As part of our series ‘Frontiers of Innovation’ we talked to Andrew Mackay about his work with the First UU Discord Community and how they’re creating community for young adults online.
Q: You’re an administrator of First UU Discord, a large online spiritual community of predominantly youths and young adults. Yet many readers may not know what Discord is – how would you summarize it for them?
Discord is a platform where people can make chat servers for unique interests. It started with video games, it’s moved to subcultures, and now religion. Two and a half years ago the need for a UU Discord server emerged from changes in social media and the demographics of those who use it. Although many older UUs use Facebook, those in their early 30s and younger really don’t actively use Facebook anymore. So the need for a UU Discord server emerged from this demand.
Q: How big is the UU Discord community and who are the type of people typically joining?
Right now we have about 600 total members of varying engagement levels. Overwhelmingly the people we see joining are young and extremely new to Unitarian Universalism – they may in fact know nothing about it and joined our server with the intention of learning more.
Q: So you’re sort of like the online concierge of Unitarian Universalism?
That’s right – we’re here to take a lot of people starting from scratch and give them information. Going to an in-person service by yourself can be extremely intimidating – it requires some education and confidence building. I spend a lot of time answering the same half dozen questions: What do UUs believe? What is the UU stance on this or that? Can I be a Christian, Buddhist or Hindu and also UU? We have also created resources like frequently asked questions, a spreadsheet of congregations offering online services and a glossary for the many acronyms that are used in UU culture.
Q: So how did you personally get involved in the leadership of this community?
I had been a UU for 10 years by the time I was asked to help them launch UU Discord. I had a history of serving in administrator and moderator roles, well before Facebook and Twitter existed, back when we had independent web forums on websites. I was drawn to the idea because I wanted to help create an online space where people are free to be spiritually curious. As someone pursuing a joint degree in theology and social work, I’m very interested in the theory of community development.
Q: What would you say to someone who is skeptical that a chat room can be a “real” spiritual community?
It’s much more robust than a chat room, and we operate consistent with the principles of congregational polity. We believe in the fifth principle, so admins and moderators are elected, officers are chosen democratically and serve at the behest of the community, just like a parish. We also have committees for ministry and programming. And in terms of engagement, we even have ‘voice channels’ where spoken conversations can happen on topics of mutual interest.
Q: How do you think about your mission and who you serve?
We see our role as tracking and serving the spiritual growth of our members. I like to think of the analogy of a train station. Sometimes a train station is your final destination – and for those who want UU Discord to be their community we can be that for them. Other times a train station is just a stop on the way to another destination. Some people come in, learn about UUism and ultimately end up in a physical parish, or some other faith entirely. We never guilt our members for taking that path. In fact, we’re happy when members remain true to themselves and engage in their authentic spiritual journey.
Q: How are you doing something new in Unitarian Universalism that’s never been done before?
It’s really the moving to a new social media platform that solves a lot of the issues of previous platforms. Facebook has not put forward a very positive culture and in some places it’s impossible to moderate - or people refuse to moderate - the discussions, which can amount to a very poor representation of the faith to people who are discovering it for the first time. By contrast, we are desperately trying to get new people to have a healthy introduction to Unitarian Universalism. We do that by upholding a covenant, having good leadership and moderation, using democratic principles, and leveraging the platform’s features like instantaneous communication and 20+ channels on different interest subjects.
Q: What do you find has worked surprisingly well on the platform?
Discord has the unique ability for people to add identity ‘roles’ to their profiles like pronouns, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, faith or spirituality as well as indicators of geographic region, racial and ethnic identity, etc. It allows for conversations to happen between specific affinity groups and it really allows you to get good picture of where someone is coming from just by clicking on their name. Our server is also automated so new members can read the rules of our covenant and consent before it opens up full access to our server.
Q: By contrast, what have you found to be challenging?
Just like a parish, getting consistent activity and participation is a big thing. Some users are new to Discord and may only be members of a couple servers and may not have notifications turned on, so they don’t get into the rhythm of participating. Then, on the other side, there are those who subscribe to so many servers that UU Discord messages just get lost in the shuffle. Trying to find that sweet spot where we have a consistently active member base is definitely a challenge.
Q: Unlike a physical church building, you’re really not limited in your growth. As you look to the future what’s the next level for you?
That’s right, we have an immense capacity built into the server, so we can scale with the interest and activity of our members. Looking forward we’d love to see regular meetings of our ministry council and programming committee, regular small group worship and prayer services. For example, we could meet for 15 minutes on Fridays, do a reading, then go our separate ways for the day. Or we could even form a chalice circle where we could meet in a live voice channel for an hour once a month. There just needs to be interest and we can easily accommodate it on the platform.
Q: What does all this cost?
Nothing at all, it’s run by volunteers and the discord server is free to use. If we were to receive donations or grants however, it would be used to compensate our technical admin for their time and to explore Instagram advertising (like a riff on the classic 1950s ad “Are You a Unitarian Without Knowing It?”). Any money we receive would be well spent improving our capacity and visibility.
Q: Is there any final message you’d like our readers to take away?
The First UU Discord Community is more than a new visitor orientation center and more than a place to support people in their spiritual journey. We are one of the few places where the young adult voice of Unitarian Universalism can be found, and the freedom of Discord has allowed this communication to flourish. I think that’s really important. It’s a place to have vital conversations about the living tradition that are ongoing. People aren’t really sure what the answers are, but they need to be talked about, and we are a place where that happens.
Q: How can readers support the work you’re doing?
The best thing people can do to support us is to support our growth. Please share the permanent invite link (below) with anybody who seems like a chat server would be a good place for them to be in community. Or just hand the link out to people who might hand it out to others later, because the link will never expire. The important thing is getting this link into the hands of young adults who are either UUs or are curious.