The potential impact of closure of Churches in the metaverse

In March 2023 Microsoft ‘sunset’ its metaverse AltspaceVR platform to move its resources to support developing other immersive experiences. This may appear irrelevant to readers, unless you are involved in church mission in the metaverse.[1]

Welcome to the metaverse!

The term ‘metaverse’ first appears in Neal Stephenson’s 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash describing a virtual environment where lifelike avatars engage with each other.[2] Thirty years later, it is a vision Silicon Valley are heavily investing in and a few churches (predominantly American) have grasped the vision of the metaverse mission field.  However, churches in the metaverse are different, in August 2021 Facebook changed its name to Meta to focus on the virtual world, where access is primarily gained through VR headsets. According to Statista, there are over sixteen million VR headsets worldwide[3] and in the United States alone just under  two hundred million gamers, a sizeable mission field.[4]

For churches in the metaverse (predominantly American) the closure will be impactive, as AltspaceVR is the main platform used for metaverse ministry. Over the past 12-18 months the number of churches offering services in the metaverse, has increased from a handful to over twenty. It could be argued that unfortunately churches close all the time due to falling footfall or dwindling finance, however, there are usually other local churches that the members could join.

The difficulty in the metaverse is the limited alternatives. AltspaceVR was a solid platform, churches could build a world that reflect their own building or something different, they could advertise events, stream presentations or music and use moderation tools. It was easy for volunteers to use, and most churches would just stream their service in the metaverse. Others developed small groups and activities. There are other platforms like VRChat, Rec Room, Bigscreen which can be used but they are not as user friendly as AltspaceVR. They do not have the same options around streaming or creating worlds and I found the navigation and engagement more difficult.[5]

If church is the ‘visible reality of the Kingdom of God on earth now’[6] or as Hans Küng describes it  ‘a visible church of human beings’[7] then what is the impact on individuals with this closure? Individuals are important as Karl Barth says it is through the individual that the Church happens, not the institutional movement.[8] While the impact is only on a ‘small’ minority of Christians in the metaverse, for some it is their only engagement with church, due to health limitations or other lifestyle commitments.

An avatar.

Individuals attending church in AltspaceVR are represented by their personally designed avatar with a chosen name. Initially, I used ‘The CoolDude’ before settling on ‘Simonuk’ as I became more familiar with the platform. I have fifty-seven friends, but apart from one or two I have never met any of them outside the platform.

They could walk past me in the street (and I them) and we would not recognise each other. The difficulty is each platform uses different avatars and naming procedure, so there is this sense of loss of friends, of people I have worshipped and chatted with over the past two years.

How can we engage in a strange land?

The Psalmist asks ‘how can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?’ (Psalm 137:4). The destruction of Jerusalem and the inhabitants being taken into exile into Babylon I would suggest is not the same level as the closure of AltspaceVR, but the churches will have to learn a new metaverse song.  There are similarities, the temple in Jerusalem was the focal point of worship for the Jews, it was ’the’ place and seen as physical evidence of God in their midst. Ezekiel describes seeing the ‘glory of the Lord’ leaving the temple and stopping over a mountain to the east (Ezekiel 11).

The Jews exiled in Babylon had to learn a new culture in this foreign land, some settled easily, for others it was a challenge. Within the metaverse, there are other platforms like Bigscreen, VR Chat, and Rec Room, but access, facilities and programming is not as easy. Bigscreen is probably the most similar to AltspaceVR and the church I partner with Lakeland Community Church has already started to hold services there.

But can God exist in metaverse?

If the presence of God is where his people are and cyberspace is the ‘new public square’[9] and if God is omnipotent and omnipresent, he must be in the metaverse otherwise the indication is, his power is limited which means he is not God. Throughout biblical history, God’s omnipresence has been demonstrated differently, through a pillar of fire or cloud (Exodus 13:22), a whisper (1 Kings 19:12), incarnation and the Holy Spirit, as Paul Tillich says ‘Tillich says ‘if God is everywhere, is he nowhere?’[10] and God cannot be limited to the known, he is there in the unknown or new horizons. Old Testament books like Daniel and Ezekiel contain images of a different world, Isaiah appears to enter a ‘virtual world’ when he sees ‘the Lord high and exalted, sitting on a throne’ surrounded by the seraphim (Isaiah 6:1-8). Paul draws this out in his Areopagus (Acts 17) speech where he argues that it was God who made the world and everything in it, his dwelling is in the world not in stone buildings. John’s description of the future while on Patmos is another example of entering a virtual world (Revelations 1:10-19), the metaverse does not limit God, the metaverse exists because ‘God is creator.’[11]

Bishop DJ Soto (VR Church) says that future of the church is in the metaverse, physical gatherings will still exist, but the centre of our ministry will be a hub based in the metaverse.[12] The difficulty is this vision is restricted not just by the closure of AltspaceVR but the cost of headsets to fully experience the immersive metaverse capabilities. The metaverse churches will adapt, as onsite church has in times of challenge, change and closure. The call to sing the Lord’s song will just move to another platform. However, there will be a cost implication, maybe a loss of followers who do not engage with the new platform, but it is also an opportunity to engage with new users. It will initially be inconvenient, but history (Acts 16, for example) demonstrates that as one door closes to the gospel another larger one opens, it just takes faith to walk through it.

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References

[1] According to Microsoft they want to invest in their business product Microsoft Mesh. AltspaceVR has declined in popularity as more platforms have become available. It is predominantly used by Gen X and as more churches became involved I have noticed a decrease in attendance at my church.

[2] Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash,  (Penguin Books, 2011), chap. 2.

[3] “Virtual reality (VR) headset unit sales worldwide from 2019 to 2024,” Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/677096/vr-headsets-worldwide/

[4] “Number of video game users in the United States from 2017 to 2027,” Statista, https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1277728/physical-or-digital-core-gamers-in-the-us>

[5] Some of this could be personal preference. The Metaverse Podcast by two metaverse pastors explains the differences between the various platforms: https://www.youtube.com/@metaversechurchpodcast.

[6] Darrell L. Bock and Jonathan J. Armstrong, Virtual Reality Church: Pitfalls and Possibilities (or How to Think Biblically about Church in Your Pajamas, VR Baptisms, Jesus Avatars, and Whatever Else Is Coming Next) (Moody Publishers, 2021), p. 206.

[7] Hans Küng, The Church. (Burn and Oats, 1992), p. 34.

[8] Karl Barth, The Doctrine of the Word of God (Prolegomena to Church Dogmatics, Being Vol 1, Part 1), trans. by G.T. Thomson (T & T Clark, 1936), pp. 704–5.

[9] Bock and Armstrong, Virtual Reality Church, p. 57.

[10] Bala A. Musa, ‘Reimagining Place and Presence in the Virtual Church: Community and Spiritual Connection in the Digital Era’, in Digital Ecclesiology A Global Conversation, ed. by H. Campbell (Digital Religion Publications, 2020), pp. 53–58 (p. 56).

[11] Bock and Armstrong, Virtual Reality Church, p. 159.

[12] Luis Andres Henao, “Faith in the metaverse: A VR quest for community, fellowship,” TechExplore, https://techxplore.com/news/2022-01-faith-metaverse-vr-quest-fellowship.html.

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© Simon Werrett, 2023.

This work is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

Cover Image: “oculus quest 2 on white desk with lamp” by Vinicius “amnx” Amano is licensed under the Unsplash License.