halo 3 and the church

just read this post by Josh Griffin about Halo 3 and the church. he was referring to an article posted in the new york times regarding halo being used in youth ministry programs. it's an interesting read. after reading through the comments, i felt compelled to share, too. here's what i posted.

"for me. i have halo 3 and love it. i have some youth in our program who play regularly and i will meet up with them online to play. and the co-op is awesome. we sit, we talk, we hang out. and many of the kids are talking about it, their stats, and their achievements. a few want to help me beat legendary. i grew up with games. at 5 years old, my dad came home with an atari 2600 and together we played asteroids for hours.

anyways, i have always thought that if you are ok doing "X" anywhere else, then you should be ok doing it in the church. if that wouldn't be ok, then we should really think about what it is we are doing. maybe we shouldn't be doing it all.

the culture changes and will always change. just as soon as we think we have it figured out, it will change again. we need to be culturally relevant. in but not of the culture. i think games are ok.

for us in our church, i'm not sure it would fit with what we are currently doing. i wouldn't be opposed, but it doesn't fit our events and activities. for some it might be right and others it's not. i think that's ok. what i don't think is ok is that we miss the message of the gospel. jesus has called us to become more like him; full of love, grace, mercy and compassion. not matter what your are doing, if we leave this component out of what we are doing we have failed.

and for outreach, you need to be involved in that culture that you are reaching out to. i don't think we need to do an outreach expecting youth to know the words to the latest chris tomlin song. it may just not be an outreach if it is filled with youth ready to worship.

to sum it all up - go with God, sensing His presence, experiencing His love, and sharing with all that you come in contact with."

josh will be posting his thoughts tomorrow.