New York Times, yesterday, wrote an article describing how a Church in Denver hosted a Halo 3 youth group event. The premise of the article was the idea of how can a church and the Bible communicate “thou shall not kill” when Halo 3, an apparent church activity, is all about killing? Although the youth pastor Gregg Barbour said, they (the students) will stay for his Christian message after the gaming session. Regardless if the students are staying for the message, I want to ask what message is Halo 3/video games sending to our students when they are imported into the church?
The state of student ministries in America is struggling. We are having a difficult time trying to get kids to come to church and our “cool” student events. As a youth pastor, I know I will try anything to get 3 or 4 more kids in the door. However I am a youth pastor that does not endorse the video gaming in the church/youth group setting. I argue that video gaming (violent or nonviolent), in the church context, is more of a disservice than a service for students.
Firstly, teenagers (13 – 19 years of age), on average, watch about 8 hours of TV a week, and about 6 hours playing video games. This average does not even include the amount of time spent on the internet. Youth group is for 2 hours once a week. My question is: why would we want to add to the number of hours teenagers are sitting in front of the TV, during Jesus time? Simply the student moves from the “home” control to the “church” control. Church youth group should not be a space that is similar to the home space. Home has its functionality, while church youth group has its functionality.
Secondly, facilitating video games for a youth group activity is merely an individual interaction, and not a communal interaction. Video games do not better the students’ spiritual development, except by fueling their competitive spirit, their laziness, and giving them sore thumbs. Video games allows for the student to not only go in isolation, but to disengage with the world that is going on around them. When a student is so engaged in his/her video game they tend to lose track of time of the real world. In a sense, they get entranced with the realities of the video game, and not with the realities of the actual world revolving around them. The problem is video games give students a sense of false reality. They get to kill, seek, and destroy whatever they want. They essentially have an opportunity to become something that they will never become in real life. They get to be the Jeti-master who gets to conquer all of the space worlds. They get to be the Super Bowl champion. Video games paint a false reality and identity that student deeply buy. Students do not need not a false reality, but a true reality. Students need community, conversation with youth leaders and peers, Biblical stories and truths, and experience the presences of Jesus so they can begin to wrestle with who they are as a person and in Christ. This task can only be facilitated in a communal setting that encourages the elements of: conversations, contemplation, questions, experience, safety, and comfort. Setting up a video game party that encourages blowing up people and buildings does not encourage these elements that are crucial and pivotal to the adolescent developmental process. Teenagers do not need to be the Halo 3 champion, but teenagers need people (both peers and leaders) to champion them to who they are as a person and to who they are in Christ. Youth ministry needs to be a family of families that engage and interact with each other. (Rom 8:15-17; Gal 3:26-4:7) This is why activities of video games which are individually focused, and not collectively focused, can be harmful.[i]
Thirdly, video games are divisive. Essentially there are winners and there are losers. The winners are the cool students, and the losers are the rejects. Video games endorse this idea of performance and competition. In many areas of the students’ life there is this ideology of performance. Some of the performance activities may include: sports, co-curricular activities, youth programs, peer relationships, and even in school. The idea of performance tells the student if you meet the standard and make it, then you are accepted and can participate. If you do not meet the expectation, then you are rejected and on your own to figure it out. For example, Tim wants to be on the varsity football team. Tim tries out for 2 weeks and after the two weeks the coaches make the decision if Tim meets the varsity football standard. Halo 3 is a competition to see who can get the most kills. For example, Suzie is the best player in the group. She is the winner and all of the losers dislike her because not only is she a female beating the males, but she is the ultimate champion at Halo 3. The problem with these apparently “great” activities is that they communicate the elements of building character and discipline, but these great activities teach them nothing other than arrogance, self-centeredness, and a performance ethic that is unhelpful for not only youth group, but to their adolescent cognitive development.[ii] Video games divide the participants that are playing them and fuel the competitive and performance spirit that is everywhere around them in their everyday life. Youth Ministry’s goal is not to create winners or losers, but to create and disciple authentic followers of Christ. It is about following, not winning or losing.
Yes student ministry is difficult. Yes it is a task getting students in the door. But, we as the youth pastor/leader need to become creative in how we orchestrate our youth meetings. We need to think out of the box on how to communicate what community looks like while being completely obedient to what the Holy Spirit and the Word of God might reveal.
It is unfortunate that the New York Times got hold of this situation in Denver. Again, the press makes the Christian community look contradictory and not sure why we are doing the things we are doing. I am sure this youth pastor had the best of intentions. Halo 3 is new and students love it. He probably saw it as a wonderful opportunity to minister to the students while the New York Times saw it as leverage to negatively portray Christianity and the church. Video games are not of the devil. I argue that video games have their place and that is at home, not at church.
11 comments:
100% Agreed...wow.
I think the biggest problem is that the games don't include everyone. It is individualistic and the students who don't play just leave. That has been my experience.
Video games can be fun, but not in the church as a gimmick to attract kids. Let the Holy Spirit do that.
Good post.
Thanks B-dogg,
I love this stuff. I am going for issues that are as controversial, and more practical.
I wanna know when kids are going to get off their butts and start playing outside again... I'm tired of training obese children!
As a former avid video game player I found the article intriguing. The thing to realize is that while you see that they are not accomplishing anything with their time they do not see it like that. I didn't see how much of my life I basically wasted until college when my film history teacher talked about this subject. While I do not agree with the Youth Pastor who set up the Halo 3 thing, I do believe that you as a youth pastor can use video games to connect with the youth. Using it as a microcosm of the real world. In the fantasy world of video games basic principles still exist: the more time you spend on something the better you will be at it, there will be different ways to accomplish the same goals, and that formulating strategies can help to solve problems. In this way perhaps you can push those children from applying those ideas in the fantasy world to building a better life for themselves in the real world. Chances are those children are not just good at video games, but you can steer them towards using their time to become better: musicians, writers, scientists, mathematicians, or whatever interest they have. Tell them to figure out how many hours a week they play video games, then take that to how many hours a month, a year, then how many years they've played video games? Then ask what finishing the video games has brought them: money, success, love, or increased knowledge? Relate to them that if they spent half of that time doing something else how much improvement they would have in that category and that might just motivate them away from sitting in front of the tv. Hope that despite the massive length this taught you at least a little something. Glad to see you are writing JZ I look forward to reading more.
I agree with you. I do believe I can use video games to connect with kids, but not as the "major" activity.
You brought up some valid points and I appreciate your comments.
To be honest, I was the video gamer who just played sport or action games. I never got into the whole fantasy type of games.
I just feel that video games need to be on the minor focus, and not the major focus in YM. Yes video game sleeper over, video game LAN parties, etc...but not the highlight of the night.
anyways.......good thoughts......
you need to start a blog
JerZach,
My husband and I were discussing this today and he made an interesting point: why do we as Christian leaders use ungodly things as bait? For example, a violent video game...what is inherently good or Christ-like about that game? Does Jesus want us in "real life" to go around killing people? Or even to be in such fierce competition with people? Then why use something like that as bait?
Likewise, why are we so into using "entertainment" to attract people to church? To me, it seems like we're bring them in under false pretenses. We do whatever it takes to "get them in the door" and then we go about the task of preaching the Gospel. Sure, it's "good news" since we're no longer slaves to sin and are now reconciled to God, but Christianity isn't about having fun and being entertained. It just seems to me like we do a disservice to people, to ourselves, to our ministry efforts, and to God when we use these "bait and switch" tactics.
I definitely agree with you jz, I do not believe that video games should be the draw for children to go to church and especially not violent ones. I somewhat disagree with mlm's comments. While I don't believe that creating unrelated gimmicks is an appropriate way to attract the youth of america to church I also don't believe that, "Christianity isn't about having fun and being entertained". I understand the meaning of Christianity, but I certainly believe that fun and entertainment can be included within proper guidelines.
To clarify: I wasn't saying we can't use "unrealted gimmicks" to attract people. I was saying we shouldn't use unrelated (or even related) unGODLY things to attract people. We were youth pastors for a couple years and actually pioneered the youth ministry at the church, so we know from experience that teens want something to "feed their passions" but nothing except Jesus will do that. For us, it seems like giving them Jesus from the start will eventually be what brings them in and keeps them in, since He's the only True thing. We saw other "baits" fail when the teens came in and discovered that the bait was only a temporary hook.
I think deep down people are just looking for answers. The entertainment we stuff ourselves with are mainly distractions to keep us from feeling our pain or problems. So if we give people MORE entertainment, I believe they remain empty and lost. If we give them answers, they couldn't care less about entertainment. Think about it, what "baits" did Jesus use? None. People mobbed Him because He met their needs---practical needs and spiritual needs. If churches today were doing the same, attendance wouldn't be a problem.
Jeremy, if you truly do struggle with knowing what's godly and ungodly, that may be something you'd want to figure out, especially since you have a heavy respsonsiblity of teaching others. (I couldn't tell from your comment if you were being serious or not.)
mlm that clarifies greatly. Thanks! That makes %100 sense.
My question is, since in Halo 3 the characters are clearly fighting a just war, how is it ungodly?
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