Give It Up For Tectonic Shifts (Tech Advancements That Have Changed Us + The Next Shift That's Coming)

In this episode, Vance and Zoe discuss major tech shifts that we have witnessed over the past 50 years (specifically within the church space) to ultimately set the stage to share the next "tectonic shift" that is headed our way.

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Chapters

• 0:00 intro
• 3:27 what are tectonic shifts
• 6:12 The implication of tectonic shifts for the church
• 10:37 addressing concerns about crypto security
• 12:40 convenience vs. security
• 15:26 the importance of customer obsession
• 17:55 how Overflow is responding to the need for maximizing nonprofit dollars (by lowering cash processing fees)

Transcript

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resources help accelerate the mission and vision of the local church. What happened in the last 10 years with mobile online giving is what's already happening in the next 10 years with non cash giving in the form of stock, crypto and other non cash assets. Pastor turn tech leader and a millennial churchgoer, exploring the intersection of technology, culture and faith, equipping you with innovative strategies to support you as you live out your calling leader churches with confidence to step into the future together. This is the give it up podcast, XO, I'm amped up, I am actually filming on a Sunday, we just got out of church the Lord's day, actually churches right underneath this because overflow Studios is above a church. We're not new to this, which we do this. This is the bar. This is what overflow is all about. But I'm so just operating out of the overflow. Got my overflow hoodie on, I see that you are one with the brand today. So we're gonna be talking about this thing you like to call tectonic shifts. Yes. No, I don't know if tectonic plates. I think I learned that in eighth grade in your battery, geology, geography, not geometry, something like that. But I'm assuming that's what we're talking about when the plates are shifting. We got Stanford literally right across the street. We know that man. Yeah. tectonic shifts in technology is what the Silicon Valley has been built off. Yeah. Literally. I mean, you were just at a conference recently. are friends at Thrive conference, give it up for Thrive up in Sacramento? Yeah. And you were actually doing part of this talk that I typically do up there. How did it go? It went really well. You talked about this a little bit? Well, what do you feel like really resonates with people? Because whenever me or you get people in a room talking about the overflow story talking about the trends that we're seeing, we're trying to teach people, hey, when it comes to finances, and fundraising for your church, don't fight against the trends, totally embrace the trends. And you were just there during the talk a couple days ago, and you said they were just enthralled? Why? Yeah. So I think what's interesting is, we notoriously know that through the ages, the oldest generation at the time, is usually quote unquote, stuck in their ways. Sure. And it just happened can't teach an old dog new tricks on like that. Something like that. Yes. But I found the complete opposite to be true. The room was filled with people. And there were actually people that came up to our team afterwards. This woman, oh, my gosh, she was so sweet. She had to be in her 70s. But she looked like she was in her 50s. Okay, let's go. And she said, I just love you guys. And I said, Oh, my gosh, she's like, love you to love you, too. She said, You know, I know that most of my generation doesn't want to change. I couldn't be more excited and thrilled. For the younger generation coming up teaching all of us something. I said, wow, wow, how rarely do you hear someone who's older want to be taught something my younger generation. And I legitimately think Charles like thank you for sharing that with us. Because outside of this, we don't hear that. Often. You know, mostly what we do, like you're talking about, we get a lot of pushback. But I found that whenever I was talking about the tectonic shifts, the best way to engage that audience is to talk about the past, which they're more familiar with, yes, we take a historical point of view when we talk about the tectonic shifts, here at overflow and kind of what we're seeing in the space. I mean, if you go way, way back, right, especially in the Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley is called the Silicon Valley, because of the silicon wafer chip. It was this tectonic shift in technology, where all of a sudden, you can now fit compute power into a small chip before that, the computers that they were making, were literally the size of a whole bedroom, just to do a calculation, a simple calculation that you can now do on a calculator. And so the invention of the chip and understanding that you can now put compute power in this chip made way for companies like Intel, right, which is one of the godfathers of the Silicon Valley. From there. It made way to a new innovation, which was the personal computing device, right where it made way for companies like Apple and Microsoft that put a computer on every desk, in every home. Yep. And then from there, it made way to another tectonic shift in technology, which we now know as the Internet. The Internet now could connect all of the devices that were now in our homes and no longer did we mean, just CDs waiting in the mail for AOL to get the new upgrade. And for even just our cell phone or our cell phone landlines to be tied up with the internet connection, but all of a sudden Internet became On the cloud software could be now downloaded from the cloud, which then made way for the new wave, which was social networking companies like Facebook and things like that could not exist without the modern internet. And then from there a big tectonic shift was the old phone, the iPhone, mobile, yeah. smartphones, smart devices, and things of that nature. And companies now could exist like Uber. Uber literally cannot exist without GPS enabled mobile devices. And so you start understanding the companies, if you just drive down the street here in the Silicon Valley, you see, Apple, you see, Google, you see, meta, you see, Amazon, you see, Uber, you see Twitter, all of these are companies that we're simply able to embrace tectonic platform shifts, the new one is going to be AI. But even before we get into that, let's just make it really simple for the local church. Yeah. Right. Because if we talk about finances, if we talk about financial technology, if we talk about getting resources into your church, and why do we believe this is important, because resources help accelerate the mission and vision of the local church? Right, even Jesus was financed by some business peoples and business women. Hello. And so we know that resources are important. How have resources been coming into the church? If you think back historically, just a decade, you don't have to think that long. It was primarily through the buckets. A good old bucket. I grew up in church, okay. Like I said, I'm not new to this. I grew up where it wasn't just even a bucket. It was like, had wood handles. You don't say Do you don't say oh, we're handles with a little velvety? Yes, yes, yes. Like that. It was regal. Like, when we went to the bugs, I thought we were getting cheap. But that, you know, it had velvet and was usually red. It was incredible. And so and so and you would like pass the wood that it was twisted you Yeah, yeah. That's innovation at its finest. That's how we collected the ties and the offerings. Which is so interesting, because most of what came in then was in the form of checks was in the form of cash, coins. And then you had a whole team and the back volunteers. A lot of times, by the way, that's kind of weird. They're like counting, like 1000s of dollars. Okay, anyways, in 70, people volunteered to count the money. Do they go through next steps? Were they saved? Yeah. So so so that's how the the money, the resources, what we used to build the local church. That's how it was collected. Okay, what happened in the last 10 years, what happened was the proliferation of online giving, right, and it was so funny. I mean, 10 years ago, when I talked to people that was building the church back then. And this new novel technology, the Internet, mobile devices, online recurring giving, when that was being introduced, right, people were like, starting to use Pay Pal, people are using eBay, online payments is starting to become a thing. But there was just so much fear, Oh, totally, and intimidation in the local church, people would never do this, they want to bring a check. They want to bring their cash, they like that, you know, interaction with the bucket or with a velvety, you know, bag, and they're not going to trust putting their debit or credit card on a website, there's no way they're going to give through our website. Okay, fast forward 10 years later accelerated by the pandemic, all of a sudden, it goes from 100% of your giving, going through a bucket or a bag system and in person system to now 90% Plus, going through online giving, especially if you wanted to survive in a pandemic, all you could take was online giving. And so what I'm saying is that the same way that there was an internet tectonic shift, the same way that there was a shift in the way that people paid for things, and they're more comfortable with paying for things online, the same way people wanted to now give from their phone. What happened in the last 10 years with giving with mobile online giving is what's going to happen what's already happening in the next 10 years, with non cash giving in the form of stock, crypto and other non cash assets. I'm telling you right now. And so here's the thing. Silicon Valley is a Silicon Valley, not because it just has the smartest people in the world, not because it has a disproportionate amount of resources. Some of those things are definitely absolutely true. But there's other places like New York there Other places like London that have the similar dynamics, what makes the Silicon Valley unique is that they embrace. Tectonic platform shifts, they embrace it, they pioneer it. They're not afraid of failure. They're always pushing the edges and what this could look like and how this can apply towards taking humanity forward. And I'm telling you, if you're not thinking that way, as a church, you are literally missing out. I just wanted to leave a dramatic pause there. To really feel that, you know, I'm thinking about that quote that Alex from the giving block was sharing with us. Yes, because, yes, great. And people are really scared about the security of certain things. Yeah. Which brings another thought to mind which I'll talk about in a second. But for people that are scared about crypto, those fears about the security of crypto are our expired by this point, right? Because he's told us directly that the FBI was quoted as saying that they wish every type of financial fraud course was on the blockchain. Yeah, that's right. Can you explain why? Yeah, because essentially, the blockchain is a ledger that cannot be messed with, right? It is forever going to be on the blockchain. The problem with centralized Ledger's is that there could be corruption, right? The problem was centralized, Ledger's I mean, if we even just think about the central banking system, we've seen some of the most reputable banks in the world, they fall they fail. And what happens all of a sudden, all that data that was centralized, right, can just go away. Right. Ultimately, what we find with centralized systems, is that they can be corrupted, they're controlled by a few. The thing with decentralized technology, like the blockchain is that it is verified in a trustless environment, I'm going to use some of these terms, you don't have to know all these terms. Basically, in layman's terms. It's a public ledger that everybody can see. And that is verified by the masses so that people cannot mess with it. And so why the FBI is saying that innovations like blockchain are really useful and have a lot of utility is because if you've committed fraud on the blockchain, and you've transferred money from one place to another, and there was some illegal activity there, there is now a forever record of it. And so if you haven't been caught, and you've committed fraud on the blockchain, it's just that somebody hasn't looked into it. But they can Yeah. Rather, you know, or instead a centralized system, it can be tampered, or things can be hidden, and things of that nature. Totally. You know, I just had this interesting thought about convenience versus security. Yeah. And I do feel like they're at odds with one another. And what I think most people don't realize is that our bend is convenience over security. I mean, we could talk about the whole FTX scandal. Yeah, that happened. Convenience, over security. True. People didn't even think twice about it. They're like, No, it's like, so big. It's gonna obviously, like take care of itself. Yeah. And what I do appreciate about church leaders CFOs, who really are adamant about security, is that thank you for taking care of your people, because you're looking at in highlighting something that they might not even be thinking about, right? Because they're looking for the most convenient way. I mean, we know that 90% of giving today is done via debit, credit card. Yep. Convenience, over security. But at the same time, any financial company that is doing their job correctly, is already making sure that the security is excellent. And I like I want to brag on our team for a minute because it's so good. We have the highest security. Yeah, possible. Yes. Because we're thinking of all the things that you want to think about to protect your people. Yes. Those companies like ours, that are out to protect people, really shows that. It's not about us. It's about funneling the vision facility you have Yeah, so good. Yeah, I mean, security is so important. I mean, we do everything at overflow sock to compliance, PCI compliance, we are as transparent as possible. We work with some of the best providers and partners in the game to ensure one of the safest platforms on the planet, especially when it comes to handling not just traditional credit, debit, which we do transactions, but the complex transactions, which are security stocks, and even things like crypto that is bringing us into this new age of innovation. And I love that I do think that, you know, as you think about as you're a church leader, as you're a pastor leading your flock leading your congregation You know, the thing that you have to think about is convenience, you have to think about user experience, right? You have to think about security, these all should not be at odds with each other these all should be thought of what's so interesting is that one of the things that make the Silicon Valley the Silicon Valley is customer obsession. I was listening to this conversation that the CEO of Airbnb was having, and he is so laser focused on their customer. He eats, breathes, sleeps, his customers needs his customers pain points. And they're committed at Airbnb, to continue to even reduce what they're focused on. So that they can continue to make every stay, they can continue to make every host, they can continue to make every interaction more than even just a transaction. But a place that you make a core memory, that you can find a new place that you can belong in that new space. In the same way our team is so laser focused on the problems of a pastor or problems, an executive pastor, a finance director, and accountant that we're constantly, we actually invited some people just a couple of weeks ago here, to understand their pain points at a deeper level so that we can build that in the software. And if we can do that, in the places and spaces of where church is growing and where resources are funneling. Just imagine a world where that generosity is now frictionless, that those barriers are almost minimal, so that the intent cannot meet the action. That's what technology does. That's when we embrace innovation, let's leverage these things. These are tools, a lot of these things are a moral, we don't have to be scared of it. Right, right. And if we actually get our theology, right, what I mean, the Bible makes it clear God is sovereign over all of it. So we don't need to be scared of it. Right? If God is sovereign over all of it, our curiosity should actually lead us to not being afraid. But being curious about how God wants to use this. Yeah. And I really love that you're talking about that user experience, too, because one thing that I just saw Airbnb is doing now is because of the economy, which at the date of airing this, it's May of 2023. Yes. They have just started posting single bedroom stays right? At the top in response to the economy, right? Correct. And they're not making maximum dollar on that. In theoretically, if they were out for solely money, those would be buried at the bottom, exactly. The list. And so talk about like, hearing and seeing your customer. I mean, that was just like such a brilliant move. And the same is said, I love that because it's a response. Yes, it's a response to meet people where they're at, right. I mean, this is hot off the press, some people at the conferences we've been at, are starting to know about this. But I just wanted to clear over this podcast right now that we are also in the same way wanting to respond to the economy, yes, wanting to respond to what our customers need. And what we are hearing emphatically is that in an era, where every dollar matters even more, because some of it for some organizations are scarcer than they were in the past few years. So they have to make $1 go further, that processing fees is something that people operators, nonprofit leaders, church pastors, and executive teams have been concerned about, is they're starting to see their bottom line, and they're starting to look at the merchant processing fees. And they're starting to see that three for certain providers, maybe even 5% of every dollar is going to merchant processing. Fee, it's a lot. It depends on if it's a max or Visa, MasterCard, or, or whatever the card type might be, and whatever the dynamic might be. But on average, you're seeing a range of three to 5%. Getting taken by merchant processing fees at overflow, we now serve our customers with the lowest fee cash processing. And I'm so excited to tell our customers about this. I was so excited to speak at a conference recently about this. And you could just see eyeballs, just like eyebrows raised, eyebrows are popping, because people know that that's going to make a difference, right? We can save on average up to a percent and for certain organizations even more every single time. And you're talking about that at scale. That's crazy, right? Yeah, that for every million dollars, you're saving $10,000 You're for every $10 million. You're gonna save $100,000 We're talking about in a few years as you start processing and I'm not just even talking about giving if you have a cafe if you have event register ations that you're running for your organization's we will save about a percent across all of those transactions. And I'm talking about in a few years getting six figure savings for your organization. What does that mean? That means that you have more resources in your bottom line to go towards outreaching to the community, hiring key staff, extending the kingdom of God, which you were created to do. Yeah, I love it. It's such an exciting time, because money is flowing a different way than it has before. And if you just ride that wave, it is not going to just resource your church better, but resource, the Kingdom at large. I love that your congregation you can look out and proactively meet needs of your church, the more resources you have on hand. Yes, I love it. We were just at a conference. And one of the big highlights was how certain churches were doing things like served a and you know, partnering with their community, whether it's in response to a tragedy, or whether it's a fixture within their community, partnering with the homeless, partnering with single moms partnering with people to get job placements in their community, whatever the need might be. That was the purpose all along of the local church is to meet needs to be the hands and feet of Jesus. And the more and more you can unlock net new giving opportunities to have your church rise to this occasion, the more and more you can provide net new savings opportunities to be better stewards of all those resources that are coming in. Just imagine, just imagine what can be possible. Yeah, it's exciting. It's an exciting time, because you can see what happens when people get this revelation, right. When you talk about these tectonic shifts at large, and then you talk about the tectonic shift in the church. Nobody can deny what they've seen the past 10 years. That's right, from switching from cash to credit, debit. And so it becomes an undeniable truth. Oh man, another tide is coming of the tide is coming and you need to ride that wave overflow. Thanks so much for listening to the give it up podcast if you want to receive even more insights on church innovation, culture and giving. Now you can sign up for free to be an overflow insider, where you'll receive exclusive content discounts direct access to Vance Roush to get your questions answered. And also invite only access to our monthly fundraising leadership forums, head to overflow.co backslash insider, or just click the link in our bio to sign up for free today. In order to get this podcast in the ears of even more church leaders. Could you please subscribe and leave a review for the show. This tells the podcast players what people are enjoying and want to hear more of and we are adamant about providing maximum value to even more church leaders. Thanks so much. We'll see you next time.