I’m Paul Arndt and I have been in vocational pastoral ministry (Lutheran Church Missouri Synod) for over 30 years. For 27 of those years I taught, led, and built relationships in large brick and mortar buildings.

In 2019, I transitioned out of the “church building” and started to teach the Scriptures in small gatherings that met in homes. We called these little Christian communities “ekklesias” (a Greek word that means “gathering” or “assembly” used to describe the Early Church that came together to study the Scriptures, receive the Sacraments and serve one another.)

And then the pandemic shut down everything “in-person” and we all had to figure out what to do next. The social distancing restrictions forced all of us to get creative, learn new skills, and embrace the good parts of technology.

For me that meant learning how to develop distinct digital platforms, create and produce Christ centered content, and “publish” these resources for the “ekklesias” to access through a variety of digital media channels. I also had to figure out how to build, encourage and connect with a community of people who had previously come together in a corporate ministry setting.

By necessity, I had to learn all of the digital skills … on my own … and fast.

Just recently I learned that the term for this broad and horizontal skill set is called “T-Marketing”. Basically it’s the skill set of knowing just enough about what needs to get done in all of the horizontal areas of digital content marketing and then focusing vertically on one area of expertise.

The result, after 3 years of bootstrapping, countless hours of YouTube videos, self study courses and tutorials, was the creation of a digital resource platform filled with over 500 videos of teaching content.

Here are a couple of links …

• paulwarndt.com (built on WordPress)
• ekklesia resource page (built on the Searchie platform)
• eXPlain it curriculum portal (built on the Thinkific platform)
• The Receptive Life (30 year passion project)

A Caveat Statement

Though I am an advocate for the use of digital platforms for the Church, such virtual resources should never be seen as a replacement for the physical, in-person, gathering of the Church of Jesus. I propose that any and all digital efforts should only supplement the proclamation of the Gospel and not supplant the community of saints that gather on the Lord’s Day to receive all of the gifts that only the Triune God can give.

Martin Luther had the Gutenberg press.

We have the digital age.

The Gutenberg Digital Press training resources, consultation, and services were created to help you and the Church …

• build a distinct digital platform
• create Christ centered content
• and publish the never changing Gospel to an ever changing world

Who? Not How?

Just recently, a pastoral colleague reached out to me about how he could develop a digital platform for his content. I decided to take on the project as an apprentice. I wanted to see if I could actually help move him from having a bare bones social media account to a resource rich content site and an engaged and ever growing community of subscribers …

… and to do it in around 3 months (instead of the 3 years that it took me).

We started with questions:

• Why did he want to develop a digital platform and begin the “publishing” journey?
• Who did he want to help?
• How did he want to serve them?
• What problem did he solve and what solution did he offer?
• Where did he feel the most comfortable? What medium did he want to use (writing, video, audio, live presentation)? What types of “publishing” has he tried in the past?

After gaining some clarity about his “publishing” purpose and his desired outcomes, we got to work and …

• developed a content creation plan
• created a digital home best suited to host his content
• crafted a process to attract, build and communicate with his audience
• launched his “publishing” platform
• evaluated, adjusted, learned, and improved each step along the way

As a result, he now has a distinct digital platform that consistently “publishes” Christ-centered content for an engaged community of followers.

What took me 3 years to do, we accomplished in 3 months.

The key to my colleague’s success was that he asked the right question.

He asked …

“Who?” not “How?”

“Who knows how to do all of this?” and not “How do I do it myself?”

Maybe I can help do the same for you, your church and the Gospel message.