Welcome to Live Free with Pastor Josh Howerton. We're so glad you're here. Lake Point Church is a movement for all people to know Jesus, live free, and make a difference with their lives. And this weekly podcast is all about helping you do just that. Each episode is a deep dive into the word of God tackling life, culture, and faith with truth and clarity so you can be equipped to live free in Christ. Thanks for tuning in. And be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode and follow us on all our social platforms to stay connected to everything happening with Live Free. Now let's dive into today's episode. Let's kick this pig. That's right. Hello, welcome to episodes 56. Let's go. Right? Yes. OK, but a special bonus episode. Here's what we're going to do in the next few minutes. This is a state of the podcast address. So we want to take time at the end of the year. I'm talking to you right now. That's great. We're going to take some time. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. We're going to take some time into the year and update listeners in the next. This is going to be brief on some, honestly, pretty incredible, like some data on how the pod's going. We want you guys to stay up to speed on what you all honestly are doing. And then we want to talk about some new things that are coming. And we want to solicit some feedback. So Carlos Arrazo, please kick this pig. By the way, bro, you just finished preaching and it took you one minute to get from that. Is that true? Literally, our team timed it. You timed it. You're fast. You're fast. Yeah, I will just say we are. I'm staring at thousands of people walking through the halls of Lake Point because, yes, one minute ago, I got off stage for Christmas. And last episode, let's go. This is basically the equivalent of having seen that meme that basically says, and with that, the two thousand and twenty five the free season comes to an end. Good night. So this is this is this is that this is that. Hey, man, I'm about to share some numbers with you. And before I do, I just said a couple of things that people are asking if somebody's wondering why are these numbers important? You've said this before. Pastor Josh, I just want to make this clear where pastors, not podcasters. And so today, 83 percent of podcast consumers spent nine hours and 24 minutes listening to their favorite shows every week. And so we want to go where people are at. That's right. And so these numbers are not just streamed, views, subscribers, followers. These are real people with real struggles, with real hunger for a real God. And so, man, crazy year. By the way, I have not heard this data. This is all right. Let's write it so they know what's going on. Man, this year we've had seven point five million live free views in place across all platforms. Are you kidding me? Year to date, seven million seven point five million. OK, three point five million total live free YouTube views. So just on YouTube three point five, there was a three hundred and seventy five percent increase on YouTube subscribers. We basically gained four hundred and eighty one thousand new subscribers. Stupid. OK. One hundred and eighty two countries listened to live free. Really? Shout out to the international family. All right. Four million streams on Apple and Spotify, audio and only four million. OK. Top four on religion and spirituality on Apple podcast. Hey, we cracked three once. That's right. For like, I mean it. It's great. Is dang Terri Lee Kabul. My goodness. She won't let us pass her. She just gave us a minute and she's like enough for like 30 seconds. We passed her twice and like top one 60 on all categories of all podcasts on Apple. Man, ready for socials. Yeah, social media, man. It grew a little bit this year. We added one point four million followers on Facebook this year. Jeez. Six hundred thousand followers on Instagram in like basically a span of seven and eight months. Oh my gosh. OK. Two hundred and fifty eight thousand followers and Tic Toc ready for a total social media view count. This is this includes Facebook Reels, Tic Toc, YouTube Shorts, I.G. Reels, all the things. This is everything. Eight hundred and sixty seven million views. Oh my gosh. Man, shout out to the social media team at like Point and Jason Howerton and everybody else helping out. It's insane. We had a. Can I just interrupt? So like the reason that is a little overwhelming, we literally started this as like a test drive. Literally a year ago. A year ago, we were like, let's do one sermon series where we do a little deeper dive podcast and maybe a few hundred like pointers will listen to it. And honestly, we have been like completely stunned. And here in a second, we're going to we want to get some feedback from listeners because there's some things we want to like hone in the next season. And we've got some new things coming. We want to talk about. So you keep going. I've got a couple more wins. I mean, four hundred percent increase in church online attendance this year. So obviously we're always inviting people to take a next step. And one of those is to join church online and then do more. We've had over 10,000 people download the show notes, a.k.a. our discipleship guide. The last 10 to 15 episodes, we've had an average of 200,000 views and streams per episode. Again, an increasing amount of number. And man, honestly, like again, these are real people. So we just literally received hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of emails and messages of people sharing their story. And this is how Livfrey has blessed my life. It's fun to see social media grow. We are passionate about seeing people grow and their faith grow. And so you've said this before, we are not in the viewership business. We are in the discipleship business. And so we've we've literally not only had people share their story, but we've had many people come in person from all over the place. Quick story here. We have Molly from Chicago, Lake Point. She is what she said, Lake Point appeared on my YouTube feed a while back and then she tuned into the Livfrey podcast. And this is what she said, I began to reconnect with God and gain a deeper understanding of his character that sparked reignited my faith in a powerful way. She literally just flew to Lake Point a while back and got baptized with us. Over 15 percent of the first time guests in our church this year came from the podcast or social media or YouTube. I believe that. And by the way, we're we're literally just getting started to kind of organize herself so we can, you know, measure it better. And then again, just men, a bunch of men finding their band of brothers, joining a life group and then gathering together to continue to deepen their faith together. And so praise the Lord. Wow. That's honest, that's stupid. Like that's that is legit. That is stupid, what you just said. Here's what we like to do. So for real, we I want your help. And this isn't something that we like. We just say and we don't do like we actually are going to come comments on this thing. So here's what I would ask. If you're a listener, if you could head over to YouTube and in the comments, here's the question that would be legit helpful for us. Why I keep asking people this, why is it working so well? Like, you know, as a leader, I'm always like, when you have success, autopsy, the success, because if you don't know why it's working, you won't know how to fix it when it breaks. So honestly, for listeners, we need your help. Why, in your opinion, is the podcast working and growing like it is? What do you like? What is it like? Guys, keep doing this. This is what I love about it. If you could put that in the comments on YouTube in particular, we're going to take some time around this time of the year, you know, kind of between Christmas, New Year's and all this stuff. And we want to do an autopsy and get your feedback. So again, please, if you could head over to YouTube, drop in the comments. You know, why do you think it's working? I'm really curious. Can I ask you a question? Please do. Josh, you've mentioned behind the scenes. You've talked about the philosophy around the podcast and kind of how you see social media. I mean, would you share a little bit about like what that is and how that's evolved? Yeah, let me give a little bit of like the pastoral and theological philosophy about Hapad. And then I want to finish because this is a much shorter episode. We just want to make this like this is for our podcast, FAM. This is like a, you know, state of the union address. So I want to finish by talking about some very important new things that are coming. OK, but wait, what was your question? Oh, the philosophy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. OK, philosophy. OK, so. Here's the philosophy and this this kind of shapes why we do what we do and what what we may do in the future. So from a discipleship perspective, a lot of times what you've heard me talk about is we'll think Air War, Ground War on discipleship. Ground War is applying the gospel to people, men, women and families that's applying the gospel down here. Air War is applying the gospel out there to the culture, to culture, politics, society, stuff out there. I'm a you know, I say I'm like a I'm a military history. So if just like in an actual hot conflict, if one army has ground superiority and they can win all the ground war, but they have no air war, then every time they win battles on the ground and take ground, then the enemy just sends in their air force with air superiority and they take back all the ground that you took on the ground. OK, with their their air war. So honestly, what I started realizing in like 2020 is what I felt like churches in general were good at ground war discipleship. Hey, man, let's apply the Bible to your family and to yourself and not very good air war. Let's help you think about cultural issue, cultural, political, societal issues. And as a result, what I felt like kept happening is Christians would get discipled in church, then they'd walk out the door and then they get all these cultural voices that were doing essentially reverse discipleship and never they were like undoing what we were doing. So really what the podcast has given me the ability to do as a pastor is like I refuse to let my pulpit get hijacked by the issue of the week and let CNN headlines steer what I'm going to preach in church. Like what we do at like point, if you're you know, unfamiliar with this thing is we pretty much exclusively we preach through books of the Bible verse by verse and it's a lot of ground war. But there's constantly these issues that people got questions about like, man, how do I how do I think about this? What's the Bible say about the pod has given us an ability to do air war discipleship for our people in addition to just like going deeper into the word and going maybe a little layer down. Now, there's a bunch of stuff that, you know, maybe I you and I have talked. Is there anything that I left out there that you like, did you should say that? Yeah. How do you see we've talked about social media being the eropic social media is the modern day, the modern day area. So Act 17, if you're watching on YouTube, we have thousands of people walking into our Christmas services, then I'm waving at them. Act 17. Paul goes into the area, Opigus, Marcel. That's where they quote, quote, and quote spent all their time debating and telling new ideas. Social media, whether pastors like it or not, it's the modern day area. That's where people debate ideas. And what the Bible commands pastors and churches to do is quote, unquote, we destroy arguments and every take every thought captive, every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. So we don't just disciple people. We destroy evil, godless ideologies. This is really helpful. I will say it dawned on me about three months into doing this podcast that the podcast is like the 2025 version of Sunday Night Church from when I was growing up as a kid. Hey guys, from when I was growing up as a kid. So, you know, when I when I was a kid, I would go to big church on Sunday morning, then I come back on Sunday night. And that was like when the pastor, he go a little deeper. It was a little more conversational, more intimate, more intimate. You know, you can ask a couple of questions. Here's what the Greek word is more raw. Yeah. Yeah. And I realized like, oh, that's what this is. It's a way to get another 90 minutes of Bible teaching into people. Here's the last thing I'll say, and this kind of leads into the new things that are coming for the pod that we're really excited to roll out. The big thing that I'm excited about is, you know, Carl has said it. Our big thing is, hey man, it's called live free, not learn free. So we're not in the view count business. We're in the disciple business. So what we want to do at Lake Point is like, it's a, I'm going to get a little nerdy here is, um, is, it's vertically aligned discipleship. So what we noticed was starting to happen is people will listen to sermon, then they'd walk out the door, they'd listen to the podcast and then just organically, there's like all these groups, especially of men who are just, they're like randomly finding each other, picking like coffee shops and diners and going, Hey man, let's meet seven AM one day before work. Let's talk about what God is teaching us in the word through sermon and podcast and let's confess in, talk about what we're going to do about it. And it's, it's vertically aligning sermon, then Bible study via podcast, then their, their discipleship group. We really want to lean into that more and more, um, in the coming year, uh, which leads us to, you know, some exciting things we got coming up. I'm excited. So, uh, here we got a, we're working on a new app. Okay. That's right. So, let me just, um, so that, that's, uh, uh, little pod drop there. So here's what we got. I, it's live now, right? It's, it's live now. That's right. All right. So ladies and gentlemen, I am very pleased to announce we have now, that's right. That's it. That was the, there's your, there's your drum roll. We just, it literally just went live. A completely redesigned at Lake Point app that is designed to facilitate vertically aligned discipleship for people, uh, that are in our, our eco sphere. So here, here's what that this does. Um, and you, how, by the way, how can they download it? They can text the word app to two zero four one one. And, uh, you should get a link. That's great. So text app to the number two zero four one. They'll get a link to that. So, and what the app's designed to do is we, in the next year, you're going to see this, we want to lean real heavy into catalyzing discipleship via the podcast. Because man, I love people learn about the Bible, but we've become good men and women of God by like actually getting, finding bands of brothers. So what the app's designed to do is like, it's all just right there. So every sermon, you'll be able to click on in the app and immediately everything pops up. There's the sermon. There's the corresponding podcast. There was a deeper dive into that sermon. What's new is a starting in the new year. Um, in that same spot, there'll be a, an aligned Bible reading plan, one chapter per day for the live, for a live free nation that goes along with the sermon and the podcast. And then obviously we also have the disciple guide, the show notes. Right. So what you'll be able to do is go, okay, man, if you attend Lake Point, that's awesome. If not in person, you can click on that. You can find the sermon and it's all right there. Sermon podcast, um, one chapter per day, Bible reading plan for that week. And then the disciple guide. So you'll be able to grab like, you know, your disciple group, your guys and go, Hey man, let's meet. Let's all hit the sermon, hit the pod chapter a day. Let's walk in and talk about what the Lord's doing in our life. And then we want to scale and catalyze life on life discipleship. That's right. And so because we want people to do that as well, like for, if you, you know, this, uh, we have a new live free episode every single Monday, but if you download the app, you will have early access to the live free podcast episode by Sunday. And so if you want it a little early, you will also get that on the app exclusively. That's right. Oh man. That's going to be great. That's big news. That's the big news. Yeah. That's right. That's the app, man. That's the app. Oh man, daily Bible reading plan is going to be fun. It is going to be fun. As well. The whole church reading the whole, the same thing. It is going to be fun. We got some ideas that we may roll out as if, if the pod keeps growing like it is. We got some things in the hopper, but you'll see, man, it's going to be a lot of fun, 20, 26, going to be a lot of fun. I will say this. This is a little thing that I just, I wonder, I'm just going to say something. I wonder it's like rush. There's a guy from, there's Rush. There's a guy from my, my Ruda group. Just walk by. Thanks. Um, I've, there's something happening in the church in America right now. Uh, what I've always said is, um, what we want to see is reformation and revival for resurgence of the church in our day. I feel like we're starting to see some rumblings. What I wonder if could happen is, uh, if we could start to see live free with the, the astronomical growth we're seeing and some ideas we got in, in the back of our, our heads, I wonder if we might end up being able to leverage the podcast as like a staging grounds for Christian's strategy for cultural engagement in our nation. And it just becomes the staging grounds for the resurgence of the church. Wow. Who knows, we'll see. Let's go, man. Come on, man. I like it. That's it. Carlos for live free nation listeners. In addition to heading over to YouTube and legit, we, we need, we need your feedback. Why do you think it's working with, that's what we want to know. What do you love about it? Why do you think it's working so we can double down in addition to giving us that feedback? Uh, if people are listening to go on, what can I do to help? I believe, I'm a, I believe in what y'all are doing. What can I do to help? What's the answer to that question? I would say, well, uh, we would say get involved. First of all, reach out. Um, if you can, uh, email us at, uh, Arthur, is it, what is it? Podcasts at lakepoint.church, uh, reach out and we'd love to get to know you. Also text the word. Is it connect to two zero four one one again, uh, let us know. Hey, I came from the pod. I'm, I'm interested in helping out and then we'd love to get you plugged in. Uh, man, we, uh, we literally are getting people from like all over the world. I'm not even kidding. It's the same. I'm not even kidding. And so man, this year has been amazing. Yeah. And what, you know, I'll, I'll tag on to what you just said. I know people, you may think it's small. It's not small. Like the stories we get a lot, uh, and I hope everybody receives this right way. Um, we want everybody to listen to the pod. Apparently, you know, our data tells us we're uniquely connecting with dudes. And very frankly, um, the church is not, has not historically been awesome at reaching, discipling and activating young men. And that's like the lion share of the people that are listening. So I will say, man, the story we hear a lot is somebody shared the podcast with me. Or, you know, you guys talked about the Charlie Kirk Memorial. You talked about, well, I didn't know what to think about immigration stuff or Christian nationalism or whatever the thing is, or I don't know, all the stuff we've done, whatever it is. Quite a few. And then people, they, they send it to a buddy that's interested in like the issue and he's like, oh dang, that was actually legit helpful. Then they, they get hooked. And that's how the thing is growing so much. So I will say when people, I know it sounds dumb, it's not whatever. When people like, subscribe, share the content, that's how the thing went from, you know, like, I think the first episode, like a couple hundred church members. And then now it's like, you know, seven million downloads or whatever. That's how it happened is people being like, we need the church hearing this and sharing it. And that's the wildfire effect. Carlos, I love you and I love our listeners. I have to go preach my seventh Christmas service right now. Go do it, man. Live free, brother. Thanks for tuning in to Live Free with Pastor Josh Howerton. We pray today's episode helped you take a step forward in life, culture and faith as you live free in Christ. If it encouraged you, be sure to rate, review and share the podcast. And don't forget to subscribe so you'll never miss an episode. Join us for Lake Point Church online every weekend and find more resources at LakePoint.church.livefree. We'll see you next time.
