There are many ways to interact with the Zúme team and content to multiply disciples and simple churches! Hear Chad share about numerous avenues leading to fruitful stories and even ways you can get involved! From recent experiments of using TikTok to YouVersion Bible plans reaching hundreds of thousands of people and the NEW live chat option on the www.zume.training website with some incredible testimonies already! Have ideas or want to help out? Email podcast@zume.vision

Host: 

Welcome back to the Zúme Multiplying Disciples Podcast, where we’re on a journey to saturate the world with multiplying disciples in our generation.

Chad, it’s sweet to be with you, fellow teammate on the Zúme team, and man there’s so much that we could talk about but we’re gonna try and just squeeze in some snapshots in these next 20 minutes. And so, um – A couple of things that I would love to just highlight as we kick off, Chad, and maybe then you could tell a little bit about yourself. But you’ve been involved in seeing these Zúme tools and principles be actually created into YouVersion Bible studies, like the devotions on the YouVersion app that people could click on. And if I remember the last stats I saw, it was over a quarter million people [who] were engaging on Zúme through the YouVersion Bible app, and that is something that anyone can access and hop on. And then, on top of that, we all know social media but good old TikTok and exploring Zúme videos and sharing on TikTok. 

And – really stoked about this announcement – if you guys haven’t checked out the Zúme.vision website lately, there is a new feature and it is the live chat box! And so when you go to Zúme, to the website, you’ll see a live chat box that you can actually, right there, click to be able to talk to someone from the Zúme team, from coaches from volunteers, on Zúme.training. And so it’s been an exciting — Chad, like you have been a part of helping pioneer that. And so, man! YouVersion, TikTok, live chat box, and so much more. 

And so, Chad, why don’t you just tell us a little bit about yourself and then we can dig into some of just the stories of what God’s doing and some of these cool resource access points. 

Chad:

Absolutely, Mary! I was hanging out with the guy that was discipling me, Eric Dairy, and he said, “Man, you should come into this meeting!” And it was a Zúme meeting and they were like, “Man, we really need somebody to help with social media.” And I raised my hand and said, “Well, I – I like playing around on Facebook and stuff, and and um, and actually have like two Facebook accounts that are kind of maxed out, but really enjoy, um, the social media world.” And so they were like, “Oh, that’s great!” And so we started with a Facebook page and then an Instagram page and then a Twitter page, and now we’ve got a LinkedIn page and a TikTok page and the YouVersion stuff is my favorite social media. So, with YouVersion, you can go to Plans, in Search, type in Zúme, and you can see all of the different plans and different things that are up. Um. That would be the one social media tool that I would like to sink my time and stuff into. 

But we are actively looking for other people that might be interested in helping us figure out how to get more people engaging and kind of just spreading the word. In the training cycle, you know, we pass this stuff on to people by modeling, assisting, watching, and then leaving. And so, with social media we can do a ton of modeling and, and kind of showing people the ropes and how to get started with this stuff. And that stuff is really exciting to me, and if that’s exciting to you, the — My kids were giving me the hardest time about being on TikTok because I’m an old guy, and. And we just need some, some other people that would be interested in saying, “Yeah! Um, I’m in! I’d love to, to help run the Twitter page, I’m on Twitter all the time,” or whatever, you know? Uh. We just really need a ton of help. 

And one of the coolest things that’s happening right now with the, with the live chat feature on the website— So, if you go to Zúme.vision or Zúme.training, you’ll see the little Messenger icon pop up. If you click on that, uh, you can ask a question. Some of the coolest questions have been coming in. The challenge is, sometimes they’re in other languages. So we’ve been having to use Google Translate and all this different stuff, so. Um. Hopefully we’ll get more traffic than our current team can handle, and we’ll need to be able to add some more people to respond to some of those questions like that. 

Some people have been responding, saying, “Man, I just really want to get to know God better.” And, um, and so that was actually a French speaker in Quebec, that– If anybody that’s listening to this call right now and you speak French, and/or are in Quebec, there’s somebody right now saying that they really want to get to know God better. And with the language barrier, and Google Translate, and geographically being very far away from them, it has been hard for me to follow up with them, and I currently don’t have any contacts in that region that are willing and able to help. So if that’s you and [you want to get] to know God better, man, we would love to get you connected. So message us– in fact, you could go to the website right now, click on the little Message bot, and me and Mary and Tim and Gus are gonna be– one of us will be the responders. 

And then, as this thing gets going in more and more languages, um. Man, we’re gonna need more and more workers. So. The harvest is plentiful, the workers are few, and I’m putting out an ask to anybody that loves Jesus and multiplying disciples and social media. If you’d like to jump on and help us out, send us a message on the live chat feature. 

Host: 

Amen! So yeah— So that messenger is tied to Facebook Messenger so it’s the same little icon, and if you’re on Facebook you can like the Zúme page and be able to share it and connect with others. 

And so, yeah, Chad, so many opportunities: YouVersion, TikTok, this live chat box from the website, and— 

Chad: 

We’ve got LinkedIn, too! LinkedIn! 

Host:

Oh yeah! And it’s— there’s Instagram and Facebook and Twitter, and you know, just so many, so many things that are happening. 

So even in the midst of all of these different resources, and just ways that people can access Zúme, and even just— what I love about the live chat box is: it is quicker to be able to have person-to-person conversations. And so people can sign up for a coach anytime, they can sign up — you know, you can use Zúme without signing up, but you can also sign up for a coach that we highly, highly encourage, um, because it is a huge game changer. But, to just be able to ask simple questions, um, right away and be able to talk with someone. 

And so, even in the midst of all these things, Chad, you’re also a local practitioner right at home. And so, what have been some of the stories that you are seeing God do as you live out the Zúme vision and principles right, right at home? 

Chad:

Well, um. I am a missionary with Team Expansion by day and a part-time supervisor with UPS at night to help get insurance and stuff for my kiddos. And, um. Just last night, we’ve got these two workers, a young engaged couple, and they had overheard me talking to some other employees about being a missionary and about what we do, and they said, “Uh, hey, um. We wanna, we want to be trained, we want to become missionaries, we want to live lives on mission. Um. What do we do?” And so, we’re meeting up and we’re— I’m going to walk them through Zúme. We’re going to get a group started in their home, um. I’m just super excited about how God’s working and all the different things that are going on. Um. 

One of the places that we’re seeing the most fruit in our city is that we met a person of peace — actually, he kind of met us and found us — and he is amazing and loves Jesus like crazy. But he had spent 36 years in prison and 20 of that was in solitary confinement, and that’s where he met the Lord. And in the last couple years he’s baptized over 400 men out of the prison system. And the same halfway house or, um — it’s kind of like you get to go out on work release kind of a, kind of a lockdown where you’re still a ward of the state — he used to be an inmate in there and now he’s got keys to the place. He’s the chaplain on call. He’s got a dorm full of 20 men that he’s been deeply investing in and discipling, and it’s just amazing watching what God can do when ordinary people say, “I’m in. Sign me up! I wanna, I wanna live my life on mission.” 

So God’s a missionary God and He loves us and has called us to join Him on this great adventure. And man, I wish I could say that it was easy. It is not. It’s simple, but it is not easy, and uh, watching my friend Tony in the prison system endure all the persecution that he’s had to go through, it’s just been amazing and he’s responded well and continues to to make disciples that make disciples in that place, in space, right here in our city. Um. God’s doing some cool things here and there, uh, we just — Man, I could go on forever! What uh, what specifically do you want to hear about, Mary? 

Host: 

I know — the same! There’s so many different stories that we could talk about, but I remember one you recently mentioned, I think about some Somali refugees? 

Chad:

Yes! Man, there are so many Somalis that are, um — they’ve had to flee from their country and, and come to other places and a bunch of them have found their way here, to Louisville, Kentucky. And, um, I’ve got a really good Somali friend who’s a really good multiplier, and he’s got a couple of groups going over in another country in East Africa — pretty close to Somalia, but I’m not going to mention it just to keep my buddy safe out there. And, uh. So God’s doing great things here in our city in Louisville and around the world, so. My, my Somali, uh, disciple maker, he called me two days ago and we had a really fun chat on Messenger, and, um. And then, uh, things are blowing up right now with Zú[me in] Asia. And, um, there’s a really awesome guy that is in the middle of that, uh, pulling people together, training local leaders, um, so. 

God is on the move and good things are happening all around the world and right here in our own backyard, so let’s keep up that good work and just keep loving God, loving others, and making disciples that do the same. 

Host:

It’s incredible how we can use Zúme, you know, right at home, you know, at home with family, you know, at home on the computer on Zoom, you know, [with] the neighbors across the street, with people in across the ocean in other countries, and it’s the same thing here as there — the same thing in God’s word. And so, one of the things you mentioned was just these opportunities to get to, to serve and to be a part, and so. You know, the first step in that is really just getting to walk through the Zúme journey and, even better, to get to do that with a coach or with a cohort of a group of people who are doing the same thing together, learning and figuring out— And as you do that, getting to explore other ways of serving in Zúme. So you can reach out at— you can email us at podcast@zúme.vision is the email, podcast@zúme.vision, or message us! Use Messenger and just send us a message, uh, on what’s happening there. 

And so it’s really cool to see how Zúme is expanding and— you know ways that you can find it on YouVersion, why don’t you, you know, for people who might not be familiar [with] you know, the Bible app, You Version, how do they hop on there and find the Zúme plans? I know one of my favorite[s] is honestly the “Enduring Through Suffering” plan that is on there, but I know there’s literally dozens of Bible reading and devotion plans on there that, you know, as a Zúme team have created, and so how do people find that, Chad? 

Chad:

If you go to Zúme and go to “Find Plans,” and, um, and then in that search bar just type in z-u-m-e, all of the Zúme plans will come up. 

You’ll have to scroll down through all the different accountability groups. Those are designed for, um, two to four people of the same gender to jump in and you agree to read the same Scriptures, you do a daily SOAPS, you’re confessing sin to each other, and you’re praying for each other’s lost friends. And each of those accountability group, uh, pieces can walk you through the entire Bible so you and your accountability partner could be like, “Yeah, let’s do James!” [or] “Yeah, let’s do—” You know. And you can pick from, from all the Scriptures and they have it set up throughout the week to where you’re reading about three to five chapters a day, and you’re doing it with your accountability partner. It’s absolutely fantastic. 

But once you scroll past all of those groups, those uh accountability groups, you’ll see things like “Kingdom Prayers.” And that’s actually from the appendix of Curtis’s book, The Only One, and it’s 30 different prayers that are just super powerful. And me and my buddy William Sawyer are doing that together right now, um. It’s so fun to do these plans individually, but also to do them with friends. 

There’s one called “The Commands of Christ,” and it’s the, the 94 commands that as Curtis was seeing God move and was spending time in the Word and spending time looking at everything that Jesus said and commanded us—since we’re supposed to teach people everything that Jesus commanded us—he said, “Well, we should have a list of all those commands.” And it’s just a powerful, powerful list. It’s a little devotional relating to each one, and I highly recommend the “Commands of Christ.” Uh.

“Enduring Through Suffering” is something that, if you want to live a godly life, you’re going to be persecuted, and so we’ve got to train up our disciples to be able to endure through suffering. So the “Enduring Through Suffering” [study] is every Scripture in the Bible stacked up that says how God is going to make us more like Him and more mature in Christ through suffering. Yes, there are Bible verses that talk about how He uses prayer in reading the Bible and going to church, but if you stack up all of the verses and Scriptures that talk about how he’s gonna use suffering, there’s just way more of those. And that reading plan, “Enduring Through Suffering,” walks you through all of those Scriptures and our responsibility and then God’s blessing when we choose to respond to suffering the way that God designed. And that reading plan, if I was going to pick just one, has been probably the most personally life-changing for me. So, um, “Enduring Through Suffering” and the Zúme plan, it’s absolutely fantastic. 

There are some others about how to share your testimony. Um. There’s one called, um, “Come, Let’s Go,” and it’s discipleship and evangelism and it’s basically a week-long college course which is a lot of the big nuggets that Curtis trains in his Metacamp course that Team Expansion and um some other organizations called “Jonathan Training.” It’s a whole Jonathan Training packed into one week. Now, it’s super intensive and really, really, uh, great to go through. [If you’re] curious about this and want, like, a college-level course on it and it’s got little teasers and tasters and even some of the Zúme videos included in that plan, you’ll want to look at the YouVersion plan “Come, Let’s Go.” And Jesus invites us to come to Him and He equips us and empowers us to go to the uttermost ends of the Earth. And that’s a really great plan. 

Host: 

That’s awesome.

Chad:

I could go on and on, there’s like 50 plans on the thing and you got me started, so I’m sorry!

Host: 

I’m not! It’s great! I know, especially when you’re just so invested in having created it and hearing so many testimonies of how God is using it, it’s hard to not want to just tell people, you know, just all the different things that are happening! And thanks for making time to just give this snapshot. I know it’s not even comprehensive of the testimonies of even just the resources to strengthen and encourage and equip, but it’s a snapshot into all that’s happening. 

And yeah, I can say that that, “Enduring Through Suffering,” if you go into [the] YouVersion app and you search “Plans,” you type in Zúme or you type in, you know, “Enduring Through Suffering,” which is one of the Zúme plans on there— A friend shared me—shared that with me last year on the YouVersion— like, I had seen that resource before, and, um, it’s one of my all-time favorite resources I try to tell every single person about! [Laughs] It’s because just like you said, Chad, like we have to be ready and we have to be able to walk. How do we walk faithfully through times of suffering? And— but I love, on the YouVersion app, it already breaks down like each day it has the passages right there that you can read and then like just the word of teaching there, and so, yeah. I just opened up my phone back and hit “Start” again, like so like, we’re going through it again! And so, you know, share it with some friends right now. 

But Chad, as we wrap up— 

Chad: 

Take somebody with you, Mary, take somebody with you! 

Host: 

Amen, amen! Yep, just just texting three right now. 

And so, as we kind of wrap up, I know there’s stories at home and, and abroad, but is there anything else that you’d like to share just in these last couple minutes together?

Chad: 

Well, I think, um, one of the most challenging, uh, thoughts as, as we think about, like, all the social media stuff here for English speakers, like, we don’t even have the team built out for that, yet. And then Zúme is already available in 42 other languages, including sign language, and so we really have a big problem in that we need to figure out a way to be able to reproduce this kind of social media teams in all those different languages that we currently have — And those are the most-spoken languages, but we’d love for Zúme to be able to be available in every language. 

And um, and so, I don’t know if you’ve looked at the Strategic Plan and how that was going about, but we’re almost done with that first phase of getting Zúme available in the, in the 40, uh, most-spoken languages. There’s still a couple that haven’t crossed the finish line and a couple that are just under that top 40 that we got off the ground and were completed first, and, uh, but that’s almost done. And then we’d like it to get spread out to all, um, the other main languages and, and then every language. If you, if you— there’s like 3,000 and some languages now, uh, if you go into every tribe and, and you want to reach every tongue, which I know is God’s heart. Um, so, um. 

As Zúme gets translated into those languages, we need language champions that would want to take on that challenge of like, “Yeah, I’d be willing to, to help promote Zúme among, uh, French speakers,” or, “I’d love to help model these different tools, um, among, um uh, Mandarin speakers.” There’s— if you go to the Zúme website and you click on Languages, you can see the ones that are available now and know that it’s our hearts desire to be able to get it to every language. So, maybe there’s a language not on there yet and you’ve got some translation skills or a team of people that would like to know what it would take to get it into your language. Man, we’d love to talk to you! 

So uh that would be kind of my last push and challenge is, man, do you have a heart for a part of the world that um might speak a certain language, and would you be willing to invest um to help get multiplying disciples and churches going among those people in those places? 

Host: 

Yeah, that reminds me just, even this morning, we were talking about the testimony as a team of how, um you know, we’ve been using these Google ad grants, which, you know, anyone who is a part of a church or non-profit has access to these Google ad grants. And if you’re not using them and you would love to donate that to Zúme, it’s no cost to you because it’s just a resource that it’s available to you and you can pass that on to Zúme to be able to use those Google ad grants to do ads to these different languages. 

Chad:

It’s like 10 thousand dollars a month in Google ads! 

Host:

Yeah, it’s not a small penny! Yeah, and so this 10 grand a month can literally be used by Zúme to have the ads in several different languages happening around the world. But, you know, there’s a little mishap that happened, but it’s so cool the outcome! But, um, there was a paid advertising that happened in Indonesia, and through that there have been literally over 100 people an hour engaging on Zúme in Indonesia in a place that is full of unreached people—unreached unengaged peoples. And to see how it is spiking, literally, um, when you go onto the Zúme map which is one of my favorite parts of the website, but, zúme.vision/100—just the numbers, one-zero-zero—and you can literally see this map that has everyone that is on Zúme right now and around the world. Like, literally Google can’t even keep up with the traffic that is happening with Zúme. And so, there are like in the last 24 hours, over 5,000 people in Indonesia that have been engaging in Zúme because of these paid ads. 

And so, the opportunity to donate Google ad grants, the opportunity to, even if you have a passion as Chad’s talking about to see a certain language either be created in Zúme into that language or to even see an existing language have paid advertising on social media, it is tremendous the fruit and the outcome that we are seeing literally day in day out happen just through that one avenue, you know? And so— 

Chad: 

I think they said that the paid advertising has gotten twice as much traffic as the free Google ad advertising, which is still great. 

Host: 

I know! It’s incredible. We can do both! 

Chad: 

If people wanted to give, like, big time money to doing some of this stuff, like, that would be fantastic. 

Host: 

Yeah. It really is incredible. And so, Chad, thank you so much for all that you do in several years of serving on the Zúme lead team. And a blessing to get to serve with you, brother, and thank you so much for taking time to share some of the stories, the opportunities, and the different resources that are out there! And so, have a great one!

Chad: 

You too! Let’s go make disciples. 

Host: 

Woohoo!

Thanks for listening. To learn more, go to www.zume.vision, and to be equipped, go to www.zume.training. Have questions for the podcast? You can email them to podcast@zúme.vision.