I went to church in the metaverse and this is what I found

 

After investing more than $300 to purchase the Meta Quest 2 (previously Oculus Quest 2) VR headset, creating an avatar as close as possible to my likeness, and dressing in my best virtual clothes, I went to church with just a few clicks.

I visited the virtual campuses of several churches between Saturday and Sunday. The process was so easy, it was like picking a movie to watch on Netflix.

I’m sharing my experience at three of these churches where I had some interaction or spent a meaningful amount of time. They are: Life.Church, Lakeland Community Church, and Faith Church. I accessed the VR campuses of all the churches through Altspace VR, a social VR platform owned by Microsoft.

I had planned to access the VR world through another online VR platform called VR Chat but I got stuck trying to make the platform accept my personally created avatar so I abandoned that ambition. I was able to get started quite quickly with AltspaceVR using my Microsoft account.

Of the three VR church campuses where I spent the most time, the Craig Groeschel-led Life.Church VR campus, which I visited on Sunday, had the most people at any one time. When I entered the Life.Church VR campus there were already a handful of people having conversations in the lobby.

I quickly made my way to the auditorium and found close to 10 or so people listening to the church’s worship service streaming on cinema-like screens. I observed for a while before taking a few virtual photos and heading to my seat. Other avatars — the virtual representations of real people — moved in and out of the auditorium.

Groeschel would soon introduce guest Pastor Herbert Cooper of the People’s Church, who delivered a pre-recorded message on “When you feel abandoned by God.”

 

 

A woman with a blonde avatar sat in the row behind me. She would say amen from time to time as Cooper preached. I sometimes lifted my own virtual hands in approval or when the pastor asked the church to pray. When the service was over, the VR campus Pastor Steven Roberts introduced himself to the group, then he spoke with some people individually. We chatted briefly and he invited me to return the following week.

Before I left the campus I walked around the building a little and found that there were many rooms and spaces set up for perhaps an expansion of virtual activity at the church.

As soon as I entered the VR campus of Lakeland Community Church on Sunday, I was greeted by a staffer named Kim who told me where to go and what to look out for. There was a lot of information on the virtual walls of the building and there was a nice waterfall that you could watch as you entered and exited the auditorium. The waterfront campus, where Stuart McPherson serves as pastor, seemed thoughtfully created.

 

This is an article from the Christian website, Christian Post. You can read the full article by visiting https://www.christianpost.com/news/i-went-to-church-in-the-metaverse-and-this-is-what-i-found.html

 

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