Podcast Episode 105: Episode 77: Thankful

Description

In this latest episode of Rockcast, we'll take a moment to share some exciting updates and what we are hearing from our beta testers about the upcoming v10. In celebration of the season, we will also share some of the many things we are thankful for.

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 to Rockcast. This is the podcast that tells you all about what's going on with Spark Development Network and with ROCCRMS. We're very excited because this gets to be a special opportunity this time of year. It's about Thanksgiving, and we have a lot to be thankful for. So we're going to kind of talk through some updates for you. And then we just are going to take the opportunity today to talk about all of the many things that we're thankful for. In fact, we probably can't get through them all. So we will hit the highlights. I'm Emily Forman. We have Jon Edmiston and Nick Airdo. Yeah. Looking forward to this one. It's you said, the holiday season, everybody's in the the right thought processes. It actually feels some years you go through this season and you just kind of you're so fast and everything goes and you realize you just missed it. I feel this is gonna be a different one. I think it'll be a little more reflective this year. Yeah. Still fast. Going on. But reflective. So, Nick, tell us what is going on with our current release schedule. Well, I'm thankful for ten one making it out of alpha. So not only did ten o come out of alpha into ten one, they're both now in beta. So we are, we just started that, I think, this week. And we have so many new features in ten o that it's a little overwhelming for the, beta testers, and and it was for the alpha testers. So I'm thankful for for that team, and I'm thankful for ten o getting out the door. It looks there's good traction on that beta testing already. I've seen some, , small, small issues come in that we're fixing already, and that's really, really encouraging to see. Yeah. Definitely. We we got to use our RSVP system when we sent out the, notice for the beta testers, so we got to actually see them sign up to do testing. It was pretty neat. That's cool. Yeah. You're beta testing with real features. Yeah. And then I had a beta tester say, hey. This doesn't look right. I'm , well, we're in beta. Good. It was just a little polish on the landing page, which we took care of right away. Yeah. It's pretty awesome. Yeah. It was fun. The beta testers have definitely been hard at work this year, this season. Yeah. With nine and ten and Yeah. I feel slightly abused them a little bit, but we love you guys. And and, , that's the the role you're fulfilling for this team. Well, there's no way to if you're a beta tester, to consider the work that you've been putting in this fall and not realize how high impact it is. Right. I mean, you can't miss that. Yeah. Absolutely. And it seems there's a lot more people who are even considering doing more beta testing with their real systems ahead of time. So We have heard some of those conversations lately, which is great. You really couldn't have too many beta testers. Yeah. Yeah. As people have realized, it's not that hard to make a copy of your existing system, make it a test system. A number of people have done that. So that was kind of an awesome and thankful thing. It's really a good thing to do too, because it allows you to see to do the update on your real data to see it ahead of time, kind of takes away the nerves of actually hitting that update process in production later. Absolutely. Yeah. I'm a very big proponent of that. Everybody should learn how to do that if you're a Rock admin. Yeah. Or maybe if you're working with a partner, maybe you could have them incur, , get them as part of the retainer or whatever they do for you to to set that system up for you. Now, again, not only are doing a service for the community, but you're doing a service for yourself at the same time and being able to test those features on your data. That's right. Because the way you use a certain feature or your particular dataset could affect Rock very differently than the way anyone else is using it or what their data may look . So it's in your own best interest to to test that. Actually, you probably will test it at some point as it comes in. So why not test it? In a way that benefits everyone? Sometimes we make these features and we have an intended use for it, and then you see an issue come in later for a way that you never would have, , assumed that someone would use it that way. And it's it's a great idea, but it's just the creativity within the community is is is pretty incredible. And we actually had a chance to see some of that creativity live and in person this week, which was a nice treat for us. Typically, we're within our four walls knocking things out, getting them done, but we had the opportunity, a few of us, to take a trip to the Indianapolis area this week and connect with some of the churches there that have been running on Rock, moved over in the last year or two, and take part in one of their regional community events. So that was really exciting. Yeah, there's a lot going on in that one city. There's so many churches have moved to Rock. It's really pretty incredible. Right, there's so much momentum. And the crazy thing is, as we talk to some of these churches, it wasn't that they synchronized their movements all at once. They came to Rock through different avenues, but at the same timeframe in many cases. Right. So that community is is a pretty new one in terms of Rock communities, and it's kind of sprung up together, and and it's great. And they're really working on connecting together well and doing a great job at it. Yeah. And now connecting and and getting together in person. And we actually got to go to one of their, regional meetups when there's 50 people in the room. I know. It was incredible. That's almost the size of our first conference. Yes. It is. And I loved the the concept they had. Rob Howell got up at the front, he was one of the people that helped put that together along with Thomas Stevens. And he said, , our goal here is for about, I forget if it was eight or 10 people to come up and share some quick ideas that people can take away and implement right away. Doesn't mean you have to do it, but to see that you can make big impactful things happen in short times, and then to have the tools to do it if it's something that lines up with where you wanna go. I really liked how practical that was. Yeah. It a a great time and great time just to connect deeper with with those people in the community. I mean, a lot of them we saw at the conference, but there's just not time to, , spend as much time as you want with every single person. So I think that really afforded us a chance to to really meet and talk and and actually kinda see see their home. Know? Got to go to some of their churches, and it's just always great to see them in their house, and it just feels feels cool. I know. I wish we'd had time to stop in at all the local churches there, but unfortunately, schedules are always more rushed than we'd . If we just looked at numbers, I would have said before we went on this trip, wow. We have a very high saturation of churches that are Rock churches in Indianapolis. But driving around, that is not the case. There are so many churches there. It was really incredible. Right. Right. And then some of those meetings that we had, , one on one inside their churches, it was just incredible to hear the stories of how they found Rock, how they got to Rock, how they got on Rock, and then the stuff that they're doing now. And there's just so much, again, creativity going on with how they use Rock, it's encouraging to see it actually in use and to hear about the difference that it's making within their ministries. Right, and to hear someone say, which they did this week, know, Rock is really changing the way our church is able to minister to people in a great way. It's having that kind of change. And then it's not really just a toolset, right? We're talking about ministry. And so that's exactly what it was intended for. That connects identically with the vision that was cast in 2011. And it's really exciting to hear about that firsthand. We don't always hear about that And I think that same theme was almost at every single church that we talked to is that the difference that their church is after moving to Iraq. And I think that success has to be internalized not by a single team Spark. That that success is because of everybody in the community doing their part, whether it's helping to answer questions in Rocket Chat, whether it's, helping add to or or push forward, the documentation, connecting with people on the phone to tell them about Rock. That's what's unique because, , , if there's a good version of Microsoft Windows where who to give the accolades to, probably Microsoft. Right? But that's not true within this. It's not because of a vendor. It's not because of even one nonprofit. It's because all these nonprofits are working together to push this forward. Exactly. And I'm gonna give you a little plug here, John. If you follow John on Twitter, you probably saw a really cool picture that he put out this week. Do the post it note? Oh, yeah. Have to share that story. That's a really great one. Yeah. So Northview. Right? -huh. We're at Northview, and okay. So I'm I'm trying to get the story right, but correct me if I miss something. So I suppose there that there was when they before Rock, they had lots of different systems. Mhmm. And there was one ministry that really liked kinda what the system that they had. It was kinda working for them, , so why why why move someone's cheese? But, , they rolled out Rock, and they they did the great thing. They didn't force anything. They said, let's look at this and encourage them, show them, did a nice convincing. And now that person is such a Rock fan that they printed up post it notes for the whole staff that said, if it if it's not in Rock, it didn't happen. Right. And he he personally paid for those Post it notes himself. When he when they told the story, I was , oh, yeah. I I figured he wrote it on the Post it note. I was , oh, that's cool. It took some time. But, no, he paid, and each person got a stack of post it notes that says, if it's not in Rock, it didn't happen. And, I love that. Yes. That was a a one eighty from where he had started. And it really was just seeing a couple things. One, Rock implementation team handled it the right way. And two, over time, he gained trust both in the team that was rolling it out and in the system because he saw results. And so he was just encouraging the others on the team , hey guys, you gotta see what's going on over here, and you gotta see it from this perspective. So to go from a position of skepticism to being one of the biggest cheerleaders is pretty cool. I think that shows that people's resistance, it always is articulated through a product. That's not what they're resistant about. They're resistant about success. They want to keep being successful. They're using words describing the product because the product is helping them be successful. So just make sure that that it's not people don't don't just get so tied to these pieces of software. They're tied to what the software does for them. And but I think we always hear it's because of the of the the the vendor name on the front. Right. It's not just don't move my cheese because I'm it's working. Right. , don't take away my success. That's a really cool story. There's lots of of cool stories when you get out there and hear what's going on. And I think, again, we we say this again, story, the power of story. You have to tell stories. , there's so many stories told at Rx that you need to be telling your people on why you should be using this software. The news spring one about the teenager who commits suicide. You have to go back into that content and hear that story because you can use that at your church as a way of explaining facts and figures don't change people's thinking. Stories do. Right. And the stories that are happening live real time at your church, no one else knows about them. If you elevate those stories and show share them with people, now the impact that they're having is exponential. So don't keep your good stories to yourself. Right. Right. I mean, that one story from newsprint that they shared, which again, go find it in the Rx, has already impacted several people. Mhmm. I mean, every time I tell that story, there's a 90% chance the person's gonna crying by the time because it's that impactful. And you can hear it over and over, and I I still have the same reaction. It's always , oh, shivers. Right. Yeah. Yep. So that was a pretty incredible and successful trip, I would say. Yeah. And the weather kinda put us in the in the Christmas spirit. That's right. Was it below zero or snowing? No. Just missed the very cold weather the weekend before. So, yeah, it wasn't really that bad. But to us, being from Phoenix, it was very cool. Yeah. And they're all putting up their Christmas trees, , the lobbies. It was fun. They'll see that. Yep. Yeah. I just found out Thanksgiving is late this year. It's in in a later week, so I think people are missing it, and they've already started not waiting for Thanksgiving to happen. Right. Yep. Definitely. So these are some great things that are going on and put me in the thankfulness mood, but there are so many other things that we can be thankful for this year. I mean, it's just mind boggling. Let's talk about a few of what those are. What do you think, Nick? Well, the one that immediately comes to mind is just the the team that we have here that we've God's brought to us. They've just been working extra hard, and no one's told them to work harder, but I've noticed a lot of people kind of working later and wearing more hats, helping get things done around here to advance the, just advancing our strategy. And in particular, they're taking an ownership mentality, not an employee mentality. It's not just a job. They're , they get the mission that we're on and that I'm just super thankful for that. Definitely. It's really cool to see there are so many different skill sets and positions here. And it's the same thing we talk about in the community, right? On our team, there are different skill sets, experiences, and to see all of those being used for the right reasons to connect to a mission that's really helping people in furthering ministry. It's something that not everybody gets to be a part of, . Most people hold a job, not everybody gets to be connected to something that's bigger than themselves. And it's challenging. I mean, it's Oh, yeah. It's not the pace and the the all the responsibilities. It it can get a little overwhelming. And and so many new things. Right? Even the people who've been here for a long time, there's so many new things that you gotta learn. And I don't think the percentage of new things you have to learn goes down around here as you learn them. No. I think there are actually more and increasing new things to learn all the time. Right. But it is it is plenty of impact. Definitely. Going home at the end of day knowing that what you're doing is is making a difference. And I think that's what we talked about what happened in India and Iraq's having this impact on these churches in a major way that also comes when I hear that, I'm , yes. At the same time, , oh my gosh. There's so much responsibility. We can't we can't mess this up. So sometimes that puts a little bit of extra stress on you too because you're , wow. There are lot of people relying on us. Right. Yeah. Definitely. Because together, we will have success. You can't have success without a lot of people working hard to push it forward, but you can have failure with just a couple people doing it wrong. That's true. True. Unfortunately. That's true. So We're not gonna talk about things we're not thankful for though today. No. I'm thankful that that hasn't happened. Yes. We're on a good track. We got good people thinking the right way Right. Pushing hard. And so Yep. We definitely always have an eye for how do we improve things? How do we circle back to this thing that didn't maybe go perfectly the first time? Again, everything's new all the time. So we jump in, we do it, we circle back, and we we it's interesting. We ask a lot of questions as a team or as individual small teams when we accomplish something. What went right? What went wrong? And why? And I'm I'm thankful for those kind of conversations too, because that allows us to take lessons learned and apply them in ways that benefit everybody. Yeah. So we talked about being thankful for those on our team, but we've also touched a little bit about being thankful for the community because this would not be here if it wasn't for the community and all the people who just love Rock because as if it's their own because it is their own. Mhmm. , there are owners in this whole experiment. Yeah. I I would add to that. Sure. We have our team, but our real team, the community team is what, 10, a hundred times larger. Oh yeah. Easy. Not 10, hundreds times larger. Much larger. The people that impact me in my role here are the testers. So I'm really thankful for people stepping up. And it's hard work. Setting up an environment, going through the checklist, , checking all the parts of Rock that they're aware of is hard work. So I'm super thankful. And they have to hit our deadlines too. I mean, we try to work towards some deadlines on things and Yeah. And they don't maybe realize it, but we we consider them part of the team. I mean, they're just John said, we can't do it without them. We in fact had to hold 10 from going to beta because we were waiting for our team to get going. And I I I just would love to impress on them that we don't just take them for granted. We don't take you guys for granted. You are part of the team, and you we want you to feel that you're part of the team as well. Yeah. And also the Rock stars. Yep. Alright. Thankful that they've been growing and for everything that they do. They do so much. We run so many things by them. They're, , testing new things on our community site, giving us feedback. Coaching one another. I've seen a lot of that. Coaching new Rock stars for next year. Yes. They're investing so much in people. They're coaches and guinea pigs all rolled into one. We're so thankful for them. Yep. And then the people who lead those regional user groups, , thankful for the people that have kind of responded probably to the vision that you're getting from God to to do something that. It's that obedience. And while we were there, Nick, you weren't on the trip, I wanted to share something with you too, and I think everybody would to hear about it. But it was really Rock started in one of those community groups Mhmm. Because in the Phoenix area, long long time ago, your former supervisor, Phil James, put together one of those community groups. He was kind of the catalyst that got us all started, , back then, all the mega churches or big churches working together. And Rock wasn't born in that meeting, but the spirit of it was. The spirit of community and collaboration definitely was started there. Yeah. You're absolutely right. That's how I met you. Right. That's how we met. Yeah. And it's for sure that if that hadn't been put together, we wouldn't be where we're at right now. In fact, we might even be this might not be a product. But and so that's really cool. , that should encourage people to do it. But I think the other thing that you can learn from that is that group died. Right? Some things shifted, people weren't in the same roles. That group's not around anymore. Right. And so you can't take it for granted. You have to make sure that you're constantly keeping the momentum on that community and that collaboration going, because it can die. Yeah. As much as when in a good time, you think, well, this will always just be this. It's not. If you don't put gas fuel in your gas tank, it won't go anymore. Right. So, yeah, the IT spun out, split into, , the website, which kinda morphed into what has now become a little bit Rock. I mean, I think I see the IT part that died, and then the web part kinda morphed. I don't wanna think of the website as But those those churches aren't meeting anymore. Is that is my point? And that , I think that's close to coming back. I think there's some people in the valley now who are who are gonna bring it back and that's that's really cool. Exciting. Yeah. So I'm thankful for the the church IT round table because they helped nurture me and some of this early web stuff that also became Rock. And and the these local regional IT meetings gatherings can kinda hook into that church bigger church IT roundtable. I forget what they're called now. IT network. Yeah. Mhmm. Yeah, definitely. , it's exciting at the conference every year to see the sheer number of people that are there, not because you measure growth with statistics, but because those numbers and those faces and those people represent stories of ministry impact and of change and of really just spreading a new way of looking at how technology can impact ministry. And so when you look at the numbers changing, it's it's really exciting to consider what that really means. But even more than the number of attendees, the thing that really impressed me and that I'm so thankful for at this last Rx is the number of community speakers that we had. The number of people that we did not have to chase down this past year, which was something new. Yeah. We were fielding requests right and left to be able to speak and share things that they learned and things that made a difference with their people, whether it was staff or attendees this year at the conference, and we just had to keep adding tracks. And it was really incredible. So I'm so thankful, one, that we do have that growth because it means that good things are happening in the right places. But even more than that, I'm excited that the growth isn't just with passive people. We're seeing a real growth in leadership, and we're seeing a growth in people who are willing to put effort behind, moving something important forward. And , there are a lot of groups that you can be a part of, clubs and and things you can do to fill up your time or to put a little badge on your backpack. But when you decide to really roll up your sleeves and dig in, there aren't a lot of places where you can have the exponential impact that you can with Rock, and there are so many people that are doing that now. And I'm really thankful for that because Rock would not be what it is today without that. Right. It seems to me that everything that we've talked about being thankful for is people. That's true. It's the most important part of it all. Yeah. I think that maybe a final thing too is and this definitely comes from people too. It's just the model of Rock that it's it's working, that it's a crazy model. It's not an easy model, but we feel it's the right model. Mhmm. But I can't tell you how many times we've we're told that won't work. , literally, flat out to our face, that won't work. That's great, but that won't work. Right. And at a certain point, it's hard not to a little bit believe it when you keep being told that it's not gonna work. But we just felt , nope. We'll keep marching. And it is working. But it works because of people. It works because of people. But at the end of the day, I mean, we had plenty of time to evaluate. Does this model make sense? Every time this kind of conversation would come up and someone would tell us, you guys are ridiculous. That's a dumb model. , so we is it dumb? , but you circle back and you think, do you think Jesus showed up on Earth and said, what's the easiest way for me to do this thing? ? Yeah. I think Satan tried to convince him there was an easier way. Right. Yeah. I mean, I just can't imagine that conversation. And if God and Jesus has had that conversation before he came to Earth, I don't think it would have been the path that everything took. Right? I'm sure there was an easier way, but not in love. Right? His way was the way that showed the most love. Right. And it was optional. Yeah. You had to, , freely accept. But it's so yeah. I mean, and the model is not by any means done. Right? So we're not No. It's not it's time to light off the fireworks. No. It is we are continuing to lean in and to to really invest in, okay, what does accessibility mean? What does community mean? What does innovation mean? How do we continue to add craftsmanship? And the answers might be refined over time, but they certainly aren't changing or moving from that original vision. And the model is hard. But if it was easy, the world would be full of it. Right. Yeah. But hopefully by us maybe pioneering the model that someone else coming next would have an easier time. It's , oh, we've seen that model before. Well, it's a lot the Rock model. Hopefully that there'll be other people who can come down the path and do similar good things with models that aren't that are different. They are different. That are people forward. Right. And charitable towards churches modeling the you always say, the the it's the same process pattern that the church uses. Right. my will. Yeah. Definitely. The last thing I would throw out, just be to wrap it up maybe for being thankful, I'm I'm thankful for you guys. I mean, you guys have hard jobs, and there's a lot of stress. And it's hard. It really is hard. There's a lot of stress to do it, and you guys have stuck through it. You guys have persisted even the times when it looked it wasn't gonna go, and that it would've been easier to just turn away or go do something else that you've persisted over all these years is something I'm super thankful for. Well, and we're very thankful for you and for your vision that you continue to put behind this. I mean, you keep saying it's not easy and it isn't, but it is, it's pretty incredible thing to be a part of. Yeah, absolutely. It's rewarding and for sure, John, everything that we're dealing with, you're dealing with at least double. So we're appreciative of you and we understand that. Well, bottom line, we are very thankful for the Rock community. We're thankful for each other. And, , a lot of people have to do a lot of hard things, but to do hard things that make a big impact, , that's where it's at. Thanks for being a part of that. Do a church that loves the idea of using Rock but hasn't taken that leap yet? With managed hosting, churches of any size can get access to Rock's amazing technology, hassle free. With just one click, Rock's managed hosting removes the roadblocks that might stop a church from switching to Rock by making the process simple. Churches get the ease of a SaaS church management system without losing any of Rock's powerful features. Are you ready to take the next step or share with another local church? Visit rockrms.com/hosting today.