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Digital Disciples · Fostering Faith

• 0:00
  Welcome back to Fostering Faith. We're in our second season on episode four. We had an amazing time last week with our guests, Nicole and Adele, as we talked about friendship.
• 0:11
  And this week, we thought it would be a great idea to talk about how the digital world is just kind of consuming for people. And so making disciples digitally.
• 0:22
  And so just kind of navigating the digital world. So, Gia, how's life been going? Good. What's new and interesting? Nothing really.
• 0:33
  I think that we have some exciting things coming up. We have basketball tryouts coming up. Yeah.
• 0:39
  And so we have basketball tryouts coming up in the next couple of weeks. And so we've been practicing a lot.
• 0:46
  And that's something that's going to be new for our school is to have tryouts. And as we navigate that new thing, we're going to we have to navigate through what as teenagers and adults?
• 1:01
  We have to navigate through being on social media. And so do you think that that's a topic that youth could relate to? Yeah, because we use it a lot.
• 1:13
  What's the first thing that you usually grab in the morning?
• 1:17
  Water and the methode. Yeah.
• 1:21
  And so I think that as we're in a huge digital area, we use it a ton and it can be good. It can be bad. It can be used for great things as we are on this podcast and we're going around the world spreading the gospel.
• 1:43
  And so I do think that having challenges as a Christian, especially with families, teens, they've face maintaining their faith amidst the noise of the digital world.
• 1:57
  Can you share a story about how technologies has impacted your spiritual life?
• 2:02
  As it impacts in my life a lot, because like hearing other people what they think and everything like that is like really kind of inspiring and everything like that.
• 2:13
  I think that you raised a good point hearing what other people have to say if you are feeding yourself full of like Christian podcast and listening to different sermons, but then you can get on social media and you can see people that don't believe in Christ and you can see their perspective on how Christ is.
• 2:37
  What do you feel influences social media like Instagram and TikTok, Facebook and all these social media outlets being a blessing and yet they can be a distracting.
• 2:51
  So how could they be a blessing?
• 2:54
  They could be a blessing by like you like just like searching up like like God stuff and everything like that.
• 3:07
  How could it be distracting?
• 3:10
  You just really just get sucked in a lot and you just keep on scrolling and scrolling and scrolling.
• 3:17
  And then you look up and it's been three hours and you really intended to maybe sit down and pray or read your Bible.
• 3:26
  And so just even in my life being on call and being constantly kind of accessible. I stopped looking at my phone in the morning like I grab it off the nightstand, but I do not awaken it before I go and have my quiet time because I was finding myself like answering emails.
• 3:48
  I already had four text messages and then I would like to start texting and so I've literally just left it in the kitchen and go back into my prayer room and I don't look at it until I'm done with that.
• 4:02
  And so I think that would be a great maybe tool to use.
• 4:08
  Okay, so I know you have like a social media platform or like everything like for you not for fostering faith. So I have questions about that and like how you like spread the gospel and everything.
• 4:21
  Okay.
• 4:22
  Okay. So how did you grow in like your TikTok industry like how like did you grow so much.
• 4:30
  And so consistency I think is it. I am on social media and so we do have a fostering faith TikTok.
• 4:42
  Tracy Foster has a TikTok account and we have a YouTube page and it's about consistency.
• 4:51
  I don't I'm not I don't have a huge following on the social media but I show up every day. I pray on social media every day and just give encouraging words and inspiration about health and fitness and Jesus because those are the things that I'm super passionate about.
• 5:14
  And so I pray that he just grows our channel, my channel and that way we can really reach around the world and not have to fly everywhere.
• 5:27
  Okay, so why did you start doing it in the first place like how do you like just like decide to post on TikTok randomly.
• 5:36
  Patience, patience told me that I needed to and you know you can go back and look at my very first TikTok that I ever did I was super uncomfortable with it.
• 5:47
  And they were just they just said I need you in my life every day I need your prayer I need your motivation. And I can't call thousands of people every day and so by just me going on social media and being able to reach hundreds, thousands of people,
• 6:05
  tens of thousands of people hundreds of thousands of people weekly monthly yearly just to encourage them and inspire them. And I started just praying because my speech was not real clear and I get so excited talking about God.
• 6:22
  I use the word I'm a lot, but I noticed that if I only had 60 seconds left in this world what what I want to leave people with. And that's a prayer. And so I am honored I'm so excited to be able to pray on social media with people every day and just inspire them to become closer to God.
• 6:44
  Okay, so what is the best thing that like happened like since you like started now?
• 6:52
  My relationship with Christ has grown. I have just so many people have reached out and just the prayers the messages that have touched them at the exact right moment at the exact right time. And it really is just about timing and allowing God to just use me.
• 7:14
  And so I really feel like that has been such a blessing in my life.
• 7:19
  Yeah. Okay, what was your like motivation?
• 7:23
  Like for just keep on doing every day like you don't have to do it but like your motivation, because I get to do it.
• 7:30
  Because he's given me breath in my lung.
• 7:33
  And if I never want to waste a day, not spreading the gospel, because it could be that one time that someone turns on the TikToks and hears me pray or here's an inspirational message about what I've read in Scripture or how God has brought something to light how he's answered a prayer.
• 7:55
  I never want to waste a day that he's given me and not talk about him to all the people that would listen, because it's because of him that we're here.
• 8:07
  And so I'll take that to you.
• 8:10
  Seeing me do something consecutively day in day out.
• 8:16
  Has that put an impression on you.
• 8:20
  Of how to stay consistent. Yeah, like, so like, to stay consistent like the, like, besides like, like, praying to God and everything like that like that's like consistent but like, I feel like a really big consistent thing is practicing basketball for me.
• 8:39
  I like, I mean just stay consistent and practice and practice in the house outside, because I really just want to be really good at basketball. And so you have to have consistency with anything whether that be your faith with sports with working out with a diet with eating clean.
• 8:56
  You, you have to stay consistent you can't do something. You can't get fed like we talk about in church you can't be full. If you're just eating on Sundays and so you know having consistency with God in prayer every day, just like you couldn't expect to be.
• 9:15
  The next page beckers or whoever. If you only picked up a basketball once a week, you can't. If you only ate healthy food once a week, you're never going to see abs. If you go to the gym once a week, you're never going to see results.
• 9:32
  And so it's really about consistency in every area of your life. And once you get in the pattern of doing something consecutively. It really just becomes part of your day.
• 9:46
  And I, I love consistency. I love having patterns I love having structure in my life.
• 9:53
  Okay. My last question is, is like your fan. It's like, do you like, like the fans that like don't support you like your haters, but they're hourly because they're watching your videos.
• 10:07
  But like how do you like, like stay calm with that. Oh, so many reasons because I used to have a really bad temper. And, um, I mean we're German we're Italian and so we have passion and we have drive and we have words and God has taught me so much through that, but the main one is that he fights my battles.
• 10:29
  And so I don't have to go, you know, to them and say something negative or say a snarty remark because that's what they're looking for and hurt people hurt people.
• 10:40
  And I love it because it gives us names to pray over. And yes, there's like robots and all the things and people talk about, but it's just names to pray over because as you've seen on our posts, you know, we, the people leave super hateful comments about Christ.
• 10:56
  And even on this podcast, the comments that we have sometimes are super negative and hateful, but that's just names to pray over because, you know, that's on their feed for a reason.
• 11:07
  And how did it get up there for a reason, you know, just because God is allowing us just the privilege to spread the word to the unbelievers because we don't want to be watchers of the aquarium. We want to be fishers of men. And so reaching the unbeliever, reaching those people that have questions that have doubt and just walking in that faith journey with them, I think is so important.
• 11:36
  And so we talk about Romans 12 to what does Romans 12 to say.
• 11:47
  Do not conform to the pattern of this world.
• 11:52
  And so I think that that's a really important scripture. Why would that be important for people to embrace? Do not conform to this world and staying in the digital world.
• 12:06
  Because the world is very corrupted and everything. And like the digital world is very corrupted. But like, usually just randomly, you just don't walk up and say, do you believe in God to someone, but like you can just search it up on the digital world like, like videos about like God and everything.
• 12:26
  So you don't have to go up to a random stranger and ask, do you believe in God? Can you tell me about God? But you could on the digital world, you could just say, just type it in. I'll just give you the answers.
• 12:37
  And we don't want to conform to what the earthly patterns are. We don't want to get caught up in, you know, comparing ourselves to others. We don't want to keep up with the Joneses. We want to run the race that God has set for us.
• 12:51
  What are some ways that the tools for the digital tools that we could use to help strengthen our beliefs?
• 13:05
  And so let's talk about how that working with technology can be a great tool for strengthening our faith.
• 13:17
  We can like use a Bible app, Christian and like Christian podcasts and like online devotionals and doing it with friends and like certain social media accounts that like helps you with your faith.
• 13:29
  And what about how can we create a digital faith routine? How can we incorporate that? Because we're not going to get off social media. We're going to use TikTok. We're going to use Instagram. We're going to be on YouTube. So how can we use the digital world to uplift our faith?
• 13:48
  Well, to like stop like our problem with like social media, we can like set screen times and everything like that. And like we could like then we can use our Bible like that as our Bible time.
• 14:02
  Saying a hard stop. And so whenever you pick up your phone in the morning, you can't get on it till 730 or like 10 minutes before you leave for school. And so whenever you grab it, it's locked. And so it just it's that kind of hard stop to be like, OK, did I give Jesus the recognition that he deserves?
• 14:23
  Tithing our time first thing in the morning, we tie their time to him.
• 14:28
  What about using the other apps with your friend group? Could you encourage your friends to use the U version Bible app to do a plan together?
• 14:39
  Yeah. Or people that don't necessarily know Christ in school, but you could invite them to do the U version podcast or a U version plan to just like let's learn about Jesus together. Yeah.
• 14:58
  What are some ways for boundaries with your family? How could you guys set boundaries together?
• 15:11
  To like, well, you guys can do like a family like plan together in the U version Bible app or like you can like set off like maybe like four hours to two, like three or two just like spend time with them and everything like that. Yeah. Setting a phone free time.
• 15:29
  Getting off of your phones and having like Sundays just being like just you and the family.
• 15:42
  So like we could do like on Sundays, you could like just like spend time with Jesus and like have like a no phone time on that day.
• 15:54
  Yeah. After church or you know, even in the mornings, you guys could maybe do the plan together and just whenever you guys get out of church, if you guys get to go eat or whenever you guys come home, it can be like just family time.
• 16:10
  How could we encourage teens to address their digital platforms?
• 16:17
  How can that how is that shaping their minds? Whenever they're on social media all the time.
• 16:25
  Like. Like common like stuff like to like kind of like just talk about it and everything like that stuff.
• 16:35
  I do think that there's, you know, common issues with a lot of social media use. What do you think that what are some common things that kids get sucked into?
• 16:48
  Oh, like online bullying, I feel like is another thing. And like. I feel like that's just like a really big one.
• 16:57
  Pure pressure. Oh, yeah. Comparison because you're like, oh, my gosh, like, why do they have so many followers? Why do they have so many likes?
• 17:06
  Why do you know, why do they have a new house? Why are their parents so nice? How do they have all that skin care?
• 17:13
  And we we fall into that secular form. And we just talked about Romans 12, how it says, don't conform to these earthly wants.
• 17:23
  How can we empower kids in this digital area to be a digital disciple?
• 17:29
  How can they use the digital era and technology and all the apps to be a disciple?
• 17:37
  Like they could like be a Christian influencer by like using like like the platform and like spreading and like reposting it or like sharing Bible verses or like everything.
• 17:48
  Or like organizing a digital like study off of it. Yeah, I think that we have you have plenty of friends in your circle.
• 17:58
  Emily is really good about posting Christian content and praying and going through scripture online and just seeing teens in general, just focusing on Christ, spreading the word.
• 18:10
  Because what's it say in scripture as well? You're never too young to to be an influencer.
• 18:18
  And we know we talked about it in youth on Sunday. What's the average age of the disciple?
• 18:24
  How old were they? Are they teens? Yeah.
• 18:29
  And so, you know, you can fact check me if you want. That could be wrong.
• 18:32
  But that's what we generally believe was it was the disciples were in their teens. And so you guys are amazing and can do so much.
• 18:41
  You guys are so smart with all of the editing and copying and doing all the things.
• 18:48
  And you're the one that came up with this idea for this podcast just because you had went to the conference and you seen another youth do a podcast about spreading the word.
• 18:59
  And so just yeah.
• 19:04
  So let's let's kind of refocus on everything that we just kind of talked about.
• 19:08
  But also, too, we want to ask our listeners to share this episode with family, friends, social media and spread this message because we are digital disciples.
• 19:17
  We are spreading this this message throughout the whole world.
• 19:21
  And so on our platform, on our hosting site, we can see that we've reached Brazil and Belgium and Chile and South Africa and is our chili themselves.
• 19:32
  Oh, yeah. And just reaching all around the world.
• 19:37
  And so we are just so honored and privileged to be able to share the word of Jesus and just to walk with people on their faith journey.
• 19:46
  Do you want to pray us out? Yeah. Dear God, thank you for your stay. Thank you for everything you've given us. Please help the sick and help feel better.
• 19:54
  I pray for everyone like around us that they'll just spread your word and they'll use kind words and everything you do.
• 20:01
  I pray that we use digital stuff for good. And then I pray that that God will use all everyone for good.
• 20:12
  And I just pray. Amen. Amen. And so stay tuned for next week as we may have a guest on for our next episode.
• 20:21
  And so stay tuned for that and have an amazing week. Bye.