Finding Community

FINDING COMMUNITY ONLINE

I grew up going to church every Sunday. It was always a big part of my life and the life of my family. We didn’t just go on Sunday mornings either. I attended choir practice during the week and, when I got older, youth group on Sunday nights. My family was about as immersed in the life of the church as someone can be.

When I was a small child, it wasn’t hard to believe in God. It was all I knew. I had no reason to doubt what I was taught in Sunday school every week and for the most part, everyone in my small sphere of influence was Christian. There was no conflict between the image of God I’d been taught and what I knew to be true of the world. The God I knew was kind and benevolent. There were no “insiders” and “outsiders” as far as I knew. I had no reason to question what I was told to believe.

The thing about getting older is it often creates space for doubt. The first time I remember questioning God’s goodness was in middle school when I was told that my good friend, who happened to be an atheist, wasn’t going to heaven. Suddenly, there was a line between who was in and who was out. Suddenly, I wasn’t so sure if this was the kind of belief I wanted to subscribe to. As I became a teenager and began seeing the hurt Christians brought to communities like LGBT+ folks, I started to distance myself further from the label of “Christian.” I still believed in God but I no longer knew what that looked like for me.

During my freshman year of college, I read the book Pastrix by Nadia Bolz-Weber. She introduced me to a God who was big enough for all of my questions. Through her, I discovered a whole online community of believers who were open about their doubts. Writers like Sarah Bessey and Rachel Held Evans became my pastors. As much as I loved the college ministries I was a part of at the time, they sometimes felt too polished and performative. In contrast, communities on Twitter left space for me to be my whole self.

As an introvert, the internet is often where I find solace and community so it is no surprise that the internet helped save and strengthen my faith. It connected me with people all over the world

who found the religion of their childhood wanting and were searching for something more. It didn’t erase my doubts but it made me feel less alone in them.

The pandemic has made online spaces more important and more sacred than ever. Over the past two years, we’ve found numerous ways to connect with others across hundreds, even thousands, of miles. While in-person connection is irreplaceable, there is something special about instantly connecting with people all across the globe. In this time, people have found online church communities through a simple Google search. It’s brought a whole new meaning to the phrase “the Church is not a building, the Church is the people.” Sometimes, the Church is on a Facebook Livestream. Sometimes, it’s in a conversation on Twitter. Sometimes, it’s in an online blog post that puts into words what’s in your heart.

Today, I cherish both my local church community and my virtual one. While I’m an active member of PUMC, I still find ways to worship God and engage in community online. Social media has many negatives but one of the biggest positives is that it can make us feel less alone. In my case, it was a vessel for God to speak to me and connect me to others who brought comfort and clarity to a confusing time in my life. While it might not be for everyone, I do believe that the internet can be light for people who are having trouble seeing God at work in their lives. After all, if God can meet us anywhere, why not online? 9

Mikaela Langdon