Podcast Episode 217: Episode 190: RX Reimagined – What’s Different This Year

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Two events in one. Game-changing insights. A stronger community. Plus, we’re very excited to announce that world-class speaker and New York Times best-selling author Dan Heath will be speaking on mastering the art of organizational change at RX25 Vision Day on Sept 23.

Transcribed Content

This episode of Rockcast is brought to you by Rock partner Triumph Tech, a full service specialist partner. Rock partners provide crucial support for Spark Development Network and important services for the Rock community. Connect with Triumph Tech today at rockrms.com/partners. Welcome back to Rockcast. This is the Rock podcast where we tell you everything that's happening behind the scenes. Thanks for joining the core team. I'm Emily Forman. We have Jon Edmiston and Nick Airdo, and we are going to get you up to speed on so many things happening in the Rock world right now. As usual, we would to start out with a little product update. Nick, tell us where we're at. We recently released version sixteen nine on February 24. That is just a tiny little bundle of fixes and something we call the security update. So that's where everybody should be at. If you're on version 16 something, you should be on version sixteen nine. Which is the latest secured update. The latest secured update. And if you're not on 16, you should still be on 16.9. You should move to 16 and move to 16.9. Yeah, it's the best thing to do. And because it's open and available to everyone now. It's in general so there's really no reason. Especially since V17 is right around the corner. Yeah you shouldn't be on '16 for long. '17 is coming and if you're not on 16, you need to get to 16 because you need to be on that to get to 17. 17 will be going to Alpha testing here very shortly. If not, by the time you've already heard this, Because this is a major release to alpha testing and beta testing takes a little bit longer because we want people to go through all the new features. But 17 is just a huge, huge, huge release. So again, it has features the learning management system, which is super powerful. It's on pre alpha right now. So even while people are alpha and beta testing, please be playing with it. Please be trying to understand it. It has its own guide in the documentation. So if you haven't seen that or read that, do so. If this is a feature you're interested in, get started now is the biggest message. It also has a new communication wizard. Now that communication wizard is a % awesome. It is amazing what it does. But because that wizard is so difficult, and because there's so many moving pieces to that, we've opted to release it in what we're calling a preview mode. So in the UI, you will see Communication Wizard, and that's the current one. And then right underneath it, it'll say communication wizard preview. That's the new one. This allows you to look at all the features, play with them without the risk or, I think everything's gonna go well, but we also don't want to impact your church communications. That's just too important, especially with a monumental release of this feature. So you'll be able to play with it right there. We've worked really hard to try to get your current templates to work inside that. Why is that hard? Because we added a lot of new features, a lot of new features. And so trying to keep that compatibility is difficult, which is another reason why we called it preview. But on top of that, there's just so many other great features. There's prayer automations, more and more people are using prayer more and more inside of their daily digital strategies, and we want to make sure that those prayers have privacy features embedded into them, but also that they look good, form are formatted well, and that we can make sure that there's no alerts or moderation that needs to happen. There's also the ability to do the same type of thing with per comments. So we can automate a lot of that. Adaptive messaging is another great feature that I think is gonna be transformative for your digital strategy going forward. It's one of those features I think that's gonna take a while for people to get the vision and then get them incorporated into their site. everything that feature is done, but not done. It's never done. And so we have plans to keep adding onto that. So, , look for those and further releases. The 17 is gonna be huge. We've been working on it for a long long time and we're so excited to get it out the door. Now we've already, , some parts of our team, we've already kind of moved on though. we're already on version 18, up the product mock ups and getting the requirements so that when the developers finish 17 here in the next few days, we know exactly what we're moving on to. And so we're hoping 18 will be a smaller release, faster to get out. We have some internal goals that we're gonna try to hope and hit, but it has some really, really exciting features. Probably almost as exciting as 17. I think 17 is gonna be one of those releases that kind of version eight was to me. It was , that was a huge release. 17 I think is going be one of those, but I think 18 is going be a close second. And so we're really excited about that and be sure to be tuning into the podcast to hear more about that and definitely you're gonna wanna be at RX 20 because that's when we're gonna release and show you a lot of those features. And until then, we might keep some of them kind of private just to build some anticipation. We have brought in a lot of people though to speak into those features. , I've even been out on-site visiting a church, helping to develop one of them. And we've gone back and forth several times and every time we go back and forth, it gets so much different and so much better. And that's really the key, right? That makes Rock great is that collaboration that goes into exactly what's being released. So very exciting for RX and we will talk in great detail about that here in just a minute. But before we get there, just a reminder that it's Rock and Roadshow season. So this is the time and we've put the call out already that you get to host a small event for the churches in your area where you walk through a presentation about what's Rock. And that's everything from the platform to the community, to the model. And it's intended to be an introduction to other churches that are in your region that are nearby to you locally and to give them a chance to kind of get a glimpse into what Rock is. Most have heard the name but may not really understand what makes it different or why it might be a valuable platform for them. This is a presentation that we provide and the event is one that you would host. And then there typically would be a q and a afterward where you can answer questions that they may have. So not a lot of pressure, but a lot of fun and super helpful in growing the community. If this is something that you might be able to host, you just need a room, a space with some light AV options, and and you need to put out and ask to the people in your area because you would know them best. If you could host that, let us know. Reach out. We're excited. We just got the first one scheduled this morning. And so there is plenty of opportunity for more. And so we're we're ready to get going. Just let us know if this is something that you would to learn more about. Yeah. And sometimes there can be a hesitancy , well, that sounds some work or maybe it sounds something that can make you uncomfortable. Because maybe we don't all to stand up and present. But just see that as a way of leveling up, , , sharing what you're doing and helping other churches is gonna have eternal impact. , read through the Bible, every person God calls is , I don't think I'm worthy, I don't think I'm ready. And just know that you are. And I remember back to a lot of points in my life where I literally had to use one hand to raise the other hand to sign up for something because I did not want to raise my hand. So sometimes you need two arms to raise one. And I would say just do it. And the growth that you're gonna get for yourself is gonna be huge, but the impact that you're gonna have is even better. So if you feel even a small little voice saying, , maybe I should, that's God saying do it And cannonball, just jump in, send an email saying, I'm on it, now it's too late. You gotta do And that's a principle I call writing the log. I grew up going to Disneyland, but not writing any of the adventurous rides because my parents weren't into that. So when I got to be older, then rides Splash Mountain, we're , I don't do those. Well, now you have a girlfriend and it's , now you probably need to do that. And so once you get on the log, what's your choice, right? You're riding the log. So all you have to do is get on the log. And after that, physics takes over and you just ride it. And then you do that a few times and it's , no big deal, right? Now today it's splash mountain. I prefer not to write it because I don't to get wet, but the physics doesn't, , isn't scary anymore. So just get on the log. Just sign up, send the email, done. And you'll often find that it's a lot more fun than you thought it was on especially on something this. And another effective strategy is to gather some of the other people that in your region that are also on Rock and bring them in. Have a little get together out of it and kind of share some Q and A together. That's been a super effective strategy as well. It's usually just enough to get you to raise your hand. Yeah. And the more you do it, the easier it gets and then you find that you actually enjoy it. So, I'm feeling many of you should be now turning to your email client and sending in that message. I can't wait to check my email here in the next couple days as soon as this publishes and see the quantity of roadshow interest. And there's a there's a web page for that too. Right? There is. A button they can click? It's rockrms.com/roadshows. There you go. Amazing. No excuses. That's right. Sometimes people are always curious , how do I get to be a Rock star? You get some pretty serious points for hosting a roadshow. I mean, that's close to just being Rock stardom right there. Yep. So if if you need a draw, I mean, , if that eternal blessing isn't enough, the bad the Rock star badge might might might put you over the edge. That's right. Oh, boy. But you do get community points for that. Yeah. And a chip sticker at the conference. Oh, gosh. Maybe that is the what will take you over the edge. That was so when you email, please describe what caused you to sign up. Was it the eternal blessing? Was it the rockstar badge? Or was it the chip sticker? And and and we won't we understand the chip sticker means a lot. For sure. Alright. So what we've been waiting for, what we're so excited about is this announcement about RX this year. RX twenty five is going to be completely different than RX twenty four. And we are very excited about it. There have been some significant changes based on feedback we've had and vision we have for the event that are going to make this something that you just don't want to miss. So John, walk us through a little bit of how we've come to the event as it is today and what's setting it apart. Yeah, we've been very busy. So Rx still has the same name, But just imagine that it's more different than the same. Think of it almost as Next Gen Rx. We kind of that term around here, next gen, we have a whole new next gen platform we're working on, but this really is the next generation of RX. And it's been completely rethought through of how it works. So first of all, let's start with the very beginning. What's the vision? What are we trying to do? Why are we trying to change things? We're not changing things just for the purpose of change, but we have a vision. First of all, we want to increase the attendance. Rx is our primary tool to cast vision about what we do. Rock's a totally different product than most. Model is totally different than most and we need time to be able to cast that vision of why, what makes Rock special as a product, as a community, but also how our model works. We also want to increase leadership participation. That helps us to communicate the value and the purpose of Rock and Spark. That's the selfish part for us. But more than that, it helps you by increasing the buy in of the efforts that you're doing within the church. Yes. Exactly. It's gonna help you by getting your leadership there. This I believe to my core, is that digital ministry is the most important initiative in the church today. And that if done correctly, and if done right, and if done well, can lead to digital revival. Revival is happening. I just saw a thing on X yesterday that said the decline of the Christian church is now officially stopped. Well, every time you have a huge, it stops and it goes up. I think we're gonna see that going up. I think you can start to see that in many of the generations. But these digital products are gonna help amplify that. They're not required because God doesn't need these tools, but it certainly can help put fuel on the fire. So I believe that digital ministry is the most important initiative within the church. That these technologies are misunderstood and not understood by senior church leadership, And therefore, these initiatives in areas within the church are severely under resourced when it comes to human resources people and also monetarily. And so, I believe these three things. So how do we change that? Well, we have to cast vision and by bringing as many people as we can to this conference, I think most of you who are listening to this probably get it, right? But we need to cast vision to those who maybe are busy doing many other things within the church. It's not that they're not working hard or not trying to learn and grow, but maybe this isn't their area of expertise. And so we want to provide those tools for them. The third vision that we have, that we want is, and it's something we've always kind of had, is we want to increase the unprogrammed community connection. I think we can sometimes be guilty in the past at RX of over programming. We're so excited and there's such a limited time that we want to try to maximize. That's a big thing for me. That's one of my strengths is maximize as much stuff as we can in there. And we press and compress. And sometimes it can feel a little bit people say, it's a little overwhelming. And I would say that's a good thing, we're trying to maximize how much we get done. But sometimes that can lead to maybe not You're pushing out some organic community time. And so we want to actually kind of back off a little bit in certain parts of the conference, not the whole thing, but in certain parts we want to back off and just have a little bit more organic time where we can just mix and build community. So that's the vision. So how are we going to do that? Well, the first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna reduce the cost. And not just a little bit, a lot. And so you can go out, you can see what the costs are. I think you're gonna be shocked and surprised. Now, that wasn't an easy thing. It's not just , okay, well, we'll just lower the cost. we can't just lower the cost. Will lose money. We can't afford to lose money on this, right? One thing is it used to be Rx was a funding model for us because we needed it. Honestly, our funding is difficult. We've changed that over the years. It's not so much a funding model and now it's not a funding model. But we also had to make a lot of changes and that has led to things , a venue change. And we'll talk more about that. But it had to be a strategic thing. We had to figure out how do we cut this thing down. We're also going to move out of the summer. You can thank us later. I think I just heard cheering. Yeah. We enjoy the summer, but it's now in September, which is great. And then future years where you're gonna push it back even more. The first year you're limited by what's available, but when you can think further out, we can now then push it back even further. Our goal will be sometime in early November would be kind of where we want to land because Phoenix is amazing at that time. But, September is great too. We also wanna rethink the agenda, of course, I mean, those things, and also a change of venue. And a lot of that was facilitated by the cost, but even more than that, we also want to just change it up. So it just feels fun. And we'll talk more about that a little bit, but let's talk about the agenda because that's the thing I'm really excited about. We reimagined everything. And so we're gonna create two different ways that you can engage in RX. Before there's always run, come for two days with an optional third day, and you get one way to connect and that you now have two. And so we call the first way to connect RX Vision. And that is the first day. And that's gonna be a high impact, high polish one day event that's gonna have all of our keynotes. And it's really meant to make sure that all your leaders go to that. Okay? So now there's gonna be a strategy to that first day. The first thing that we want to get to your leaders is we want to explain what is the future of church digital strategy? And so we're gonna unpack different strategies, how different churches today are leading in that, how AI plays into that, and how that can shape the future of ministry. So we're gonna be going through a lot of those ideas. We're gonna kick off with that. Next, we're gonna unlock how Rock can lead in those areas. So now that we've said, Hey, these are the things that from a digital strategy we should be working on. This is how our product roadmap is leading into that. And we're also gonna announce our latest newest features. So that's a lot of change, right? A lot of change needs to happen. So now we thought, well, how do we help churches manage and lead that change? That's a big one. So we thought we better bring in some big guns for that. And so we are so happy to announce that we swung for the fence and God pulled it off. We are gonna have a guest speaker. We're gonna have Dan Heath, who's a New York Times bestseller. He's written so many transformative books made to stick, switch. He has a brand new book called Reset, which is all about leading your organization through change. It's perfect. So then he's gonna come in. And now that we've talked about what we need to do, we're gonna talk about tools that can help us get there. He's gonna talk about how do we build process? How do we think about and lead that type of organizational change? It's gonna be great. On top of that, we'll then continue on to talk a little bit about the community and have some really, really, a few really high quality breakout sessions, so that you can kind of pick and choose where to go. So we are so excited about RxVision. And again, that's only the first day. That's just day one. Yes. Now at this point, your leadership can choose to continue on, or they can choose a, Hey, fly home. I got what I needed and I'm ready. But for many who want to continue on, they can continue on with Rx Connect. And that's gonna be an additional day and a half. That's really just around community. We're still gonna do a lot of things that we've done in the past, but maybe in a slightly different way. So we'll have breakout sessions we have in the past. But this feel this is when we start letting our hair down. The leadership, many of them are still gonna be there, we hope, don't tell them not to come, but their schedules may not permit it, but we can let our hair down just a little bit, and we can say, Hey, we're gonna have breakouts, we have, there'll be fewer though. In the past, think we've had about 65 breakouts, we'll have a lot fewer. We're probably thinking about , 30 to 40 breakouts. And there'll be even be a little bit different too. Some of them will be single topic by single speaker, we've had in the past. We'll have some that are kind of more about, we're gonna kind of consider more lightning rounds. So people can have five to ten minutes just to present on a specific topic or maybe one project. And we'll just kind of go lightning round, two different podiums back and forth. So we keep the energy up. But I think a lot of people are , I have some cool things to say, but I don't know if I can need forty minutes, or an hour. That feels intimidating to try to feel that. So we're gonna go in those lightning rounds. We're also gonna have a lot more panel discussions where we can put many different voices up there and we can Q and A them, they can share back and forth. We've heard really great feedback from that, from not only the speakers, but also from the audience. So again, we'll bring the number of sessions down, and we're also gonna have some planned community building time, just to help bring people together and share that. So that's how RX Connect will work. Now the venue, I keep mentioning the venue, we had to change venues for cost and also for availability. But also I think the venue is going to be great. It's in Downtown Phoenix. And there's going be plenty of time at night to really have time for food and activities and really assist in that community building. So the food choices downtown are amazing. there's some really, really great restaurants that are very unique and specific to the Phoenix area. Ironically too, there's actually a pizza place downtown that was on the New York Times best pizza in America for several years in a row. Also Netflix special about them. So lots of options that. You could actually take in a Diamondbacks game if you wanted It's literally across the street from where we're meeting. I believe they're playing the Dodgers at that time. There you go. Perhaps maybe the Suns will be playing, don't know, their schedule hasn't been released. But there's a lot of things in nighttime that you can go out to. You can think, well that sounds entertainment. It is, but it's community building. Imagine finding and meeting some friends, going out to having a great dinner and maybe catching a baseball game. I mean, baseball's so boring, you're gonna have so much time to talk with those people. It's gonna be great. I probably just offended a few. I just don't get the game, but it's still fun to go. And it's still fun to have that connection over the game. It's great for access too, because you can just take Light Rail right from the airport. You don't need a rental car. You could take an Uber if you wanted to, but Light Rail goes right from the airport right to the hotel areas. And we have a little video up on the RXs kind of showing you. We sent somebody out to videotape the whole journey right from literally the airport to where the hotels are. And you can kinda get a feel for that. And it's kinda fun. And you can even tap into AI and have AI drive you with Waymo. You could. Does it go I think it does. Okay. Well, we cannot be held liable for your But a lot of people do when they come to town, do specifically go out and take a Waymo ride because we run a few cities that have that. They're actually just kind of entertaining even to watch. You'll see a car driving down the road with no one in it. So let's just wrap it up with a few action items. First, action item. Well, off, obviously go register. The sooner the better. Book your rooms, there's some hotels that we're gonna be posting soon that are gonna have discounted rates. Some of them even have a free breakfast, and get your travel ready. But the most important thing you need to do right now is start casting vision to your leaders. We're gonna be producing a digital flyer that kinda goes through the little points that I was talking about. So that you can use that to kinda help them understand the value to them. But they're not gonna know about it unless you take action. Right. And again, this is gonna be great for them. It's gonna be great for you. But on top of that, it's a great way to connect with them. There's nothing having a few days of travel to really be able to connect with the leaders. And I think when they can see and peek into your area, I know already last year, a lot of people left with their leadership having a new vision of the importance of what they do. And especially they're shocked and surprised by the community that is the Rock community. And start brainstorming who else besides your leadership should come, ? Is there someone in your children's area? Is there someone in your generosity area? Is there someone, you you name it. Bring as many people as you can, we've reduced the price to help with that. And, , finally pray about it. Pray about who all these things about who you can bring, pray that your leaders hearts will be opened and their schedule will be opened. And pray about how you can impact the conference too. This is not just about, , a few people doing it all. This is a few people making the stage for everybody to come and present what God has laid on their heart. So be praying about that. And we're really excited. I don't think we've ever been excited as excited for an RX as we are for '25. It's gonna be pretty incredible. And there will be, as you mentioned, a lot of extra community time. The last day of the conference is technically a half day of scheduled events. But in the afternoon, we still have access to all the space. So there's no need to rush out. If you don't have to, you'll have plenty of opportunities to connect during that time as well. Yeah, I definitely wouldn't. I would just wait till the next day and just have that last half day where again, you can just sit around the conference area and just talk and connect with the people you've just met with. Maybe even throughout the days, could plan to have a few little meetings with people. And if nothing else, grab a few people and go discover what is Downtown Phoenix. That's right. You have to wait a whole additional year before you can do it again. So why rush out? Well, are thrilled about this event that's coming up and there will be additional information continuing to come out on our website. So make sure you go to rx.rockrms.com to stay up to date on what those things are such as hotel links and then increasing information about the schedule as that becomes available. We will definitely push that out there and of course through all of our different platforms. In the meantime, we have quite a few classes coming up. So make sure that you have your Rock skills all polished up so that when you get to Rx and hear about what's coming and what's possible, what's next, you're prepped and ready to go as well. There are two master classes you should be aware of. A virtual class that's coming up next, And we will have another in person master class just before the conference. So you can pack in your one travel expense and get everything Rock all in one two week section. So keep an eye out for those. And don't forget about LAVA class. That's been something that's been really well received and the community has been raving about it. There is another LAVA class coming up this spring that has some availability still. So don't put that off if that's on your to do list. There are lots of options and ways for you to get involved. And what we're talking about today are the ones that are going to invest in yourself and in your growth and in your leadership. So we encourage you to not delay, but to get the registrations you need, and we are looking forward to seeing you this fall. Thanks for tuning in. Be sure to subscribe so you get the next updates on everything about the conference and about Rock. Do a church that loves the idea of using Rock but hasn't taken that leap yet? 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