A Guide To Faith Communities Booming On The Clubhouse App
The Kingdom Business Network meets for daily prophetic planning. Photo by Jillian Cheney.
NEW YORK— In my first week on the app Clubhouse, I felt more tuned into the daily rhythms of faith communities than I ever have been.
Clubhouse is the audio chat app created by Silicon Valley venture funds. In the pandemic, Clubhouse has served as a spot for chill conversations, a networking hotspot and a place for societal elites to mingle with enterprising masses. It’s available only to iOS users who are invited by other Clubhouse members. Despite the exclusivity, it’s skyrocketed in popularity since its launch last year, now reporting 10 million users and a $1 billion valuation.
The app hosts “rooms” of audio discussions and topical “clubs” that host rooms. Users can start a new room and conversation with others online at the same time, follow other users and request to join clubs (club creators can decide who joins their club).
Religious rooms and clubs are booming. Some supplement traditional worship. Many schedule daily content that can easily become a part of your routine.
I woke up early and listened to a reading from the book of Job while I brushed my teeth. I listened to faith-minded networking talks, complete with business advice and encouragement, before lunch. I did laundry and listened to female Christian entrepreneurs have a vulnerable discussion about their female role models. I cooked and ate dinner while listening to a group of Buddhists discuss accountability and perform a Gongyo and Daimoku chant together.
Before bed, I transitioned from a chaotic and heated discussion on female pastors to a prophetic worship session. Leaders sang low-key music — perfectly timed to double as a lullaby — and offered prophetic readings to listeners who shared their struggles. One woman was brought to tears as she was told her loneliness would soon be coming to an end.
The app isn’t without its problems. Jewish users reported heavy anti-Semitism in a room on Yom Kippur last September when a well-intentioned session became unmoderated. But it’s become a flourishing platform for those who want to increase their faith practice or connect with others.
There’s a Clubhouse room for everyone — and if there isn’t, members can start their own. Here are some of the best established places people of faith are gathering on the app.
Meditation Room – 101k followers
Founder Minh Do has always enjoyed meditation. He majored in Zen Buddhism and has studied with various masters. Though he doesn’t consider himself a Buddhist anymore, he still regularly practices and studies meditation. He hopes to provide a space for others to do the same. “I chomped at the bit of being able to meditate on the app rather than just having conversations,” he told Religion Unplugged.
The Meditation Room started out small, but now Do said they average 400 people in their Clubhouse room daily. They partner with a Zen Buddhist monk who beatboxes. The room hosts regular morning meditation sessions, poetry rooms, history rooms and a room on lucid dreaming. These rooms are attended by people of all levels, from beginners to monks. As the app grows, Do said he hopes to increase the frequency and length of the meditation sessions. He hopes to plan a meditation retreat that would last up to 10 days.
Meditation apps are already popular, but Clubhouse offers a different approach to what these apps provide.
“You have people coming into a room to sit silently, together, whatever that means,” Do said. “I think there is something special about rather than like listening to a podcast of a meditation, or listening to an app that has a recorded meditation.”
God Ideas – 13.2k members, 4.1k followers
JimDre Westbrook, entrepreneur and founder of God Ideas, said in his Clubhouse bio his goal is to “impact 10 million people through moderating 1000 rooms by 2023.” The club encourages entrepreneurs to join but covers many more topics. Every weekday, they host a morning Bible reading — recently through the book of Job. Weekly, they host rooms on wellness, business and relationships.
Muslimahs – 13.5k members, 8.7k followers
Muslimahs is a club for women and non-binary Muslims to discuss Islam — including specific topics like hijabs or recitations — families and mental wellness.
Founder Alex Fox told Religion Unplugged that COVID-19 has prevented her and others from participating in their normal services.
“We've been able to help fill that gap by having imams and scholars come and talk about different topics or have Quran recitations and lectures to kind of bridge that gap and provide those touch points to our faith to our communities,” she said.
Fox also founded Muslims & Friends, which is open to all Muslims and non-Muslims with questions; the group has 32.2k members and 27.8k followers.
As the app expands, Fox said the community has become more global. Since the start of the year, they’ve seen large numbers of members coming from Germany, Jakarta, Indonesia, Malaysia and France.
But God – 16k members, 49.6k followers
But God is a Christian community that existed first outside of Clubhouse on other social media sites. They’ve found a home on Clubhouse as a community of faith, offering weekly programming on a variety of topics.
“We have received thousands of messages from members who are being healed and growing in faith because of our community,” But God CEO Caroline Adegun said. They intend to use Clubhouse as a meeting venue in the future but continue to grow independently and offer support for parents, those struggling in the pandemic and more.
Tao Club – 2.2k members, 18.1k followers
Founder Arthur Levitan and other members of the Tao Club were among Clubhouse’s early members. Leviathan said they were the first club of Tao believers to form.
“We hoped it would meet the ever-present need of human beings to understand life and our human lives within that larger life — and, most importantly, to find a community of practice that supports living in a way that leads to contentment and fulfillment,” he said.
As the app grows and becomes more publicly available, Levitan said he wants the club to be populated with people who are “hungry for connection and open communication” as they were in the beginning. They plan to host sessions on meditation and teaching that help believers in relationships, life and business.
SGI Buddhists on Clubhouse – 2.1k members, 3.5k followers
SGI Buddhists began as an opportunity for founders to become accountability partners in their practice. Now the club is a primary hub for Buddhists. They host regular introduction sessions for those new to the faith. Every morning, they host an hour-long chant, and every evening, they host a half-hour chant.
Kingdom Business Network – 20.1k members, 29.5k followers
Chanel Martin, an ordained prophet at All Nations Worship Assembly of Atlanta, said she created the Kingdom Business Network at God’s direction: it was just her job to find the right platform to host on.
“I just knew it wasn't supposed to be on Facebook,” she said. What makes Clubhouse the right place is a few key things, she said. They consistently attract and retain high numbers of listeners, which never happens on other platforms. She enjoys Clubhouse because you can listen to it while going about your day. Lastly, it’s a no-pressure space that creates room for authentic conversations.
“You don't have to get dressed, put makeup on or, you know, do yourself up — it's just all about your voice, and no distractions,” Martin said.
Kingdom Business Network hosts a large selection of daily content, including The Ladies Room and Coffee & Conversation. Martin said their most popular room by far is Prophetic Planning for Your Day, which combines prayer and journaling. As they grow, they’re planning to offer more regular content and expand to other platforms.
Jewish Tribe & Friends – 4k members, 7.2k followers
Jewish Tribe & Friends focuses on topics within Judaism and other current events that impact the community. Any of the club’s members can begin a room, and there’s a separate Facebook page to sign up for speaking and moderating opportunities. They’ve hosted rooms on Interfaith Marriage and more.
Kingdombosses Connect — 8k members, 1.2k followers
Kingdombosses Connect is a room geared toward Christian entrepreneurs — another example of how popular the app has become for networking and people of faith alike. Founder Tiffany Bethea said their most popular room is the daily Morning Encounter with God. She told Religion Unplugged that the goal of this room is “helping kingdom entrepreneurs stay focused on the God of the work while we are doing the work of God.” The club also hosts room on purpose, therapy, marketing and more.
“Kingdomboss as a community existed before Clubhouse,” Bethea said. “However, our presence on this app has absolutely exploded and placed us in front of new people from around the world. It has deepened our ability to collaborate and joint venture also as an organization.”
Jillian Cheney is a Poynter-Koch fellow for Religion Unplugged who loves consuming good culture and writing about it. She also reports on American Protestantism and evangelical Christianity. You can find her on Twitter @_jilliancheney.