Gifts of Online Gatherings: Finding Community Through Zoom
{Share 4 Somethings - September 2025}
I wish it were possible to gather all my online friends in person to sit around one big table—hearing each other’s voices and laughter, connecting in each other’s presence beyond just our written words.
But I know that’s not possible, so I’ve come to appreciate online gatherings via Zoom (or any video calling platform) as the next best thing to that dream. It’s a way we can still find connection, encouragement, and even moments of transformation together in real time.
This month’s Share 4 Somethings reflects on what I’ve loved, learned, experienced, and released—all through the lens of online community. I’m linking it all up with Jenn.
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Something I loved
- AUTUMN EQUINOX REFLECTIONS
Last Monday on the first day of autumn, I joined a circle of women online to celebrate the shift into fall. Together, we found gratitude for what has ripened in us, and shared hope for who we are still becoming.
The simple act of pausing to mark a season—with some friends I knew already and with others I was meeting for the first time from all around the United States—reminded me that gratitude grows deeper when it’s shared. We then created a group text and a Marco Polo group so we could remain connected even after the Zoom call ended.
As fall begins, maybe ask yourself, too: What is one thing I want to release? And one thing I want to carry forward?
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Something I learned
- SUPPORT FOR MOMS
On Tuesday morning, another online call connected me with a small group of mothers of adult children. We’ve begun meeting regularly to talk about expectations in this stage of life, inevitable disappointments that surface, and the hypervigilance that can creep in when life doesn’t unfold quite like we’d planned.
Being with this group of moms, hearing them speak honestly about their own experiences, is both comforting and clarifying. Parenting doesn’t end when children are grown—it just shifts. And the gift of community is learning from each other and feeling less alone as we go.
What stage of motherhood have you found the easiest so far? The most challenging? Do you have community (in person and/or online) to help you?
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Something that went well
- CONVERSATIONS ON JUSTICE
Sometimes it’s easier to find your people around a certain topic when you have the whole internet to choose from.
Later in the week, I joined an online book club of death penalty abolitionists to discuss Arbitrary Death: A Prosecutor’s Perspective on the Death Penalty by Rick Unklesbay. Listening to the insights of others reminded me that growth often comes by paying attention to perspectives outside my own.
If you’re curious to learn more, I highly recommend these books:
- Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It’s Killing Us by Shane Claiborne, one of my top 9 books I read in 2024
- Ghosts Over the Boiler: Voices from Alabama’s Death Row by Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty, which I shared in a previous Share 4 Somethings post last November
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Something I let go of
- EXPECTATIONS FOR CONSTANT INSIGHTS
Lastly, on Saturday morning I joined Lory and a few others from around the world (Switzerland, India, Hungary, and the United States) for a 40-minute zoom session of a sacred reading (lectio divina). After listening to a selected text and reflecting on it, everyone shared what they learned.
In my in-person world, our paths would likely never have crossed and we would have never shared this joint experience.
In this session together I was reminded that not every moment has to be one of revelation. Life isn’t an endless stream of breakthroughs—and that’s okay. Ordinary days hold their own kind of awe.
If you’d like to experience one of these sessions (they’re free!), Lory at Enter Enchanted has set October 13 and October 25 for the two zoom sessions in October. Check her blog for details (or ask me in the comments).
While online gatherings will never replace sitting around a shared table, they do have their own gifts that are just as real:
- Global connections with no borders.
In a single call you can interact with others from around the world, hearing different accents, having real-time conversations, and looking in the eyes of others you might never know otherwise. - Accessibility and comfort.
I love that online spaces remove barriers that might keep people from participating. Anyone can join as they are, from wherever they are, in ways that are comfortable to them in their own spaces. - Intimacy through focused listening.
Online conversations work best when we give our full attention to each speaker. It reduces the side conversations and interruptions we often have in person. But in Zoom conversations we have to listen and speak one at a time, a courtesy given to each speaker, which benefits each listener as well.
These gifts remind me that community doesn’t have to look one particular way. Sometimes square boxes on a screen tie us together in strong and meaningful ways, too.
Where have you found unexpected connection—online or otherwise—this past month?
Share your thoughts in the comments.
Thanks so much for sharing Sacred Reading, Lisa! Im so glad you’re finding it worthwhile.
Your other online meetings sound amazing. There are so many of these opportunities now, I have to limit myself. But I deeply appreciate them, especially being in a country where I don’t speak the language well.
As for the easiest or most challenging phase of parenting, when I had a newborn I thought I’d never survive, but other parents told me having a teenager was much harder. Now I know what they meant! But actually, both are challenging, only in different ways. The good thing is now I’m far more willing to seek support than when my son was born. I’ve let down my pride and admitted parenting is far too hard to do all by oneself.
I’m happy to share about Sacred Readings here! I updated your October dates into the post here for those interested. Yes, online opportunities abound; there are more than I have time for. That week I wrote about was a very unusual one. I actually had something 6 of the 7 days, which is not my norm, thankfully. ha. But each one was worth it!
I appreciate your perspective on parenting and agree with you. The baby stage is physically challenging, but the teenage phase is emotionally wrought. Seeking support is something I still do even at the stage I’m currently in. 🙂
There are so many ways to connect with others that never existed before as in the Zoom app. I love that many of my blog readers live in different countries, too, and that we can get to know one another through our writing. And having a translator right on the program is wonderful. Thanks, Lisa, for sharing the different ways you’re staying creatively connected with others. May your October be fruitful and blessed!
I agree with you, Martha. It’s so wonderful that we can now make friends all over the world through our blogs! It’s a gift that I didn’t know was possible when I first started my blog years ago. But it’s ended up being the best thing about blogging.
Oh, Lisa….it is so true in this technology world that there is ease connecting with people we’d never have met otherwise. We met via writing devotionals online and I consider you a lifelong friend. Your blog brings so many who appreciate you and the thoughts you share. Covid brought the ease of Zoom to many of us as even those we could meet with in person but there were limitations during that pandemic time. And, as you have said in this posting, many groups gather from all over the world for times with a focused subject…prayer…book clubs…interviews with favored authors are some that are part of my life now. Thanks for the thoughtful post!
I’m so grateful we met those years ago, too, Lynn! I wonder how many years it has been…. You have been a blessing in my life. While there are days I rage at the internet with its many issues, I am also amazed at its power to connect people in beautiful ways that wouldn’t happen otherwise.
Lisa, I can’t be sure when we connected so well as writers for Rest Ministries. I belonged to the group for some years before someone said I ‘should’ write devotionals for the site. Stunned, having never written a devotional, it was the very next day the suggestion came to me that I had an experience out walking that I was recording in my journal. A light bulb went on. “I think I just wrote a devotional! Perhaps my whole journal is a devotional!!” That spurred me on to submit a couple of devotionals and the rest is history, as the saying goes. That step was in 2008 so we have wrapped up some years ‘together’.
I’m glad you’re finding supportive communities in the online gatherings, Lisa. Thank you for sharing all this. As always, I especially love your 1 second video. I usually end up watching them 2 or 3 times and sometimes stopping at certain points. 🙂 Love, hugs, and blessings to you!
Thank you, Trudy. The 1 second videos are so special to me; I love going back and watching ones from years ago and seeing how some things have changed and other things are exactly the same. 🙂
A support group for moms with adult children sounds wonderful! I am glad you have been able to make so many connections! Have a great week! My link: https://encounterswiththedavisfamily.blogspot.com/2025/09/share-four-somethings-september-2025.html
Thanks, Cindy. The moms’ group is been something I’d been looking for, and am so glad I finally found this niche. There is so much power in knowing we’re not alone in our journeys.
So true!
I love this take on Share Four Somethings, Lisa. It’s so wonderful that you have found communities like this online. I’d have to say that parenting young adults has been harder than I expected lately. Not because of anything my girls are doing or not doing, necessarily, but because I so badly wish I could talk to my parents about how various things were for them seven times over.
Yes, I totally understand what you’re saying, Lois. There are SO many things I wanted to ask my parents after they passed. Even now as I read some of my mom’s journalling from years ago, it’s like I am hearing her voice again in many ways. It’s been both comforting yet also distressing because I can’t talk to her about the things she was writing about. Still worth it though; I’m so glad to have her words.
Since last Spring, I’ve been a part of a Winter Saints zoom bible study. This Summer we’ve been going through “Relaxed.” I only knew the leader – and it has been such a blessing. You write, ” not every moment has to be one of revelation. Life isn’t an endless stream of breakthroughs—and that’s okay. Ordinary days hold their own kind of awe.” – oh, how true! And how liberating in many ways. Your zoom group for moms with adult children sounds so delightful – because it is a “shift” in those things for which we’re responsible – and it does take time to adjust. Some are more tender in that adjustment period than others. It’s like learning new steps to a new dance.
I’m so glad you’ve found a zoom group you enjoy too, Maryleigh. I’ve been amazed at how I’ve loved my groups, and the intimacy that is possible to develop through an online platform. Who could have imagined this 30 years ago? Certainly not me. I did imagine flying cars and robot housekeepers thanks to the Jetsons, but not this. 🙂
Your monthly video always makes me smile, Lisa. But you really grabbed me when you opened that box of Krispy Kremes!!!
Happy October, friend.
Ah, a fellow Krispy Kreme lover? I didn’t know we shared that too, Linda. 🙂 They are my favorites. I wish I had one right now, but I have to limit myself. I don’t want to know how many calories one doughnut has. ha.
I agree. My life has been made so much richer with the friendship deeper through zoom all across the world. Even the topics we have shared. I am surprised by the intimacy and the closeness that can be shared and developed. even surprised by the level of trust that can arise.
Yes to all of that, Jean! What a surprise and a joy it has been to discover what can be shared and grown through boxes on a screen.
This is so true–we can connect through “boxes” even when we’re not in the same room. I actually was accepted to graduate school in Feb. 2020, having no idea what was about to hit us. I did my entire program over Zoom, and the first time my cohort was allowed to congregate was on graduation day. It was funny to be “meeting” these people for the first time but already knowing them and having relationships. I love the support for moms of adult kids–that’s a brilliant idea. It’s a really interesting time of life, particularly living in our times. Visiting from the Crazy Little Lovebirds linkup.
Wow – what a crazy time to live through. How fun to finally get to meet your cohort with whole bodies on graduation day! 🙂 I participate with an online group from different cities in Alabama, and when we finally got to meet in person a couple years ago, it was exciting to be fully embodied together.
I love the online gatherings I attend. My son is special needs and it is hard for me to get out as much as I want, so I really value the connections I have made through zoom gatherings. I have made some great new friends that way, and we are scattered all over the globe!
I’m glad you have opportunities too to make friends all over the world, especially with limited in-person opportunities. It’s such a gift, isn’t it? It’s surprised me how valuable our online connections truly are! Thanks for sharing here, Erin.
Great 4 Something’s Lisa. Oooo donuts ???? Lol. Zoom groups never occurred to me. Neat.
Thanks bunches for sharing with Sweet Tea & Friends this month sweet friend. I’m so happy you’re here.
Thanks, Paula. I’m always a yes to Krispy Kreme donuts! 🙂
I appreciate your intentionality in meeting with others, Lisa. And I love that you are meeting with people from all over the world.
Thanks, Lisa. Isn’t it amazing that we actually can meet with people all over the world? I still find it astounding. 🙂
How nice! Zoom groups are so wonderful. Such a great way to connect with others. Lisa, wonderful post.
Yes, I am so grateful for Zoom groups. I’ve met some amazing people in the digital world that leave real-life impressions on me!
The technology that brings us FaceTime and videocalls and Zoom meetings is such a wonderful tool! Of course it doesn’t truly replace in-person interactions, but what a blessing it is when getting together in person just isn’t practical!
As a homeschooling mom, I found the “almost empty nest” stage when my youngest graduated high school to be the hardest. Because I’d successfully worked myself out of a job, but there wasn’t a retirement party or anything like that for me, and I felt very much at loose ends, and it took me a little by surprise.
I’m late but visiting from SFS today
I agree, Kym. Video calls are never as great as in-person meetings, but they are the next best thing. 🙂 And I also relate to retiring from homeschooling. When my last child graduated, it was so exciting to be finished, but also anticlimactic for me to end that long and important season of my life.