Digital Religion and Hybrid Worship in a Protestant Minority Congregation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15575/kt.v7i2.54273Keywords:
Digital accessibility, digital religion, embodied communality, hybrid worship, Protestant minority congregationAbstract
Purpose: This study examines how digital media are integrated into the religious life of GKP Cirebon, a Protestant minority congregation in Indonesia. Methods: This study employs a qualitative case study approach. Data were collected through field observation, digital observation of church platforms, documentation of online worship and congregational activities, and interviews with pastors, church administrators, and congregants. The data were analyzed thematically by classifying forms of religious activities, patterns of digital media integration, and categories of congregational response. Findings: The findings show that digital media at GKP Cirebon are used across three main domains of religious life: worship, religious education, and pastoral-social ministry. Digital integration operates through three modalities: livestreaming, interactive online participation, and digital communication. Congregational and pastoral responses are heterogeneous, consisting of positive acceptance, adaptive or ambivalent acceptance, and critical reservation. Digital platforms expand access to worship, religious education, pastoral care, and congregational communication, especially for members limited by mobility, time, health, or distance. However, physical worship remains central because it provides embodied fellowship, direct interaction, shared liturgical atmosphere, and communal intimacy. Implications: This study suggests that digital ministry should be developed not merely as a technical service but as a pastoral and communicative strategy. For local churches, digital media can extend access and sustain participation, but they need to be managed in ways that preserve physical fellowship, communal worship, and active congregational involvement. Originality/Value: This study contributes to digital religion and media studies by offering an empirical analysis of a Protestant minority congregation in Indonesia. Its originality lies in showing that digital media function as an extension of religious access rather than a replacement for physical worship, and in identifying the negotiation between digital accessibility and physical communality as a key dynamic in contemporary congregational life.
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