Of Games and God: A Reflection in Advent

This past year is our first full year as a Ministry in Digital Spaces team. What started out as an experimental pilot project has since grown remarkably, and we're at the point where I would say our ministry is thriving. We're reaching unreached people, we're going out into communities that haven't seen or heard the word, and we're building real and meaningful friendships with people that we've never met in person.

Looking back on the past year, it's safe to say that a lot has changed. Here are some of the ways God has blessed us this year.

• Questing nights have grown from being just Andrew and me to including some six to ten people on a regular basis.
• Our overall community has grown from being some dozen or so people to having over thirty members - enough that I don't know all of them nearly as well as I should like.
• We've formed a strong partnership with the Rebellion, a ministry that provides a safe and positive space for Christian and non-Christian gamers to game together and build relationships.
• We've settled in on the purpose of our ministry - as a hub for missional gamers who are already passionate about games and Jesus to come together and organize for the good of the kingdom.
• We've found other spaces - Discords, subreddits, in-game clans, and the like - in which to go out and build relationships with people who might never otherwise know or interact with Christians.
• We've found out that relational ministry trumps proxe-style evangelism in the digital space, and that relationships happen at human speeds, not digital ones.
• We've grown in friendship and in community with one another.
• We've expanded our initial mandate from serving college-age gamers to include ministry to (and by) other individuals - in the digital space, it doesn't make sense to limit our impact by placing restrictions on who can be a part of or benefit from our community.
• We've seen God at work in shaping our ministry's purpose and direction, and in bringing us closer together.

As we continue to grow in the new year, we're incredibly optimistic about where God is taking us. A year ago, we couldn't have predicted how much our ministry would grow, or how deep and meaningful the relationships we were building would become. Here's to an amazing year elapsed, and an amazing year yet to come.