First of all, am not making this
up...
There is an entire world, with its own economy, races, nations, and
ecosystem sitting in front of you on your desktop. It is called World
Of Warcraft and it is an online role playing game with many
thousands of players participating at any given moment. Gameplay is so
competitive that gamers even exchange actual U.S. currency for various
virtual items like magic swords or healing stones.
And in this world, Christians have started to appear. First their is
an entire "class" of creature that one can become known as Priests.
These characters carry no weapon and are solely intent on healing and
helping other players. Some Christians joined the WoW universe to
serve in these roles. Then guilds of characters played by Christian
gamers were created where Christians could fellowship together while
playing. A recent satirical article on a fake-Christian-news web site
extrapolated this whole phenomenon into Christian trolls and warlocks
having bible studies under the Sand Bridge of Elthenorn and other
ridiculous situations.
Then I began to wonder. Christ calls us to be a missional church - to
be both disciples (learners) and apostles (sharers) of his love and
justice. If this virtual world exists shouldn't Christians enter it
and share the gospel? After all, there are actual human gamers at the
other end of that Ethernet connection.
Perhaps actual evangelism and mission would be better than virtual, but
it can't hurt to ask just where should the "go ye therefor into all the
world" end if new parts of the world are being created everyday. In
the end, I think we are called to stay as engaged as possible with
everyone in the world, calling them to Christ - maybe World of Warcraft
is just one more way to do that.
Carl
