Hi Reader,

In some recent talks I gave, I asked the audience whether anyone thought people were better off after twenty years of social media.

The unanimous answer? Nobody thinks we are.

Two decades into the social media experiment, we:

• are lonelier than ever.
• have bigger mental health challenges than ever.
• are more polarized and divided than we've been in our life time.

The technology that was supposed to bring us together drove us apart instead.

AI is, in my view, only going to make all of this worse, not better.

The challenge is that, as leaders, we're part of the problem. The average Gen Zer spends 49 hours a week on their phone. Any chance you've checked your screen time lately? I'll bet you're not far behind.

So, what do you do? Problems can seem so big that you can throw up your hands and think nothing can be done.

Last week, I released my new book AI and the Future Church. In it are three major shifts every church leader can make to make the future more human, more connected and more united. Some of it will take some time to implement, but if we all work together, we'll make a difference.

This week, I'd love you get started by swapping your phone for a face.

I want you to invite someone to coffee, dinner, or a backyard hang. Could be your spouse, a child, a coworker, a friend, a parishioner, a donor, a fellow pastor.

That will be one or two hours you spend the way people were designed by God to connect: face to face.

Not only will the two of you be better off, but you'll model the way for others to reverse the loneliness and mental health curses of the last two decades.

Maybe the change will be more profound.

There are over 100,000 leaders who receive this email. If we all did this, say, once a week... that's 5.2 million hours of time away from our phones and back to face to face.

Plus y'all are leaders. For easy math, let's say every leader who reads this leads 100 people.

If you encourage the people you lead to do the same, conservatively that could be over 500 million hours reclaimed for making the world a better place and connecting people the way God designed us to be connected. A billion if we spend two hours connecting each week.

So - who will you connect with this week?

It might make a bigger difference than you think.

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Steps to grow this week

Cheering for you,

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