Your church needs a Discord server or similar online community. Why? While we are supposedly more interconnected by technology today than ever, statistics show an ongoing and massive rise in loneliness. This is particularly true among the digital natives like Millennials and Gen-Z. As much as smartphones, social media, and instant messages has allowed unprecedented levels of access to other people, the connections fostered are often superficial and leave people feeling hollow. 😢
This is true of those in the church as well. In a recent interview, Simon Sinek pointed out that people are seeking personal connection and purpose in work because they used to find those things in their church communities, but today, even if they go to church, they are lonely, disconnected, and don’t see a clear purpose.
Churches today need actual set pathways that connect people from an online community into the in-person community of the church if we are going to solve this issue and grow churches with the digital natives.
Why Would We Want Another Online Community Like a Discord Server?
I know what you are thinking: “so how would more online interaction solve the problem of loneliness?” It’s a great question, and the answer is “because it lets people in the congregation find commonality with each other that otherwise might not interact at all on a Sunday and turn it into in-person interaction.”
It often surprises people that I’ve made several friends online that I see in real life from time to time. I have friends I made from the forums back in online seminary courses that I’ve gotten to meet in the real world that I might not have gotten to know otherwise. Similarly, my lifetime love of aviation has led to me meeting up with friends fostered online when they travel through Singapore. Even my very Boomer dad has friendships he fostered through online racing games and will travel across the country to visit them.
There are a couple of elements that help. First, there are a lot of introverts out there, and it’s not as intimidating to interact in an online group than try to break into in-person conversations with strangers. Similarly, as long as the moderation is good, there are fewer barriers to expressing oneself. Second, the groups are 24/7, I can’t tell you how many times people have shared major life events inside of online groups that everyone would be otherwise oblivious to: proposals, birthdays, building a new house, launching a business, death in the family, etc.
Sometimes, you even get opening up about big societal and spiritual issues. I’m in a non-Christian group where one of the moderators shared that he needed to go out of town because his friend committed suicide. The community rallied around him and discussed the problem of male suicide and looking out for each other in a way that I’ve not seen in a church despite my two decades of ministry!
So, long and short, when you do an online community well, it’s a bridge to deeper connection, particularly in-person connection.
Should You Use Discord or Another Community Platform?
There are several options for a church to run an online community. Here’s a few of the free ones that don’t require any particular technical expertise to get started:
You really need to pick the one that fits with where the people God is calling you to reach already hang out or are projected to hang out. For this reason I’d go with Discord for a new church community, especially given that it’s something that most Gen-Z are comfortable with and don’t associate with grandma posting the latest nonsensical conspiracy theory (sorry Facebook but you know it’s true).
That’s not to say that I haven’t seen churches be successful with other platforms, especially Facebook Groups, but Discord’s popularity continues to grow and it’s a lot more conducive to building communities that can do things other than chat and it’s more fluid when you have real-time interaction and you can connect all kinds of bots and tools to it that really help with the community building and moderation. It’s worth noting that I’ve seen quite a few very successful groups move to Discord over the last couple years out of frustration with the other platforms. There’s also tons of synergy if you want to host gaming servers using your church’s $3,500 worth of annual Azure credits as part of your online ministry strategy.
One final note on your platform, try to make it a place where you don’t have people just popping in to drop “bumper sticker theology,” superficiality, and platitudes. You don’t want to mirror the problems of connecting to people at your in-person church service inside your online community too. It needs to be an honest, real, and safe place for people to interact.
From Online Connections to In-Person Relationships
As we’ve mentioned, online communities always generate a desire to connect in-person. It’s like my wife and Taylor Swift, sure, she hears the music on Spotify and sees the videos on YouTube, but she’s still keen to attend the concert (assuming there isn’t a ticketing debacle of course 🤪). The people in your church will go from “hi” to “oh, I also like to play Arma” to “I found this new obscure craft beer I think you’ll like and I want to give you one to see what you think on Sunday” to “hey, I have a meeting near your work later, let’s grab lunch together!”
You can help facilitate it by being intentionally “phygital” via things like quarterly in-person events. This is where you help people bridge their online connections into an in-person relationship. What type of event can vary based on your community’s interests, but here’s some potential ideas:
- Barbeque
- VR Gaming
- Nerf Gun battle
- Arcade games
- Ninja Warrior course
- Classic game tournament
Whatever you do, go all out and be memorable. Have food, have fun, and make it low-pressure. You will have other opportunities to preach or push a message, but your congregants are struggling with connecting with each other so keep your focus on that during your quarterly in-person gatherings.
You can start building in separate ministry and service projects, but, as a rule, I would not mix up “in,” “out,” and “up” activities. I’d only consider mixing it up if it were a very chill thing, for example, here in Singapore your group can get free kayak rentals if you are also doing some beach/waterway cleanup… which is still more on the fun side than the service side and can fit as “in” and “out” to some extent.
Final Thoughts: Bridging the Virtual Gap
Look, at the end of the day, having tons of social media “friends” and then only having superficial interactions on Sunday mornings just isn’t cutting it for people. We need to be purposeful in addressing a big societal problem by redeeming technologies like Discord and leveraging it to strengthen the church community. Having online community isn’t an “either-or” it’s a “yes-and” that enables churches to build community 24/7.
