Ryan Swanson: Welcome back to the Satisfied program here on the Thee Generation Podcast. This is Ryan Swanson. Today we’re going to once again take a break from the series we’ve been going through, although we just have a couple of episodes left. I’d love to get through it, but in talking with Bobby Bosler, I felt like this was a good time to interject something, unveil something the Lord’s been doing, and let you guys be a part of it in some way.

There’s a mobile app that has been in discussion for a couple of years now, but lately, it’s become a little bit more of a reality, and this is something that, in particular, would be of interest to those listening to this podcast. It is going to be an app geared for accountability, and I think it will be a help to men and women really around the world. There are already some that have reached out and are part of the discussion in various countries as well. So this is something I’m confident the Lord is going to use for a purity movement globally. We’ve got a good amount to get through, but I don’t think this needs to take long. I want to begin by explaining to you the purpose of it and even where we got the title of the app from. 

And it’s from Ecclesiastes chapter 4. This is something that we worked through in some of our earlier podcasts on Satisfied. But Ecclesiastes chapter 4, verse 9 says, “Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him that is alone when he falleth, for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, they have heat. But how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”

The principles of camaraderie and daily accountability, which we have gleaned from this passage, have been extremely influential in my own victory several years back, and then many others since then have found the same to be helpful and really life-changing from this passage.

When I started daily accountability several years back with a couple of my friends, we would try to align our schedules for a phone call every day, and we did it. It was effective, but it definitely was not sustainable. And there was no way we could add more to the group or begin reaching out to others every day. There’s just so much time involved in trying to do that and a lot of effort. And it just wouldn’t be practical for many. So we moved to doing the Marco Polo app. And many of you are familiar with how we have used that in different groups. And again, it’s been effective, but…we’ve somewhat reached its limits. Marco Polo is just a simple group video chat where you can send in videos to the group and check in that way. And so we’ve used that for accountability to give our check-ins on the scale of one to ten and thoughts viewing and self-gratification and we’ve been doing that for several years now and there are quite a few groups that have started, some listening to this podcast, no doubt, and I’m sure there are groups that I don’t know about that have started that are using Marco Polo or maybe other means.

But ever since we started this daily accountability, it has been evident that we eventually would need to move to our own platform. Marco Polo has been great, but there are certain times like when Pride Month rolls around and they’re supporting, they’re all about that. It’s just not the ideal situation to be supporting everything they’re doing. And I want to be able to unequivocally recommend a platform for this in churches all over to individuals that they would be able to use for their accountability. It’s just difficult to do that with a secular app that you really don’t know which direction they’re going to go at any moment. There’s also just so much more we could do. There are features we could add that would be extremely helpful if we could build this thing from the ground up. So, without further introduction, the name of the app will be The Cord.

Taken from Ecclesiastes 4, verse 12, a three-fold cord is not quickly broken. The name of this app will be The Cord. Every group of individuals on this app, which will be three or four people each, will be called The Cord. It will be your cord. So the app will be broken down into three different sections, and there will be tabs probably at the bottom that you will flip between these. And it will be the My Cord section, the My Pyramid, and My Progress. And let me explain these really quickly.

First of all, for My Cord, this is basically everything that Marco Polo was doing. This is where you check in. So you click on the My Cord tab, and it’s going to open up a window that has a couple of options, one of which is just to check in. When you click that check-in, it’s going to bring up a prompt that has you put in the numbers for how you did that day, rating yourself and thoughts viewing and self-gratification on a scale of one to ten in each of those, giving three different numbers. And it’ll have the scale there easily described to reference that. And so you would check in with actually plugging numbers in and then it’ll give you another button that says finish and record. And that’s when, in order to submit those numbers to the rest of the group and to the app, then you would hit record and that would be like sending the video into Marco Polo. It’ll come up, but it’ll actually be a timed video so these things don’t become so long. Those of you that have been in groups know what it’s like to have somebody in the group that, with good intentions, but sends five-minute videos or 10-minute videos every night. And it just can, it’s not sustainable again. So it’s too much for some of the other group members to watch through all those long videos. So there’ll be a timer on the videos, is the plan right now. Might be 30, might be 60 seconds. And it’ll count down, and you will have already plugged in your numbers. You’re just going to explain why you rated yourself the way you did and then hit submit, and that video will be sent to the others in the group. It’ll just go to those in your group. It’s not going anywhere else. No one else can see those. It’s still just as private, and only your Cord members will be able to see that. Other Cord members will be able to reply directly to your video if it’s necessary.

In the app, you would have the ability to set a reminder to check in at a certain time that comes up. And also, there would be the ability to put another motivation in by putting in an email address of someone that you would like to be notified if you do not check in. That will help you to prioritize it a little bit more. For a teenager, it might be your parents.

That you put in their email address, and so you’re committing to checking in daily, and they know that if they don’t get an email, then you have been checking in. If they do get that email, then they need to talk to you about it. For a husband that’s working through this, he may put his wife’s email in there, and she knows that he’s checking in with a group of guys as long as she doesn’t get that email saying that he missed a day.

So those are examples of extra features we could add in here since we’re building this thing that I think would be very helpful. The other thing that’s going to be on that My Cord screen besides the check-in is the SOS. Now this has been a function that we have used through just text messaging or WhatsApp, but the idea behind this is that whenever you are facing temptation, you open up the app and just click on that SOS button.

What that does is it just sends an SOS to the other group members, and it’ll just come up on a notification on their screen saying so-and-so sent an SOS. And the purpose of that, if you’ve been in the groups, you understand this, but the idea behind the Cord app is to be alone as infrequently as possible. Woe to him that is alone when he falleth. And there are times that you may not have time to call the other members and say I’m in temptation. You may not have time to even describe it in a text. But you can just click that and send the SOS. It does a couple of things. 

Number one, the other members do know to pray for you. They could send a text with a verse in it or something like that, but that’s not totally even especially the point. The idea behind it is that you know that you are answering for that very moment. There’s a timestamp on it. If I know that John sent an SOS at 3:45 this afternoon, then I’m going to expect that he is going to, when he checks in that night, answer for that moment, how did he do? What was the temptation? How did he do with it? And John, having sent that SOS out, no longer feels alone in that moment. He knows there are others that know about the temptation.

When I was working for a lawn fertilizer company, I came around the backyard one time and I was completely alone there working and there was a lady in the back that wasn’t dressed inappropriately sitting out there, and I had to do the yard. There was no way around it. I felt very alone in that temptation, and I didn’t have time to make a phone call or even send a text message describing the situation but what I did do is I pulled up my phone and just typed in three letters to the other group members SOS and I wasn’t alone anymore. Doing that backyard was not a problem because I knew that I wasn’t alone. I was answering for that moment. So that’s another feature we can build right into this app. I think it’ll be powerful. So that’s the MyCord section is the check-in and then that SOS, and we may add more things to it, but that will be the basic of what we start with what you can do in that My Cord section. 

Then secondly would be the My Pyramid section. Now this is based on the principle that one of the biggest ways we can help men and ladies be free from their lust is to get their eyes off of themselves. If you are just seeking purity for purity’s sake and because it’s gonna make you feel better and make your life easier and give you more peace, then really you’re missing the point and even those things can be selfish in and of themselves. So it is so helpful to immediately get a vision for other people that you want to help them be delivered as well as you walk this path. You want to have someone else that you’re bringing along with you, so we want to encourage everyone that joins one of these groups to also be thinking of who are two other individuals that I can reach out to and start another group? When that happens, you can go to the My Pyramid section and see your group at the top and then under that, kind of like a flow chart way in a triangle under it branching off would be your group members in the groups that they are starting. And then below that, any groups that they are starting you’d be able to see those group titles there along with a group score.

Now you won’t be able to go through all the different groups and watch their videos, but what you could see is a score from that group, and let me tell you what the score is going to be. The score is going to take into account at least two factors, and those would be the average individual scores of every one of the group members averaged together so that every time you give that scale of 1 to 10 every one of your groups that’ll be averaged together and you have an average rating that way.

But then also factored into this group score would be the faithfulness, the frequency at which you are checking in, your consistency. So if you missed a day, that score is going to go down, and your entire group score would go down if you individually missed a day. It’s going to motivate everyone to keep checking in daily. And then you’ll be able to keep track of as a group, watch your group score to see kind of like a health meter of how your group is doing.

But the other way that’s really neat is that you would on that My Pyramid section be able to see the group scores of groups under you. And again, you wouldn’t be able to go through every group and watch their videos, but you could see, hey, this group is struggling a little bit, and I know one of those members, he’s a guy that was in my group, so I’m going to reach out to him and see if I can be a help or see what’s going on in this group, and maybe I can encourage them in some way.

So I’m really excited about that My Pyramid section because it’s going to encourage a purity movement that would really multiply from this, as we get our eyes off of ourselves and reach out and help others as well.

Okay, now lastly, a very simple third section to this app is the My Progress section. This is something so needed, and what this is going to do is show you on a line graph your progress, your purity journey right there in front of you from start to current to where you’re at now. And you’ll be able to see on a line that progress since you are putting in daily actual numbers that reflect how you did that day rating yourself on a scale of 1 to 10, you’ll be able to see very objectively your progress on this graph. There may be a couple of different graphs there. Maybe you’d be able to see your group progress as well. Maybe you’d be able to see your consistency progress and that kind of thing, so there may be a couple of graphs there, but it’s going to be a very objective way to see how you’re doing now. This is so important because every one of us is going to fall at some point along the way, and I’m not saying it necessarily is going to be a full total relapse, but there’s going to be times of stumbling, there’s going to be compromises made. And what the devil wants you to think at that point is that you’re back to square one. If you’re three years into this, or even just three weeks into it, you’re three weeks in and then you stumble in some way, the devil wants you to think, “Now you’re back to square one. Restart the counter, man, because your streak just ended.” And you’re back to where you were, and that’s just not the case.

In Proverbs 24:16, and you know this verse, “A just man falls seven times and rises up again.” Now, why would that be? Why would he be called a just man? He’s falling seven times. We would think like, “What’s wrong with this guy?” Well, we feel that way many times, and we certainly don’t feel just. Why are we called just when we fall seven times and rise up again? Well, Solomon’s not calling this man just because he’s just going up and down in his Christian walk, doing the revival roller coaster, or because he’s going round and round in circles for Jesus. That’s not why he is calling this man just. It’s because every time he stands back up, he’s closer to Jesus.

In the same way that when you were addicted to pornography and then in the depths and despair and the deepest part of that, every time that you looked at it, it became more and more a part of you. In the same way, every time you stand back up against that and choose Jesus Christ and choose purity, you are gaining ground and growing closer to Him. And in that way, you’re just. And so what I think the important thing about this My Progress section is it’s going to stand in the face of that lie from the devil that you’re back to where you were.

You’ll be able to see from start to finish, and this is where I’ve grown. And yes, I still had a dip. I stumbled right here, but I can see where I was. I can see where I’m headed. And I know I’m not where I started. The purity journey can be a slow one, and so this is going to be helpful for men and for ladies to be encouraged by the progress and by the direction that the Lord is bringing them in this journey. So those are the three primary functions of this app, the Cord app.

The My Cord section to check in and send an SOS, the My Pyramid section to get our eyes off of ourselves and be able to focus on and help others and disciple others and grow this purity movement. And finally, the My Progress section, which represents very objectively that work the Lord is doing in our hearts over a period of time and encourages us to keep standing up even when we stumble, like the Just Man in Proverbs 24:16.

I hope you’re excited as I am because this is clearly, I think, something the Lord is doing. And really, there’s been so many others that have been a part of this in the discussions. And our goal, really, with this application is that churches would be able to get a hold of this and use it for discipleship within their own church. What we don’t want is to circumvent or replace the church in that role.

And there’s so much of what this app is doing that really should be, needs to be, in every church—this kind of transparent discipleship. And so our goal, we would love it if pastors would get a hold of this and would really administrate their groups in their church. And we have plans for ways to potentially do that, and best we can, to use this app to equip pastors to be able to help with the discipleship in their church.

We want this to be a tool, a tool for individuals and a tool for churches. But as you’ve probably guessed by this point, developing an app is not free, unfortunately. Now, the Lord has blessed, and we are in contact and discussions with a group of Christian developers that see the benefit of this app and are excited about the purpose as well. So it’s nice to be able to actually talk through the burden with your app developers, and they understand it, they get it. And so I’m thankful for that aspect.

They’re giving us a quote that is much lower than I expected for an app development. App developments can easily be over $100,000, $150,000. That is not rare for it to be in that realm. But the quote for the development of the app, I’ll just give you the numbers, it’s $50,000 for what it would take to write this thing from the ground up. We are already in discussions, like I mentioned, we have brief prototypes and mock-ups of this. More meetings are happening soon, even this coming week. But really, before we can move any further, there has to be a $10,000 down payment of that $50,000 and then progressively over the course of a year, they would need that $50,000. And beyond that, it is very common for the upkeep of an app. If you’re familiar with this at all, every time your phone updates, the apps have to update as well to keep up with the system that they’re running on—Android and Apple. And so there needs to be a team that is working to update these apps. And that costs as well. And then you have server costs and technical support teams and stuff like that. So the quote then monthly beyond the $50,000, monthly would be $750 a month to keep this app running. So the reason I let you know that is, first of all, just to let you know there’s no way it could be a free application. Normally, apps that want to be free will use advertising to get the revenue and pay for the app. And that’s where you have all kinds of different businesses that could be advertising on your app. You have banners that pop up and prompts and things like that. But obviously, we’re not interested in advertising for other companies for a myriad of reasons on this app. So it will be a paid app, probably something around $5 a month, something like that. But from the feedback I’ve gotten so far, I really don’t think that that is going to be a deterrent for many at all. There would also be the ability for a church to pay something annually for anyone in their church to use this. So that would be an option as well, a church-wide license. So we could do that. But no matter how you cut it, there is going to be a huge financial commitment on this side of the development of the Cord app. 

Now, at this point, the Cord app being primarily the focus and burden of my wife and I will be under the responsibility of Satisfied Ministries in association with Thee Generation. So we have made this a point of daily prayer, the finances needed for this app.

And so we would love it if the constituency here and listening to this podcast would join us in praying that way. And we’re prepared, obviously we are already invested in this, and we will be as much as the Lord allows us to take on that financial burden. But undoubtedly, there is still going to be a need. Honestly, I’m one that would love to just dig deep and not let anyone else know about the need and come up with all that $50,000 ourselves.

But the Lord had to humble me a little bit to realize that he may want to use other means to bring that in. So Mr. Bosler and I agreed that it would just be good to put this out there for those that may want to either yourselves be a part of that or maybe you know someone else that would like to be a part of donating towards this application. My thought initially is that my wife and I would just raise as much as we could over time and then eventually would be able to finish this thing off. But the demand for this has been much greater than I anticipated, and we really need to see the Lord just take over and do a miracle when it comes to the finances. I’m confident He’s going to. Like I said, we’re praying about this every single day, several times a day. My wife and I are praying about this. And the Lord may answer that need with just something here locally. I don’t know, but if the Lord’s putting something in your heart to be a part of financially getting this app off the ground, getting the development going, then I’m not going to hold you back and say no. So feel free to send an email to satisfied@theegeneration.org.

And just let us know if you feel like the Lord would have you be a part in some way of the financial side of this. Another thing you could do is send this podcast to your pastor and to make him aware of the development here. And perhaps a church would commit to this with hopes of being able to use this as a tool for the discipleship inside of your church. That again is our burden. We’d love to see that happen. And so maybe churches would help and support this cause. 

But whatever, the cat’s out of the bag now. This is no secret. The app is coming, The Cord is coming, Lord willing. One way or another, he’s going to provide for this. So feel free to spread the word and get this out there. And who knows, maybe as word gets out, the provision for this app and that $50,000 will come from places we totally didn’t expect as the Lord provides for this. But we’re just leaving it in his hands, and we’re excited to see how he will provide.

Well, that’s a wrap on today’s podcast. There’s so many more things, by the way, that could be said about this app, so many more things it could do. We would love to see, for example, it be able to track and be an accountability for your personal time with the Lord as well. We’d love to see the ability to work on verse memory through this app and even have the ability to recite verses back to the app, and it would check you from the Bible as you do that.

So those are all future features that we would love to see happen, but also would probably kick that budget up over the $50K. So we’re starting off as basic as we can, maybe even more basic than what I’ve described to you today, to stay within that budget. And then as the Lord provides in the future, we’ll be able to add more features. And there’s so many more things that could be done with this. But we’re excited about this. I trust you are as well. And we know the Lord will provide. 

Again, that’s satisfied@theegeneration.org if you feel like the Lord would have you be a part, but otherwise would you share the burden with us in prayer. We’re confident that The Cord App will be a phenomenal tool in the hands of men and women and churches to help us in this journey to be less gratified and more satisfied with Jesus Christ.