Welcome to Hope Digital!

We're doing a new thing, are you ready?

Dear God, as Hope Church we pray that this is a place where Absolutely Everyone experiences God’s love, we are a place of theological thought and conversation, and we are a community learning to live Christ-centered lives. Amen.

Since 2014, Hope United Methodist in Bloomington, IL has served as a beacon of God’s love. Every Sunday morning we pray this prayer statement, centering our community around who we are and who we want to be.

For many of those years, something has bothered us. There’s a whole lot of people who can’t make it physically to Hope who need us, or someone like us, and doesn’t even have a local progressive or affirming church at all. Many of these folks turn to the internet for community and acceptance, but even then often times all they find are toxic communities that look nothing like the model of God’s love we’re given.

So, last year, we decided to do something about that, and Hope Digital was born. We are starting Hope Digital as a second-site church plant, but entirely online. We are taking our Hope United Methodist DNA, our prayer statement, and the love and affirmation that we give to everyone who walks through our doors and creating that same beacon of Hope… Digitally!

We have spent most of our first year figuring out how our vision translates to a digital-first community and experiences, and a special thanks to Reverend Sophie Woods for building the foundation that we’re standing on today.

First and foremost, we are building a Church. We choose to build it on Discord - our digital ‘church building’ if you will. This is where we gather, we talk, we pray for each other, we celebrate together, and of course - we worship together. All things that would naturally happen in a church building. Discord gives us the platform that feels most like a ‘building’ - but still adapts to the 24/7 synchronous and asynchronous communication patterns we see in online communities.

It has worked out well so far - we have already seen some incredible stories come out of our community of people finding hope and peace through our church being there for them. Often LGBTQ Christians stuck in small, rural towns in conservative areas turn online to find help and support and are often met with derision and condemnation. A common refrain we hear is “we are too gay for the Christian communities, and too Christian for the gay communities.”

As we build on that foundation, we are preparing to launch a livestreamed podcast - starting with special ‘preview’ episodes while we grow our community and prepare for a fully weekly launch in the future. ‘Absolutely Everyone’ will serve as an anchor for our community, a livestreamed (on Discord) time to come together, center ourselves on our prayer statement, and do the work of learning to live Christ centered lives through interviews with… absolutely everyone, discussions, and live feedback from the chat. It will then be available on the major podcasting platforms.

All told, we are building something special here, and we hope you join us for our journey! You can join us on discord, or subscribe to our podcast once it is up - and of course subscribe to get updates here!

Now, one final thing here. We are adding a bookend to the other side of the prayer statement. An affirmation you’re going to hear often from us. Whereas the prayer statement is to center our community, this affirmation is to center and anchor ourselves in God’s love as we go out into the chaos of this world.

You are unconditionally loved.

You are intrinsically worthy.

God is with you, now and forever.