New Discord Server Launches for Ginghamsburg Church

What is Discord and why should the Church care?

Dan Bracken

A quick Google search reveals that Discord is a chat app geared specifically toward video game players, providing them with ways to find each other, coordinate play, and talk while playing. It supports video calls, voice chat, and text, allowing users to get in touch however they please.

The gaming world has evolved since I was destroying my High School friends in Goldeneye (slappers only) on the Nintendo 64. Truth be told, I exited the arena when Counterstrike consumed my dorm hall in college (yes I understand the irony of this happening at a Christian college, but that’s another blog for another day). Having 33 guys, doors propped open, screaming and blasting one another was a little…overwhelming. But those moments sparked a new reality for what it meant to be connected online.

Digital multiplayer gaming has a long history compared to the social media world we know today.

PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching) was a computer-based education system created in 1960 at the University of Illinois. In addition to being used successfully as a teaching tool, PLATO also spawned one of the first successful online communities. In many ways, PLATO’s development foreshadowed the Internet, which wasn’t launched until 1983. Just a couple of years after PLATO, SpaceWars! was developed in 1962 as the first multiplayer game for the DEC PDP-1 minicomputer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

15 Video Games That Pioneered Online Multiplayer Before It Was Popular

Digital social communities have existed for over 62 years! But tools like Discord are now making gameplay multi-dimensional.  And this, my friends, is a great opportunity for the Church.

Should Your Church Start A Discord Server?

Dominic Land is a High School Student at Ginghamsburg. He jumped at the opportunity to create a Ginghamsburg Church Community Discord Server

Join the Ginghamsburg Community Discord Server

From scratch, Dominic created a safe and vibrant place for our church to hangout online. He’s created a helpful information guide to get you started, assigned community roles so you know who’s on church staff, added bots to remember birthdays, generated streaming channels with chat to broadcast weekend worship, cultivated space for online classes and developed more casual environments to dialogue with others about favorite recipes and TV shows.

The Discord app is free unless you want to add bells and whistles, the learning curve isn’t terrible, and Because Discord is a chat, not a feed, it’s also free of controlling algorithms.

NO CONTROLLING ALGORITHMS.

Let freedom ring.

Here’s a little of what Dom had to say:

“Usually we see our friends at Church on Sundays, but Discord has made it possible to chat, share life, grow and hangout throughout the week.

During the pandemic, Discord had a tremendous shift in growth and revenue. Whilst Discord was a place for gamers and streamers it has now grown into a social hub for friends and families to chat from far distances.

Discord is more than just for gamers or streamers, it’s for everyone!

I’ve been on Discord for over 5 years. I’ve joined almost 50 servers (crazy, I know). Personally, I use Discord to keep up to date with my favorite streamers/YouTubers and to meet new people across the world. I even have my own server called The Chill Zone.

I pray and hope that the Ginghamsburg Church Community Discord Server will succeed and give us the chance to set aside our differences and be united under one body of Christ. Let’s help each other grow and share life together!”

The more of us who Join the Ginghamsburg Community Discord Server, the more fun it will be!

If you have questions, send me an email. So I can ask Dominic.

OR, just Join the Ginghamsburg Community Discord Server and ask @dominic yourself.

Dan Bracken
Communication Director | Ginghamsburg Church
dbracken@ginghamsburg.org