October - 2022

The Shared Lore of Chainsaw Man & the Bible | Nerdy Sermon [Ep 1 Spoilers]

Nerd Pastor Nate

Oct 30, 2022
8 min

The Shared Lore of Chainsaw Man & the Bible | Nerdy Sermon [Ep 1 Spoilers]

Look - I hear you. How on earth is there anything a church could say about Chainsaw Man? An anime literally about devils, chainsaws, gore, and one of the pervier MCs we’ve seen since Mushoku Tensei. But make no mistake, Chainsaw Man is here to make waves and has already broken the Internet - er, at least, Crunchyroll’s servers - several times. But we don’t even need to dive very deep at all into the plot to see that Chainsaw Man’s lore provides us with unique insight into one

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Happily Missing Out (To The Point, 3.42)

Nerd Pastor Nate

Oct 26, 2022
2 min

Happily Missing Out (To The Point, 3.42)

I'm currently working through a book by Cal Newport on living a minimalist lifestyle digitally. He defines Digital Minimalism as, "A philosophy of technology in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else (Digital Minimalism, Newport, 28)." This concept has me waxing a bit on where Checkpoint and digital church might fall into this paradig

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Nerds of Pray: Full-Time Christian Twitch Streamer JateLIVE talks the Future of the Church (1.8)

Checkpoint Church

Oct 24, 2022
50 min

Nerds of Pray: Full-Time Christian Twitch Streamer JateLIVE talks the Future of the Church (1.8)

Find Full Transcript Here: https://www.checkpointchurch.com/post/nerds-of-pray-jate Nerds of Pray is the podcast where Nerd Pastor Nathan Webb of Checkpoint Church sits down with some of the leading people in the realm of Nerd/Pop Culture Ministry. He asks them questions about their specific venture into the ministry, as well as what first led them to the intersection of faith and fandom. In this episode, Nathan sits down with Jate Earhart, founder of Love Clan and full-time

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Why The Stories In 'The Midnight Club' Are SO GOOD | Nerdy Sermon [Mild Spoilers]

Nerd Pastor Nate

Oct 23, 2022
8 min

Why The Stories In 'The Midnight Club' Are SO GOOD | Nerdy Sermon [Mild Spoilers]

Whenever the weather starts to get cold, I begin to anticipate what Mike Flanagan will do next. But I wasn't so sure whenever I learned his next show was about terminal children in a hospice center. Nevertheless, I gave the midnight club a chance, and I'm glad I did because it might just be one of my favorite examples of why our Christian testimony is so important. If you're a fan of when Mike Flanagan talks about faith in a way that accidentally really is an excellent exampl

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You Should Be Learning (To The Point, 3.41)

Nerd Pastor Nate

Oct 19, 2022
2 min

You Should Be Learning (To The Point, 3.41)

As you're reading this, I'm attending the Church Communicators Conference in Rock Hill, SC. Via their website, their goals are "specially designed for the accidental church communicator, the one that wears many hats and may have stumbled upon this role without a plan." While doing my best to maintain a sense of health at Checkpoint, I strive to attend as many of these conferences as possible - as a leader and/or a participant. I do this for several reasons. One reason is the

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The Story Behind The Story of OneShot (Also, will we stay on Twitch?) | Nerdy Sermon [No Spoilers]

Nerd Pastor Nate

Oct 16, 2022
8 min

The Story Behind The Story of OneShot (Also, will we stay on Twitch?) | Nerdy Sermon [No Spoilers]

A bit of a different one today, but maybe the most important message we have to offer at Checkpoint. This nerdy sermon will cover a wide variety of topics by the time all is said and done, but we'll ultimately explore the answer to the question, "Will Checkpoint stay in Twitch?" with all that is happening right now. The easy answer - yes, but a better answer will ultimately come through this video and nerdy sermon. Not to mention I try to talk about trending media, and I had

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Nerd Pastor Nate

Oct 12, 2022
2 min

Who Benefits From Digital Church?

To provide a teachable moment on TikTok, I made a quick commentary on how SNL's coverage of the Try Guys scandal was very similar to the underlying, often unspoken sentiment that - just like YouTubers are not *real* entertainers - the digital church is not *real* church. My first mistake, of course, was saying anything at all. I'm not one for the limelight, so mostly I leave the controversial out of my mouth. But I did this time. And I quickly got a commenter on how a digital

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MILGRAM & the Forgiveness of Jesus | Nerdy Sermon [Spoilers]

Nerd Pastor Nate

Oct 9, 2022
8 min

MILGRAM & the Forgiveness of Jesus | Nerdy Sermon [Spoilers]

This might just be our most niche Nerdy Sermon to date. But dang it… I’m obsessed, and you can’t stop me unless you click away. Please don’t - let me geek out about this, I beg you. If you follow us on Twitch, then you’ve already heard a bit of this rant, but I have become obsessed with this music video project on YouTube called Milgram. It’s one of the most creative ideas I’ve seen in a long while, and it’s put together so phenomenally that I can’t stop thinking about it. Do

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Nerd Pastor Nate

Oct 6, 2022
2 min

How To Support Digital Ministry

Halfway through writing the original newsletter, I decided it would make a way better nerdy sermon, so catch the actual topic for today, October 16th. But a day late doesn't have to mean a dollar short - after all, this is free! Actually, let's talk about that. There is a real challenge behind digital ministry and traditional funding models. Now, even in conventional contexts, a newsletter is free. That's not really what I'm getting at here. But I am working through the conce

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Is there any HOPE for Night City in Cyberpunk Edgerunners? | Nerdy Sermon [Mild Spoilers]

Nerd Pastor Nate

Oct 2, 2022
8 min

Is there any HOPE for Night City in Cyberpunk Edgerunners? | Nerdy Sermon [Mild Spoilers]

Cyberpunk Edgerunners may just be my anime of the year. The world was downright immersive. It made me feel like I was inside the video game. It fleshed things out in ways that a video game world can’t. The characters were impressive and brilliant. The music was bizarre and driving, just like Night City would expect. The story was an epic tragedy that kept driving from one episode to the next. All in all - about as perfect as I could hope for. But even more than just a delight

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