Nate went to Boston - it's the 1 Stop Pop-Up!
A monthly roundup of travels, support, and book studies.
Hello! Welcome to the new and improved 1-Stop Pop Up.
We’ve re-visioned what this newsletter can be and we hope you’re excited for the things contained within. In this monthly edition, you can expect to find:
a recap of my time in Boston studying how Howard Thurman relates to digital ministry with the Phygital Fellows
an opportunity for you to make your mark on the lives of nerds, geeks, and gamers on our 130,000+ subscriber YouTube channel
an interesting new study that you can now take advantage of for yourself on our Discord
From discipleship to digital creativity, here’s how Checkpoint is living out our mission this month.
Shipping Nate to Boston
I spent some time in September in the foggy town of Boston, thanks to the generous support of the Wesleyan Impact Partners and their Phygital Fellows program. My time would be spent learning from innovators in the Boston University area, with a special focus on Howard Thurman, the theologian behind works like Jesus & the Disinherited and Meditations on the Heart.
We spent time touring many different facilities designed for community use. Honestly, it made me long for my own college days. Being among students who work hard and strive for knowledge is what this Enneagram 5w4 desires most. In one of the pictures above, you can even see that the Howard Thurman Center was streaming Lo-Fi Girl during some downtime, which felt like a full circle moment, considering I was there to study on behalf of digital natives on the Internet.
The highlight of the trip is always the conversations that happen amongst these genius peers of mine (one of whom will be our DLC guest this month, October 26th), but apart from that, the highlight was a fantastic optional outing to hear the first of a series of discussions on Thurman from some of the leading scholars across the country. The offerings from these teachers enamored me. On a lighter note, I have now added the word “Thurmaneutics” to my lexicon.
I’m walking away from this trip with plenty to chew on. I’m sure my writing going forward on Pixel & Pulpit will continue to reflect this. I want to dive much deeper in metaphorical theology, somatics, and the meditations of Thurman.
We’re inviting YOU to be a part of our Nerdy Sermons!
Yes, you’re seeing double. We decided to extend our IndieGoGo campaign into October. We’ve not quite reached even 10% of our goal and we wanted to see if we could do a better job explaining why it’s important.
We’re aiming to raise $10,000 to fully fund our Nerdy Sermons, the video essays that we’ve now made over 170 of and reached over 1,000,000 people on YouTube. These are resources that we consider invaluable for providing nerds, geeks, and gamers with tangible expressions of the gospel message through their favorite video games and anime. We’ve been hard at work making these for five years on our own through generous grantors, but we need help to keep these messages going into the future.
If you’d like to learn more about what our perks are for supporting this, you can watch this video:
Please take the time to consider supporting this cause! We need your help to connect the love and grace of Jesus with the world of nerds, geeks, and gamers.
Support our cause here: https://igg.me/at/EK2cWMDA-5M/x/38327436#/
An Anti-Book Study on Wesleyan Vile-tality
The Checkpoint Discipleship Team is hosting an anti-book study. Not sure what that means?
An Anti-Book-Study is a book study that you don’t need to buy the book for, or even read it, really. Anyone is welcome to join us for any or all of the sessions, and we will provide helpful files to condense and present the information in a way that makes it more easily accessible. The deeper intent is to create and offer a space to gather, with a little structure and a whole lot of the Holy Spirit.
Each Thursday evening, from October 16th through November 13th, for approximately an hour, members of the community will gather and discuss a chapter in the book Wesleyan Vile-Tality: Reclaiming the Heart of Methodist Identity by Ashley Boggan. This book examines the history of John Wesley’s work in reforming the Church of England and the subsequent movement that now encompasses, but is not limited to, the United Methodist Church.
Thank you for reading! We hope you enjoyed this October 2025 edition of the 1-Stop Pop-Up.
As always, the best place to stay involved and aware of Checkpoint Church on a week-to-week basis is our Discord server or on our YouTube channel. We strive to keep this newsletter for those who are primarily curious about the overarching events at Checkpoint, so many of the smaller, but equally exciting, elements will not make the cut for this space.
This newsletter is about showing you the heartbeat of Checkpoint — stories of transformation, opportunities for impact, and new ways to see God at work in nerd culture.
I look forward to reading your replies or comments in the section below this newsletter. I sincerely appreciate your support by subscribing to this newsletter. If you haven’t taken the time to do so, then consider doing so here:
And remember,
God loves you.
We love you.
You matter.