Okay, we've got to get into key number one.
Okay, so three keys.
Let's jump into key number one.
Know the land you're living in.
The simplest way I can say this is that if you were going to any mission field or if
you're on mission anywhere, you would get to know the land.
You'd get to know the culture, you get to know the language, you'd get to understand
the customs so that you can come and connect with people where they are and it not be awkward.
And so we want to talk a little bit about just knowing the land of where you're living
in.
I want to talk a little bit about this because some people don't know what the platforms
are, how many are on the platform.
So we're just going to do a brief kind of deep dive into each of these platforms so
that when we say YouTube or we say TikTok, you know what we're talking about, you know
what that represents.
Cool.
So I'm going to fly through a couple numbers here.
Don't you don't need to write all this down.
Like you can go back and, you know, just to give you a sense of like what each platform
is.
There's no test on this later.
You're going to be fine.
So let's talk about YouTube.
Right now on YouTube, there are 2.6 billion monthly active users, 2.6 billion with a B
monthly people, everybody.
That's how many people are actually coming to the YouTube platform, different separate
people to watch content.
So people are, when Lindsay says people are hanging out on their phones, this is what
we're talking about.
That's where people are hanging out.
And because of that, YouTube has actually become the second largest search engine.
So it's owned by Google, but people would go to Google, they have search for things,
but people are now going to YouTube and saying how to fix a dishwasher, how to, you know,
fix my anxiety, how to all these different things.
They're looking for advice.
People are out there searching and you can actually go get stats of how many tens of
thousands of people are searching, even on like sermons about Proverbs three, five sermons
about like people are looking for this content.
We just need to show up in those search results and be able to share news to them.
So that's just encouraging.
More people are wanting to watch you tell them the answer.
Right.
They're not wanting to read it.
That's the thing.
Which is why I think YouTube is doing so well.
Yeah.
It's kind of like watching TV, but it's, you know, it's tailored for you.
I want to see the tutorial.
Yeah.
Let's talk about Instagram.
So Instagram is now also owned by Facebook.
They have a billion users, over a billion users that are on Instagram.
And the average time on Instagram is spent each day is 30 minutes, meaning people will
sit there and scroll and scroll and scroll.
So maybe, you know, maybe you're spending a lot more than that, maybe you're spending
less than that, but that's the average.
And there are over 95 million photos and videos shared every single day.
That's new posts, new videos going up.
So it is a massive, massive amount of content, content machine.
And then the last one we'll talk about here is TikTok.
And now I'm going to address a few things about TikTok, because I know there's some,
there's some, maybe some hesitation, you know, about this, but there was actually more traffic
to TikTok than there was to Google in 2021.
And Google is one of the busiest websites in the world.
It's now overtaken as TikTok.com, I heard even a few weeks ago, TikTok.com, that domain
is now the busiest domain in the world.
It's busier than Google.com.
So it's definitely overtaking these.
And so this is why we want to pay attention to it.
We can't go into this land and not know what the landscape is.
Where the people are and how they're spending their time and why they're spending their
time there.
Yeah.
So TikTok has over 2 billion monthly active users on TikTok.
And that's people just coming at least once a month to visit the platform.
And this stat is a little staggering, but the average session length on TikTok is around
52 minutes.
And notice that's not how much time each day.
That's how much time it is when you pick up your phone, open TikTok, and you start scrolling.
The average time is 52 minutes, and you may have, that person may have multiple sessions
like that each day.
So that, that is people hanging out right in front of their screens.
For almost an hour at a time on TikTok.
Compare that to Instagram, like that might be your favorite platform, but compare that
to Instagram, people spending 30 minutes a day.
TikTok, they're spending at least an hour on one session, maybe multiple sessions a
day.
Exactly.
And I'll talk a little bit about TikTok as well.
This is one of the things that's actually not very age specific anymore.
If you think that TikTok is for Gen Z or for 12 year olds, it hasn't been that way
for years.
The fastest growing demographic is actually 38 to 55 is the fastest growing demographic
on TikTok.
And that help and advice category is actually one of the top 10 categories of people looking
for help, looking for advice, looking, and it could be financial advice.
It could be spiritual advice.
It could be emotional support.
It could be.
you know, all, all of the above. Right. Um,
and so those are the people actually looking for that.
It's not just about dance videos and 12 year olds right on the content.
So just want to help you guys change the perspective. Cause you,
I understand that we kind of look at these things. I was very skeptical.
You're very skeptical at tick tock. Um, and, and we've kind of come around.
I think this is total, like, this is just me kind of guessing, like, why is that?
Why is that help advice category growing? Um,
we know psychologically that people get a dopamine hit when they hit social
media. And a lot of people go there to escape, to be entertained.
But when that, when they're scrolling for almost an hour,
they're going to hit content that is addressing the actual problem.
They might be trying to escape, right? They might be, Oh, this,
here's a psychologist giving some life advice about how to deal with my anxiety
or here's a Wiccan telling me about spiritual ways that I can get rid of my
depression, right?
Like they're going to be met with somebody who's trying to answer their
questions or solve their problems.
So why not that somebody be a kingdom person, right? That's where my heart is.
So we are getting some questions about security.
Yeah. So let's talk about tick tock. That's a good question. Um,
I like to call this, uh, we call it staying safe in the land. Okay.
So just like if we were about to send you on a mission field to some,
somewhere in a volatile country, a volatile neighborhood,
area, we would have, you know, if you've ever been on a mission field,
mission trip like that,
there's typically meetings about this is how it works culturally.
Here's what to expect. You know, this is how you should dress.
This is how you should, you know, this is what to bring.
This is what not to bring. Um,
so to make sure that you stay as safe as possible when you're entering that
land. So this is one of the things,
and can I just say, yeah,
depending on what denomination you're a part of or who you're ministering to in
that country, those things are going to vary.
So I just need to be real about that. So we're not going to be like, Hey,
this is like a list of very specific things because we trust the Holy Spirit in
you and you have wisdom. But we need to talk about the general overall,
like what about being safe in the land?
Absolutely. So I just wanted to, you know,
all of these platforms are owned by big tech companies.
They, they, it requires a lot of, uh, software, money,
team employees to keep the whole machine going. So Facebook, you know,
owns Instagram and Facebook, obviously, uh, they own WhatsApp as well. Um,
there's, you know, Google owns YouTube. Um,
and now tick tock has become this huge player and there's,
there's others that are coming up as well,
but you just have to kind of know that that that's how it is.
Cause there is data, um, that is your,
your sharing with these platforms that, um, is being sold.
It is not exclusive to tick tock.
If you think that like Facebook is really safe and fine because it's technically
got some American or us, uh, servers. Yeah. Yeah.
And, and tick tocks in China and they're gonna steal your data. You're wrong.
That they're, they're equally as dangerous, I should say.
So just be as wise on Facebook as you would on tick tock or YouTube, but you,
you can actually go into this land confidently. It is a mission field.
And so there are some dangers, but we can, you know,
with a bit of training and stuff,
we can help make sure that you are safe with this.
So you don't want to be sharing certain information.
You don't want to be sharing your phone number. Don't share your address.
Like there are,
don't share like even videos of different shots where you can see kind of what
your house looks like or kids or anything like that.
So we can get into a lot of that, but I just want to say that we,
we acknowledge that we understand there was some,
there's hesitation and there's different perceptions about these platforms.
Our goal is what we feel is that there's a way to go in and flip these
platforms on their head and actually use them to bring the gospel to people that
are on this. So it is a platform for you to reach people. Yes,
there's a lot of stuff happening on those platforms.
It doesn't mean that it's not worth using that tool, right?
So exposure is, it's gonna like, it's not safe in Atlanta, Georgia.
Like we can walk out in the street and something can happen,
but we feel planted here.
And so we are trusting the Lord for his protection as we live in this physical
land, the same way we're trusting him as we take on the digital land.
That's like the mindset behind it. So this is between you and the Lord.
Like we can't force the issue with you. We want you to know,
like it's happening. Big tech is a thing.
People are selling data to the highest bidder.
It is not exclusive to one platform. It's happening everywhere,
but we can still show up confidently knowing the Lord will give us wisdom and
knowing that we're doing it on mission,
not just to like share pictures of our dogs.
Yep. Awesome. I love it.
That's key one is know the land that you're living in.