Building Digital Community: Part 1 - A Conversation with Jon Mathieu

On February 28, we welcomed Jon Mathieu, founding pastor of Harbor Online Community, as our guest speaker on Zoom. Harbor is a fully online community with a Thursday night worship gathering on Zoom and other connection points online throughout the week. The community began in 2020, and formally became a church in March 2021. They have grown over the past several years, and now Dawn Leger and Dottie Olson have come alongside Jon as co-pastors. The community is comprised of folks from all of the world, predominately from the US and Canada. They held an in-person retreat in 2023, which was the first time many Harborites had met outside of the digital space. Learn more about Harbor at : https://www.onlineharbor.org/ .

Many of Harbor's community members are former evangelicals seeking more progressive theology and a safe place to heal from pain and trauma caused by church. As part of Jon's own long break-up with the evangelical church, he and others started a progressive Bible study where there was no need for neat, tidy answers. This was a place to explore outside the bounds of the traditional church. During 2020 the group transitioned to Zoom due to the pandemic. They began to invite others to join them and the group became geographically diverse. Going back to in-person gatherings would have meant leaving behind members of the group, so they officially became an online entity.

The digital format has distinct advantages for Harbor. There are many people who live in small, rural communities, particularly in the deep south, who do not have access to open, affirming, and inclusive churches. Being online offers an option to collect people together who may be scattered and isolated. As well, it attracts people who are deeply mistrustful of religious institutions but who still are looking for spiritual growth in community with others.

In addition to the distinctiveness of being an online-only worshipping community, Harbor is unique in its intentionality around caring for those who are healing from religious hurts and traumas. There are guidelines for discussion to help foster as much safety as possible as they work to live together in beloved community. Discussion, both casually to help community members get acquainted, and as part of exploring scripture, are a regular part of each gathering. Each week, pastors are intentional to amplify suppressed voices alongside the scripture, drawing on the works of womanist, liberationist, feminist, queer, and other theologians. Worship includes contemplative and embodied prayers, avoiding more traditional prayer formats, since these may be triggering to some. For they same reason, they avoid singing hymns and worship songs and do not regularly participate with sacraments. In place of hymn singing there is instrumental music during contemplative times. When communion was offered at the retreat, it was relational and meal-based, reflective of the tender moment of Jesus sharing a meal with his friends before his death. Their main worship gathering is on Thursday evening, both allowing some to attend other churches on Sundays and removing the discomfort and stigma of Sunday morning gatherings for others. They are actively learning how to do church keeping in mind people's trauma.

So practically, what does online church look like? Thursday night gatherings are 90 minutes long, with a mixture of break-out rooms for discussion, volunteers reading scripture out loud, words from theologians, and time for reflection and contemplation. Following the gathering each week is an after-party where those who choose can stay online for casual fellowship. There is a weekly Harbor Brunch, which is a mid-week, drop-in social opportunity, in addition to a Sunday morning group which discusses articles from The Christian Century. There are other groups that meet online, centered around things such as writing, inner work, and crafts. Occasional trivia and game nights are held on line. There are weekly podcasts and blog posts from the pastors and other contributors. One-on-one calls with pastors are always available. They have an online space on The Circle platform where people chat, post pictures, share resources, and host various virtual gatherings.

Many people consider "online church" to be watching videos of services. What Harbor offers instead is a vibrant, engaging, multi-dimensional model of church.

Up next....Building Digital Communities part 2 - Notes from our workshops with Digital Congregations.