] Yeah. Uh, I do appreciate that they write this and I appreciate all the folks that are putting in all the work to write these, um, trend posts. I do think they're helpful. They're helpful thought exercises in my opinion. Yeah. Whether they were generated by AI or not. Yeah. Who knows? That'd be funny if you were. Um, but anyway, thanks so much for listening everybody. And, um, we do hope that, that, you know, that what you're doing is such important work and please, I know it's discouraging and I know you grow weary and all of those things,
[00:35:25] but you are changing lives. The local church is the hope of the world and you are a part of that hope. So keep it up pastor. And, um, yeah, reach out to us anytime, Jason or Jesse at reclaimleader.com. And until next time ministry is hard. It is so much better when we do it together. Take care.