Hello, all! I'm excited to walk you through what we've put together here. This platform is designed to serve our broader confessional Lutheran community with tools that are both familiar and purposefully crafted for how we need to be connecting, learning, and growing together. Read through our brief About page for why we think this is so important.
Traditional Forum Software – Thoughtfully Done
At its core, you'll find the features you'd expect from solid forum software. Each member gets an account with a username, profile page, and notifications to keep you in the loop. We've organized discussions into topical channels that you can follow or ignore based on your interests, all feeding into a primary feed that gives you a single place to see what's happening across the network.
Discussions with threaded commenting, which can be rolled or unrolled, keep conversations organized and easy to follow. We've intentionally structured registration to require either an invite from an existing member or community owner – this helps maintain the relational nature of what we're building. Registration also requires assent to confessional Lutheran doctrine, ensuring we're grounded in shared confession from the start.
If you're seeking an invite code to join the network, feel free to email invite@lutheran.network and we'll get you connected.
Networking: Communities & Pastoral Connections
We've built in features that go beyond typical forum functionality to support real ministry and connection.
Pastoral Connections
We recognize the unique role pastors play in our communities. Pastors are identified via a Pastor group, and members can mark association with a user as their pastor directly from their profile. This creates a layer of pastoral care, connection, and accountability that's woven into the platform itself. Pastors will be able to readily access a list of all such users.
We've also created "The Shieling," a dedicated channel explicitly for pastors to interact with one another – a space for pastoral encouragement, discussion, and support.
Pastors can email connect@lutheran.network with evidence of ordination so that we can label their account accordingly and grant access to pastoral features and channels.
Communities
Anyone can create a community through a paid subscription model, giving you the tools to gather and lead your own group(s) within the network. Community spaces are member-run channels that anyone can join. Whether you're a congregation, an organization, or a small group, this community feature will serve you well. You can configure your subscription plan to meet the specific needs of your community – create multiple group spaces, set member limits, and purchase video participant minutes for hosting meetings and presentations. There are two types of community spaces you can create:
- Dedicated communities require access to an invite code
- Open communities are listed and highlighted in the network directory and open for any member of the Lutheran Network to join
All communities support video chat meetings from 1-200 participants and presentation capabilities for up to 600 viewers with separate shareable links for hosts, presenters, participants, and viewers. You can set permissions per community on who can initiate meetings and presentations.
Community owners and moderators can set sticky posts to keep important information visible and accessible to all members of their community.
Invite Links
Growing the network is built right into the structure. Owners of dedicated communities and members of open communities get a unique invite link for bringing others into their space and the broader network. Beyond that, all users are provided a unique link to invite others – everyone has a part in building the network. Let's see truly how small the Lutheran world is.
Content Handling
We've included practical tools to make your experience more useful and less overwhelming:
- Customizable feed – follow/unfollow channels and communities to see what matters most to you
- File uploads for sharing resources
- Embedded media from links to enrich discussions
- Save post drafts when you're not quite ready to publish
- Bookmark discussions and comments to return to them later
- Roll and unroll comment threads to manage how much detail you're seeing at any given time
Questions? Check out these frequently asked questions or reach out – we're happy to connect!
Hebrews 10:23-25
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.