State-of-the-Pod Celebration

Opening Moments

Laughter, snorts, and a playful “Let’s kick this pig” opened episode 56—a surprise year-end bonus recorded minutes after Pastor Josh stepped off the Christmas-service stage at Lake Pointe. The mood: breathless joy and holy awe at what God has done in just one year.

Testimonies

Pastor Josh

  • Fresh from preaching, he stared at “thousands of people walking through the halls” and kept repeating the numbers with disbelief—“7.5 million… 867 million views… that is stupid!”
  • Philosophy: the podcast is “air-war discipleship.” Sunday sermons handle the ground war; the pod tackles cultural issues so “the enemy can’t take back the ground.”
  • Scripture referenced: Acts 17 (the Areopagus) and 2 Corinthians 10:5 (“we destroy arguments and take every thought captive”).
  • Heart cry: “We are not in the view-count business; we are in the discipleship business.”
  • Dreaming forward: hopes Live Free will become “the staging grounds for the resurgence of the church in our nation.”

Carlos Erazo

  • Sprinted from the service to the mic in one minute—team-timed.
  • Rolled out the stats:
    • 7.5 million plays, 3.5 million on YouTube alone
    • 481 K new YouTube subscribers (-375 % jump)
    • 1.4 M new Facebook followers, 600 K on IG, 258 K on TikTok
    • 867 million total short-form views
    • 4 million audio streams; top-4 in Apple’s Religion & Spirituality
    • 182 countries reached; 400 % rise in Church-Online attendance
  • Story: Molly from Chicago found the pod, “reignited my faith,” flew to Lake Pointe, and was baptized.
  • Passion: helping “many men find their band of brothers” through life groups.

Holy-Spirit Highlights

  • Jaw-dropping reach—proof that every metric is “a real person with a real hunger for a real God.”
  • Organic, unprompted discipleship groups springing up in coffee shops at 7 a.m.
  • Clear sense that social media is today’s Areopagus where the gospel must sound.
  • Repeated gratitude: “Praise the Lord… this is insane… completely stunned.”

Prayer Points & Next Steps

  • Ask the Lord to turn every view into true life-change and brotherhood.
  • Gather listener feedback on YouTube: “Why is it working? What should we double down on?”
  • Encourage listeners to text APP to 20411 for the redesigned Lake Pointe app—sermon, podcast, one-chapter-a-day plan, and discipleship guide all in one place.
  • Invitation: email podcast@lakepointe.church or text CONNECT to 20411 to serve, share stories, or help the movement grow.

Closing Blessing

Pastor Josh, hurrying to preach his seventh Christmas service, clasped hands with Carlos and said, “Live free, brother.”

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