GYC Conference 2022: Break Forth

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

The Dragon of the Adventist Church

Clive Coutet

Charlene Coutet

Dean Cullinane

Adam Ramdin

05 Dragon’s Den: Kickstarting Your Digital Ministry

During the first half, what we're going to be doing is just having a Q&A.

We've got some of our panelists that are experts in their field and we're excited for you to glean from their immense knowledge.

So we have a roaming mic and this is a time to to ask questions maybe some questions that you had during the seminar or some questions that are kind of popping up as others are speaking and if if you don't have too many then we have some questions for them as well But we really want to give you guys the opportunity to ask those questions first.

So we have a roaming mic and just put your hand up and we'll kind of direct them over to you.

So before we do that, I wanted to just introduce everybody.

Maybe I'll pass the mic over to everyone and they can share who they are and a little bit about them, and then we'll get started.

I am a filmmaker, and Clive asked me to be on this panel to offer kind of any knowledge that I may have picked up along the way working with him, Dean, Adam, Charlene and I don't have all the answers but I want to find them with you.

I have a master's in design and I double check all of his work.

And I make sure he's wearing the right thing in all the episodes.

So I have a good eye for detail so that's I guess why I'm sat here.

I have a Masters in Theology, which means I'm an expert in everything.

I work with Linear's Journey with Clive and from the North England Conference in England as well.

So I thought it'd be a good idea to have my wife on here, 1 because she has a master's in design and because she has to vet every single idea that I have.

So I figured if you guys have ideas she'd be the best person to let you know what she really thinks, because she's shut down a lot of them, but a lot of the other ones she has supported me, and that's why we have these ministries that have started.

So we want to open it up, If anyone has any questions, then go ahead and fire away.

I found another person that was on the list, so I'm going to go speak to them.

So who's going to be the brave first person to ask a question?

I'm also the only American here so yes you don't have to be British just just it's a good point okay so we'll ask 1 of Oz then so let's talk about lineage Adam how did you guys come up with the name and how is it actually pronounced?

Long story short, back then, Lineage wasn't a ministry per se.

It was a project of the North England Conference Youth Department, which I was the director at the time.

I got my team together and we were brainstorming ideas for names.

I have those names written on a document and it's fascinating to look back every now and then and think what if we had chose that name, it just, it wouldn't have gone anywhere.

Some really weird names that were just focused on the Reformation rather than given a broader scope.

I was chatting with a friend of mine and just then brainstorming with him and he came with, he just, 1 of the names, he came up with lineage, it's the idea of bloodlines, of heritage and so on, and I really liked it.

So I ran it by my team, my youth team and they all said that it's a rubbish idea and it won't go anywhere.

We never made a decision at the end of it and at the end of it I kind of took the autocratic dictatorship decision and said, well, I'm going to go with that 1 anyway, which we did.

Clive didn't like it at the time and wasn't really a fan of it.

And we weren't sure about, it was just going to be Lineage and then I think when we needed a website, it had to be Lineage something because Lineage, you know, that's too common.

So we were either with Lineage History or then we decided Lineage Journey because we felt it was the journey of your family.

Yeah, so I am I didn't like the name at all, Lineage, and it took me a while and at first we were thinking of like like Adam said specific things to do with the Reformation but it would have boxed us as a ministry whilst Lineage opened up the door for us to do anything to do with Christian history and over time I think it was once we'd actually released some of the episodes I was like oh yeah okay I actually like this now and it fits perfectly with what we're doing but I think on the topic of naming it's important that you find a name that's going to be catchy, that people are going to be able to remember it but it's somehow connected.

You don't want to have like a random name that has nothing to do with your ministry, but you also want to have something that is very concise, very to the point, and summarize what you is what you are doing, but it's also catchy.

And this might just be me, I don't know how you guys feel about this.

This is kind of a pet peeve of mine And and we can keep this in this room but Just because you're starting a ministry doesn't mean that the word ministry has to be in the name of your ministry.

I'm just going to put that out there, because there's a lot of words that just don't really go with having ministries at the end.

But we're like, well, it's a ministry, so we have to call it ministries.

But we don't take that logic like, oh, here's my iPhone product.

So don't feel like you have to slap ministry onto the end because yeah, that might not help you out too much.

How do you navigate that approach of talking to your inner circle about that idea?

And maybe they don't have, they don't see it.

Or maybe you're not a good explainer of what your vision fully is, and you haven't fully fleshed it out.

And You know, is it all autocratic at some point, at different stages, or is it like, I'm just wondering, how do you navigate that whole portion of going from idea to implementation with maybe nice air?

The way it happened then is very different to how it would happen now.

We take our decisions collectively as a team and that's kind of how we make them then.

When Lineage started, it wasn't what you see now.

It was just an idea between Clive and I that he approached me and said, let's make a handful of videos.

It wasn't a ministry, it wasn't anything like that.

So as the youth director at the time, I was the director of whatever, I'm gonna decide what I call it.

So it's different in this, do you know what I mean?

It's slightly different to we've got a ministry team and we're gonna discuss things together, which is what we do now.

So I think, generally speaking, I think it's a lot better to have a team and have consensus amongst your team when you do make decisions that are gonna influence whatever.

As I look back on how it happened, the blessing of God, in a sense, provided us with a name to where we were without the structure in place to actually choose it properly, if you know what I mean.

So I think if you do have those team dynamics, then work with them and use them.

Because If you go against them on a lot of things, it doesn't go well.

I think I would say that present it to the people that are around you.

God is not going to call you to ministry just to be by yourself.

And so even if the people around you don't catch the vision, there will be somebody that God has placed in your life that will be the next stepping stone to move you forward.

Everybody here, like every ministry, every project that they're involved with will be able to say I had no idea this was going to become what it has become or becoming.

But God knows and he has the stepping stones for each and everything for you to achieve.

If you don't know, there will be somebody random that you don't know, send it out there.

Don't be afraid to put your ideas out there.

If they get shut down, like I have done sometimes with Clive, maybe that is not the way to go.

The right people in your life to either promote something, which is his vision for you, or to shut things down, which is probably the enemy's distraction from your purpose.

Don't just go with it because it's what I feel I want to do.

It's super important in the process to have a circle of people that you trust.

You trust their aesthetic, you trust their creative ability.

Where you can come to with an idea and you can know that they will give you their honest opinion because oftentimes and I would say always in the process you're going to hear what you don't want to hear and that's good And you should be looking for that, because your first idea is usually probably not your best idea.

Show how excited you are, because your excitement can get them excited.

So if it's really a good idea, they'll catch on to that.

But every day I come to Clive with horrible ideas and he shuts me down or he lets me know maybe maybe that's a good idea but let's take it here or he can add something to it So yeah.

So I was gonna say that even with lineage, for example, before I had approached Adam with the concept of lineage, a number of years before that, I think it was like 3 years before that, I'd actually approached somebody else.

And he was interested, but he didn't have the time to commit to doing the filming and so forth and then that really discouraged me actually so it was it was in the the 2016 we were coming up to the 500 year anniversary of the Reformation and I was just feeling very convicted.

And people may see our behind the scenes videos and see that there's 10 people in the team, and we go on these amazing trips.

01 The Dragon of The Adventist Church: Why Adventism Has Failed Online

So, our first presentation for this morning is entitled, The Dragon of the Adventist Church, Why Adventism Has Failed Online.

I won't tell you too much about it, just because we're gonna actually go into it.

After that, Clive here is gonna be doing 1 called, Bell, the Dragon, and Digital Design.

How many of you know that there is a 14th chapter in the book of Daniel?

And there's a really humorous story in there that ties neatly into what we're looking at in this presentation, which is how idols shackle digital designs or how things of the past might be holding us from really progressing with digital ministry.

After that, I'll be doing a presentation called the damsel in distress.

I'm trying to rescue design from the dragon's lair.

What can we do in terms of our own local church ministry, in terms of the products and the information that we're putting online that can give Adventism the beautiful face that it deserves.

And then we'll be doing a presentation together called How to Train Your Dragon, Unshackling Adventist Creatives.

So you're going to want to really be here for that 1.

We've got loads of different things happening here.

And all of this is leading to the fifth 1.

And this is why we suggest that you try and stick around.

We're going to have a panel on our fifth and final seminar called the Dragon's Den.

And essentially in this panel, what we're going to be doing is we're going to have you present.

Throughout these seminars, we want you to be thinking of your own digital ministry ideas.

As far-fetched and as seemingly ludicrous as they might be, we want you to dream, we want you to think, we want your innovation caps to be on and for you to present in front of a panel of people that have been successful in digital and design ministry, your ideas.

We're going to talk a little bit about that the more we go through each of these seminars.

At the front of each kind of section of the room, apart from that 1 right over there, sorry, there's papers for you to sign up to have a slot in the fifth seminar, alright?

And this can be a little bit nerve-wracking, like, oh I don't want to stand up in front of everyone.

And hopefully throughout these seminars you're going to be encouraged enough that you're like, I want to see where I can go with my ideas because ideas are everything.

We want to tap into your imagination and your creativity and and maybe and this would just be a dream Maybe we can have ministries starting in this very room today.

Okay, so those are the seminars that we've got lined up.

Those are our 5 concluding here with kick-starting your digital ministry at Dragon's Den.

Now that's the English version of Shark Tank.

Clive and I are from England and so we wanted to stay true to our roots.

And so really really looking forward to that.

We're gonna start with our first presentation but first of all let's have a word of prayer.

Father in heaven, Lord, we thank you so much for bringing us all here to GYC.

What a blessing it has already been and I'm sure will be.

Lord, many faced difficulties traveling, maybe even other difficulties in getting here, and yet here we all are, and we just pray and ask that this room would be filled to the brim with your spirit, that you would lead our discussions, our conversations, our thoughts, our ideas, that you would bless us with wisdom.

And that Father, in this room today and in all the rooms here where the seminars are, that your name will be glorified and we'll be 1 step closer to being in heaven with you.

So welcome everyone, I am Clive Coutet again.

So a little bit about us before we actually start.

Both of us, myself and Dean, as you can hear, are from England, but we don't actually live there.

We live in this beautiful place in Northern California called Weimar University.

I am the vice principal and boys Dean at Weimar Academy.

And I serve as the media director, but our journeys didn't really start here.

Dean was a newly baptized member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and I had just come back into the church after being distant for many teenage years and we both came into this into the church almost like with a fire in our bellies to do something And we're going to be telling you a little bit more about the origins of the next ministry that we started, but it was called The Preaching Place.

I don't know if anyone had heard of that, but it was 1 of YouTube's first social media media ministries.

We managed to accumulate numerous amounts of views and likes and subscribes and so forth going back like 12 years ago there wasn't anyone really doing what we were doing so this is a picture of myself my wife Dean and I have a good friend Leigh This was probably about 12 years ago.

But as well as that, since moving away from England, or even since we kind of stopped doing the Preaching Place ministry, We both took endeavors to start other ministries as well.

So here's some of the ones that I serve in.

I don't know if anyone has heard of Lineage Journey.

Now Dean said something previously that maybe this could be somewhere in this session where you kick-start your next ministry or your ministry in the first place, right?

Lineage was something that was in my heart and in my mind for a number of years before it actually was able to get kickstarted.

Actually, it was probably around 2013, 2014 when the idea first came.

And then it didn't actually take fruition until 2016.

So we're going to try and give you some of those tools where you can actually take some of those ideas and actually, you know, kick-start them to actually make it happen or, you know, give you direction or advice on how that can work.

So after lineage, I'll let you introduce the next 1.

Sure, so about 2019 then, my friend Christian and I started a podcast called the why they did that podcast.

And so the podcast was really started because my friend and I had a desire whilst we were in school to still be in ministry.

The idea of being a student and still finding time to do ministry can sometimes be quite polarizing.

Like I should be involved but my studies are so important.

We just got to the point, not that school was easy, it certainly wasn't, where we just felt an itch.

We felt like we had to do something and so we started a podcast called the Why They Did That podcast because we couldn't really find many Adventist podcasts and we wanted to take stories about the Bible and just put them out there and show how ancient stories of the past could be so relevant to our people too, especially to our young people today.

And so that took off and we're actually recording the fourth season here at GYC this week so super excited for that.

And the last 1 is an app that took a lot of time and a lot of mental strength to actually work on.

And I don't know if anyone has heard of Luminate app, but we started a Kickstarter campaign probably at the beginning of this year, and we needed to raise close to $350, 000 to make this happen and the Lord made it happen and our MVP which is our minimal viable product actually launched in the App Store today.

So the way this app works is it is the writings of Ellen White And you're able to choose different voices.

You're able to not just go to a book and search for a particular topic.

We've actually done that for you and categorized some of the topics and some of the stories.

So you can just go into the app and find some of these topics and be able to listen freely.

We can repeat them, we can add different types of music, you can change different accents, the list goes on.

So right now, today we launched Steps to Christ and The Great Controversy.

They're the only 2 books that are available right now.

We were actually aiming to launch the app in March, but we wanted to get it out for GYC, so that's why those 2 books are the only ones available.

But this is another journey that I had to take in terms of believing that we could actually do this.

The idea for this 1 came to me probably in 2016 when I started Lineage actually.

And I remember when I first moved to Weimar, we were driving to Death Valley, actually, to do some filming for another project I was working on.

And I was sharing this idea with some of the students in my car.

02 Bel, The Dragon & Digital Design: How Digital Idols Shackle Innovation

I bet you guys are thinking, what is all of this about?

All these dragons, what are these guys doing?

Well, this was an actual exercise that we decided to take seriously.

So when we were asked to do these presentations, we were asked to give innovative, creative titles that were going to captivate people and want them to come to our seminars.

Well, it's pretty full, so it kind of worked.

But we decided to use this theme of the dragon.

That was our theme that we were going on throughout, and how sometimes we are dragons in a sense where, what Dean said before, we don't take design as seriously as we should.

And we need to train or shackle or rein in this dragon to make it something beautiful.

Like Dean said before, there's an almost made up, I would say, story.

If you look on the internet, type in Daniel 14, there's a whole 2 chapters, 13 and 14.

And this is almost like a, you know, it's probably not true, but we decided to use this story as an illustration because it really fitted in with exactly what we do in terms of digital design.

So I'm gonna read through Some of Daniel 14 to kind of give you some context.

Like I said, I'm not saying that this is true.

I'm not saying that this is something that's in the Bibles because I believe if God wanted it to be in the Bible, it would be there, amen?

It's just a story we're using for illustration purposes.

So let's go through the first few verses.

After King Astadages was gathered to his ancestors, Cyrus the Persian succeeded to his kingdom.

Daniel was a companion of the king and was held in higher honor than any of his friends of the king.

The Babylonians had an idol called Bell, And every day they provided for it 6 bushels of fine flour, 40 sheep, and 6 measures of wine.

That is a lot of resources they were providing for this idol.

The king revered it and went every day to worship it, but Daniel worshipped only his God.

When the king asked him, why do you not worship Bell?

Daniel replied, because I do not revere idols made with hands, but only the living God who made heaven and earth and has dominion over all flesh.

Then the king continued, you do not think Bell is a living God Do you not see how much he eats and he drinks every single day?

Daniel began to laugh do not be deceived.

Oh King He said it is only clay inside and bronze on the outside.

So here we have Daniel, who's basically saying to the king, this thing is not real, it doesn't eat or it doesn't drink anything.

He's basically telling the king that what you're believing in is nonsense.

Enraged, the king called his priests and said to them, unless you tell me who it is that consumes these provisions, you shall die.

But if you can show that Bell consumes them, Daniel shall die for blaspheming Bell.

Daniel said to the king, let it be as you say.

There were 70 priests of Bel besides their wives and children.

When the king went with Daniel into the temple of Bel, the priests of Bel said, see, we are going to leave.

You, oh King, set out the food and prepare the wine, then shut the door and seal it with your ring.

If you do not find that Bel has eaten all when you return in the morning, we are to die.

Otherwise, Daniel shall die for his lies against us.

They were not pertubed because under the table they had made a secret entrance through which they always came in to consume the food.

After they departed, the king set out the food before Bell.

When Daniel ordered his servants to bring some ashes, which they scattered through the whole temple, the king alone was present.

Then they went outside, sealed the door with the king's ring, and departed.

The priests entered that night as usual with their wives and children, and they ate and drank everything.

Early the next morning, the king came with Daniel.

"'Are the seals unbroken, Daniel?' he asked.

And Daniel answered, "'They are unbroken, O king.' As soon as he had opened the door, the king looked at the table and cried aloud, you are great, O Bel, there is no deceit in you.

But Daniel laughed and kept the king from entering.

He said, look at the floor, consider whose footprints these are.

I see the footprints of men, women, and children, said the king.

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Series

The Dragon of the Adventist Church

04 How to Train A Dragon: Unshackling Adventist Creatives

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

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Recorded

Parts

05 Dragon’s Den: Kickstarting Your Digital Ministry

1h 5m

01 The Dragon of The Adventist Church: Why Adventism Has Failed Online

50m

02 Bel, The Dragon & Digital Design: How Digital Idols Shackle Innovation

51m

03 Damsel In Distress: Rescuing Digital Design from the Dragon’s Lair

34m

04 How to Train A Dragon: Unshackling Adventist Creatives

1h 9m

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