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Transcript

Well, hey everybody. So in this video, I’m going to chat with Brandon. Brandon is the founder of Ministry Nerds and Worship Resources and Ministry Nerds are sort of joining forces. Ministry Nerds is coming under the umbrella of Worship Resources and I’m excited to share with you the behind the scenes of that, why that’s happening, talk with Brandon for a little bit and just hear his heart for ministry and why he’s making a change. And then what that means for you if you’re an existing subscriber and all that.

So if you’re new to this channel, my name is Joshua. I’m the creator of WorshipResources.church and we help churches discover and learn how to use quality resources to make their church better. And again, I’m with Brandon. Brandon is the founder of Ministry Nerds. Brandon, when did you start Ministry Nerds?

I believe like technically September 2019, end of 2019 was when I started working at it.

Yeah. Cool. And why, actually, why did you start? Why did you start Ministry Nerds?

Yeah, the main thing is our church had gone through a transition process moving from Fellowship One, which is another church management system to Planning Center and it was just a headache of a process. And so I started in that I kind of took it on myself, realized that, okay, someone was going to have to champion this in our church, realized that there was a great need in other churches as well for one, both help migrating data, but then also for training their people. A lot of churches were, they could move their data over and then the data would sit and never be used because their people weren’t trained to use this new system, Planning Center, they were on.

And so, and then a lot of our staff, when they went through some of Planning Center’s training content, which is fantastic, it wasn’t like methodical step by step. It’s kind of like, you just watch it all and absorb it over time, you read through some support articles, it wasn’t like a pathway for you to really learn from start to finish quickly and go from overwhelmed to confident on the tool. So that’s when I started designing a course, it’s called Planning Center Made Easy and there’s now like 90 plus videos in it and it helps people go from overwhelmed to confident on Planning Center in 10 days or less, you can go through that content and numerous people have hundreds of course members who’ve gone through that and it’s benefited their church and helped them really get a solid grasp of Planning Center.

So yeah, so that’s kind of why I dove into this, why I started Ministry Nerds and yeah.

So the Planning Center course is sort of under the, was under the umbrella of Ministry Nerds, right? Yeah. Yeah. Planning Center Made Easy was a product offered by Ministry Nerds. It was the only course we ever offered, but it was a product offered by. So I will just mention here as before we move on that neither Brandon or I are employed by Planning Center in any way. We don’t get commission or anything like that. And Brandon mentioned that Planning Center has their own training videos. Those are great. The course, what I appreciated about the course is that it was step by step and broke down into just really sort of bite size videos and if you already knew certain things, then you could just, it’s very easy to just jump to the thing that you need to learn inside the course platform. And that’s, that’s what I really liked about it. So actually in 2020 around April or May, you know, as we were like realizing, okay, this pandemic thing’s going to last a lot longer than we initially thought. I actually was thinking I would want to make a Planning Center course. And so I started doing some research and I actually just came across Brandon’s course and realized that he was about six months ahead of me and he and I connected.

Yeah he and I connected back then and, and I, it just with everything going on in my own life and, and also realizing that the course was already going to be provided by Brandon. I sort of paused, stopped my plans to do it and just supported him and cheered him on and have been cheering him on. And then, and then a few months ago, Brandon reached out to me and asked if I’d be interested in, in making the transition to, so that I sort of own and operate the Ministry Nerds platform and the course. And so we, we struck up a conversation and chatted a few times via email and over Zoom. And, and so now the course is now under Worship Resources Umbrella and Ministry Nerds is under the worshipresources.church umbrella. And so first Brandon, why did you, why did you decide not to continue on with the course? Let’s talk about that for a minute.

In this season, I transitioned from being on staff at a church to being a full-time missionary with an organization called Novo working here in Los Angeles to make disciples out of the, in the margin, marginal spaces of Bible studies with home, in homeless camps and apartment complexes and stuff. And so as I made that transition, I stopped using Planning Center in the process. And right now it’s, doesn’t fit into the ministry I’m doing at the moment. And so I realized that tool, it really needs to be developed, created, kept going by a practitioner, someone who’s using Planning Center day in and day out in their ministry and working with churches all over who are, who are using Planning Center. And so that’s, that’s why I, you were the only person I reached out to, to, to about this because you’re, you’re in it, you’re a worship pastor, you’re, you’re using it in your church ministry, but then also you’re partnering with churches all around the US helping them learn how to use Planning Center, doing trainings for them, helping them migrate from other systems, offering consulting services. And so you have this, you have that ability to sit with a church or to create a video that and, and tell, and tell someone, okay, this is, this is how, yeah, this is what Planning Center University says how it’s used it, but this is how churches are actually using Planning Center.

And so these are different, these are the workarounds and little, little cool tips and tricks and best practices that churches are using to make the most of this tool. So yeah. So cool.

Yeah, I appreciate that. So yes, I do partner with churches and provide training and usually it’s over Zoom, but sometimes even in person, I’ll do some custom training for churches. And if you’re watching this and that’s something you’d be interested in, you know, reach out to me. But you, Brandon, you sort of breezed by that, but I want you to dive in a little bit more and, and because when you first told me about this, I didn’t, I had never heard of this, but you said you’re being, you’re a full-time missionary to the marginalized. What does that mean exactly?

Yeah. Yeah. So I work with like marginalized, like would be like people who are rejected, neglected, broken, kind of the people that you would find Jesus spending his time with in, in scripture. And so I would call it Zacchaeus, a marginalized person as well, because he was hated by his whole town. He had lots of wealth, but hated by his whole city or, so yeah. So a lot of like the homeless Bible study I use, it’s been a complete, or that I do. A great example of it is I’m sitting at the homeless Bible study, beer cans are open with every, every beer cans open, passing the joint around during the Bible study. And I’m sitting there like, well, at least like the word of God is being shared. Right. The end of the Bible story, one of the guys says, you know what, I think I want to like, he applies it, the scripture we read to his life as, you know, I think I want to slow down and drinking this week. And I’m like, well, do you want to give up like drinking for one day? And he’s like, no, I’m just going to start with slowing down.

I’m like, okay, baby steps. But yeah, one of those guys were actually in process of helping him get housed. And then he wants to use his time. Once he’s housed, he says he wants to use his time to then go work with me in making disciples in the homeless communities here in LA County. And then we also do an apartment complex that all growing up, people told me like, that’s Jake’s way. We don’t go to that part of town. And so, which that’s, that’s the very part of town that Jesus would be showing up in. Sure. Yeah. And so, so we’re working there. There’s actually an 11 year old who was a part of our programming who just joined, I just got jumped into a gang over there. So we’re kind of realizing like even the need to like ramp up ministry even more in that context and like hit it, hit that community harder, faster with the gospel if we’re going to make a tangible impact there. So yeah, that’s what I’m doing.

Man, I think it’s awesome. And I appreciate you following the Lord’s calling on your life in this way and reaching out to the marginalized. And I agree the ones that Jesus spent a lot of his time with and he would have, in fact, he challenges us as churches to do the same. And so, man, I appreciate you. And so you are a missionary that raises support, right? So tell people briefly, like how can people support you if they want to support your ministry?

Yeah. So, best way is to go to SoCalMissionary.com. That’s just my little website. It’s just a link tree. So it has like a link where you can sign up for my newsletter, a link where you could give. And so, best way if you don’t know me, and this is a random video, random guy, sign up for my newsletter, watch me for a little while, get to know the ministry I’m doing. And then if it’s something that the Lord stirs in your heart, I do like my capacity to do it is completely dependent upon people giving. Sure. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So check out, what is it again? SoCalMissionary.com? SoCalMissionary.com. Yeah. Yeah. So check that link out, that link tree, sign up for his newsletter. And if the Lord directs you, you can support, of course, you can support through prayer, but also support financially. So back to worship resources, you may be wondering if, what does this mean? What does this transition mean? Currently all the courses are being transitioned under into a new platform under the worshipresources.church umbrella. But if you’re an existing subscriber, existing course subscriber, you still have access to your courses in the way that you always have.

So don’t worry about that and you’ll continue to have access. And then in a little, in a couple of weeks, hopefully we’ll have everything finalized and we’ll let you know that you’ll just have a different login. It’ll be really simple. We’ll have it set up really simple for you where you just click a couple of links and you’ll be logged in and then you can continue on with your course learning. And we’ll also relaunch the course. Like I said, we’re going to, we’re planning on doing some updates to the videos, the ones that, because Planning Center is regularly changing the software. And so some, some of the videos need to be refreshed and also plan, I have plans to do new modules, new courses on Planning Center publishing, as well as Planning Center Giving. And so if I hope that that interests you and you can stay tuned. You can find out all those details at worshipresources.church. And if you want to sign up for our newsletter or our email list, we’ll be sure to keep you informed about all the changes with the Planning Center course. And so I’m excited to, to partner with you churches to continue to provide training, support for your staff and volunteers so that you guys can have the clarity on how to use Planning Center and also the confidence to use it to the best of your ability and to its fullest potential.

That’s one of the things I try to do with the churches that I train is to customize the training based on how they need to use it. What are they typically using and what are they, what are the goals they’re wanting to accomplish? What are the problems they’re trying to solve? And then we can customize Planning Center accordingly for you. So I’m excited about it and thanks so much for being a part of the Worship Resources community. And I will mention if you’re not, you can join our Facebook group. It’s a private group, but it’s free to join. Just search for Planning Center Training on Facebook and you’ll see our group. And we’re almost at 900 members in the, in the community there. And so we’ll get to a thousand before too long. And so I hope that you’ll be a part of the Planning Center Training Facebook group as well. And if you have any questions in the meantime, don’t hesitate to send me an email, Joshua at WorshipResources.church. If you send Brandon an email about Planning Center, he’s just going to forward it to me. So just go ahead and email me, Joshua at WorshipResources.church.

And Brandon, thanks so much for taking a few minutes to share about your new ministry and thanks for your calling. And you also have some really great, like you just got engaged like just a few days ago, right? I did.

I did. I just got engaged. Awesome. Like just under a week ago. And yeah, that’s-Congratulations.

Yeah. So lots of things changing in your life. And I’m excited to see how the Lord is going to continue to use you. Do you care if I pray for you before we go, Brandon? I would love that. Thank you. Thank you so much for Brandon, and we just pray for your provision and your blessings on him and his new ministry as he ministers to the marginalized. I pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would give him strength and power for each day, that you would encourage him in the difficult times when he feels discouraged, when he feels overwhelmed, that he would be reminded of your faithfulness and your goodness, that your Holy Spirit would minister to his heart and so that he can minister from the overflow of being in communion with you. I pray, Lord, for his financial fundraising. I pray, Lord, that all of the fundraising would come in that he needs, that you would provide for his needs in that way. I pray for his fiancee, his new fiancee and their upcoming marriage. I pray your blessings on their family. And may you just provide for every need there. And thank you for the opportunity to serve the churches that are a part of the Planning Center community.

I ask, Lord, that you would help us to do our best to communicate clearly and help the churches to learn and use the resources that Planning Center provides to use those, not just so we can get good at tools, but so that we can be better churches, more organized, more efficient to communicate better, and ultimately to serve our communities and to share the gospel effectively throughout our communities. And so thank you for the opportunities you give us. We pray your blessings on everyone who’s watching today. Pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right – thanks guys!