A Year of Community
Wanting More?
If community was simply a gathering, our God-given need for community could be met running around Disneyland with thousands of strangers singing (or better, enduring) “It’s a Small World.” If community was simply a gathering, then meeting someone new each week at a megachurch should satisfy us.
God knows we need more than smiles, inspiration, and small talk at mass gatherings. We need people who hang tight with us when we reveal the tarnished side of our lives. We need a place that is more than safe. We need a place to be known so we can grow.
We need a community that feels less like a meeting and more like home.
Online Community?
This new community is like a home, glowing with light and life. Imagine walking up and ringing the doorbell. Step inside the mudroom and hear laughter from the living room where a theological discussion is ringing with laughter. The smell of banana bread floats toward you from the kitchen where a conversation about parenting mixes with the sounds of setting the table. Upstairs you hear a movie playing. You know it will be followed by a lively conversation.
The online Soulation Community will be like stepping into this house. You will discover a home secure in privacy where Dale and Jonalyn Fincher carefully curate conversations. Enter through the front door (your own profile page) and explore.
Where will you go first?
Discussions will be crafted within each room you enter:
- A Book Nook to discuss what you’ve been reading or watching.
- A Spiritual Health 2.0 room to discuss spiritual health beyond what our introduction offered.
- A room to share Things We Make, where we post everything we create from photographs and poetry to recipes and family adventures.
- A room to discuss Relationships and Sexuality, everything from nitty gritty parenting challenges to puzzling friendship questions.
- A Culture and Citizenship room for those who want to cultivate soul work for statecraft. This is where you can learn to live the quiet and wise life of the kingdom of God while navigating the noise among the kingdoms of men.
- The Freedom Builders’ Room.
- A My Faith Hurdle Room to access other’s faith doubts.
Spouses, friends, longtime followers of Soulation no longer need to take our prerequisite study to access our online community. Once inside the Community, you’ll find new rooms to explore as you’re ready.
This community is the culmination of years of work at Soulation to hit this milestone moment. We are more proud of launching this community than anything else we’ve done in the last 12 years. We hope this new community will make you feel welcome to join us in growing your soul. Because Soulation isn’t simply about recovering from spiritual abuse, we’re not simply talking about overcoming our past.
Soulation is about building the soul, creating a warm and relaxed community for those who want to follow Jesus in all areas of human life. Our Soulation values will also be our Community values: Honesty, Beauty, Freedom, Thoughtful Engagement, and Biblical Faithfulness.
What You Can Expect in our Online Church Community
You’ll find protection from the intrusive harvesting work of Facebook, a place secure in privacy, and carefully curated by the Finchers and the Soulation Team. Enter through the front door (your profile) and explore. Here, anyone can pop into our new blog on being human. Become a partner to join the cultivated discussions. Through financial partnership, you are committed to growing and coming alongside others devoted to the same.
Dale and Jonalyn are writing together again! “Living Human” will offer one-page posts. Read about the Fincher’s lives and learn more about practicing your limitations and uniqueness in your local community.
Every Friday evening, Dale or Jonalyn broadcast a LIVE video sermon on Facebook. Invite friends to listen with you or join the comments with our online community. Once a month, we let our extended community set the agenda by taking your live questions during “Faith Hurdle Friday.”
Finally, a one-stop blog with our best articles from the last decade. No more signing in to multiple blogs to find that elusive article. Here you’ll find Soulation’s library–the most popular and discussed articles from the last ten years by Dale Fincher, Jonalyn Fincher, and the Soulation writing team.
Our best material is now made user-friendly with our versatile studies for individuals and groups. Occasionally, studies will be hosted by Soulation. Check out our Soulation Store for all our available studies.
A time to meet with the pastor. Nothing is off-limits in one-hour, private spiritual direction sessions with published authors Dale or Jonalyn Fincher. Whether it’s hammering out a frustrating relationship question or gently untangling a twisted piece of Scripture, this is a safe place to learn and grow.
A chance to see one another face-to-face. We’ll be eating, exploring ideas, hiking, star-gazing, and learning in person.
Freedom Builders intentionally enters into a more intimate space of our Soulation Community with room for support and spiritual formation. All members of Soulation’s Freedom Builders Community first complete our Soulation-hosted study, Spiritual Health: A Foundation, gathering the tools for spiritual healing and a shared vocabulary for spiritual growth. This study ensures the Freedom Builders Community is a protected place for everyone. Learn more here.
Who is part of the Soulation Community?
As a partner you can easily become a member of our new community. Your financial partnership makes it simple for you to join others devoted to growing more fully human like Jesus.
College Student
The questioning college student who has questions no one wants to hear.
Weary of Politicized Faith
Anyone weary with the politicization of the Christian faith.
Christians
All Christians who are eager to grow.
Single
The single who can’t find belonging at church because everything is geared toward “families.”
Married Couple
The married couple who can’t find a church that will allow them both to use their giftedness in ministry.
Divorced Mom
The divorced mom who takes her kids to a mega-church for the children’s ministry but can’t find anyone brave enough to talk through her faith questions.
Family
The family who wants their children to know God personally, rather than follow lock-step in the church’s youth program.