Virtual reality platforms can now be used by churches to simultaneously hold worship services to cater to people across the globe.
The Christian Headlines reported that Life.Church Pastor Craig Groeschel announced the addition of virtual reality church services to its current 36 satellite locations.
"One church in multiple locations... Now including #metaverse in @altspacevr! Celebrating those who attended and the two people who decided to follow Jesus!" Groeschel said in Instagram on December 15.
Groeschel's post pertained to the first virtual service the church held on December 12, which had 100 people in attendance. The Roys Report explained that "metaverse" is similar to the internet except that what you see in it are in 3D or are an "overlay onto real life, like with augmented reality glasses. The metaverse doesn't yet exist, but might within just a few years."
While Next Steps Pastor Ryan Sharp, on the other hand, disclosed that the church held its second virtual service on December 19 were 238 people attended. Life.Church, one of the megachurches in the United States, hosted the virtual reality worship service through Microsoft's virtual reality platform, "AltspaceVR."
"Today was the second week of @life.church doing a service in the metaverse on @altspacevr by @microsoft . 238 people came! We met people from all over including Brooklyn NY, Indonesia, Russia, Finland, and the UK. Some said they found us from the featured events on AltspaceVR, some said they subscribed to our channel and marked that they were interested in the event, but one found this service another way. That person is Mardi from Jakarta, Indonesia," Sharp said in Instagram.
Life.Church Spokeswoman Rachel Feuerborn revealed that the direction now of organizations is to leverage metaverse, which might be questionable to some critics considering its capacity to create true connections among people.
"With recent emphasis on the metaverse, organizations around the globe are taking a closer look at how to leverage virtual reality-including the local church. While critics might question if real connections can be made in the metaverse, Life.Church has seen countless lives changed through relationships in digital spaces over the years," Feuerborn said.
Feuerborn explained that the metaverse's feature of anonymity enables people to "let their guard down and have deep, meaningful conversations." She expressed hopes that this new virtual reality platform would enable them to reach out to the unchurched "who might not otherwise set foot in a physical church."
The Roys Report said Life.Church has a penchant for technology, which it uses to spread Christianity in various ways. The use of metaverse is Life.Church's second use of virtual reality. The first time it ventured into virtual reality was in 2007 through the game, "Second Life," which they used through a ministry to interact with people through their avatars. Life.Church actually prides itself for leading "the way in pioneering innovations for the global Church."
This is evidenced by it's YouVersion Bible app that recently celebrated its 500th million download and hitting a 100th million mark at Google Play Store. YouVersion is said to be the only mobile app that allows you to choose your much-preferred version of the Bible based on your Christian denomination. It has also become the most-downloaded iPhone Bible app since its launching in 2008.
