What is it?
WhatsApp Communities is a way for us to connect, share, and organize church life, to facilitate communication and community. The Georgetown Lutheran Church Community is like a landing page for our community, with several sub-groups for open or closed chats. Some of the current sub-groups include: general/announcements, prayer concerns, scriptures and sermons, grace in the world, and devotional series.
Why are we doing this?
It makes it much easier for people to find and join groups that are relevant to them. It also gives us the ability to message everyone in the community via the announcements group. We're also trying it out as a platform for devotional study, where we can have small closed group conversations without having different proprietary apps/platforms.
We have some of this type of more social, and less ‘broadcast’ ability to communciate via social media already but it is limited because not everyone uses it. WhatsApp, in comparison, has a much broader user base and so I hope will help us to reach and engage more people.
Is my personal information safe?
Yes. When you join the community, only the admin can see the full list of members who have joined. If you chat/interact, your name would be displayed but not your contact info/phone number unless that person already has you in their contacts. Within the sub-groups, you may be able to see each other as group members but cannot see their contact info unless you already have them saved as a phone contact. It cannot be used as a directory to look up people’s numbers.
How do I join the community?
A link was sent in the GLC email recently, and there's a QR code you can scan in church. Or request the link by emailing the pastor: pastor@georgetownlutheran.com.
How do I join the sub-groups?
You simply click on the group and request to join it. Some groups are open, while others need admin permission to join. An admin of that group then can accept or reject your request with the option to message you directly if they don’t already know you.
Are there rules?
Of course. Like any community it needs some rules to keep it working well. Here they are:
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We're all in this together to create a welcoming environment. Let's treat everyone with respect. Healthy debates are natural, but kindness is required. Before you message or reply think, would you say what you're sending to someone's face?
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Please avoid statements, particularly anything unnecessarily political or controversial, which might damage rather than promote our unity in Christ. Some conversations may be best taken off group chats and continued separately one to one, either online or face to face.
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Give more to the community than you take. Self-promotion, spam and irrelevant links aren't allowed.
We don’t want to remove people but if you can’t stick to the rules then the admins will remove you from groups. We will remove any persons acting outside of these guidelines, posting inappropriately, or who is not a part of the GLC community all over the world.
What sort of plans do you have for the future?
It’s a work in progress. First of all we’re just starting community and seeing how it goes. However it’s got lots of potential to create interest based and geographically focused groups too. We’re not trying to do everything at once but if you have an idea, or know of a group that you think could be added, drop Pastor a note!
Can I leave?
You can leave individual groups or the community at any point. You can’t leave the announcements group without leaving all the groups you’re part of in the community, though. We don’t use the announcements group much but you can mute it or any of the individual groups if you want to.