This is a significant moment for video games and those connected to gaming culture. Before we get any further, if you find yourself wondering if such a thing as a significant moment for video games truly exists, I hope to convince you of the importance of understanding this landscape. For any student pastor, parent, or youth worker, connecting with gamers is now a vital part of modern mentorship.
Perhaps when you were a child, the majority of people playing video games fit into a specific stereotype, but that is no longer the case. Today, gaming serves as a great equalizer where people from all walks of life participate. In fact, many are now actively seeking digital outreach in youth ministry to meet students where they already spend their time.
Teenagers across every subculture in your student ministry are playing games, often together. This hobby is bridging stereotypical clique lines in ways that many organizations have struggled to achieve for years. This shift highlights the growing necessity of digital ministry and global reach within the local church.
THE INFLUENCE OF GAMERS
The COVID-19 pandemic has seen video game use rise as part of the longest spring break we’ve ever seen; Microsoft and Sony have both announced and previewed their next generation gaming consoles; and within the last week a monumental event took place in the world of gaming with the return of streaming giants Guy “Dr.Disrespect” Beahm and Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek playing video games to audiences of more than half a million people each.
And, while these two are toward the top of the game streaming food chain they are only two of thousands of people who think of themselves as full-time content creators or streamers and who make a living doing so. Why should you care about this as a youth worker? One word: influence.
The names I mentioned may not mean anything to you, but they (or people like them) do to your students. To your students they are much more than streamers, they are influencers and community builders using platforms like Twitch and YouTube as their base of operation. People from all walks of life are finding community together under the common banner of support for one streamer or another.
In our culture, these are the voices influencing this generation of teenagers, including the ones in your student ministry. As a youth worker, a person who desires to be a spiritual influence in the life of a teenager, you need to be aware of other voices of influence. Here’s how you can do that:
1. Do Some Research.
Spend time on YouTube and Twitch paying special attention to people your students are watching. It is as simple as asking them who they like, but understand that there are some they may not want to admit to you. Knowing more about the voices who are speaking into the lives of students you are ministering to will equip you for spiritual conversations that connect to their daily lives.
2. Don’t Mock or Criticize Video Games or Playing Them.
For some reason this is a common pattern for many youth workers. At some level I think it is generational; in most cases it is a lack of understanding.
The dichotomy is clear when teenage athletes and musicians are praised for hours of hard work while gamers are scorned for hours of gameplay. And, before you begin defensively throwing logical points in my direction about how these comparisons don’t make sense, please understand I am giving you the perspective of the teenager. To the gamer teenagers in your ministry, they don’t see a difference.
In gaming, they see opportunities to earn a living, to build community, and to sharpen their minds through fast-paced strategic decision-making. It also happens to be really fun, which we would never throw stones at for other activities that teenagers say they enjoy. Rather than mocking and criticizing something that they love, try to find common ground where you can build relationship leading to spiritual conversation.
3. Help Them to See Their Gaming Community as an Opportunity for the Gospel.
In student ministry we often tell students to share their faith with people at the lunch table, on their team, in the band or as part of any activity they are involved in. It is true that God places them within circles of people for gospel impact, and the gaming world should be no different. As youth workers, we should be helping teenagers see that the communities they are in through gaming are mission fields ripe unto the harvest.
Do you need to start playing video games and watching streamers in your spare time to be a youth worker? No, but you do need to know the world your teenagers live in, and the influential voices they are hearing. Beyond that, you need to be familiar enough with their world to be able to construct relational bridges leading to spiritual influence.
When you show interest and care about the things your students care about it gives you the opportunity to speak into their lives in a different way, allowing you to help them follow the Lord and become a light in the culture in which they live.
This article originally appeared on LifeWayVoices.com and is reposted here by permission.