Pastor, the reality is that the Metaverse isn’t coming. It’s already here. Facebook/META and countless other corporations are working hard to make the Metaverse Community a reality. Whether the Metaverse is a community is not up to the church. Culturally, we have no control over that. The real question for the church, simply, is the Metaverse Community worthy of a church
So how do we do ministry in the metaverse? Pastor, chances are you know nothing about virtual reality. Even still, you could launch a virtual reality campus in 2022. Hard to believe right? Jason Poling, Lead Pastor at Cornerstone Church in Yuba City is a great example. His small church in Northern California launched a Metaverse Campus attached to their Yuba City church. Cornerstone VR is now reaching, connecting, and discipling people in the metaverse. An important lesson to remember in metaverse church: you’re reaching a different type of person in the metaverse than at their physical location.
So let’s do it. In 2022, let’s get your church launching a Metaverse Campus in 4 easy steps. Ready?
Step #1: Buy a Headset
Explore the Metaverse. Play some games. Talk to some people.
Experience the community. You don’t need to understand it, just recognize the metaverse for what it is… a community. If your church is planting a church or a multisite in a new town you’re going to go visit and meet some people. Go meet the metaverse! Have fun!
Step #2: Find People in Your Church that Really Like VR
Let’s keep building on this analogy. Pastor, if you’re going to go plant a church in a nearby city, there’s two approaches for you to take: You can either develop the plan for launching this second church by yourself, or (more likely) you’re going to find someone who is familiar with the nearby town. Maybe even talk to some people in your church who live near that town. Welp, you’re going to do that with the metaverse. Meet people in your church who are really excited about VR. Learn from them. Doesn’t matter if they’re 71 or 17. If they’re familiar with VR they have a perspective you can learn from, and one of them is your potential leader.
Step #3: Disciple that Person (or hopefully Persons) Spiritually
As you’re meeting these people, you’re praying to find the leader. They may already be on your staff, or a high level volunteer. They may be a recent visitor or maybe even a friend of a friend. Your goal, simply, is to find these people and disciple them. If you’re planting a church or a multisite campus you're going to find the core team and disciple them. That’s essentially what you’re doing here… discipling the core group, and prayerfully even finding a leader in the group. (Ask the Holy Spirit to give you some insight there.)
Step #4: Listen, Learn & Release Control
Okay that’s like three things in one step. But they all work together. Once you trust that person or persons spiritually, ask them questions. What would it look like to do ministry in the metaverse? What’s an effective way to make a disciple in VR? How do we build relationships with avatars? Pastor, for this to work you have to listen. If you trust them spiritually then you have to trust their insight here. Learn from their insight. It’s not important for you to understand the strategy. It’s important for them to know that you care. At some point, probably before you’re comfortable to do so, you need to release control and let them go and do.
Note, Pastor, very little of this had to do with you mastering technology. You don’t have to design worlds or understand platforms. The key is releasing control and trusting. By the way, this isn’t a lot of money. I know churches that are doing metaverse ministry for as little as $600. Money is not the excuse. Discipleship is not the excuse. There is no excuse. Let’s be open handed here, lean in, and experiment with the metaverse. Maybe you’ll find a different type of person to minister to along the way.
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