Twenty years ago to the day, you would probably find my brother and I sitting shoulder to shoulder in front of a small CRT TV. Somewhere in a pile of futons and pillows and blankets, the two of us were on holiday break from school. Gaming together was without a doubt in the cards. Growing up in the snowy Midwest, holiday break was magical — snow forts and hours of imaginary stories with neighbors, packets of hot cocoa, and for us, Animal Crossing on the GameCube. Late into the night each night, we talked, we argued, we laughed, we handed off the controller. It was everything.

Gaming has changed

These days, on holiday break from graduate school, gaming has been in the cards too. I am rarely playing my favorite games shoulder to shoulder with my people anymore, though. Gaming has come a long way since 2002. Now, while I’m not sitting in the same room playing on the same screen with friends, we are coming together from all around the country. From the PNW to the Midwest to North Carolina where I’m playing from, the landscape has changed. I consistently play a game with a friend from Canada — we have never met in person, but he is absolutely a friend.

In the last 20 odd years, I have continued to love gaming through its evolutions. Particularly in the US in the last two decades, the stabilization of the Internet and Internet speeds has come some distance. After gaming on 128 kbps connections, I’m amazed by that distance! Increased affordable access to high speed Internet, while it still has much distance to go, has also drastically changed the landscape for gaming. Factor in a steady rise in popularity in multiple genres of games, vast and imaginative projects fueled by creative and passionate game developers, and the utilization of tools such as Discord and Twitch, the modern evolution of gaming is one I find to be a potential fountain of insight for churches.

Allow me to say this another way. The concept of “church” began on the foundation of happening in-person, shoulder to shoulder. There was no other way; the printing press, let alone the Internet, was not yet close. These were small gatherings of people in someone’s home, a group of people united out of their shared interest and sense of belief. As someone whose experience as a gamer began that same way, shoulder-to shoulder, in someone’s home (usually not mine), and out of a shared interest in games, I find the connection and these thoughts interesting. And as someone who has spent considerable time thinking about Church and churches, I also find these thoughts potentially even insightful.

COVID-19 Circumstances

Prior to the COVID-19 Pandemic, many churches had indeed sought to utilize the Internet in the way that they operate. Setting up a decent church website has all but seemed required for years. I have friends who give to their church communities entirely online. Many churches had already creatively adapted and were publishing worship services and sermons in the form of podcasts for people around the world to listen. Megachurches, with their resources, have often done this in refined ways, sometimes even establishing and resourcing entire digital ministries. From the extremely large to the intimately small, prior to COVID-19, churches had relative and differing relationships with the Internet, but they had a relationship nonetheless.

At the outset of the COVID-19 Pandemic however, many churches were propelled (read: yeeted) into a relationship with the Internet that they were unfamiliar with. Where some churches prior to COVID-19 had been livestreaming their services and leaning into online community formation (in some cases for years already), these other churches were taking on this endeavor for the very first time — and not necessarily because they chose to.

In order to continue doing church and maintaining their distinct sense of community — as best as we knew how in such a terrible circumstance — these online community formation tools were available to be used creatively. Livestreaming services where people had opportunities to experience church together, Zoom Sunday School classes and Youth Group gatherings, pastoral care moments over Facetime and listening to sermons on podcast became much more familiar to many. When people couldn’t gather, it was then that many churches began seeing the value in these sorts of opportunities to experience community together online. Their congregations have kept at it, too.

In other words, in the unprecedented circumstances of the COVID-19 Pandemic, churches have begun to see what gamers have been seeing for years. For many gamers, we have seen gaming successfully navigate models, going from happening exclusively in-person to a hybrid in-person and online model. I do not have the data, though I wonder how many churches who did not previously livestream are continuing to livestream after COVID-19 mandates allowed for in-person gatherings to resume. My guess is that many of them continue to offer “online church,” though I imagine the reasons vary.

I believe that churches have a lot to learn from the gaming community.

Who are we talking about?

It can be tricky to speak broadly of “the gaming community” because it’s really made up of a bunch of smaller communities. Each community, however large or small, can and does speak for themselves. I consider myself part of a handful of these different communities and they are each fantastically distinct. Innovative, creative, ridiculous, fun-loving, protective, future minded in their own ways. They also have relationships to one another, crossover and shared people, players, and influencers, beefs and rivalries, memes and diss tracks.

Different and distinct gaming communities have intersecting relationships with one another, often in ways you would never expect — I’m thinking of the recent rise in popularity of “Chessboxing” from Ludwig’s Mogul Chessboxing Championship event. “Chessboxing” is the fusion of two distinct communities, the chess community and the boxing community. And it’s no joke! This event featured elite chess players competing against other elite chess players, as well as elite boxers competing against other elite boxers, in a combination alternating chess-and-boxing match. Not to mention the wonderful new competitive niche in Super Smash Bros. Melee, Smashboxing, that also joined the event. Look, it was not my usual space of interest, but it was an easy click for this gamer. It is fascinating the ways different communities relate to one another, and how.

Gaming communities and churches finding resonance with each other is more cemented in my thinking now than ever. This idea of churches utilizing online community formation tools following the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the gaming community’s tried-and-true history of utilizing those same tools to great effect especially finds resonance.

Many churches have been pushed into a relationship with the Internet that the gaming community at large has joyfully embraced. The Internet seemingly changed everything for gaming, opened up a whole new world, and yet gaming has not given way to an entirely online model. Not even close. Instead, the utilization of the Internet as a tool for community formation by the gaming community at large has allowed for an incredibly rich hybrid in-person and online environment.

The result of such an environment has been a vastly diverse group of people from innumerable stages and walks of life, often from all over the globe, who are beautifully united out of their love for their game, their interest, their thing. To be crudely reductionist for a moment, that sounds like something Christianity, at its best, may in fact deeply desire for itself. I believe the opportunity to learn is there for churches, if they put on their headset, join the channel, and listen.

What are we talking about?

Considering where I sit (which is in my gaming chair), it makes me wonder two things as someone bought-in on gaming and as a seminarian:
First, why might churches be reluctant to embrace a hybrid in-person/online model?
But second, what insights might particular gaming communities have to offer churches seeking a healthy and successful hybrid model?

I could speculate for too long on the first (and might in the near future <.<) but it is the second wondering I find fascinating to explore.

It feels important to note this here and specifically at this point. All of this presumes something: that churches aren’t currently doing a hybrid model well. It does not feel fair to say this is entirely true of all churches. To be clear though, doing a hybrid in-person/online model well is distinctly different than doing an in-person model with accommodations for online attendees. I believe many churches who believe they are doing a hybrid model are in fact simply making accommodations for online attendees without going the next step of creating reasonable avenues for full participation in community.

The core issue here, between the two models, facing churches is this: within the in-person model that accommodates, there is gray area for online attendees that there is not for in-person attendees. At what point does an online attendee become a member of that church? Can they become a member of that church? Under what circumstances? Can they be a member and live in a different city or state or country? At what point does the collective attendance of online attendees influence “the needs of the church”? At what point does an online attendee’s presence “count” for a church’s attendance numbers? At what point is their volunteered time accepted? Is it accepted? Can they serve? Can they be on boards or committees? At what point are they sufficiently deemed to be part of the community?

With the rise of churches embracing a simple livestream and finding a steady number of continuing online attendees upon their return to in-person services, and likewise those churches finding an increase in online attendees, I imagine a significant number are facing similar questions — questions they perhaps were not expecting when they first sought to simply do church as best they knew how given the circumstance. The gray area is my concern. To say much in saying little here and now, I believe that churches do not need any more gray areas such as this.

Gamers, I believe, can help churches, because there is no reason to re-invent the wheel. We have been here before. But the solution likely won’t be how churches think it will be. I believe that part of what the gaming community at large has to offer by way of insights comes with a completely different model than what most churches are currently working with. I suspect membership may end up being a distinct talking point for churches in this model. Perhaps offering change to such a foundational idea would make this a model that many churches simply aren’t comfortable with right now. Nonetheless, from the tech-savvy churches with full blown digital ministries to the new-to-livestreaming churches looking to finally catch their breath, I truly believe there is valuable insight to be learned from the gaming community.

And it’s coming soon.

Until the next queue pops,
Sorry, just Ari.