re:spawn

i've been pumped about Fridays in the summer for one particular reason - i get to play video games during "work."

last year, Eisenberg, Shaun, and I had the idea for some sort of gaming event that could take advantage of the TVs and network we have here at the church... we had done stuff during youth Lock-ins, but that was it...

on Fridays from 11 to 3, we are setting up the TVs, hooking up the xbox and/or Wii systems, and getting our game on. it reminds me at times of the good ol' days of playing Halo or Halo2 in the dorms at CU, where we'd have 16 guys connected through the dorm network, yelling at each other through the suites or down the hallway - nothing beats hearing your friend scream in anguish from down the hall after you get some lucky kill.

i've had a desire to find ways to redeem video gaming from the ways it is typically viewed by 'adults,' and re:spawn has been one of those ways. we don't JUST shoot each other for 4 hours... but rather, we game for a bit, then take a break to eat lunch. then, i have a captive audience for some discussion, scripture, and prayer. then we shoot each other some more.

some of the things that we talked about last summer and have re-capped this summer have been:
the gospel - the 4 key ingredients when talking about it (God, Man, Christ, Response)
the 10,000 rule - after 10k hours, one can be considered an expert at whatever skill/task has been practiced for those hours. musicians, artists, computer programmers, writers, etc - after 10,000 hrs, they are respected as masters of their craft. 10k breaks down to roughly 10 years of doing something for an hour or two a day. so, do we really want to be video game experts by the time we are 22-28? (the youth age 12-18 - i guess i'm technically already a gaming expert... yay?)
playing games/reading books/watching movies with gospel goggles - the gospel changes everything about us, affects the way we see and interact with the world. it's like wearing goggles that we see through, in a way. when we are gaming, we can't just turn our brains off. what of the gospel is there in the story of the game? is there anything redeemable or valuable? if not, we should probably turn it off... but if so, what does it show us about God and the gospel?
the social factor of gaming - using the time/games to build relationships and get to know people. online interactivity allows us to maintain relationships with people who live down the street or across the world, and if we are being intentional we can use our gaming time to serve a real purpose.

in a recent video sermon from Mark Driscoll, he said some things in passing about video games that were very challenging to me, and gave me some things to think about and chew on heading into this year's re:spawn events.
over the next 3 weeks, i'll be unpacking 3 points. for a large number of youth and adolescents, and even some adultlescents, video gaming (or insert movie watching, obsessive reading, etc) becomes a substitute for something. video games end up filling a space in us and in our time that is intended to be filled by the gospel, and we need to be aware of this - especially gamers like me and our youth at GCC. the 3 things that we need that gaming substitutes are:
1 - we need a mission
2 - we need a command structure
3 - we need someone keeping score

since some of the guys are out of town this week, i figured i'd go ahead and write up some of the key points from this week's study so that they can stay in the loop.

- video games give us missions to accomplish. in fact, most games can be broken down into various missions, and if we don't have a mission or the mission isn't clear, we lose interest in the game. video games give us memorable missions - there are levels, bosses, and cinematics that i'll remember for a LONG time because of the mission they were a part of or the mission i accomplished in the experience.
- the gospel gives us a mission that is SO much more meaningful, SO much more clear, and SO much more memorable than anything we can do through our digital selves. in Matthew 28 when Jesus gives us our mission, in the book of Acts where we read of the mission beginning to take shape, and in all the epistles where the mission is explained in more detail - we find that the mission of God has the power to transform lives, communities, cultures, and ultimately the whole world.
- so why do we spend so much time doing things on the couch?




if you're interested in re:spawn, look for the events on Facebook (publicly searchable)