Always connected : WhatsApp use in two middle-class pentecostal churches in India

This article explores the activity in the WhatsApp-groups of two Indian Pentecostal churches using Christine Hine’s E3-model. It shows how the activities in the groups, in various ways, are embedded, embodied, and everyday. A central finding is that what takes place in these chat-groups is closely related to both offline congregational life and the church members’ everyday lives. The WhatsApp-groups extended what the church was, and what it meant for the members into an online space. Further, the article highlights that through these WhatsAppgroups, the church members expressed a greater level of connection to each other and theirimmediate, personal spaces. Having the church in their back pocket through their smartphones, resulted in a blurring of boundaries between congregational life and the everyday lives of members. The study is based on six months of fieldwork in two churches in the North Indian city Gurugram, including participation in the churches’ WhatsApp groups.