Fellowship

The greatest difference in the offline and online religious involvement mentioned by the respondents was fellowship. Most respondents have a close-knit fellowship with their church back in their home countries. The church experience in Taiwan, however, proved to be very different from their past experience and expectations. Fellowship with fellow Christians is what they feel is missing in their offline church involvement here in Taiwan.

Some choose to cope by connecting with their church friends necessarily similar to their beliefs, while others stay and try to find ways to distill fellowship over time.

Below is a comparison of their experiences based on themes of feeling of belongingness, after-church activities, accountability and encouragement, and online group membership.

Feeling of belongingness. One respondent who is used to cultural homogeneity

mentioned that he felt like he was not in the “in-group” of the first church he got involved in which is an international bilingual church with a predominantly Southeast Asian

attendance. Later, he tried to join another international church community that speaks in English but later felt even more uncomfortable. “There’s too many people from too many

different places, and they form groups among their cultural boundaries and I would be the odd one out,” he describes of the 60-70 church community that has mostly Latinos,

American-born Chinese, and Americans. He reasoned that his culture is very close-knit, closed from the outside culturally, so he is more used to just having one culture group to be

involved in. Later his Taiwanese girlfriend invited him to go to a Chinese-speaking ministry with mostly Taiwanese wherein he has been going for more than a year now. The Taiwanese crowd typifies the one-culture group setup that he’s used to and “with a girlfriend, it makes me part of the in-group,” he said.

Another respondent from the Philippines also came from a one-culture setup and is transitioning into an international church community. “It’s like family here,” describing the

three-year old church community of about 40 people, “but there are times when it’s difficult

to fit in. I came from a local church where I am a leader and here I am looking for

opportunities to contribute and there are times that there were opposition,” shared the one

who deemed it as a divine circumstances that he landed in an international church when the Filipino church that he tried to contact didn’t get back at him until much later.” He

rationalized that “it’s not about comfort, but God’s will”, adding that though relationships haven’t been deep in the one year that he’s been attending the international church, he’s still

working on connecting with the church people at a deeper level, by perhaps leading his own small group. He is hoping for more solid fellowship like what he has back home, of which he still keeps in touch with through Facebook, Skype, or email.

Another respondent has been going to an international bilingual church for four months since she came here from the United States. Even if she considers it as her church in Taiwan, she mentioned concerns that “it’s not for me”. “It’s been hard to connect on more

than a superficial level,” she explained. She came from a Messianic Jewish background

wherein her whole family used to attend a synagogue together. However, she clarifies that now that she’s in Taiwan, she has reservations calling herself Messianic Jew because that label is part of a community which she is not part of right now. “Outside of the community, I don’t consider myself Jewish or Messianic.” Because she deemed it important to commit to

one church as necessary to enable her to connect with the people, she has not tried out other churches even those which have invited her. To cope with a need for fellowship, she has been regularly getting in touch with her church friends from another country through Skype,

having deep spiritual conversations and ending them with prayers.

“I went church-hopping, but the problem is I can’t connect with the church and the people,” admitting that “when you’re used to a certain environment, it’s hard to change,” said

one respondent from the Philippines. She has been attending her home church with her whole family as a young girl for 16 years. “I have very strong ties with my church that is why it’s hard to move on from that.” She has tried a couple of international community churches but

realized the lack of warmth in the community made her compare the family setup she’s used to back home. “Now I know the importance of welcoming new people,” she said, who never

had an experience being the new person in her original community. Once there is an

experience of welcome, she would have stuck to the church where she could sense a “feeling

of belongingness.” So presently, she is sticking to online church and communicates with her

church friends back home.

A respondent from Swaziland who opted to stay online for her religious needs experience a feeling of being entertained at a new church. However, she soon realized the

superficiality of the conversations she had with the people and opted to connect with her Christian friends here in Taiwan who similarly don’t go to church through Skype or

Facebook.

Another respondent from the Philippines copes her need for Christian fellowship by going with her friends to a Catholic church in Sanxia, Taipei County. Though she is not of

the Catholic denomination, she hangs out with her Catholic Filipino scholar friends on Sundays. She finds this as a balance to meet her need for “personal belongingness” in a

Christian group setup even if their beliefs are not totally in line with hers. “My pastor wants

me to have a real church for personal belongingness and encouragement with someone,” she added but since she couldn’t find one, she compromises by going to a Catholic church for

fellowship and just goes online to feed herself with her own beliefs.

Similarly, a respondent from Indonesia went to a Pentecostal church for four months after two months of just going online for religious resources. “After two months of not going

to church, I felt like I was getting distant from God so I made a resolution to go to the

Indonesian church so that’s why I decided to go to the church even if it’s different from what

I believe in.” She sees going to a church as a sort of “mental support because you see that

there are other people praising and worshipping and trying their best to know God, no matter their denomination.”

In summary, the lack of a sense of general community and the togetherness

experienced in the the host churches in Taiwan was reported by the respondents as a factor contributing to their non-involvement in a physical church. This was compounded by the fact that it is difficult to find a group to which they could belong to. Some reported that the people at church are friendly and welcoming, yet there is still no deep connection. Thus, the

respondents either opt to just go online for fellowship or stick to a church that is at least better than none.

After-church activities. For Christians, church usually does not mean the two-hour

service in the morning or afternoon. Mostly, people stay around to talk and do activities together. Christians put a lot of weight on what happens after church as a gauge on one’s involvement in the community.

Respondents who have committed to stay in a physical host church shared how they would stay longer than the time period of the church service and enjoy fellowship with others.

Those who do not go to a physical church, however, compare that being in the out-group does not include them in the after-church fellowship that they are used to back in their home countries. This part they miss and could not make up even through online means.

The respondent from Indonesia who just recently joined an international Christian

community said that her new group would have fellowship and eat together after service.

“Filipinos love to eat together,” shared one of the Filipino respondents who regularly

goes to a Baptist church here in Taiwan, elaborating that after the morning church service, smaller church community of around twenty Filipinos would have potluck lunch followed by

a prayer meeting, a Bible study, or a special event in the afternoon. “My conviction is, Sunday, the whole day, has to be given to the Lord,” she said, in reference to her whole day

stay at church on Sundays.

Accountability. Respondents who rely mostly online for their spiritual resources or

those who have not been regularly attending a church still feel the need to be accountable to

their spiritual authority. However, they deem that this is difficult when online because of the incomplete disclosure that being online offers. “People around me has to be witnesses that I am what I am saying I am,” shared a respondent who has been going online for spiritual

resource after not experiencing deep connections at a physical church near her side of town here in Taiwan. “In online, you can say something but there is no one following your life, it’s easier said than done, and I need that balance of offline and online,” she added. She is

pertaining to the concept of accountability which other respondents expressed a similar concern for online community engagements of religious content. She, however, still talks to her mother, but realizes that at the end of the day, she just has to be accountable directly to an

unseen but seeing God. This practice or non-practice of having a human accountability partner challenges her faith but at the same time lets her relationship with God grow into that of trust instead of performance. Similarly, another respondent struggled with having an accountability partner here in Taiwan as he has yet to establish a solid relationship with the

brothers at church he has been going to in the past year. He has decided not to have an online accountability partner with his friends back home because this won’t be real and having a

physical accountability partner is still the most ideal.

“You can type out beautiful words that you are okay, when you are not,” shared

another respondent who just recently found a church to go to regularly but for the longer part of her stay in Taiwan has been communicating online with her friends for fellowship. “When

you have people around you, they will see what you do, watch over how you are growing,”

she added. “You can fake it, it’s easy to lie,” related another respondent who goes online for

the streaming of her home church service. She added that she can update her pastor on how she’s doing but how much truth is there can be compromised since there’s “no accountability”

anyways.

Online Group Membership. Fellowship takes on another form when Christians don’t meet physically but online. The respondents shared experiences in their online group

membership in social networking websites and blogs below.

Quan-Haase (2010) further elaborates a trend that shows “that one type of social

media does not replace another but, rather becomes integrated into a bundle of media use that includes online and offline forms of communication.” (Quan-Haase and Young, 2010). In the

narratives below, some use websites to connect with their friends from their home church, others use is to connect with their host churches here in Taiwan, while some others go to international sites to connect with people whom they have not met previously, or hear experiences shared by bloggers.

One respondent shared that he used to be part of an online group membership apart from his own church group. “Although I have a small group and accountability group,

sometimes you want to be anonymous but at the same time communicate with

spiritually-minded people.” He used to release his frustrations and solicit prayer from people he does not know apart from the online relationship at christianster.com, a Christian social networking site. He would also log in to afterhim.com, an international website that specifically deals with issues men face.

The use of Facebook to connect with their church friends back home or here in Taiwan is positive to all respondents. Physical acquaintance was first established before the online relationship developed. One respondent shared that he doesn’t see the difference connecting offline and online since the role of the church Facebook group page is either a brief introduction or a continuity of what shared in the small-group setting of his

Chinese-speaking church here. “The difference is that I can press the translate button if it’s online,” he remarked. The others, however, see a bigger difference.

For one of the respondents, her online groups mutated into a debate forum, or if not totally closed down in due time. “Everything ends in argument, trying to show who knows the Bible better,” she related how the groups she used to participate actively in has regressed

into an unprogressive site. Another site which she used to get satisfactory answers from and gets motivated and encouraged from the responses of more mature believers got closed down because of a certain moral failure on the pastor leading the group. She shared that her closest Christian connection now is private Facebook messages or using Skype to connect with her

friends in Cuba, England, and the Caribbean. “We are able to speak about Christian issues as though we are on the same room. It’s some kind of variation of the real thing.”

Another respondent shared that her Facebook interaction is mostly with her friends here in Taiwan since they can talk more about daily life. Fellowship with friends back home becomes limited to posting inspiring thoughts and messages on their personal pages.

However, despite this online trend, she still feels a sense of bond to her college campus Facebook in her hometown. “I really care for them. In our fellowship, we were taught that once a disciple, a disciple for life. So we get this bond that even if we don’t see each other

anymore or we are far from each other, at least we have to know how each of us are doing,”

she explained.

For another respondent, she thinks her Facebook membership is general and impersonal, still preferring the actual membership of a church community. However, language is a barrier for her and she has not found a church that meets her needs. \

Online group membership becomes either a temporary escape or continuity for the respondents. Those who were not able to establish relationships with physical churches here in Taiwan become more attached to their online group memberships in their home countries.

The online membership gives them a sense of assurance that they are still part of their home church. “They are the same people I go to in person,” shared one respondent who is still

trying to adjust to an international church community he is at. The online relationship,

however, becomes a weak replacement because the other group members do not have a similar need to what the respondents have. “I need it, but they don’t,” one respondent shared

when her proposed book sharing with her church friends back home didn’t materialize.

These respondents do get invited to the Facebook pages of the church that they went to here in Taiwan, but for reasons of either language or lack of connection with the people to begin with, they end up not checking back on those pages even if they become nominal members. There is a virtual connection, but not one that is close to equal to a personal connection primarily because there is a need for the respondents to have activity on these online group memberships. “You have to be active online to be connected with the people

like you have to post something or what,” shared one respondent who is part of some online

groups but is far from being really connected with them.