June 23, 2025 • 36 mins
In this special panel from the Bless God Summit, Ruslan KD sits down with some of the most influential Christian YouTubers—David Wood, Inspiring Philosophy, What Do You Meme, Nate Salah, and God Logic Apologetics—to talk all things YouTube, faith, and calling.
They dive deep into how each of them got started, what it takes to grow a channel in today’s saturated landscape, and why authenticity matters more than fancy gear or a viral strategy. From early struggles to finding their niche in apologetics and cultural commentary, each speaker shares real stories, practical advice, and hard-earned wisdom.
If you’re thinking about launching your own channel—or just want to know what it’s like behind the scenes of Christian creators who are shaping conversations around faith and culture—this episode is packed with insight, laughs, and encouragement.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
They will know if you're being fake or not.
So if you're getting on there tobe famous, it ain't going to
work. If you're getting on there is
like Dallas Jenkins was saying, and.
Then at some point YouTube recommended me one of his old
videos and the old video was I finally reached 1000
subscribers. It was something like that.
And so like a thousands of Mr. Beast man.
Anyway, I clicked on it was one of his old videos and was
(00:21):
probably I. Mean those of us that have been
on YouTube for more than five years, it was a lot different
five years ago than this day andon top of that today is.
How have you guys seen the algorithm change in your time,
the audience change, the YouTubealgorithm change?
And do you guys think it's been for good or for bad?
Bruce LON. All right guys, this is a clip
from our very first Blessed God.Some of that just happened in
(00:43):
March 2025. Leave us a comment.
Let me know what you think aboutthis sort of style of content
and make sure you're subscribed.We looked at the back end
Analytics found a huge percentage of people that watch
this channel unfortunately are not subscribed.
OK ladies and gentlemen, we are going to get into an amazing
conversation with some of your favorite Christian Youtubers
(01:03):
from all over the world. We have the wonderful Mike Jones
from Inspiring Philosophy, Nate Sala.
Sean McRae from What do you mean?
(01:28):
David Wood and God Logic Apologetics.
All right, everyone's settled. Let's get your mics, pull your
(01:49):
mics nice and close up to your to your, to your face.
Nice and close to your face. No, we want to hear you chew,
David. All right, let's make sure
everyone's mics on. Let's make sure everyone's mics
on. OK, so I want to, I want to
launch with the idea of leveraging YouTube as a
Christian. And you guys have all started at
(02:11):
different times. I think David would you're
probably you've probably been the most consistent on YouTube
out of everyone here. I feel like Mike Jones, John
Mccrae as well. And then they Sala your channel
recently blew up. Like I logic, your channel
recently blew up, right. So there's a there's a wide
spectrum of experiences of even niches, like all of our contents
(02:36):
different, right, which I think is fun that we're all here
together. I really just threw this, this
this whole conference so that weall can hang out for the
weekend. So I think for the person here
that's watching what we're doingand considering jumping on
YouTube, considering releasing videos, maybe they're into
apologetics, maybe not, They're not into apologetics, but
(02:59):
they're watching, they're inspired, they're dreaming and
they they want some practical guidance for this.
Where would you guys start? David, you've been, you've been
doing this the longest. Where would you start in terms
of YouTube and and what to consider and how to count the
cost? Check, check, check.
(03:20):
Yeah. So back when I started, there
was significantly less, you callit competition, in terms of
people who are posting Christianvideos or responding to
different groups and so on. And so it was significantly
easier back then to get started than it is now because there's
(03:41):
so many YouTube channels. You know, the big question is
why are people going to click onthe new guy who's coming along,
right? They're already they're already
watching they're already watching God logic and so on.
So why are they going to watch you?
So you have to actually figure that out.
And probably the biggest issue to, to, to, to solve that little
mystery would be, you know, what, what kind of topics you
(04:04):
want to cover. You kind of want to zero it in.
And people think people always make new people always make this
mistake of being like too broad what they want to cover because
they want to reach every as manypeople as possible.
So I want to reach something that's relevant to everyone in
the world. And that is a horrible,
horrible, horrible idea because if you're covering 10 different
(04:24):
topics, guess what? For each of those 10 different
topics, there's, there are channels that specialize in
those topics. And so when someone is
interested in that topic, they're going to go to the
person who talks about that all the time and not to someone who
talks about it occasionally, butthen talks about 9 different
things that you're not, you're not really interested in.
And so you, it's better to actually zero in.
In other words, if you were thinking about what kind of
(04:46):
channel you wanted to make and you say you want, let's say you
want to make a baking channel, you want to make a channel
that's about baking. If you were to ask someone who's
starting what's better to have achannel about baking or let's
say vegan baking, almost anyone would say, oh, baking in general
because more people are interested in baking than in
than in vegan baking. But yeah, there's tons of baking
(05:08):
channels, whereas vegan baking, yeah, it's a narrower topic, but
people who are interested in that are probably only
interested in vegan baking. So if you're the channel that's
vegan baking, that's the vegan baking channel they have to go
to, they have to go to you. So if you're talking about
Christian apologetics or evangelism or polemics, you,
(05:29):
you, you kind of want to figure out what you're, what you're
going to focus on, what your target audience is and kind of
specialized in that. So kind of figure out what you
want to what you want to do. It's good vegan.
Apologies, vegan. Apologetics I.
Like it? I, I'd say one of the big things
to do is, you know, you got to focus on, you got to just be
(05:52):
yourself, first of all. And that's really cliche to
hear, but we live in a very skeptical age and people are
getting information thrown at them all the times and they will
know if you're being fake or not.
So if you're getting on there tobe famous, it ain't going to
work. If you're getting on there as
like Dallas Jenkins was saying earlier, that you're going to
just provide some bread and fish, good, go for it.
Don't get on there with the ideathat I'm going to become the big
(06:14):
star because I don't think any of us ever expected that we
would be up here. I, my original goal was to get
1000 subscribers and I thought Iwould be good.
So that was in like 2012. So you got to think like how can
I help? Where do I see a need?
What am I passionate about? And then go there and focus on
that is your main goal. Not this goal that I got to get
(06:37):
big, I got to get real big. There's there's another thing to
add to this as well. A lot of people feel like they
need a lot of things to get started 1st and really all you
need to do is just turn your camera on and go.
So a lot of people they're like,oh, I don't have this yet or I
don't have this editing softwareyet or I don't have this yet.
But really, if you have the idea, you have it on your heart
(06:58):
and you know what you want to doand talk about, turn the camera
on and speak, be yourself and just go and just do it.
And you'll get better over time.But there, there will always if
you have the mindset, oh, I got to get this particular camera
first or I need this particular mic first.
You're going to always need a particular thing first before
you feel ready. And you won't never, you will
(07:19):
never feel ready. Yeah, I just, I just want to
piggyback on that because quality can be subjective, but
if you have if you have the content, it it, it quality can
almost be a secondary. So like I've seen some of your
videos and or your videos and they're not like necessarily
well lit. You guys have adjusted and
changed. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
(07:43):
I. Knew I knew it was coming I.
Knew it. Hold on, hold on.
Hold on, hold on. Hold on, hold on hold.
On Hey, he's learning, he's learning.
Thank you. Hold on.
What I'm, what I'm what I what Iwas trying to say, make.
Make it worse or something. What I was trying to say.
You saying you're doing a good job, You're doing a good.
I'm doing a. Good job, but don't.
It just doesn't. Do a great job.
You're trying. You're trying.
(08:04):
Is some of that stuff is secondary if the content is
good, the content is good, yes, right and.
There's an There was an old saying among the the previous
generation to try to figure things out.
They said content is king. Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, that's it. And so I've seen viral videos
from people that are experts in a field, yeah, that are shot on
(08:24):
the on an old front facing camera.
Yeah, right. Front facing iPhone and I've
seen highly produced videos thatwere shot in $100,000 studios
with no views, right. So the the the quality aspect
has to be secondary to. Do you have anything valuable to
add? Exactly.
Do you have the substance of thecontent?
(08:44):
And I think it's worth noting onthat too, high quality is going
to be contingent based upon youraudience.
So what do they consider to be quality content?
So it's like meeting their needs, you know, so like going
back to say example with the baking channel for that audience
that you're targeting vegan, vegan baking for stay at home
moms, you know, So what they consider to be high quality
(09:06):
content is what appeals best to what they want to see in the
content. And so that's how you want to
kind of look at it is like, whatvalue are you giving them and
who are you talking to? And then that's going to really
establish what would be high quality to them.
And then when it comes to like the aesthetics, that's something
you can always improve, but people don't care as much.
If you're going to work on something, just make sure it's
audio because that's what peoplecare the most about.
(09:28):
And individuals and effects and all that stuff can always come
later. That's how that's how I started.
I started with audience I, I, I started YouTube when I was 42.
I'm 89 years old right now, but.Hey, hey, you don't look at day
over 88. But no, but I was a pastor
before I started doing this and so, and it's the same thing with
(09:48):
pastoring and preaching is like you have to know your audience,
you have to know your church, you have to know the
congregation. I took some time first to think
about who would watch what they needed, and then I started
thinking about content. Well, what was interesting about
your channel was that a lot of the stuff I saw earlier was you
reacting to debates as a former debate teacher.
Yeah. And you were a Christian.
(10:10):
Yeah, right. And you had some apologetics
background and you had some pastoral backgrounds.
And so it's like the more of these things that intersect, the
more interesting your content becomes, the more you become the
niche around something versus saying I want to just do a
baking show. No, no, no, you, you let you
loot different interests together.
And I think that's what gave youkind of that initial spark to
(10:32):
get you to that. I think it was like 10 to 20,000
subscriber range. Yeah, that's that was me
starting off looking at the space and realizing that at the
at the time, Matt Dillahunty some of R and raw rest in peace.
They were they were the ones whoa lot of YouTube thought were
like trashing Christians and andpawning them and all that stuff.
(10:53):
And so I realized there was an opportunity.
And on that, I mean, like, notice how the he's cultivated a
personality about who he is on YouTube.
Some of you that follow us, you'll know like Avery is the
guy that's going to go and debate Muslims on his lives.
David is the guy that's going tostomp over Muslims and is going
to make you laugh. And then there's John and then
there's also roost. No, I'm kidding.
(11:13):
John is John, you know, he's going to bring you cultural
stuff, very, very important stuff.
You know, you're going to go to roost on.
You get a lot of also hot topics, cultural kind of stuff.
So people are going to know, oh,that's the kind of guy who's
going to cover this topic and that's what I want to go to.
So you got to be you're going tobecome a certain like
personality that is in line withthe channel and the type of
(11:34):
content you're bringing. I.
Just I just want to add one thing to what Avery was saying
as far as like getting started and not focusing on all these
things. You might need to have some sort
of ideal setting and so on. Because several years I never
really watched Mr. Beast except for like I would occasionally
click on, hey, I'm giving $100,000 to random people or
something like, oh, let me see this.
But anyway, I watched a couple of Mr. Beast videos back when he
(11:55):
really took off in popularity. And then at some point YouTube
recommended me one of his old videos.
And the old video was, I finallyreached 1000 subscribers.
It was something like that. And it's like 1000 Mr. Beast,
man. Anyway, I clicked on it was one
of his old videos and was probably the worst YouTube video
I've ever seen. And so I I knew why and then I
(12:17):
looked and it was like his 200 and something video either
either he had like 100 or 200 videos that he made before that.
So it took Mr. Beast, consideredone of the greatest Youtubers of
all time, 102 hundred videos, something like that to reach
1000 subscribers and he was making terrible videos.
The thing was he started off making terrible videos and
(12:37):
focused on improving them littleby little and so on and figuring
out what works in monitoring what, what, what people are
reacting to. And so he was kind of in it for
the long haul. But notice he didn't start off
as Mr. Beast. He started off making videos
where he was at and with his ability and just focused on
continuing to improve over time.So, so one related issue to that
(13:00):
is finding something you're really interested in and
passionate about because it can take a while.
It can take a while to, to get afollowing on YouTube and there
are going to be times again, theprevious the, the, the older
Youtubers, we called this the pain period when you're making a
video and you think, wow, this is going to do great and it
(13:20):
doesn't because people just don't know who you are and so
on. And so people give up.
People give up. And so you want something you're
passionate about, you have to decide, OK, I'm going to, you
know, I'm going to stick with it.
There are, there are always times when you realize something
just doesn't work. And so you can, you can decide,
OK, I'm going to go in a different direction.
But once you really decide what you want to go, you have to
understand ahead of time, this is going to be difficult work.
It may take a long time, but I have to stick with it.
(13:42):
So you want something you love and stick with it and just focus
on wherever you're at and then improving overtime.
And that's that's how it works. Yeah, let me, let me just give
you guys a macro idea real quick.
I think we're in a real time shift where the, the things that
people are connecting with is less about brands, Nike, Adidas
(14:04):
and more about people who represent things, right.
And so like, like Nike sales areactually down right now.
Like it's, it's, it's, it's taking it.
So there's less and less consumer behavior connected to
like this arbitrary brand and more about a human that I trust
that I can then go and partner with their nonprofit and become
(14:27):
a a monthly giver. I could then go and buy a
product they have. I can then go and do an
affiliate that they recommend, right?
And so if you're thinking about launching anything, consider
like the reality that like everyone has ATV on their phone
and we can literally all have our own TV channel.
(14:47):
But you don't need to start out with this.
I want to be famous in a year philosophy.
Start out as a as something that's a passion project to
document what you're learning, to document your process.
And then in and if you want to launch that thing, you could
have a home base to do it. And the beautiful part about
this, and I'm sure you guys haveall seen this.
You guys would be shocked on howmany new channels I see on my
(15:11):
YouTube home screen. Yeah, yeah, YouTube is
prioritizing new channels and new creators and, and I'll be on
my home screen and I'll look andit'll be 13 views.
Yep, 17 views so. They actually have an
opportunity right now that. Yeah, yeah.
Like, like, like we've never hadthis before, right?
So if you're thinking about it, like really consider the the
(15:31):
opportunity that's presented, like YouTube is prioritizing new
creators. If you have a dream to build
something, anything really, YouTube is a great place to be
there for the visibility in the relationship of said thing.
And then you can move along thatjourney.
Whatever it is, everybody's thing could be different.
The monetization model could be different.
The the structure can be different.
Some of you guys are ministries like your actual ministries and
(15:52):
people are monthly partners. Other you guys are are are just
S corpse or LLCS. Everyone's situation can be
different, but the model is you need an audience to push forward
whatever it is that that's at the end of that.
Ministry or not, I feel like this is service.
It has to be service. If you're going to start a
YouTube channel, it has to. You can't just do what you're
(16:15):
good at because that's just a flex.
You have to figure out the intersection of what you're good
at, but then also what the need is, which is what John was
saying. And right at that intersection
that that to me is that servanthood.
Yeah, yeah. Well, I think I think what just
piggyback of both, both you guysare saying you're launching
yourself and so you want to be, you know, relatable and you're
(16:38):
relatable when you're authentic and when you are you really
yourself in your field. Like with me, I think that I get
the comments all the time that I'm I'm a relatable apologist.
Like I'm just I'm your normal dude.
I don't speak super, you know, high level like IP or somebody
like that, you know, some nerd or something like that.
(16:59):
You calling me smart some. I'm calling you nerdy.
A 1922 study has shown that I am, in fact, not a nerd at all.
The Greek the Greeks never really believed that holding
this. Little cup, where would you
morons be without me? But, but being relatable is
(17:23):
extremely important, being your authentic self.
And so when I'm out there talking to Muslims or Jehovah's
Witnesses or atheists, I'm literally talking to them.
Like, you know how I would talk to anybody on the court or the
street, you know, just a cool dude.
Like I, I, I want, I care about,about you.
I care about you getting this truth.
And I don't want to run you off either.
(17:44):
I'm a generally be your friend. Like I'm going to talk friendly
to you. And a lot of people relate to
that. And that's what I, I think has
helped my, I guess, platform, you know, being relatable.
Yeah, I mean, when when I started out like I I didn't want
to be that at all. Like I people forget I didn't
show my face or say my name for five years.
(18:05):
That was wrong. Don't do that.
But I was, I didn't want to be apersonality.
I mean, that's not what I ever wanted.
But I mean, like that is very important for people to connect
with. So when I did start showing my
face more like I. Thought you were black?
Really. Thank you.
Oh my God. His his room is not well lit.
(18:33):
I was trying to. Hide in the shadows.
You got to put yourself out there.
Jesus put himself out there for us.
He was exposed and exploited. You got to put yourself out
there for the gospel. And I resisted that for years.
And he forced me into that direction.
(18:55):
And it's it's been more helpful for people is what I have found.
And I all your all your originalvideos which are just like
graphics and you talk. I thought he was 14 years old,
completely serious. I was thinking like, this guy is
this sharp AT14. Imagine, imagine when he
graduates high school and then goes on, he's going to be the
(19:16):
greatest, whoever lived. And then I see him.
He's like, what? He's a trillion years old, but
yes, Oh no, here, here's here's a this, this actually ties into
the content thing because when Isaw his approach, I was like,
this will never work. He's not showing his face.
It's never going to work. There's something about
connecting people when like wherever I go, I hope people
always walk up to me. I feel like I know you and it's
why because you've been, I've been talking like speaking
(19:38):
directly to you if you're watching it.
And then you know that just thatthat connects with people.
And so he didn't have that. I thought, this will never work.
This is this guy's never going to.
It's not, it's just not going tobe, it's not going to work.
You're not going to reach people.
And but he did. Why?
Because he was, it was awesome content.
It was awesome content. So he was actually able to
overcome that by producing awesome content.
(19:58):
But yes, and then he improved even even even more by showing
his face, which I can see why hedidn't, but wow, let me.
He said I was cute earlier. I I said that.
Oh, OK. Let me just give you guys, let
me just give you guys 3 words that I think could help reframe
(20:20):
this. If you're, if you're hearing
some of this language and you'relike, I don't know, this feels
like self promotion. I'm not sure do I want to do it?
Consider this, YouTube is the public square.
YouTube's made the world smallerand YouTube can really just be
an extension of other social media if you scaled it
correctly. But here's there's three unlocks
that I recently heard when we say things like content, right?
(20:42):
It's a, it was a really, really stale word.
Content, content. I, I would, I, I, I think of
content as just messaging, right?
There's, there's messaging, there's story that that content
is just what is the message that's out there, right?
So we're using technical terms because we're Youtubers and
that, that, that that's how we'dspeak.
But constant is just messaging. Another word that gets thrown
around a lot is personal brand, right?
(21:03):
Like that sounds so stale. Personal brand, like what am I,
life coach? Like personal brand, brand is
just reputation. Yeah, your brand is just your
every single one of you has a reputation.
It it it precedes you, right? Every single one of these guys
has a reputation that preceded them.
That's why they're here. That's why I know I can go in
for an ask and ask you guys to be here for my first event.
(21:23):
Your reputation precedes you, right?
And and the last one and this this might be the the unlock.
You're welcome, Avery. This might be the unlock for
many of us. That that word algorithm, right?
The YouTube algorithm, it changed a way to reframe.
That is the algorithm is just the audience.
So the algorithm is just a mirror to what people are
(21:46):
searching. That's how YouTube now puts
videos in front of people. They search something, they
search something related, and YouTube goes, oh, it looks like
this person isn't to this. I'm going to give him this
video, right? And so I think when we demist
the size, some of these words and we start thinking about,
Hey, everyone has a reputation in here and it's getting to the
place where if we're talking macro economy, like you need a
(22:08):
job, you got to be on LinkedIn, right?
You need to be at you need to beaccessible on social media.
Hey, you meet somebody and and you're interested in going on a
date. What's your Instagram?
I'm not comfortable giving you my number yet.
Let me let me do a little research on you, right, The
messaging. Everybody has a message, right?
And, and, and the algorithm justbecomes the audience of what's
(22:29):
already out there. So those of you guys that have
been doing this a little longer,I think specifically would Mike,
John, how have you guys seen thealgorithm change in your time,
the audience change, the YouTubealgorithm change?
And do you guys think it's been for the for for for good or for
bad man? Oh, I mean, what if you go way
back in the day, the algorithm was just, it was judging things
(22:51):
like how many people clicked on a video And if if people clicked
on the video, it would keep recommending the video.
Well, that encouraged what clickbait, right?
Scarlett Johansson pics naked and you click and there's
nothing there, right? There's something else, right?
But people clicked, but people clicked and therefore YouTube
kept recommending the video. So, so YouTube eventually
(23:15):
figured out a way to make something that's, that's more
relevant because people are getting ticked off that they're
clicking on things in there thatare just click bait.
So then it started factoring in watch time as, as a, as a
counter to that, because people who click on click bait, then
they find out very quickly it's not what they're looking for and
then they click off it. And so they're on the video for
like 2 or 3 seconds. So it started saying, OK, once
(23:36):
people click, how long do they actually watch this?
And so then you got a much better balance because now it's
taking how many people are clicking and how long they're
watching. That's a better assessment of
what people are interested in. But yes, just never forget about
the algorithm. What it is now, the, the primary
task of the YouTube algorithm isto keep people on YouTube as
(23:59):
long as possible because the longer you're watching, the more
ad, the more, the more ads are popping up, the more money
YouTube is making. So the, the goal of the
algorithm is to give people whatthey want, what they're looking
for. And so it's reading what you're
interested in and then constantly bombarding you with
more of what you're interested in.
So, so you stay on that and so if you want to, if you want to
(24:22):
be on YouTube, you want to be aware of that.
You want to be aware of that because as people are deciding
what to what you want them checking out some some good
Christian content. And just adds to that too, that
there's actually another stage. So the first one was where it's
like click was the first goal, then it was watch time.
Now it's satisfaction. So people have to be happy that
they watch the content too. And I don't know how they track
(24:44):
this now. They were doing surveys for a
while. They were also tracking
engagement and stuff. But they're still, I mean,
YouTube still says that that's one thing that they're really
tracking is make sure that the viewer is satisfied after
watching the video. So yeah.
You also have to actually followthe culture a little bit.
So like back in like 2011, 2021,TikTok was blowing up.
So what was YouTube doing? They're pushing YouTube Shorts.
(25:06):
We want creators to make shorts.And they were like penalizing
channels that we're not making shorts.
Then TikTok started to fall off.YouTube is king again.
And what are they doing now? Live streams, because it's
building up. What John was saying is when
people are doing live streams, they're sending in super chats.
They're engaging with their creators.
That keeps them happy. So people come on my streams,
(25:26):
which we do Mondays, and people put in like.
When do they do it? And people put in like
reoccurring jokes we've had running on the streams they'll
bring in, they'll put in super chats about things like that
because they want to come back. They want to laugh about the
things we've said in the past sothat you got to follow the
culture. What is YouTube pushing right
now? I guarantee, I guarantee in like
(25:49):
a year or two years, it's going to change again.
So just keep you keep your thumbon the culture.
Yeah, and just to add, YouTube has announced that it has
surpassed 1 billion monthly active viewers of podcast
content. That's crazy.
Wow. 2021, the craze was we got to compete with TikTok.
They pivoted. So now it's podcast content and
(26:13):
podcast content. Interesting enough people
usually listen to stuff when they're driving to work.
Most people have a commute or it's called it's it's called
keep you company content, right?Some of you guys will throw on
one of our streams, one of our podcasts, one of our long forms
and you'll you'll be doing dishes and cleaning the house
and you just want something to keep you company in the
(26:34):
background, right? It's soothing.
I this is going to sound weird and it's going to sound weird.
Just be careful. Sometimes I'm I'm when I have
trouble sleeping I'll legit put on.
God logic, I knew it. No, no, no, no, no.
(26:55):
And and here's the point guys, when?
No, no, not you. If you if you have insomnia, put
on God logic. I think you would make my
insomnia. This is what This is why they
call the God Logic Show Audio Ambien help you get to sleep.
No, no, no, I'll legit put on the I'll put on a David Wood
video or I'll put on a Mike Winger video and it and it'll
(27:16):
be. Now let's bring Mike out.
Mike, come on. Now we know you're lying.
Now we know you're lying. Next year.
They don't want David Wood anymore.
Mike Winger. I I tried really hard to get
Mike. Winger yeah, but then his fans
(27:38):
are going to show up and they'rethe worst.
He he calls them wingalings. I mean, come on, it sounds like
he's calling them dingalings. This is the guy who people think
I'm a psychopath but this? No, so, so, so I, so I say that
to say keep you company content when when someone is when
(28:03):
someone is going through a a a hard time, when someone is going
through a mundane time, when someone just needs something to
keep them company, you can be a part of that for them.
Yeah, right. And that's, that's really
powerful when you really think about it.
It connects, right? And so as people are discovering
stuff, we're seeing that 44% of Gen.
(28:25):
Z right now are saying that they're Jesus curious.
Yeah. Yeah, it's amazing.
So they're Jesus curious and they, and they search something
and then YouTube keeps track of their search and they go, oh,
they searched this thing. And then John Mccrae has a video
about this thing and we saw someof their other search results
(28:47):
there into Jesus. And then they service a John
Mccrae video to them and then they hear about it.
And then maybe they, they, they discover the whole ecosystem of
us Christian Youtubers. And then they go, oh, maybe I
should like check out a church. And then they show up to your
church, right? And then and guess what?
Even if you're not on this stagewith us today, right, Even if
(29:07):
you have 0 desire to do anythingwe've talked about today at all,
we've been dreaming. These people need to be
discipled. And here's the punchline.
We cannot disciple them through screens.
We cannot do the disciples. We cannot pastor people over the
Internet. I know like home church bedside
(29:27):
Baptist pastor pillow, like that's the thing.
But the, the discipleship is going to happen in churches and
you're going to see people show up to your church that have no
Christian background. We're seeing a huge influx in my
local Church of we call them thenuns and they're showing up.
They don't have a Bible. They can't tell you the Old
(29:49):
Testament from the New Testament.
They don't know who Paul is, right?
And they're showing up the churches and, and, and, and
this, this is not going to happen just over Christian
YouTube. This is going to happen at your
dinner table. And so as, as we close, give the
audience some insight on that from your perspective as
Christian Youtubers and how we can all partner together to help
(30:14):
usher in what well, I believe it's another great awakening
that that's what that's what I'mI'm going to call it right now.
I think, I think it's, I think we're there already or we're on
the cusp of it. Give some final closing thoughts
on how we could all work together through this moment.
Yeah, I'll say just before we get to that too, just to
capitalize off what he's saying,we really are in a unique time
right now, not just because of the technology, but also because
(30:35):
there is now a new kind of hunger and thirst for Christ and
to learn about Christianity and that sort of thing too, which is
kind of unprecedented. We know.
I mean, those of us that have been on YouTube for more than
five years, it was a lot different five years ago than it
is today. And on top of that, today is,
you know, in Jesus's day, peoplewould go to hear new ideas on
hills or that sort of thing. And Paul's day was Mars Hill,
(30:58):
right? And today it's YouTube and
that's where people are getting a lot of new ideas from.
So when we say we're influencers, we really do help
to really influence the culture,you know, and so we can
influence them with good ideas that really have to do to lead
people to Christ and stuff. So that's why it's good for
those of you that are thinking about doing YouTube, I mean do
it because the more people that we have out there that can
really influence is just it's really just a blessing.
(31:20):
So I'll. I'll add I'll add some of that
piggyback. Enough what Ruslan said.
This is actually backed up by statistics.
So I just did 2 live streams in like the past two months that
were on this topic. So one of them was on the latest
study in the United States and what you saw is people
identifying as Christian went, there was a steady decline for a
(31:42):
long time until the past four years when it's been going up.
And the idea is that when the when the numbers were dropping,
it was actually people who already didn't take it very
seriously. They may go to church or
something. They're basically saying, I
don't really believe this stuff.So let's let's go away.
And the kind of bait you kind ofleveled off at with the people
who take it seriously. And then it started and then it
(32:02):
started going back up. But I did a live stream with a
researcher in the UK. He was shocked by what he found
because the idea was they thought each generation is
becoming more atheistic. It's actually the opposite.
The oldest generation was the most likely to identify as an
atheist. The youngest generation were
least likely to identify as atheist.
And but here's the thing, it doesn't mean they were
(32:28):
Christians. They're identifying as like
spiritual or, you know, I believe in God, but not in not
in religion and stuff like that.But also they're the most open
to hearing a case that is presented to them.
We are basically in like this, this this golden zone right now
where the predictions of the newatheist that they made 20 some
(32:48):
years ago, hey, if we just get millions of people to become
atheist, society will become so much better.
OK, we've tested that. Show us anyway that millions of
people becoming atheist has madethe world better in any way.
Name one. They can't.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali called out Richard Dawkins for this.
She said none of your predictions came true.
None of your predictions came true.
And so that's when we're in. People are realizing it.
(33:08):
It doesn't work. It doesn't work.
It can't sustain people. It can't sustain a society.
So they're looking for somethingelse.
Simultaneously, you've got what's called the avalanche of
apostasy in Islam, meaning that over about the past 20 years,
the apostasy rate among young Muslims went from around 0% to
24%. And so that's like this as far
as prostacy rate. So we are right now at the
(33:29):
perfect time. We're at the perfect time.
People are hungry. We've got sheep without a
shepherd. And so let's introduce them to
the. Shepherd, I was going.
To real quick, we've been on, I feel like we've been on the
fence for the past like 1020 years.
I feel like now is the time to go on offense.
We need to, we need to go out there and do it and we can't do
it alone. We need all of you and all of
(33:50):
you watching. That I was the the point on that
guys, listen, some of the most proudest moments that I've had
as an apologist is when I would pop open tick tock and I would
see a Christian on a Muslim stage using an argument that
they've learned from us. And so you'll see on TikTok and
(34:11):
it's it's large TikTok. They'll have posts like, why do
Christians worship a Muslim man?Jesus is a Muslim.
And I've been doing this, You know, I've been hardball in that
topic for the past like year nowand the arguments is like
extremely simple, break it down,asking simple questions.
Jesus is a Muslim. OK, How do you know?
How would you prove that to me? Right?
(34:33):
Oh, we can go to your Bible. OK, cool.
Show me and to show us where Jesus prayed, that question is
where? Who did he pray to?
He, his father. OK.
Is Allah his father? No.
Oh, so then he's not a Muslim then.
OK yeah. And so now we're seeing
Christians hop on TikTok with these like dawa guys who are,
you know, usually cooking the average Christian.
(34:54):
These Christians are going up and saying is Allah father is
all our father and they can't answer and they'll say, OK, then
Jesus is not a Muslim, but they're taking our arguments and
using them. So what we're doing is we're
equipping you guys use it, use it.
We put the sources on the screenfor a reason.
We lay out the arguments for a reason.
And if we can get like a bunch of you guys to not just watch to
(35:17):
be entertained and by man, you know, David, he did good there.
No take notes, take notes and use it.
Go teach somebody. That's how you help us.
They will give you the last. Word if, if, if I can.
So my my YouTube channel is a living example of it.
I was just talking to Avery about this before we came out
because he asked me, what do youdo?
I was like, I read the Bible on YouTube.
(35:39):
If you can, for those of you that want to start a channel
because I do this, they're talking about Jesus curious
culture, right? Bring the scripture into it as
much as possible. When Jesus was tempted in the
wilderness, he quoted the scripture back to the devil and
one of the things that he said was man shall not live on bread
alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
That's right, as much as possible on YouTube, bring
(36:01):
scripture into it because it will bless those who hear it.
Amen. Amen.
Amen. Any final closing thoughts?
Subscribe to God logic apologetics roadshow.
What do you mean? Why is disciple inspiring
philosophy and who are you again?
Bruce Lancake. Bruce Lancake.
Ladies and gentlemen, our amazing channel.
(36:28):
So let me know what you guys think about that.
And again, if you want to be thefirst to hear about the second
Bless Got Summit, go to blessgotsummit.com.
Sign up for the waiting list. It'll make sure that you get
first access to discount early bird tickets as well as the
lineup before anybody else. All right, Bless Got summit.com
or click the link somewhere overhere.
All right, I'll see you over there.
They will know if you're being fake or not.
So if you're getting on there tobe famous, it ain't going to
work. If you're getting on there is
like Dallas Jenkins was saying, and.
Then at some point YouTube recommended me one of his old
videos and the old video was I finally reached 1000
subscribers. It was something like that.
And so like a thousands of Mr. Beast man.
Anyway, I clicked on it was one of his old videos and was
(00:21):
probably I. Mean those of us that have been
on YouTube for more than five years, it was a lot different
five years ago than this day andon top of that today is.
How have you guys seen the algorithm change in your time,
the audience change, the YouTubealgorithm change?
And do you guys think it's been for good or for bad?
Bruce LON. All right guys, this is a clip
from our very first Blessed God.Some of that just happened in
(00:43):
March 2025. Leave us a comment.
Let me know what you think aboutthis sort of style of content
and make sure you're subscribed.We looked at the back end
Analytics found a huge percentage of people that watch
this channel unfortunately are not subscribed.
OK ladies and gentlemen, we are going to get into an amazing
conversation with some of your favorite Christian Youtubers
(01:03):
from all over the world. We have the wonderful Mike Jones
from Inspiring Philosophy, Nate Sala.
Sean McRae from What do you mean?
(01:28):
David Wood and God Logic Apologetics.
All right, everyone's settled. Let's get your mics, pull your
(01:49):
mics nice and close up to your to your, to your face.
Nice and close to your face. No, we want to hear you chew,
David. All right, let's make sure
everyone's mics on. Let's make sure everyone's mics
on. OK, so I want to, I want to
launch with the idea of leveraging YouTube as a
Christian. And you guys have all started at
(02:11):
different times. I think David would you're
probably you've probably been the most consistent on YouTube
out of everyone here. I feel like Mike Jones, John
Mccrae as well. And then they Sala your channel
recently blew up. Like I logic, your channel
recently blew up, right. So there's a there's a wide
spectrum of experiences of even niches, like all of our contents
(02:36):
different, right, which I think is fun that we're all here
together. I really just threw this, this
this whole conference so that weall can hang out for the
weekend. So I think for the person here
that's watching what we're doingand considering jumping on
YouTube, considering releasing videos, maybe they're into
apologetics, maybe not, They're not into apologetics, but
(02:59):
they're watching, they're inspired, they're dreaming and
they they want some practical guidance for this.
Where would you guys start? David, you've been, you've been
doing this the longest. Where would you start in terms
of YouTube and and what to consider and how to count the
cost? Check, check, check.
(03:20):
Yeah. So back when I started, there
was significantly less, you callit competition, in terms of
people who are posting Christianvideos or responding to
different groups and so on. And so it was significantly
easier back then to get started than it is now because there's
(03:41):
so many YouTube channels. You know, the big question is
why are people going to click onthe new guy who's coming along,
right? They're already they're already
watching they're already watching God logic and so on.
So why are they going to watch you?
So you have to actually figure that out.
And probably the biggest issue to, to, to, to solve that little
mystery would be, you know, what, what kind of topics you
(04:04):
want to cover. You kind of want to zero it in.
And people think people always make new people always make this
mistake of being like too broad what they want to cover because
they want to reach every as manypeople as possible.
So I want to reach something that's relevant to everyone in
the world. And that is a horrible,
horrible, horrible idea because if you're covering 10 different
(04:24):
topics, guess what? For each of those 10 different
topics, there's, there are channels that specialize in
those topics. And so when someone is
interested in that topic, they're going to go to the
person who talks about that all the time and not to someone who
talks about it occasionally, butthen talks about 9 different
things that you're not, you're not really interested in.
And so you, it's better to actually zero in.
In other words, if you were thinking about what kind of
(04:46):
channel you wanted to make and you say you want, let's say you
want to make a baking channel, you want to make a channel
that's about baking. If you were to ask someone who's
starting what's better to have achannel about baking or let's
say vegan baking, almost anyone would say, oh, baking in general
because more people are interested in baking than in
than in vegan baking. But yeah, there's tons of baking
(05:08):
channels, whereas vegan baking, yeah, it's a narrower topic, but
people who are interested in that are probably only
interested in vegan baking. So if you're the channel that's
vegan baking, that's the vegan baking channel they have to go
to, they have to go to you. So if you're talking about
Christian apologetics or evangelism or polemics, you,
(05:29):
you, you kind of want to figure out what you're, what you're
going to focus on, what your target audience is and kind of
specialized in that. So kind of figure out what you
want to what you want to do. It's good vegan.
Apologies, vegan. Apologetics I.
Like it? I, I'd say one of the big things
to do is, you know, you got to focus on, you got to just be
(05:52):
yourself, first of all. And that's really cliche to
hear, but we live in a very skeptical age and people are
getting information thrown at them all the times and they will
know if you're being fake or not.
So if you're getting on there tobe famous, it ain't going to
work. If you're getting on there as
like Dallas Jenkins was saying earlier, that you're going to
just provide some bread and fish, good, go for it.
Don't get on there with the ideathat I'm going to become the big
(06:14):
star because I don't think any of us ever expected that we
would be up here. I, my original goal was to get
1000 subscribers and I thought Iwould be good.
So that was in like 2012. So you got to think like how can
I help? Where do I see a need?
What am I passionate about? And then go there and focus on
that is your main goal. Not this goal that I got to get
(06:37):
big, I got to get real big. There's there's another thing to
add to this as well. A lot of people feel like they
need a lot of things to get started 1st and really all you
need to do is just turn your camera on and go.
So a lot of people they're like,oh, I don't have this yet or I
don't have this editing softwareyet or I don't have this yet.
But really, if you have the idea, you have it on your heart
(06:58):
and you know what you want to doand talk about, turn the camera
on and speak, be yourself and just go and just do it.
And you'll get better over time.But there, there will always if
you have the mindset, oh, I got to get this particular camera
first or I need this particular mic first.
You're going to always need a particular thing first before
you feel ready. And you won't never, you will
(07:19):
never feel ready. Yeah, I just, I just want to
piggyback on that because quality can be subjective, but
if you have if you have the content, it it, it quality can
almost be a secondary. So like I've seen some of your
videos and or your videos and they're not like necessarily
well lit. You guys have adjusted and
changed. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
(07:43):
I. Knew I knew it was coming I.
Knew it. Hold on, hold on.
Hold on, hold on. Hold on, hold on hold.
On Hey, he's learning, he's learning.
Thank you. Hold on.
What I'm, what I'm what I what Iwas trying to say, make.
Make it worse or something. What I was trying to say.
You saying you're doing a good job, You're doing a good.
I'm doing a. Good job, but don't.
It just doesn't. Do a great job.
You're trying. You're trying.
(08:04):
Is some of that stuff is secondary if the content is
good, the content is good, yes, right and.
There's an There was an old saying among the the previous
generation to try to figure things out.
They said content is king. Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, that's it. And so I've seen viral videos
from people that are experts in a field, yeah, that are shot on
(08:24):
the on an old front facing camera.
Yeah, right. Front facing iPhone and I've
seen highly produced videos thatwere shot in $100,000 studios
with no views, right. So the the the quality aspect
has to be secondary to. Do you have anything valuable to
add? Exactly.
Do you have the substance of thecontent?
(08:44):
And I think it's worth noting onthat too, high quality is going
to be contingent based upon youraudience.
So what do they consider to be quality content?
So it's like meeting their needs, you know, so like going
back to say example with the baking channel for that audience
that you're targeting vegan, vegan baking for stay at home
moms, you know, So what they consider to be high quality
(09:06):
content is what appeals best to what they want to see in the
content. And so that's how you want to
kind of look at it is like, whatvalue are you giving them and
who are you talking to? And then that's going to really
establish what would be high quality to them.
And then when it comes to like the aesthetics, that's something
you can always improve, but people don't care as much.
If you're going to work on something, just make sure it's
audio because that's what peoplecare the most about.
(09:28):
And individuals and effects and all that stuff can always come
later. That's how that's how I started.
I started with audience I, I, I started YouTube when I was 42.
I'm 89 years old right now, but.Hey, hey, you don't look at day
over 88. But no, but I was a pastor
before I started doing this and so, and it's the same thing with
(09:48):
pastoring and preaching is like you have to know your audience,
you have to know your church, you have to know the
congregation. I took some time first to think
about who would watch what they needed, and then I started
thinking about content. Well, what was interesting about
your channel was that a lot of the stuff I saw earlier was you
reacting to debates as a former debate teacher.
Yeah. And you were a Christian.
(10:10):
Yeah, right. And you had some apologetics
background and you had some pastoral backgrounds.
And so it's like the more of these things that intersect, the
more interesting your content becomes, the more you become the
niche around something versus saying I want to just do a
baking show. No, no, no, you, you let you
loot different interests together.
And I think that's what gave youkind of that initial spark to
(10:32):
get you to that. I think it was like 10 to 20,000
subscriber range. Yeah, that's that was me
starting off looking at the space and realizing that at the
at the time, Matt Dillahunty some of R and raw rest in peace.
They were they were the ones whoa lot of YouTube thought were
like trashing Christians and andpawning them and all that stuff.
(10:53):
And so I realized there was an opportunity.
And on that, I mean, like, notice how the he's cultivated a
personality about who he is on YouTube.
Some of you that follow us, you'll know like Avery is the
guy that's going to go and debate Muslims on his lives.
David is the guy that's going tostomp over Muslims and is going
to make you laugh. And then there's John and then
there's also roost. No, I'm kidding.
(11:13):
John is John, you know, he's going to bring you cultural
stuff, very, very important stuff.
You know, you're going to go to roost on.
You get a lot of also hot topics, cultural kind of stuff.
So people are going to know, oh,that's the kind of guy who's
going to cover this topic and that's what I want to go to.
So you got to be you're going tobecome a certain like
personality that is in line withthe channel and the type of
(11:34):
content you're bringing. I.
Just I just want to add one thing to what Avery was saying
as far as like getting started and not focusing on all these
things. You might need to have some sort
of ideal setting and so on. Because several years I never
really watched Mr. Beast except for like I would occasionally
click on, hey, I'm giving $100,000 to random people or
something like, oh, let me see this.
But anyway, I watched a couple of Mr. Beast videos back when he
(11:55):
really took off in popularity. And then at some point YouTube
recommended me one of his old videos.
And the old video was, I finallyreached 1000 subscribers.
It was something like that. And it's like 1000 Mr. Beast,
man. Anyway, I clicked on it was one
of his old videos and was probably the worst YouTube video
I've ever seen. And so I I knew why and then I
(12:17):
looked and it was like his 200 and something video either
either he had like 100 or 200 videos that he made before that.
So it took Mr. Beast, consideredone of the greatest Youtubers of
all time, 102 hundred videos, something like that to reach
1000 subscribers and he was making terrible videos.
The thing was he started off making terrible videos and
(12:37):
focused on improving them littleby little and so on and figuring
out what works in monitoring what, what, what people are
reacting to. And so he was kind of in it for
the long haul. But notice he didn't start off
as Mr. Beast. He started off making videos
where he was at and with his ability and just focused on
continuing to improve over time.So, so one related issue to that
(13:00):
is finding something you're really interested in and
passionate about because it can take a while.
It can take a while to, to get afollowing on YouTube and there
are going to be times again, theprevious the, the, the older
Youtubers, we called this the pain period when you're making a
video and you think, wow, this is going to do great and it
(13:20):
doesn't because people just don't know who you are and so
on. And so people give up.
People give up. And so you want something you're
passionate about, you have to decide, OK, I'm going to, you
know, I'm going to stick with it.
There are, there are always times when you realize something
just doesn't work. And so you can, you can decide,
OK, I'm going to go in a different direction.
But once you really decide what you want to go, you have to
understand ahead of time, this is going to be difficult work.
It may take a long time, but I have to stick with it.
(13:42):
So you want something you love and stick with it and just focus
on wherever you're at and then improving overtime.
And that's that's how it works. Yeah, let me, let me just give
you guys a macro idea real quick.
I think we're in a real time shift where the, the things that
people are connecting with is less about brands, Nike, Adidas
(14:04):
and more about people who represent things, right.
And so like, like Nike sales areactually down right now.
Like it's, it's, it's, it's taking it.
So there's less and less consumer behavior connected to
like this arbitrary brand and more about a human that I trust
that I can then go and partner with their nonprofit and become
(14:27):
a a monthly giver. I could then go and buy a
product they have. I can then go and do an
affiliate that they recommend, right?
And so if you're thinking about launching anything, consider
like the reality that like everyone has ATV on their phone
and we can literally all have our own TV channel.
(14:47):
But you don't need to start out with this.
I want to be famous in a year philosophy.
Start out as a as something that's a passion project to
document what you're learning, to document your process.
And then in and if you want to launch that thing, you could
have a home base to do it. And the beautiful part about
this, and I'm sure you guys haveall seen this.
You guys would be shocked on howmany new channels I see on my
(15:11):
YouTube home screen. Yeah, yeah, YouTube is
prioritizing new channels and new creators and, and I'll be on
my home screen and I'll look andit'll be 13 views.
Yep, 17 views so. They actually have an
opportunity right now that. Yeah, yeah.
Like, like, like we've never hadthis before, right?
So if you're thinking about it, like really consider the the
(15:31):
opportunity that's presented, like YouTube is prioritizing new
creators. If you have a dream to build
something, anything really, YouTube is a great place to be
there for the visibility in the relationship of said thing.
And then you can move along thatjourney.
Whatever it is, everybody's thing could be different.
The monetization model could be different.
The the structure can be different.
Some of you guys are ministries like your actual ministries and
(15:52):
people are monthly partners. Other you guys are are are just
S corpse or LLCS. Everyone's situation can be
different, but the model is you need an audience to push forward
whatever it is that that's at the end of that.
Ministry or not, I feel like this is service.
It has to be service. If you're going to start a
YouTube channel, it has to. You can't just do what you're
(16:15):
good at because that's just a flex.
You have to figure out the intersection of what you're good
at, but then also what the need is, which is what John was
saying. And right at that intersection
that that to me is that servanthood.
Yeah, yeah. Well, I think I think what just
piggyback of both, both you guysare saying you're launching
yourself and so you want to be, you know, relatable and you're
(16:38):
relatable when you're authentic and when you are you really
yourself in your field. Like with me, I think that I get
the comments all the time that I'm I'm a relatable apologist.
Like I'm just I'm your normal dude.
I don't speak super, you know, high level like IP or somebody
like that, you know, some nerd or something like that.
(16:59):
You calling me smart some. I'm calling you nerdy.
A 1922 study has shown that I am, in fact, not a nerd at all.
The Greek the Greeks never really believed that holding
this. Little cup, where would you
morons be without me? But, but being relatable is
(17:23):
extremely important, being your authentic self.
And so when I'm out there talking to Muslims or Jehovah's
Witnesses or atheists, I'm literally talking to them.
Like, you know how I would talk to anybody on the court or the
street, you know, just a cool dude.
Like I, I, I want, I care about,about you.
I care about you getting this truth.
And I don't want to run you off either.
(17:44):
I'm a generally be your friend. Like I'm going to talk friendly
to you. And a lot of people relate to
that. And that's what I, I think has
helped my, I guess, platform, you know, being relatable.
Yeah, I mean, when when I started out like I I didn't want
to be that at all. Like I people forget I didn't
show my face or say my name for five years.
(18:05):
That was wrong. Don't do that.
But I was, I didn't want to be apersonality.
I mean, that's not what I ever wanted.
But I mean, like that is very important for people to connect
with. So when I did start showing my
face more like I. Thought you were black?
Really. Thank you.
Oh my God. His his room is not well lit.
(18:33):
I was trying to. Hide in the shadows.
You got to put yourself out there.
Jesus put himself out there for us.
He was exposed and exploited. You got to put yourself out
there for the gospel. And I resisted that for years.
And he forced me into that direction.
(18:55):
And it's it's been more helpful for people is what I have found.
And I all your all your originalvideos which are just like
graphics and you talk. I thought he was 14 years old,
completely serious. I was thinking like, this guy is
this sharp AT14. Imagine, imagine when he
graduates high school and then goes on, he's going to be the
(19:16):
greatest, whoever lived. And then I see him.
He's like, what? He's a trillion years old, but
yes, Oh no, here, here's here's a this, this actually ties into
the content thing because when Isaw his approach, I was like,
this will never work. He's not showing his face.
It's never going to work. There's something about
connecting people when like wherever I go, I hope people
always walk up to me. I feel like I know you and it's
why because you've been, I've been talking like speaking
(19:38):
directly to you if you're watching it.
And then you know that just thatthat connects with people.
And so he didn't have that. I thought, this will never work.
This is this guy's never going to.
It's not, it's just not going tobe, it's not going to work.
You're not going to reach people.
And but he did. Why?
Because he was, it was awesome content.
It was awesome content. So he was actually able to
overcome that by producing awesome content.
(19:58):
But yes, and then he improved even even even more by showing
his face, which I can see why hedidn't, but wow, let me.
He said I was cute earlier. I I said that.
Oh, OK. Let me just give you guys, let
me just give you guys 3 words that I think could help reframe
(20:20):
this. If you're, if you're hearing
some of this language and you'relike, I don't know, this feels
like self promotion. I'm not sure do I want to do it?
Consider this, YouTube is the public square.
YouTube's made the world smallerand YouTube can really just be
an extension of other social media if you scaled it
correctly. But here's there's three unlocks
that I recently heard when we say things like content, right?
(20:42):
It's a, it was a really, really stale word.
Content, content. I, I would, I, I, I think of
content as just messaging, right?
There's, there's messaging, there's story that that content
is just what is the message that's out there, right?
So we're using technical terms because we're Youtubers and
that, that, that that's how we'dspeak.
But constant is just messaging. Another word that gets thrown
around a lot is personal brand, right?
(21:03):
Like that sounds so stale. Personal brand, like what am I,
life coach? Like personal brand, brand is
just reputation. Yeah, your brand is just your
every single one of you has a reputation.
It it it precedes you, right? Every single one of these guys
has a reputation that preceded them.
That's why they're here. That's why I know I can go in
for an ask and ask you guys to be here for my first event.
(21:23):
Your reputation precedes you, right?
And and the last one and this this might be the the unlock.
You're welcome, Avery. This might be the unlock for
many of us. That that word algorithm, right?
The YouTube algorithm, it changed a way to reframe.
That is the algorithm is just the audience.
So the algorithm is just a mirror to what people are
(21:46):
searching. That's how YouTube now puts
videos in front of people. They search something, they
search something related, and YouTube goes, oh, it looks like
this person isn't to this. I'm going to give him this
video, right? And so I think when we demist
the size, some of these words and we start thinking about,
Hey, everyone has a reputation in here and it's getting to the
place where if we're talking macro economy, like you need a
(22:08):
job, you got to be on LinkedIn, right?
You need to be at you need to beaccessible on social media.
Hey, you meet somebody and and you're interested in going on a
date. What's your Instagram?
I'm not comfortable giving you my number yet.
Let me let me do a little research on you, right, The
messaging. Everybody has a message, right?
And, and, and the algorithm justbecomes the audience of what's
(22:29):
already out there. So those of you guys that have
been doing this a little longer,I think specifically would Mike,
John, how have you guys seen thealgorithm change in your time,
the audience change, the YouTubealgorithm change?
And do you guys think it's been for the for for for good or for
bad man? Oh, I mean, what if you go way
back in the day, the algorithm was just, it was judging things
(22:51):
like how many people clicked on a video And if if people clicked
on the video, it would keep recommending the video.
Well, that encouraged what clickbait, right?
Scarlett Johansson pics naked and you click and there's
nothing there, right? There's something else, right?
But people clicked, but people clicked and therefore YouTube
kept recommending the video. So, so YouTube eventually
(23:15):
figured out a way to make something that's, that's more
relevant because people are getting ticked off that they're
clicking on things in there thatare just click bait.
So then it started factoring in watch time as, as a, as a
counter to that, because people who click on click bait, then
they find out very quickly it's not what they're looking for and
then they click off it. And so they're on the video for
like 2 or 3 seconds. So it started saying, OK, once
(23:36):
people click, how long do they actually watch this?
And so then you got a much better balance because now it's
taking how many people are clicking and how long they're
watching. That's a better assessment of
what people are interested in. But yes, just never forget about
the algorithm. What it is now, the, the primary
task of the YouTube algorithm isto keep people on YouTube as
(23:59):
long as possible because the longer you're watching, the more
ad, the more, the more ads are popping up, the more money
YouTube is making. So the, the goal of the
algorithm is to give people whatthey want, what they're looking
for. And so it's reading what you're
interested in and then constantly bombarding you with
more of what you're interested in.
So, so you stay on that and so if you want to, if you want to
(24:22):
be on YouTube, you want to be aware of that.
You want to be aware of that because as people are deciding
what to what you want them checking out some some good
Christian content. And just adds to that too, that
there's actually another stage. So the first one was where it's
like click was the first goal, then it was watch time.
Now it's satisfaction. So people have to be happy that
they watch the content too. And I don't know how they track
(24:44):
this now. They were doing surveys for a
while. They were also tracking
engagement and stuff. But they're still, I mean,
YouTube still says that that's one thing that they're really
tracking is make sure that the viewer is satisfied after
watching the video. So yeah.
You also have to actually followthe culture a little bit.
So like back in like 2011, 2021,TikTok was blowing up.
So what was YouTube doing? They're pushing YouTube Shorts.
(25:06):
We want creators to make shorts.And they were like penalizing
channels that we're not making shorts.
Then TikTok started to fall off.YouTube is king again.
And what are they doing now? Live streams, because it's
building up. What John was saying is when
people are doing live streams, they're sending in super chats.
They're engaging with their creators.
That keeps them happy. So people come on my streams,
(25:26):
which we do Mondays, and people put in like.
When do they do it? And people put in like
reoccurring jokes we've had running on the streams they'll
bring in, they'll put in super chats about things like that
because they want to come back. They want to laugh about the
things we've said in the past sothat you got to follow the
culture. What is YouTube pushing right
now? I guarantee, I guarantee in like
(25:49):
a year or two years, it's going to change again.
So just keep you keep your thumbon the culture.
Yeah, and just to add, YouTube has announced that it has
surpassed 1 billion monthly active viewers of podcast
content. That's crazy.
Wow. 2021, the craze was we got to compete with TikTok.
They pivoted. So now it's podcast content and
(26:13):
podcast content. Interesting enough people
usually listen to stuff when they're driving to work.
Most people have a commute or it's called it's it's called
keep you company content, right?Some of you guys will throw on
one of our streams, one of our podcasts, one of our long forms
and you'll you'll be doing dishes and cleaning the house
and you just want something to keep you company in the
(26:34):
background, right? It's soothing.
I this is going to sound weird and it's going to sound weird.
Just be careful. Sometimes I'm I'm when I have
trouble sleeping I'll legit put on.
God logic, I knew it. No, no, no, no, no.
(26:55):
And and here's the point guys, when?
No, no, not you. If you if you have insomnia, put
on God logic. I think you would make my
insomnia. This is what This is why they
call the God Logic Show Audio Ambien help you get to sleep.
No, no, no, I'll legit put on the I'll put on a David Wood
video or I'll put on a Mike Winger video and it and it'll
(27:16):
be. Now let's bring Mike out.
Mike, come on. Now we know you're lying.
Now we know you're lying. Next year.
They don't want David Wood anymore.
Mike Winger. I I tried really hard to get
Mike. Winger yeah, but then his fans
(27:38):
are going to show up and they'rethe worst.
He he calls them wingalings. I mean, come on, it sounds like
he's calling them dingalings. This is the guy who people think
I'm a psychopath but this? No, so, so, so I, so I say that
to say keep you company content when when someone is when
(28:03):
someone is going through a a a hard time, when someone is going
through a mundane time, when someone just needs something to
keep them company, you can be a part of that for them.
Yeah, right. And that's, that's really
powerful when you really think about it.
It connects, right? And so as people are discovering
stuff, we're seeing that 44% of Gen.
(28:25):
Z right now are saying that they're Jesus curious.
Yeah. Yeah, it's amazing.
So they're Jesus curious and they, and they search something
and then YouTube keeps track of their search and they go, oh,
they searched this thing. And then John Mccrae has a video
about this thing and we saw someof their other search results
(28:47):
there into Jesus. And then they service a John
Mccrae video to them and then they hear about it.
And then maybe they, they, they discover the whole ecosystem of
us Christian Youtubers. And then they go, oh, maybe I
should like check out a church. And then they show up to your
church, right? And then and guess what?
Even if you're not on this stagewith us today, right, Even if
(29:07):
you have 0 desire to do anythingwe've talked about today at all,
we've been dreaming. These people need to be
discipled. And here's the punchline.
We cannot disciple them through screens.
We cannot do the disciples. We cannot pastor people over the
Internet. I know like home church bedside
(29:27):
Baptist pastor pillow, like that's the thing.
But the, the discipleship is going to happen in churches and
you're going to see people show up to your church that have no
Christian background. We're seeing a huge influx in my
local Church of we call them thenuns and they're showing up.
They don't have a Bible. They can't tell you the Old
(29:49):
Testament from the New Testament.
They don't know who Paul is, right?
And they're showing up the churches and, and, and, and
this, this is not going to happen just over Christian
YouTube. This is going to happen at your
dinner table. And so as, as we close, give the
audience some insight on that from your perspective as
Christian Youtubers and how we can all partner together to help
(30:14):
usher in what well, I believe it's another great awakening
that that's what that's what I'mI'm going to call it right now.
I think, I think it's, I think we're there already or we're on
the cusp of it. Give some final closing thoughts
on how we could all work together through this moment.
Yeah, I'll say just before we get to that too, just to
capitalize off what he's saying,we really are in a unique time
right now, not just because of the technology, but also because
(30:35):
there is now a new kind of hunger and thirst for Christ and
to learn about Christianity and that sort of thing too, which is
kind of unprecedented. We know.
I mean, those of us that have been on YouTube for more than
five years, it was a lot different five years ago than it
is today. And on top of that, today is,
you know, in Jesus's day, peoplewould go to hear new ideas on
hills or that sort of thing. And Paul's day was Mars Hill,
(30:58):
right? And today it's YouTube and
that's where people are getting a lot of new ideas from.
So when we say we're influencers, we really do help
to really influence the culture,you know, and so we can
influence them with good ideas that really have to do to lead
people to Christ and stuff. So that's why it's good for
those of you that are thinking about doing YouTube, I mean do
it because the more people that we have out there that can
really influence is just it's really just a blessing.
(31:20):
So I'll. I'll add I'll add some of that
piggyback. Enough what Ruslan said.
This is actually backed up by statistics.
So I just did 2 live streams in like the past two months that
were on this topic. So one of them was on the latest
study in the United States and what you saw is people
identifying as Christian went, there was a steady decline for a
(31:42):
long time until the past four years when it's been going up.
And the idea is that when the when the numbers were dropping,
it was actually people who already didn't take it very
seriously. They may go to church or
something. They're basically saying, I
don't really believe this stuff.So let's let's go away.
And the kind of bait you kind ofleveled off at with the people
who take it seriously. And then it started and then it
(32:02):
started going back up. But I did a live stream with a
researcher in the UK. He was shocked by what he found
because the idea was they thought each generation is
becoming more atheistic. It's actually the opposite.
The oldest generation was the most likely to identify as an
atheist. The youngest generation were
least likely to identify as atheist.
And but here's the thing, it doesn't mean they were
(32:28):
Christians. They're identifying as like
spiritual or, you know, I believe in God, but not in not
in religion and stuff like that.But also they're the most open
to hearing a case that is presented to them.
We are basically in like this, this this golden zone right now
where the predictions of the newatheist that they made 20 some
(32:48):
years ago, hey, if we just get millions of people to become
atheist, society will become so much better.
OK, we've tested that. Show us anyway that millions of
people becoming atheist has madethe world better in any way.
Name one. They can't.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali called out Richard Dawkins for this.
She said none of your predictions came true.
None of your predictions came true.
And so that's when we're in. People are realizing it.
(33:08):
It doesn't work. It doesn't work.
It can't sustain people. It can't sustain a society.
So they're looking for somethingelse.
Simultaneously, you've got what's called the avalanche of
apostasy in Islam, meaning that over about the past 20 years,
the apostasy rate among young Muslims went from around 0% to
24%. And so that's like this as far
as prostacy rate. So we are right now at the
(33:29):
perfect time. We're at the perfect time.
People are hungry. We've got sheep without a
shepherd. And so let's introduce them to
the. Shepherd, I was going.
To real quick, we've been on, I feel like we've been on the
fence for the past like 1020 years.
I feel like now is the time to go on offense.
We need to, we need to go out there and do it and we can't do
it alone. We need all of you and all of
(33:50):
you watching. That I was the the point on that
guys, listen, some of the most proudest moments that I've had
as an apologist is when I would pop open tick tock and I would
see a Christian on a Muslim stage using an argument that
they've learned from us. And so you'll see on TikTok and
(34:11):
it's it's large TikTok. They'll have posts like, why do
Christians worship a Muslim man?Jesus is a Muslim.
And I've been doing this, You know, I've been hardball in that
topic for the past like year nowand the arguments is like
extremely simple, break it down,asking simple questions.
Jesus is a Muslim. OK, How do you know?
How would you prove that to me? Right?
(34:33):
Oh, we can go to your Bible. OK, cool.
Show me and to show us where Jesus prayed, that question is
where? Who did he pray to?
He, his father. OK.
Is Allah his father? No.
Oh, so then he's not a Muslim then.
OK yeah. And so now we're seeing
Christians hop on TikTok with these like dawa guys who are,
you know, usually cooking the average Christian.
(34:54):
These Christians are going up and saying is Allah father is
all our father and they can't answer and they'll say, OK, then
Jesus is not a Muslim, but they're taking our arguments and
using them. So what we're doing is we're
equipping you guys use it, use it.
We put the sources on the screenfor a reason.
We lay out the arguments for a reason.
And if we can get like a bunch of you guys to not just watch to
(35:17):
be entertained and by man, you know, David, he did good there.
No take notes, take notes and use it.
Go teach somebody. That's how you help us.
They will give you the last. Word if, if, if I can.
So my my YouTube channel is a living example of it.
I was just talking to Avery about this before we came out
because he asked me, what do youdo?
I was like, I read the Bible on YouTube.
(35:39):
If you can, for those of you that want to start a channel
because I do this, they're talking about Jesus curious
culture, right? Bring the scripture into it as
much as possible. When Jesus was tempted in the
wilderness, he quoted the scripture back to the devil and
one of the things that he said was man shall not live on bread
alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
That's right, as much as possible on YouTube, bring
(36:01):
scripture into it because it will bless those who hear it.
Amen. Amen.
Amen. Any final closing thoughts?
Subscribe to God logic apologetics roadshow.
What do you mean? Why is disciple inspiring
philosophy and who are you again?
Bruce Lancake. Bruce Lancake.
Ladies and gentlemen, our amazing channel.
(36:28):
So let me know what you guys think about that.
And again, if you want to be thefirst to hear about the second
Bless Got Summit, go to blessgotsummit.com.
Sign up for the waiting list. It'll make sure that you get
first access to discount early bird tickets as well as the
lineup before anybody else. All right, Bless Got summit.com
or click the link somewhere overhere.
All right, I'll see you over there.
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