Playing Playstation 3 During Church

I just read that a Playstation 3 controller was passed around a church as a part of their service--an Anglican church, no less. The members played a game called Flowers (demo video here, if you're curious) while they talked about being good stewards of God's creation.

I usually emphasize how simple it can be to implement the member-driven church model. A pot-luck meal isn't complicated or expensive. Bible studies with discussion actually take less time to prepare for than sermons (if you already have people who can be discussion leaders at each table).

But there's no reason you can't go technical, too. You could also put on the projector one of the world's most advanced electronic devices and pass around a controller with 17 buttons and a motion sensor built inside.

If you want to read all details on exactly what they did, check out the blog post where I read about this via this link. But whether you go there to see what they did in detail or not, take just a moment and think about why someone would do this.

Video games can be described as interactive movies. Rather than just watch something, you get to shape and create it. It's similar to how member-driven church requires it's members to co-create the service together, rather than just consume a predetermined experience. Oh, and in case you hadn't heard, the video game industry is now larger than the movie AND music industries--put together.

People crave the chance to be engaged more deeply--and they grow more in the process.