Korea (Korean & English) - 폰 앱을 이용한 새벽기도회 Morning Devotions Using Phone App

SungGyu Choi (Seoul, Korea)

Archived discussion

About the presenter

In 2018 Dr. SungGyu Choi became primary pastor of Seoul Lutheran Church (SLC), a member of the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference (CELC). After 20 years of experience in mobile communication systems, he started to study theology in 2008 at Bethany Lutheran Theological Seminary, and returned to Korea in 2015 after earning a Ph.D in Missiology at the Fort Wayne Seminary. He serves as the director of SLTI (Seoul Lutheran Theological Institute) He and his wife Gihee have two daughters.

Click here to go directly to English translation below.

밴드(폰 앱)을 이용한 새벽 기도회

목사 최성규 박사

한국의 기독교는 아름다운 유산을 가지고 있다.

한국에 기독교가 들어온 지 약 130년이 지났다. 그 기간 동안 한국 교회는 자기 나름대로의 좋은 유산들을 가지게 되었다. 그것들 중 하나가 새벽기도회이다.

신실한 한국 교인들은 하루 시작을 하나님 말씀과 기도로 시작하기를 좋아한다. 거리상, 또는 다른 이유들로 교회에 나와서 새벽기도회를 참석할 수 없는 사람들은 개인적으로 말씀 읽고 기도하는 시간을 가진다.

서울루터 교회는 서울의 동쪽에 위치하고 있다. 서울은 전세계적으로도 큰 도시들 중의 하나인데, 인구는 약 천만명이 넘는 메트로 폴리탄이다.

서울 안에서 동쪽 끝에서 서쪽 끝까지 갈려면 자동차로 약 1시간 30분에서 약 2시간 정도 걸린다. 만약 교통체증(트래픽 잼)에 걸린다면 그 이상의 많은 시간들이 걸릴 것이다. 이런 상황에서 아침에 교회에 나와서 새벽기도회를 참석하고 돌아가면 여지없이 출근 시간(러쉬 아워)에 걸리게 된다. 따라서 다시 집에 가서 아침식사를 하고 출근을 하는 것은 거의 불가능하다. 따라서 이런 문제점을 해결하기 위해서 생각한 것이 바로 폰 앱(밴드)을 이용한 새벽기도회이다.

밴드 (폰 앱)

스마트 폰 앱들 중에 BAND 라는 앱이 있는데, 이 앱은 주로 개인이나 그룹으로 채팅을 할 때 많이 사용된다. 이 앱에서는 채팅뿐만 아니라 다중 콜 기능도 지원하고 있다. 즉, 여러 사람들이 함께 연결해서 일종의 음성 컨퍼런스를 할 수 있는 기능으로 약 30명까지 가능하다. 물론 이 앱에서 이런 기능을 사용하는 것도 다 공짜이다. 물론 공짜이기 때문에 이 앱을 사용한다. 그리고 새벽에는 이런 음성 컨퍼런스를 이용하는 사람들이 많지 않아서 음질도 상당히 깨끗하고 연결도 상당히 양호하다. 그래서 아직 30명까지 연결하지 않았지만 25명 넘게는 사용한 적이 있었다. 그러나 이 앱을 새벽기도회에서 사용하기 위해서는 약간의 셋팅이 필요하다. 기본적으로 이 기능은 그룹에서 사용하기 때문에 그룹을 만들어야 한다. 그룹의 크기는 일단 제한이 없다. 그룹안에 있는 어떤 사람도 이 콜을 시작할 수 있다. 이 앱의 다중 콜 기능은 오디오 컨퍼런스를 목적으로 만들었다. 그래서 새벽기도회하기 위해서는 예배이기 때문에 양방향이 아닌 단방향으로 셋팅이 필요하다. 따라서 목사님을 제외하고 다른 성도들은 자기 앱에서 마이크를 소거해야 한다. 그렇지 않으면 성도들의 목소리가 다 혼합되기 때문에 예배를 진행할 수 없다.

이 앱을 사용하면 왔다 갔다하는 시간을 절약할 수 있고 장소에 구애 받지 않고 새벽기도회에 참석할 수 있다. 비디오 컨퍼런스 기능을 지원하는 앱들이 많이 있는데, 스카이프와 같은 이런 것들은 많은 밴드폭을 차지 하기 때문에 네트워크 의 용량이 부족하면 완전히 끊어지거나 중간에 간헐적으로 끊김 현상이 발생할 수 있다. 그러나 이 밴드라는 앱은 음성이기 때문에 밴드폭을 많이 차지하지 않는다. 따라서 상당히 안정적으로 이용할 수 있다. 사용하는 목적이 음성이지 영상이 중요하지 않기 때문이다.

현재 진행되고 있는 상황의 한 컷이다. (밴드라는 앱이 보임)

참석자 중에는 수원, 천안이나 보령에 사는 사람도 있고 더 멀리 캐나다, 미국에 살고 있는 사람들이 접속해서 새벽기도회를 참석하고 있다. 이 폰앱의 장점은 사용이 너무 쉽다는 점이다. 접속시 다른 장비가 필요하지 않는다는 점이다. 가령, 스카이프를 이용해서 화상채팅을 하려면 컴퓨터가 있어야 되고 카메라와 마이크가 정상적으로 작동되어야 한다. 그러나 폰 앱은 자기 폰에서 앱만 다운로드을 받아 실행시키면 언제, 어디서나 이 서비스를 이용할 수 있다는 장점이 있다.

위 사진은 현재 밴드에 접속된 사람들의 아이콘들이 표시되고 있다. 현재 15명이 접속한 상태이다. Joonyong Park 이라는 아이콘이 캐나다에서 접속한 사람이다. 현재 서울루터 교인으로 거의 매일 고정적으로 참여하는 인원은 12~15명이다. 한번이라도 참석한 교인은 약 54명 정도된다. 출근 준비를 하는 바쁜 직장인과 대중교통을 이용하는 젊은 세대들에게 언제 어디서나 쉽게 다가갈 수 있는 프로그램이다.

결론

그 동안 서울루터 교회 교인들은 한국교회의 전통에 따라 새벽기도회에 참석하고 싶어했다. 그러나 거리상 참석할 수 없었다. 그런데 밴드를 이용하여 이러한 갈증을 해소할 수 있어 좋았다. 참 좋은 아이디어라고 생각한다. 이것은 또한 원격으로 성경공부이나 급한 교회 리더모임으로 빨리 처리 할 수 있다.


Early Morning Devotion using the Phone App Band

Korean Christianity has a beautiful heritage.

About 130 years have passed since Christianity entered Korea. During those periods, the Korean Church had its own good traditions. One of them is the early morning devotion meeting. Typically, the early morning devotion starts between 5 A.M. to 6 A.M. Many devoted Korean Christians like to start their day with God’s Word and prayer. Those who can’t attend the early morning devotion use the personal devotion time for reading God’s Word and praying to God.

The Seoul Lutheran Church is located in the eastern part of Seoul. Seoul is one of the largest cities in the world with a population of over 10 million. It takes about 1 hour and 30 minutes or up to 2 hours to travel from one end to another, and much more when traffic jams occur. And most people will run into rush hour while returning home. Members of my congregation are spread throughout Seoul. So, it’s hard for them to go to work after attending the early morning devotion in church. So I thought I would try to use BAND (the phone App) to solve this problem.

BAND (the phone App)

Among the smartphone apps, there is BAND (the phone app) , which is mostly used for chatting with individuals or groups. This app supports multiple calls as well as chatting. In other words, it is possible to connect several people simultaneously and to perform similar to a voice conference. It can include a maximum of 30 people. Of course, this function is free. And in the morning, there are not as many people who use this multi-call function. So, the sound quality is fairly clean and the connection is fairly good. I have not connected 30 people yet, but I have connected about 25 people. Also, some settings are needed to use this app for the early morning devotion meeting. By default, this app is used by a group, so you need to create a group. There is no limit to the size of the group. Anyone in the group can start this call. Because this app, I think, was created for audio conference purposes, it reequires a one-way conversation rather than a two-way. This means that the members except for the pastor must mute their microphone in the app because otherwise, the voices of members would distract other members, thus disturbing the worship service. With this app, you can save travel time, and you can attend the early morning devotion meeting any time and from anywhere. There are many apps that support video conferencing, such as Skype, which take up a lot of bandwidth. If the network has not enough capacity, you may have a complete disconnect or chopping. However, BAND is a voice-conferencing app, so it does not take up a lot of bandwith. Therefore, this app can be used in a very stable manner. The purpose of this app is for voice not for video.

This picture of my smart phone. (you can see the icon of BAND)

Some of the devotion attendees live in Suwon, Cheonan, or Boryeong and some even further, living in Canada and the United States. It’s amazing that people from across the globe can connect with us and attend the early morning devotion meeting through the app BAND. The biggest advantage of this app is ease of use. Also no other equipment is needed for this app, unlike Skype which requires a computer, camera and a microphone. However, the phone app just needs to be downloaded from the app store and then, you can use it any time, anywhere.

The above picture shows current icons of people connected to the app. Now, 15 people are currently connected. Joonyong Park is an icon of a connection from Canada. Nowadays, the average attendance is roughly 12 to 15 people every single day. There are 54 people who attended at least once by using BAND. It is a program that makes it easy to reach anyone who is busy preparing to go to work and young people who use public transportation.

Conclusion

For the longest time, the members of the Seoul Lutheran Church wanted to attend the early morning devotion meeting, but could not attend the meeting because of the distance. Now through the app, BAND, people are able to come together and join the traditional early morning devotion meeting. This app can also be used to conduct Bible studies or call church leaders as a group about urgent situations.


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Discussion

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Kaylie Solomon (Martin Luther College) 2018-10-24 2:31:09pm
Rev. Choi,

I read this article and enjoyed hearing about how you conquered the distance of your congregation in Seoul to include a Bible Study for them. You mentioned that, “It takes about 1 hour and 30 minutes or up to 2 hours to travel from one end to another, and much more when traffic jams occur.” This just shows the dedication you have to making a way for your congregation to have a Bible Study. Your app allows your congregation to come together over the internet without physically coming together.

After reading about the BAND app, I wonder if there is a way you can have a chat going that involves typing questions and responses, that way voices won’t overlap and interrupt the Bible study, but you can still have some communication during it. I think that could benefit the overall operation of the Bible Study.

One question I have is in regards to the results of this Bible Study. You mentioned that the app “can include a maximum of 30 people.” How has the Bible Study been going? Do you have intentions to maybe switch over to a different app to include more than just the 30 people it allows?

Thank you for your contribution to the conference!
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Rev. Choi (Seoul Lutheran Church) 2018-11-16 10:25:21am
Hi, Kaylie

Thanks for reading my article.
Basically, Early Morning Devotion is a kind of worship service.
As you know, the worship service is a one-way not both-way. That's why I only used one-way direction.
Of course, we can use this app BAND for the Bible study. In the case of the Bible study, we may use any communication during it. No problem.
In Korea, there is no this kind of app which can support more than 30.
And if there is any other app supporting more than 30, I definitely will try it.
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Savannah Kubis and Theresa Donahue (Wisconsin Lutheran College) 2018-10-27 2:28:48pm
Dr. Choi,

We enjoyed reading your article, and your contribution to the conference. We think that this a very creative idea, to continue the Korean church’s tradition of early morning devotions, while accommodating for the obstacle of the distance members would have to drive in order to attend in person. We like how this tool is able to bring to together people from all over the world to join your group in worship. It is helpful in the aspect that it also allows for those with busy schedules to join you in worship, and hopefully invigorate them with the joy of the Savior for the rest of their day to come. The way that you went above and beyond to incorporate this app into your worship demonstrates your ability to hear and understand the needs of your congregation.

Some things that we are wondering about is how long has this app been a part of your ministry? We are curious too, if you were pleased with the success of the use of this app? What are your future plans in your continued use of this app? God blessings on your ministry.
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Rev. Choi (Seoul Lutheran Church) 2018-10-27 3:01:59pm
Hi, Savannah & Theresa

Thanks for reading my article.
I used this app, BAND since last January. So far, it has been successful.
This method is also a very new idea in Korea. I want many other churches in Korea use this method for the early morning devotion.
And I hope this idea spread to the world. It's a very useful.
And my final goal is to attend my whole members of the congregation into the early morning devotion either with BAND or with physically attending.
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Savannah Kubis (Wisconsin Lutheran College) 2018-11-13 12:00:02am
Rev. Choi,

May God bless your continued ministry in Korea. I hope that sometime soon you will be able to get all of your congregation to early morning devotion through BAND or physical attendance. May your success lead others to follow in your example.
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ChanYoung Park (Bethany Lutheran College.) 2018-11-05 7:08:20pm
Rev. Choi,

It is really good experience to see your article on this website. I know there are a lot of church members who are from far way from the church, and these members are going through difficulty for coming to church, especially for the Early Morning Devotion. This Band app seems great and useful method to have a worship with every members even if they are not physically coming together.

I know that they are recording the worship service every Sunday and upload those recorded worship videos on the church website. It is also a good method to provide worship videos for the members who were not able to participate in the worship service. On the other hand, this Band app can make possible not only to have a worship service on the early morning but also coming together over the internet without any difficulty that is caused by the places they are living such as other cities or abroad.

In my opinion, it is tremendously creative idea to provide a opportunity to have a worship service with the congregations who are living far away from the church, or abroad. Thanks for nice and creative idea.
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Jack Oh (Bethany Lutheran College) 2018-11-07 1:36:37am
Hi Pastor Choi! It's is really pleasure to see your post here. After I read this I was impressed once again about the early morning devotion because I'm also one of those who spent time to go to early morning service to hear God's Word and I think early morning devotion is really activated well in Korea only. It is so proud for me to see many people going to church in early morning.

The idea of using application called "Band" to share God's Word is really brilliant. I also have had an experience of missing devotion because of other elements. It can't really be an excuse to miss hearing God's Word but if I had to, I would really love to use that application to join devotion anywhere.
As a member of Seoul Lutheran Church, I also want to help to spread this idea to make people join more so we all can hear and share God's Word. Thanks for sharing this story and hope you have a good day.
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kira fulbright (bethany lutheran college) 2018-11-12 8:18:53pm
after reading this i appreciate the work you have done to spread God's word.