Hello, friends! As we continue building Lutheran Network together, I'm excited to share more about one of the platform's core features: Community Spaces. Whether you're leading a congregation, running a podcast, coordinating a study group, or connecting a small ministry team, we've designed these tools with you in mind.
We've also prepared a special discount for the first forty community leaders who want to help us lay the foundation for what this network can become.
What Is a Community on Lutheran Network?
A community is your own dedicated space within the broader Lutheran Network — allowing you multiple member-run channels where your group can gather, discuss, share resources, and even host live video meetings or presentations. You get the benefit of forum-style organization (threaded discussions, file sharing, direct messaging, sticky posts) without having to manage separate software or lose connection to the wider confessional Lutheran world.
There are two types of communities you can create:
- Dedicated Communities are invite-only spaces, perfect for congregations, schools, and organizations that need secure, private communication among members.
- Open Communities are listed in the network directory and open to any Lutheran Network member. These work well for podcasts, teaching ministries, district initiatives, and other efforts aimed at reaching a broad audience.
Both types support video meetings (1–200 participants) and video presentations (up to 600 viewers), with shareable links and customizable permissions for who can host or present.
A Different Kind of Digital Space
We built Lutheran Network as a deliberate alternative to the social media platforms that have, too often, worked to fracture the confession and concord of our church. Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and their algorithmic cousins aren't designed for careful theological discussion, lasting resources, or meaningful fellowship. Their ephemeral and sensational nature is antithetical to the faith we hold and the hope we claim. This forum is built as a haven — a network away from that noise. Its intention is not to steal time, but to help reclaim it. It's a place where pastors, congregations, and ministries can gather in a digitally-based sacred space.
Who Should Consider Creating a Community?
Community spaces are flexible enough to serve a wide variety of groups:
- Congregations seeking a private space for member communication and fellowship
- Lutheran Schools needing a platform for staff, parents, and students
- Districts and Regional Groups requiring coordinated communication across parishes
- Ministry Organizations wanting to strengthen collaboration and resource sharing
- Seminary Communities fostering academic discussion and spiritual encouragement
- Podcast Creators building and engaging with listener communities
- Study Groups collaborating on Scripture, theology, or catechesis
- Mission Teams coordinating efforts and sharing updates
- Mentoring Networks connecting pastors, teachers, or leaders for mutual support
- Book Clubs, Alumni Groups, Professional Development Circles, and more
If you have a group that gathers—whether weekly or occasionally—and you want a calm, organized, searchable way to stay connected between meetings (or a place to digitally host those meetings), a community space will serve you well.
What You'll Be Able to Do
When you create a community, you'll have control over:
- Number of group channels within your community (each group is $1/month)
- Member limits tailored to your community size (from $0.02–$0.20/member/month, depending on scale)
- Video meeting minutes for hosting discussions, teaching sessions, or presentations (from $0.004–$0.0043/minute)
- Directory listing for open communities ($40/month per listed group)
- Subscription terms (annual subscriptions benefit from a 17% discount)
You'll also receive a unique invite code and URL for your community, moderation privileges, and the ability to set sticky posts, manage group descriptions, and roll invite codes as needed.
Your members benefit from the full Lutheran Network experience — topical channels, pastoral connections, direct messaging, customizable feeds, bookmarking, file sharing — while also having a primary touch point with your community (and any others they may join).
A Special Invitation: FOUNDER15
We're looking for the first forty community creators to join us as founding members of this network. These are the congregations, ministries, and leaders who see the value of creating a healthy digital gathering space for their people and want to help us prove that a network of communities will serve the confessional Lutheran church faithfully and sustainably.
If you're among the first forty to create a community and apply the code FOUNDER15 at checkout, you'll receive 15% off your subscription—forever. Whether you choose monthly or annual billing, that discount stays with you as long as your community remains active.
How to Get Started
- Request an invite if you're not yet a member—email support@lutheran.network and we'll send you a personal invitation to join the network.
- Navigate to the Communities page and click Create Community.
- Provide your community name, member limits, video minutes needed, and other such details.
- Apply the code FOUNDER15 at checkout if you're among the first forty.
- Create your first community group.
- Share your unique invite link to bring others into the network and start gathering.
If you have questions or want to talk through what configuration makes sense for your group, reach out to us in the support channel or email support@lutheran.network. We're here to help you get started well.
Why This Matters
We're not trying to replace your congregation or your existing rhythms of fellowship. We're providing a tool that can strengthen connection, simplify communication, and help you steward the people and ministries God has placed in your care. A community on Lutheran Network is a way to extend the conversation beyond Sunday and across congregations, to share resources, and to stay connected when geography or schedules make gathering in person more difficult.
The structure we've built here—a network of communities rather than one central forum—means that growth is sustainable. Each community brings its own people, its own rhythm, and its own reasons to return. The result is a livelier, more useful space for everyone.
May this forum serve to strengthen the bonds between us all—a place of edification, encouragement, and celebration among fellow workers. A place of prayer, where we gather together before the throne. A place of story and celebration, where we retell the good works of our good God. A place of learning, where we teach and admonish one another in the faith. And a place of sending, giving, and going, where we seek His Kingdom come on earth, taking our place and taking up our work in this great cause.
We're grateful for those of you who are already here, and we're eager to welcome the congregations and ministries who will make this network a true home for Lutheran fellowship and learning.
Let's build this together.
1 Corinthians 14:33
"For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints."Hebrews 10:24-25
"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."