10 Questions for a Guardian Coordinator

Nate sits down with our new Guardian Coordinator Perispective

As a burgeoning digital ministry, we are constantly considering ways to innovate the work of the Church while also researching the best safety practices online. Last year, we created our Safepoint Policy, which was our attempt to create a Safe Sanctuary policy for the Church's digital presence. Along with that policy, we made a special task force called the Guardians.

These Guardians have two primary goals in our digital Church: 1) be present whenever our policy is being abused or broken, and 2) create safe spaces and opportunities for the community.

We were thrilled to have an inaugural class of six Guardians who continue to serve the community this way.

Built into that original policy was an idea called the Guardian Coordinator. We weren’t sure at the time what this would be or when it would be needed, but the six original Guardians decided it wasn’t time when the Safepoint Policy launched.

We have been waiting for such a time as this. As of this past month, we have officially voted on one of our six Guardians (who self-nominated for the role) to take on the part of the Guardian Coordinator.

I wanted to use this space to highlight this servant-hearted volunteer in our space who opted into this position and will begin exploring it in the next year.

Without further adieu, here are ten questions for our inaugural Guardian Coordinator, Ryan Lelache, aka Perispective:

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1. Outside of being the new GC, how do you see yourself at Checkpoint Church?
   
   Perispective: First and foremost, I see myself as a member of the community. I’ve spent a lot of my life not feeling really at home in Church, and Checkpoint was one of the first times I felt accepted at face value, not because of something I had to offer or my relationship to someone else in the community. And it’s funny because when I joined, I wasn’t leaning much into my ‘nerdiness’ – I hadn’t gamed in ages, I wasn’t reading much, I hadn’t watched anime in years – but over time, those parts of me I’d either pushed down or forgotten have come back out and flourished. That’s a bit part of why I feel so much at home here.
   

2. How did you first find CPC?
   
   My wife is an ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church, and she tipped me off to Checkpoint after reading about the Church in an article in late 2020. I sat on that article for a few months, and then, sometime in February or March, I checked out some of the sermons on YouTube to see what was up. Right off the bat, I fell in love, and from there, I joined Discord and eventually started hopping on during some of the Twitch streams.
   

3. What made you feel that LVL2 was right for you?
   
   I think I signed up about 10 minutes after you announced it or something ridiculous like that. I’d wanted to find ways to get more involved and not only receive but give back to a community that had started to mean so much to me. Honestly, LVL2 felt like such a no-brainer I didn’t hesitate at all.
   

4. How about the application to be a Guardian?
   
   This one was pretty instantaneous, too, if I recall. We’d been talking about Safe Sanctuary and what it would look like to do things more in line with how UM churches operate, and so once we’d started to figure out how we wanted that to look within our online community, I knew I wanted this space to remain open and safe to folks of all ages and backgrounds. I feel like we’re able to do that in a really meaningful way with our Guardian program, and I’m excited whenever we find new ways for that to open doors and opportunities for community gatherings.
   

5. How do you understand the GC role?
   
   When we first started talking about this role, there were two things that jumped to mind. First, that we needed to find a way to govern our day-to-day without relying so much on Nerd Pastor Nate. The Guardian community is spread across time zones, and we’re all a mix of students and working adults, so it’s important we work with each other to coordinate schedules and make sure we create safe spaces for community events; Second, there are larger questions and challenges churches face which (in a brick-and-mortar church) would normally get handled by PPRC/SPRC (pastor- or staff-parish relationship committee), Church/Administrative Council, or Trustees. Especially at this stage in our Church’s lifespan, the GC role feels like it helps us create a space for those functions to be organized that (again) doesn’t put the burden entirely on the pastor. TL;DR, we’re finding ways to empower lay leadership and take some of the administrative work off Nerd Pastor Nate’s plate.
   

6. What are you most excited about in this new role?
   
   I already love all of my fellow Guardians and LVL2 members, but I feel like taking on this role will give me a bit more intention around deepening my connection with folks in our community. We’ve started to discuss several exciting ideas that I think will open up some neat opportunities for folks to get more engaged and help serve the community in new and novel ways.
   

7. What are you most nervous about?
   
   Any time someone’s elevated to a leadership position, it’s important to stay grounded. While I’m not one to get a big head about myself, sometimes titles like this can create unintended barriers between members of a community, which is the very last thing I want to see happen. For me, the biggest thing is reminding myself (and others) that this is a service role more than anything else. It’s in the name: Guardian Coordinator. My role is not to lead or dictate; it’s to coordinate, facilitate, and support the Guardians and the wider Checkpoint Church community.
   

8. What is this role NOT supposed to be in your vision?
   
   I sort of teased this in my note above, but this role isn’t anything like a council chair or trustee-type role. I’m not here to create policy or block progress, to vote on budget items, or dictate my vision for Checkpoint church or anything like that. For my tenure in this role, I’m here to help facilitate the day-to-day of the Guardians, to make sure safe spaces are available to the wider Checkpoint community, and (when needed) provide additional support to Nerd Pastor Nate and others in the community as Checkpoint Church grows and evolves.
   

9. A year from now, when we transition to a new GC, what is one thing you would like to have accomplished?
   
   One thing we don’t yet have totally formalized is a role description and list of responsibilities for the Guardian Coordinator: our Safepoint policy had some early ideas outlined, but I would really love to take the next year to help clarify what the expectations are in the hopes of more folks being interested in taking on this role.
   
   In a larger sense for the wider Checkpoint community, I’d really love for us to have started pursuing becoming a chartered institution by this time next year. As someone who really feels like Checkpoint is my home church, I hope to one day be able to profess my membership here formally.
   

10. How can Checkpoint as a community support YOU in this role?
    
    Ask Questions, Be Curious, Be Patient. I’m the very first person to take on this role, so I imagine we’ll be figuring out a lot together over the next year about what does and doesn’t work. I’ll probably make some mistakes in how I speak and act. I hope we can all collectively recognize my humanity in those faults and encourage me to learn and do better by not repeating those mistakes. Remind me to live by our three rules: Do Good. Do No Harm. Strive to Grow.
    

11. Okay, one bonus question…Sell me on why I should push through on playing the video game Disco Elysium! I can’t vibe with it, but you rave about it.
    
    Disco Elysium has a truly compelling story under its seedy surface, and there are many ways to engage with it. The biggest challenge with a game like this is accepting how much the element of chance plays into the way(s) you’ll experience it. Even when you might think you’ve “failed” a check or pathway, there is almost always another way to move forward – to me, that was always the real fun of the game. It plays out like real life often does – we don’t always have all the info we need, we’re not always as skilled at everything we might want to be, and sometimes we goof things up and have to deal with the consequences of that. 

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So, there you have it! I look forward to seeing what Ryan can do with this role and how it will shape the life of Checkpoint Church in the future. I hope you will join me in praying for him in this role and supporting him in any way you can.

Until next time…
God loves you.
We love you.
You matter.