Podcast Episode 95: Episode 68: Special Edition with Jeremy Hoff

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In this special edition of Rockcast, we sit down with Jeremy Hoff, Administrative Pastor at Shepherd Church who also serves as a member of the Spark Development Network Board of Directors. Jeremy shares our heart for creating technology that can benefit churches everywhere. We're grateful for his years of support of Spark and the Rock community.

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. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Rockcast, the podcast where we kind of take you behind the scenes with the Spark team. And this is a special edition, so we're going to bring an interview with someone who's very critical to the Rock community. So we're very happy to welcome our special guests today, Jeremy Hoff, who is the Administrative Pastor at Shepherd Church in his official roles and has many unofficial roles in the Rock community, and has been a longtime supporter of of Rock from the beginning. He is also a member, a director on the Spark Development Network board of directors. So welcome, Jeremy. Oh, glad to be here. Thanks for having me, and, well, it's always good to talk to you guys. Well, we enjoy talking with you too. We don't get to do it nearly enough, so this is a a fun time to connect. I think it would be great to be able to share a little bit about who is Jeremy Hoff with the larger Rock community, and I'm really looking forward to hearing some more details about, how you got involved way, way back in the very beginning. I know we've had some conversations on that in the past, but, I I can't wait to hear some of those details because I know there's a lot more to it than probably the average person knows or might meet the eye. Oh, well, yeah. I mean, I I was thinking this morning how far back I mean, I met John in, I believe, 02/2008, and, that's kinda where this journey began. But so, personally, I'm a father. I have three biological children. I've adopted one out of foster care, and my wife and I started that journey years ago when we didn't think we could have kids. Fast forward, we we figured that out, but the notion of adoption kinda stuck. And so God God urged us to consider. And so now we have Sammy. Twenty oh, 19 ago, I started working at Shepherd Church as the IT guy. And with that came a lot of responsibilities, and I honestly thought that , I thought it was a little crazy that a church would hire an IT guy. Surprised that they were able to keep me busy as long as they did. I walked in thinking, well, I'll be here a few months, get things settled, and then move on. Oh, that's funny. Because how could a church keep yeah. How could a church keep me busy? That sounds exactly John's story at another church. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and so it was fast forward a few years. I'm still here. Don't don't see a real easy way to to leave or get out, which I think is a good thing. God's been great. And so, , we we started back when there were more people than computers and more computers than email addresses. Now we have way more email addresses than people and way more devices than both of those to combine. So, anyway, it's been a great journey. But in in 02/2008, I met John. I was vacationing in the Phoenix area, and he graciously agreed to, to meet with me. And, basically, I had heard about this church management platform, which we are on the hunt for, and I wanted to to know more about the people behind it, and and he met with me, showed me some really cool stuff. Couldn't believe that a church was working on things geolocation and and just great groups and self-service and all that stuff. And so I was sold. He had a vision, and he knew how to execute, and I wanted him. And so the rest is kinda history, as they say. Wow. That is eleven years ago? That's pretty exciting. So it's there's been it's been a a journey with a lot of twists and turns along the way. Well, it has. So the church management system we had was great. It had a community, and it had so many of the right things going on. But I think, all of us, me especially, were a little unhappy about the, the the cost to join that community. And so it wasn't the every church friendly. And, when I heard another vision from John about trying to to fix that problem, , I was in. And I believe that's when Spark was born is when, John decided that, , we needed to make sure that every church could have this kind of great technology. And, of course, I'm a believer in that. I'm a believer in the local church and what it can do to its local community, and I'm also a believer in what all of us churches together can accomplish when we're all when we're all working together. ? Yeah. You've been with us for the long haul. Well, in in I feel blessed by it. I mean, I looking back over, what, eleven years, the twists and turns along the way, I think, have brought the community a little bit tighter, but it's also I mean, in a way, I feel more resilient because of it. ? It wasn't an easy road for anyone, and yet the I think the fruit is showing. I love that you said great, great platform. Sorry. Oh, I was just really intrigued by the way you said that the the community has grown tighter when at the same time the community has grown so much larger. And I think both are true even though they sound they would be opposites. Well, absolutely. I mean, I'm I'm meeting people from churches that I probably wouldn't have met otherwise. They're doing things that I wasn't even thinking of, and together, we are just so much stronger and so much wiser for it. I mean, I remember just realizing way back that as a church as a church IT guy, I only had so much time. But if I was able to solve a few problems and understand why and then share that why, we could get together with other church, IT folks and kind of swap notes. Well, I don't have time to research everything, but, together, we can share what we know. And if our why matches your why, you've already got the problem solved. And I think that's a really big deal. So when it comes to a community Rocks, , so many people are doing so many things. It's actually kinda dizzying. There's so much going on. It can be hard to keep up. But when you've got a problem, , when you've got that itch, somebody's probably already scratched it. It's pretty amazing. Right. That's incredible. And I'm sure our listeners can hear the passion in your voice when you're speaking about this, which is why you were a natural original member of the Spark Development Network board when it was formed in 02/2011. Yes. So 02/2011, thereabouts, I got the call saying, hey. We're gonna do this thing. Are you in? And it was a real easy yes for me. But I know which what's been accomplished so far, and the vision is there and, , bringing great, great software to the church. And even more than that, bringing a great community to this to the church. And even bigger than that is bringing an ecosystem to the church. I mean, every problem is solvable when we work together. And, , the bigger we are, the stronger we are. But yet, , as you mentioned, we're able to get to know people that we just haven't wouldn't have been able to meet otherwise. It's amazing. It is amazing. It's so crazy to think about the, , the early days when Spark was operating out of tiny shared space, and the community was very small, all the original opt in people and everybody just kind of putting their shoulder into it. To look today, everybody's still putting their shoulder into it, and it's really, paying dividends. It's very exciting. Well, it's exciting, but it's also fun. , I'm I'm kind of a Disney guy, and, , I , what Disney said about having fun doing the impossible. And, , I think in 2011, there was this, hey. Can this really happen? Can this really be done? And I think it would looked impossible, but, , here we are. And today, I would just say the future looks brighter than ever. And so it really is fun doing the impossible. Yep. Exactly. John always says that, we're only just getting started. Yeah. That's right. And, , in the early days, Rock was amazing then. And, , there are milestones every so often. I think, well, this is really good. Can it get better? And yet it just does. , community's better. RX is better. And it was always really very good. So it's just amazing to know that there's there's still, , distance in the runway just to get going. Mhmm. And it's just a lot of fun. There's definitely still a great sweet spot between big vision and an incredible community. Well, that's right. , we work with Daniel who does amazing stuff, but yet behind the scenes, Daniel works with others who not only need their itches scratched, their stuff done, but Daniel's ripple effect goes far and wide, and yet he I get to work with him directly. And I know there are others working in their seats with their ministries, their churches, some even just full on volunteer doing the same thing. And so we've been helped by so many other churches that don't even know they've helped us. Wow. It's fun to it's fun to get together with RX and and meet some of the folks doing exactly what we needed them to do without them knowing it. So, , we win. Hopefully, they win. Together, we're better. And, yeah, it's it's just so cool. That's pretty cool. And just in case our listeners don't know, the Daniel you're referring to is Daniel Hazel Baker. Who's very, prominent in the Rock community. And he was the first, original member of our thousand point club Yes. For chat points and helping people. That's right. That's right. He he has a really high score, and and I'm sad that I'll probably never catch him. But I I need to I need to try harder than I do. But I don't know. He just seems to have taken that and put a bow on it. So good for him. Good for him. But I think it's great that that you and Shepard have been so generous with with Daniel. It'd be easy for for you guys to, keep him completely busy on Shepard only type projects, but you guys have have been very generous in making sure that he's working on things that, yeah, help the the bigger community. Well, Shepherd Shepherd's heart is to share. I mean, we have work to do. We we're in Los Angeles. And as a church, we believe that so goes the Valley, so goes LA, so goes LA, so goes California, so goes California, so goes the nation. I mean, we believe that we're doing, god's work in the LA area, but yet the work doesn't end at a border somewhere. And so to that end, when we were able to, hire Daniel, yeah, it was at the core of his job description that anything he can do for Shepard, try to make sure it works outside our walls. And not just in the Internet sense, I mean, in the in the physical sense. If we're building something that we need, try to make it work, so that any church can can, , use this plug in or or extension or customization. And so that was at its core. But then at the same time, we, , we wanna make sure that he's able to, reach out to other churches because that helps him learn too. And so having a wider vision that goes beyond our our physical geography is really important and always has been. Wow. That's really incredible. I am just sitting here picturing what if every church in the country operated that. I mean, that would be absolutely mind blowing. And then I thought, well, most of the churches in the Rock community are operating that way. So so goes the Rock community, so goes the churches of the world. Right? There you go. I mean, it it's true. Many of them may be doing that without even realizing it. I mean, as I alluded, anybody that asks a question and gets an answer has probably asked the question for many other ministries. Exactly. And the person answering has answered for even more. And it's not just the q and a because that's that little itch that needs to be scratched and helps the church take care of the business for the day, but it's also inspiring to think, well, wait a minute. If we can do that, can we plus that? Can we take that a little further? And it's those bits of inspiration that make the community so powerful because it's not just about answering questions. Mhmm. As important as that is, it's also about, well, wait a minute. , we've got a good foundation in Rock, and Rock is very flexible. ? So out of the box, it takes care of a lot of things. It does all that boilerplate churchy stuff really well. But when people ask a question and see an answer, they see that, , really, it is a box of Legos, and I can build anything. It really is a ministry tool that helps make churches, a little more, I don't know, amplifies their effort, that helps their ministry go a little further, a little faster, a little farther, a little wider, and that is just amazing to see. So, thank you to all the churches out there that have done stuff. You may not realize how much you helped, Shepherd, but, you have. And, on behalf of our church and, the hundred odd employees that are full time, thank you. It's been huge, and, we're looking forward to the next eleven years or so of, of ministry and and the next, century of, of innovation. So, Jeremy, tell us a little bit about your current role right now at Shepard. So some years ago, I was asked to take on a little more responsibility, And so I've done that. My role was IT guy, director of information systems. It was my official title. And I've since taken on administrative pastor, so I still oversee and serve the IS ministry. But, it has since included, , areas of finance, the facility, or audio video lighting, our so called media department Mhmm. And others. So, basically, in an operational role. And, so I've had a lot of fun along the way, have a lot to learn yet, but I've enjoyed that ride. And, so it's it's actually helped me see things from kind of a higher level and a higher perspective. And Rock has met that, lead as well, , because, together, the church actually takes care of things curriculum for our small groups, it helps, take care of sorry. You're gonna ask? No. Go ahead. Oh, sorry about that. So it helps take care of the the small groups. It also has facilities that, , we're trying to automate so we can save time and money and and, , not have costs that we can avoid. Because every dollar we spend on our building is a good dollar to spend because we are part of our local community. But every dollar we can save can go beyond, those walls to the mission community, to supporting great software initiatives Spark and Rock, can, , help us do things that are that are more than just making sure the walls don't fall down. So as great as our facility is, I gotta give props to our facilities team to making sure that, they're not doing anything unnecessary, and that just frees up dollars to do things and help our church make the biggest impact outside our walls as possible. So but so kind of responsibilities that have just been a lot of fun and and being able to play a part in a in a in a big church, with a lot of things going on. It's been a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. And if the Rock community would to know where they might run into you next, might that be at Rx twenty nineteen? I will be there along with, several from our team. And, of course, they can you're welcome to shoot me an email, or, find me on the Rocket Chat. My email is jHoff,h0s,flikeFrank,@ShepherdChurch.com. And, I'd love to hear from them. And, of course, maybe I could plea for people to give me points on Rx even if they're I'm sorry, Rocket Chat, even if they're undeserved. Oh, yeah. You definitely deserve points, Jeremy. Your your history has has tied and aligned so tightly with Rock in so many ways, and and we are thankful here as a staff and as a board for everything that you have poured into, the development of Rock in the community as well. Oh, it's been my pleasure. I mean, it's it's been so much fun. It's been personally inspirational. It's been personally, satisfying to be part of something that's really doing something big. And so my hats off to you guys. My appreciation for you guys being in the trenches and working you do because, , without it, the church would just lack a great option and, amazing software Brock. So thank you for that. Well, we all share different roles and a great privilege, which is to move the global church forward in its mission. And so it's it's very exciting to be working together with you and Shepard and the Rock community shoulder to shoulder to make that happen. And on any journey that we take, , there's gonna be ups and downs. And I think we look at the Rock community, there's a lot of, ups. But occasionally, there's there's downs. And I know whenever there has been a down, Jeremy, you're you're one of the very, very few people I turn to, first call that I I put out to, to get advice and just perspective. And what I always appreciate on every single one of those calls is that you always end it with a prayer. And I was just wondering, would you be one to to close us out here with a prayer? Oh, that'd be amazing. Thank you. Lord, we are privileged, to be awake this morning. Lord, we're privileged to be part of a greater community that you love. And, Lord, we are just so thankful that we get to do what we do. Lord, we get to do this. And as we think of each of the churches out there doing the work they do, I just pray that you would help give each of those church leaders, the volunteers, the staff the kind of energy they need to carry on their mission, the wisdom they need to know what that mission is and how to best achieve that, to listen to your your voice and and direction. And, Lord, we are thankful for groups Spark that aim to help the every church to what they do through software, through ministry, through a community of, minded people, whose sole goal is to introduce, them to your son, Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Jeremy. Thanks for joining us for a special edition of Rockcast. 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.