So this Easter Sunday I checked out my first church service in the metaverse. I honestly had no idea what to expect, but I was intrigued by what I saw on Life Church’s website.
“At Life.Church, we will do anything short of sin to reach people who don’t know Christ. To reach people no one is reaching, we’ll do things no one is doing.” (life.church/metaverse)
I have a lot of respect for this church because they’ve always blazed the trail in using technology to spread God’s love. Many of you have probably used The Bible App, which is published by YouVersion, also known as Life.Church. They launched just as the Appstore went live, and last year hit half a billion downloads.
HALF A BILLION DOWNLOADS!
The service I attended on Sunday had maybe half a dozen attendants, clearly a humble beginning for a church with such a broad footprint. But I feel that’s exactly why God has used them, because they’re willing to take risks and go places that other churches aren’t, before it’s obvious.
The worship and sermon experience wasn’t too different from a live Youtube stream, but after service I felt the real benefit of this format. A pastor walked up to me and said hi, in audio, just like a real live service. I told him I was blessed by the service and all the great work his church was doing. He told me about ways that I could get plugged into the church and after a really pleasant few minutes I told him I’d be back. Then as I went to check out the board with all the life groups, another pastor came up and we had an even more interesting conversation. We exchanged contact and he suggested we jump on a Zoom call. I did him one better and told him I’d visit him in Oklahoma, maybe even next week.
The internet is filled with articles written by believers knocking the Metaverse. “It distracts people from God. It pulls people away from fellowship with real people. It will lead to the mark of the beast.” Every new technology has drawn this kind of criticism from believers throughout history, until every believer realizes they have to get with the program. I look forward to seeing all the amazing spaces that the church creates in the metaverse to bring a greater revelation of God’s love.
Hebrews 11:3 “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command.”