The soft-power benefits of educating the world’s leaders

What Is the Metaverse

Metaverse” is a new word, and we’ve only heard it because of Mark Zuckerberg’s recent accouncement that Facebook’s parent company is changing its name to Meta. The new name is a nod to the future. Meta is positioning itself as the first mover of a new digital universe.

The metaverse is not a digital world. It’s a digital world of worlds through which people can travel seamlessly, retaining their appearance and digital possessions wherever they go. These worlds do not merely exist in VR (virtual reality), but also layer onto physical reality through AR (augmented reality). 

What does the metaverse mean for campus ministry and Christians?

When Facebook debuted in 2004 and the iPhone released in 2007, we didn’t know what the future held. We can’t catch up a decade after the metaverse reshapes culture. We must prepare disciples now, knowing the metaverse will only exacerbate the current problems created by a (believe it or not) less invasive internet.

Three themes we should start emphasizing today, so we can form resilient disciples of tomorrow.

1. Givenness of Identity in a Customized World                                                                     

If you think society is struggling with questions of identity now, get ready. Individuals will be able to express themselves however they want through fully customizable avatars in the metaverse. 

What happens when we identify more with a virtual version of ourselves than with our real selves? People may conflate their God-given identity with the self-made identity they crafted in the metaverse. The imago Dei is about to encounter the imago meta.

In a world where every aspect of our identity will be completely customizable, celebrating a received identity—given by God to be his human image-bearers, made with flesh and bone, male and female, for the cultivation of the world—will be radically countercultural.

2. Goodness of Creation in a Disembodied World

We will live more of our lives disembodied, either as avatars in VR spaces or holograms using AR technology. The separation we feel—between our physical bodies and surroundings, and our virtually expanded consciousness—will grow. It will be easy to see the infinite possibilities of our virtual world and bodies as better and more real than the physical world.

As disciples of Jesus, we insist upon the goodness of our physical world and bodies. Followers of Jesus must resist the constant digital connection, forming communities where people intentionally disconnect from virtual reality to be present with others: look them in the eye, give them a hug, and simply be with them. This will be countercultural in the best way.

3. Limits as Grace in a Limitless World

The metaverse will present us with the opportunity to experience glimpses of power only God has. Readiness of information will give us a glimpse of being omniscient. The ability to create worlds and identities will give us a glimpse of being omnipotent. Conquering of geographic boundaries will allow us to be wherever we want to be at any given time, approximating omnipresence. Our futuristic tower of Babel is luring us in with promises of limitlessness.

Disciples of Jesus will need to resist by embracing God-given limits. We can be a presence in our local communities, focus on the slow incremental growth of systems and structures that lead to people’s flourishing (both physical and virtual), and embrace the increasingly unfashionable phrase “I don’t know.” Our lives can manifest the truth that we can’t be everywhere, and we can’t be everything, and that’s a gift from the God who is.

Faithfulness on a New Frontier

While we can’t predict all the ways the metaverse will change us, we know that Christian witness is always countercultural. The metaverse may promise godlike power and knowledge, but like all idols, it will take more than it gives.

Like every technological innovation, the metaverse will bring both opportunities and threats. But if we begin the hard work of discipleship today, we might find resilient disciples of Jesus faithfully leading on the edge of a new frontier, working for the flourishing of everyone—physically and virtually—with confident humility in the face of monumental change.

This is a condensation of the full article “How to Prepare for the Metaverse” by Ian Harber and Patrick Miller, November 2, 2021 in TGC, (TheGospelCoalition.org). https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/prepare-metaverse/  and for more information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gElfIo6uw4g&ab_channel=CNETPreview

Growing a Student Movement,

The Development of Chi Alpha Campus Ministries,1940-2020

At the beginning of the 21st century, Chi Alpha Campus Ministries USA is a major national student movement communicating the love of Jesus Christ and the good news of the gospel to thousands of students each year who matriculate through college. Chi Alpha students actively take part in campus ministry both stateside and abroad. Fifteen hundred campus missionary staff and volunteers serve 20,000 students on 300 campuses nationwide. Sister campus ministries are active in seventy-five nations. 

Dennis Gaylor writes Growing a Student Movement, The Development of Chi Alpha Campus Ministries, 1940–2020 after having served as the national director of Chi Alpha Campus Ministries USA from 1979 to 2013. This 674-page comprehensive overview illustrates the profound influence of Chi Alpha in the church and world today. 

Chi Alpha is rooted in the Assemblies of God (AG) denomination, a church formed at the beginning of the 20th century as part of the modern Pentecostal movement. They derived the name Chi Alpha from the two Greek letters, XA, and the biblical passage, 2 Corinthians 5:19-20, identifying “Christ Ambassadors” or “Christ sent ones.” The AG created a national Youth Department in 1947 and soon explored ways to minister to AG youth attending state colleges and universities, particularly as thousands of men and women entered college after returning from WWII. Chi Alpha was first organized at Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State University) in 1953.

A stateside chronological history of Chi Alpha is brought to life through the decades in eight chapters. The book records 800 photographs, 50 charts, and 100 quotes to help tell the story of people and events in Chi Alpha’s growth. A single watershed moment changed the trajectory of Chi Alpha in 1986 with the organizational move from the national Youth Department to AG US Missions. For the first time, Chi Alpha personnel are missionaries, and mission strategies and methods apply to advance the ministry on campuses. AG World Missions also began appointing world missionaries to start university ministries in other nations.

Three chapters cover the vast influence of Chi Alpha in world missions, international student ministry, and a parallel history of university ministry outside the US. The final chapters focus on change, new leadership, and spiritual awakening. The epilogue observes the impact on college students and campuses in the year 2020 during an unprecedented global pandemic, racial justice issues, and the presidential election.  

In Growing a Student Movement, the reader can know the history, experience the present, and catch a vision for the future.