halo tournament and gaming

many people have different thoughts about hosting a halo tournament at a church. many of our youth play video games (there are 350 to start with), and it is a good way to connect with them. in fact at our tournament today, we have had quite a few register a team who have rarely come to any other program events. what a great thing it is, when we are willing to meet others where they are at to connect. we should be in the world, but not of it.

i personally have been playing games since i was about 5 years old. i remember my father coming home with an atari 2600 with one of the greatest games at the time, asteroids. i was hooked. we played asteroids,  missile command, and breakout for hours. since then i have owned the nes, super nintendo, nintendo 64, playstation, dreamcast,  gamecube, and for a few years now the xbox 360. yes, i prepaid for my 360 and picked it up on launch day. the 360  offers so much from game downloads, to movies, streaming from the pc, and windows live. it is on more often than just the tv in our house. i also play game on my pc. not as much since the 360. but loved battlefield vietnam and battlefield 2, command and conquer series, especially generals, and of course all the games from valve. this is something i have grown up with and enjoy doing. i would rather play than watch tv. it is interactive and entertaining. i am currently playing quite a bit of cod4 with a bunch of seminary students (friends of my brother in law)  from north carolina right now.

now, i do think as with anything, that we should be aware and careful about what we put into our heads, games, movies, books, music, etc. i don't think that nay of these forms of media cause bad to happen. people cause bad things to happen. however, parents should know what their children are playing and decide what is allowable. there are games that young children and even early teens should not play, but there are also great alternatives.

back to the tournament. today's setup is four man teams. all games will be played on original maps (pre-selected or random) and normal setup. the games will the best out of 3 and winner moves on. loser will move into the losers bracket. each 1st place team member will win a 3 month subscription to xbox live.

illusion portrait made in halo 3

here's the link to the flickr page. this was made using the forge editor in halo 3. it took me quite a while to finally see it. there is a face in the pic. do you see it?

14,000 points

i know this is pretty geeky, but i just reached 14000 point gamerscore playing halo. my xbox was even talking about it. it would have been my largest daily increase in gamerscore, but two achievements were logged in just after midnight. and yes, i could play halo 3 all night long.

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.

Samurai Sword in Halo 3

Several people down at the High Impact Halo Forums have noticed that there is a player online who has a samurai sword attached to his back as if it were a secondary...

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