Fraggin for Jesus?

It's not very often that the New York Times does a front page story on youth ministry. But with the release of Halo 3 two weeks ago and the subsequent "Halo Events" that popped up at churches all over the country the Times was compelled to find out how a violent video game could be used to advance the teachings of the 'prince of peace' - Jesus Christ.

The Article does a pretty good job of trying to sort out the gray areas that youth ministry travels in when it tries to co-opt cultural touchstones for its own evangelistic ends.

The church has a long history of latching onto trends in pop-culture and co-opting them to attract visitors. For this incarnation teens come and play video games for an hour then there is a message followed by more video game playing, food, etc. I am sure that youth ministers attempt to use a Halo illustration in their lessons, and you can bet those illustrations wouldn't jive with the message of Jesus or even real life for that matter (it's a video game). I bet the moderately self-aware teen picks up on the inconsistency.

Personally I am skeptical of the effectiveness of events like these. It's true that kids (guys particularly) who might not normally come to a church would show up in droves for a night of Halo 3 on big screen TV's with free food, and 16 multiplayer networking. It's also true that games such as Halo do create community and foster social interaction that could potentially lead to relationships forming between a church going teen and a non-church going teen. This is why in principle I am not opposed to video games being available to kids who come to youth group.

Here's my problem, when you make "Halo 3" a front and center aspect of your event then you better have a great explanation (my bias is there isn't one) as to why it's effective for the church to illuminate Christ through the lens of a violent, 'Mature' rated video game. And that's my problem with it. Using "Halo 3" to illuminate Christ just doesn't mesh and YM's are diluting themselves if they think it does. Besides it's just lazy. To have an event centered around Halo 3 where you can throw a sermon in the middle of it and say it's 'evangelistic' is what gives YM a bad rap as a profession, because that's easy. There is nothing creative or engaging about an event like this. It's completely slanted to the 13-30 year old male demographic (hmm you think that's why YM are so eager for a Halo event as opposed to 'The Hills' watching party for girls...which by the way would present way more opportunities for Jesus talk than Halo). I can envision a scenario where some of these guys brow beat their skeptical Elders by inferring that the church would be 'out of touch' if it wasn't doing something like a "Halo 3" night. That's a lot of pressure to put on church leaders who don't understand youth culture and have a sincere desire to be relevant to young people.

I personally feel conflicted about creating a space in the youth group that embraces video games. Spend anytime around a junior high boy and you know how OBSESSED they can be with these things. And I know plenty of high schoolers who spend hours and hours each day playing video games. With the balance so out of whack for many guys in how they manage their video game playing, I don't think I want to contribute even more playing time for my teens. Our group doesn't have a gaming system and we won't have one for this very reason. I do invite some of the teens to bring their systems to a lock-in or something because Lord knows surviving a lock-in takes every tool you can muster. But on the whole I believe that kids need a break from the stuff rather than having access to it at church. When it comes to events, I don't think that the church needs to ride the coattails of "Halo 3" or any other hot item to capture the imagination of young people. Instead it needs to illuminate a life whose excitement and purpose isn't contained within the confines of and X-Box or PlayStation.