Online communication tools, part 1

In February 2021, I sent a survey to JEMA members asking how they are using LINE and other communication platforms for life and ministry and how God has worked through these platforms.

Results for LINE users

Of the total 50 survey participants, 74% primarily use LINE to develop community with Japanese people and/or ministry coworkers, while the remaining 26% prefer other communication platforms like Facebook and Zoom. Of the 37 respondents who primarily use LINE, 84% use this platform with most of their Japanese contacts and 65% with most or about half of their ministry coworkers.

Those who primarily use LINE utilize it to develop community by scheduling in-person meetings, posting volunteer rotations and sign-ups, and having follow-up conversations with Japanese people they meet. These people use LINE for ministry activities like simultaneous translation during meetings, sharing prayer requests and answers, ministry training sessions, and coaching touchpoints. Rachel Hughes said she belongs to groups in LINE for music class, school moms, youth group leaders, soccer moms, Bible study group, and a community band. She said, “It seems like you’re not a real group until you’re LINE official!”

Users of other communication platforms

Everyone tends to utilize multiple communication platforms. Besides LINE, Facebook (including Messenger) and Zoom were the main platforms used by survey participants to communicate with both Japanese people and ministry coworkers (see this bar chart). Overall, those surveyed said that Japanese people typically respond best to LINE, with Facebook being common too. Regularly-used features not available on LINE were screen sharing and live streaming. The pie charts show the significant difference in proportion of use of communication platforms by different contacts. JEMA members communicate with coworkers far more often on platforms other than LINE.

Brittney Carlson said she uses Zoom for KGK (a university student ministry) and hi-ba (high school ministry) Bible studies, gatherings, and retreats. Bernard Barton’s mission introduced a weekly Zoom meeting that would have never been considered prior to the pandemic. One respondent commented that a combination of Mailchimp, Facebook, and Zoom has been useful for continued engagement with supporters. Other platforms respondents said they used for ministry were Meetup.com and the Band.us/home app. These were noted as being useful for coordinating and keeping records for in-person activity plans, feedback, and development of ministry.

Interesting findings

Daniel Culwell’s church in Tokyo uses a LINE account as an information center, and people connect to this account with a LINE QR code. Charles Seelen said that one of his “colleague[s] has a bedtime story time which allows moms and dads with their kids to join in a time to learn and listen to English.” One participant said that their church services have some attendees in the building and others on Zoom, and that Zoom attendees are shown on a projector screen so that everyone can interact and see each other in real time.

The chief concern respondents had with LINE was that it is typically used more by younger people (also true to varying degrees for other web-based tools). Older generations still tend to prefer email, phone calls, and fax. Survey respondents’ live communication experiences were marred by poor data connections and other challenges experienced during video or audio chats, especially in shared home spaces.

People across the board agreed that online community is no replacement for in-person activities, but that it has served as a placeholder and a supplement. One respondent agreed, saying, “We have had some new people get saved through our new emphasis on streaming over the past year, and they would probably have never entered the church otherwise.”

God stories and more

In the next issue of Japan Harvest I will include some of the testimonies participants shared of how they’ve seen God at work while using LINE and other online platforms. I will also explain some of the less-well-known features of LINE (Beacon, translation accounts, money transfer, polls, event scheduling, and OpenChat).

I want to extend a huge thanks to those who participated in the survey. Praise God that he is still at work despite the obstacles to community! If you would like to share or hear more stories like these, check out the new JEMA Community space at jemacommunity.org.