Daniel Pulliam has posted on a recent New York Times article about the efforts of many churches to reach young people (and in particular, young men) by sponsoring events featuring violent video games, such as the recent Halo 3. I’d encourage you to read both articles and think about the question the Times article raises – how far should churches go to reach young people? In other words, at what point do we risk undermining our beliefs in the pursuit of trying to invite others to come? No doubt violent video games are popular. Halo 3 was off the charts in terms of pre-release sales for video games and therefore, it makes good sense to go where the people seem to be drawn. But what does Halo have to do with the cross? At what point does the gospel lead us as Christians to stop bowing down to the idols of this culture? Or do we not consider things which either lead people to glorify or minimize violence (”it’s only pixels”) or minimize our responsibility for how we use our time as idols? Or am I just sounding like a grumpy old man?
*UPDATE* – Rod “Crunchy Con” Dreher has also weighed in on the NYT article.
As a Church Planter/Pastor I pre-ordered Halo3 and just beat it! It doesn’t minimalize violence for me… and even some home schoolers that go to our church meet me on xbox live to play!
Nice thoughts. It seems so tough to balance out both views. If we stop playing Halo, should we also stop watching violent sports? Or Stop drinking beer? Or watching Rated R movies or just about any sitcom because they all glorify self and not God.
There is no definitive line…So it’s hard to know when it’s been crossed.
Though I am no stranger to violent games, I must agree that they are simply another thing in this modern culture to be idolized. It makes sense to go where the people are. If I’m not bringing the gospel and living out the gospel while I’m there though, I’m just another idol worshipper too, pitted against God.
interesting responses so far, guys…thanks for taking the time to interact.
Chris…those are really important questions for us to be asking not only as Christians, but also as pastors. What concerns me is that at some point it seems that we basically “hit the wall” on the question and then give up and dive right in…which appears to be justified primarily by the argument, “everyone else is doing it”. Is that wise? Shouldn’t wonder at the fact this question was initially raised not by people within the church but by the NY Times?
The other thing that I wonder about is how we view our use of time. There are some pretty strong statements (e.g. Eph 5:15-16) in Scripture about seeing time as something we are to use wisely and with a sense of urgency, yet we live in a culture that sees it as an individual’s right to have and waste “free time”.
Patrick…I have a hard time believing that you’re not affected by that. Violence is such a part of our culture – and especially of our entertainment culture – that I’m afraid we’ve lost the capacity to see it for the horror that it is. Believe me, I’m preaching to myself on this as much as anyone. There’s nothing I like better than an old Jet Li movie (Fong Sai Yuk, for example), but I challenge you to look at real violence and see if it changes the entertainment value for you. Try P.W. Singer’s book Children at War and then let’s talk.
Also, I’ve got to ask where you get all this free time as a planter/pastor? How much time do you spend each week gaming?
Mitch…good reflections. How would you go about bringing and living out the gospel in this particular environment?
i saw this article as well and it made me stop and think. when the first halo game came out when i was working as a youth leader we (the college age group) hosted a halo night/game night as an outreach event to encourage youth, especially the boys, to bring their friends, as usually only the girls would bring friends into youth group. we only did it once although it was very successful, the parents brought up the point that it was violent, etc. and not appropriate for church. It wasn’t our intention to introduce violence and whatnot to the teens, we actually hadn’t even thought about it because “everyone” played it. One of the guys in our college group “didn’t see what the big deal was” and ended up making a big deal about it, but I can see what the parents were saying. It’s their kids, not young adults. some people made the argument that well, the Bible has a lot of violent events and stories that are gory. i didn’t really see how that argument applied.
anyway, what i do remember from that outreach is that three of teens who came for the first time tonight ended up coming back to youth group and giving their lives to Jesus, one is now a full time missionary and the other two active in church serving the youth group/children’s ministry. so, it is difficult for me to say that the halo tournament was a bad idea for outreach, although I think if God wanted them to come to youth group and get saved he could’ve done it any way he chose, God doesn’t need halo.
thanks, Heidi…it’s good to hear from you again. how are you guys doing anyway?