Is it possible to Witness while playing an online shooter?

I intended for today’s posting to be about my first speaking opportunity last Sunday 11/05/2006, but I am going to defer that article until early next week. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for it.

 

Can God and war games go together?

Today, I would like to discuss with you an unusual way that I have witnessed to people online. Of course, people can get into chat rooms and have discussions, but have you considered using a video game as your vehicle to witness? While the lost can be found in the online chat rooms, they are also found playing video games.

For many years now, I have been a big fan of the Call of Duty series (1 and 2) – a World War II first person combat game focused mainly around a theme of the Germans vs the Allies (American, Russian, and British) battling one another for victory.

Back in mid-2005, I started thinking of how I could witness to someone via a video game. The easiest way that I could think of would be to change my “player name” to something that people could reference. But what kind of “player name” could I choose that would be effective and powerful to those who see it, and would question possibly, “what does it mean?”

Please keep in mind that this is an online game where players are from various countries and religions.

After much thought, I finally decided on the player name:

John 3:16 – Holy Bible

How perfect could it get? Isn’t this one of the most used and thought provoking verses found in the Bible that builds our faith and shows the path to true Salvation.

John 3:16 (New International Version) says:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Immediately after I had changed the name, I knew that I needed to be a worthy component among the ranks to make sure that “John 3:16 – Holy Bible” would show up at the top of the game results summary. In knowing this, I have to play to the best of my ability. To most players, they want to win so that others notice them so they can get picked up by a “clan” (an officially ranked team), but to me, I want to win so that others could see God represented through one of the greatest verses written in the Bible. There is no need for me to go clan seeking – I am already in one called His “Kingdom”!

During game play, each time an enemy combatant (opposite of my team) is killed, a message will show up in larger print at the bottom of the screen with “Killed by John 3:16 – Holy Bible”. Just imagine as in the screenshot below indicates, 66 kills meant that (while not unique people), John 3:16 showed up on various people’s game screens 66 times. At the end of the game, a total of 22 people (including myself) are able to see the Bible verse – John 3:16. Here is another way that I see it:

“Each bullet is a potential seed for the Holy Spirit.”

Summary of the win/lose results by team as shown below:

How effective is this really?

During much of the game play throughout the months, I have had multiple people ask me , “What does John 3:16 mean?” At that point, I type the Bible verse out for all the players to see. I am never pushy by going into a game and constantly typing it over and over, but I wait for an opportunity when a genuine request is made from a player who wants to know what it means. It is also during this time that there may be other Christians (unknown to me at the moment) who express their support by typing “Amen”.

There are times that people have made me smile by stating 1 of the Ten Commandments. I have heard so many times, “John, didn’t God say ‘You shall not murder?’”. Please remember that this is an online game, and there is no “actual” death taking place, but nevertheless, I

like hearing and knowing that there are others who are reminded of God’s Law.

Be prepared for verbal persecution/resistance

Since I favor having a message for Christ, there are people who like to represent the “spiritual enemy”. You can find some variation of their screen name containing the words “Dark One”, “Dark Angel”, “666″, “Anti-Christ”, “Lucifer”, “Satan”, “Demon”. During game play, these people typically like to make it a mission to target me by constantly wanting to “kill” my online player. Many times, they send cursing or dehumanizing comments my way, but I just ignore their words, and let the game play speak for itself.

Just recently, one of the adminstrators at a game server I play on regularly said repeatedly, “John, change your screen name”. I ignored the request and kept on playing. A few minutes later, the request came again, “John, change the screen name – it isn’t original enough”. I didn’t say anything once more. Eventually, the third request was made, “John – change your screen name, I don’t like it.” Then someone else chimed in and said, “John, you heard the man, change your name”. My thoughts were that I wasn’t changing anything, and if I need to leave that server, then I will do just that and find a new one. I kept cool by waiting to see if anything else would be said or if I would be booted (kicked off), and banned from the game server. Nothing happened. A few minutes later, the administrator answered to someone as to why he didn’t like it and he said, “I am Catholic”. At that time, I spoke up and said, “As someone who is Catholic, don’t you believe in the Holy Bible?” I continued to say, “If you are for God, why do you make such a request of me when I am using it as a means to witness to people? Don’t you want the lost to know about God?” He didn’t respond back.

God wins even if I don’t!

There are times that I cannot always be first as shown in this screenshot:

But that isn’t the most important part. What is important is being there to advertise for God, allowing the “John 3:16″ verse reference to commit to their memory while believing that just something so small as this could give the Holy Spirit the chance to lead someone to question their life and/or to go pick up a Bible/find the verse online to read to see what God has to say.

People in general prefer a conventional or “most commonly used approach” to reach the lost, but times are changing. The world is being transformed as we progress through the Information Age. The Internet has made it possible to reach more people ever than before in God’s ministry. Don’t operate within a box, time to step and think outside of it, and ask ourselves, “What can I do to share the message that Jesus Christ died for our sins and has provided a free gift of Eternal life with Him?“

   

5 Ideas to get you started to representing the Lord online:

 

 

 

 

1) Online game chat such as Yahoo “checkers” rooms are always filled with various people. While you are playing a game, it provides an opportunity to talk in a one-on-one setting.
2) Change the footer of your mail address with a Bible verse that is throught provoking. Each email you send out has visibility to everyone on the distribution list.
3) Are you with a company that allows everyone to work at home and lost that one-on-one contact? Be the first to start a 30 minute conference call to hold prayer by phone or through instant messaging.
4) Pick a video game such as I have done and create your own meaningful screen name that advertises for God.
5) Start up your own personal website to share the good news with others. Bloggers such as this are usually free and very easy to work with! 

Through it all, have fun with what you are doing and keep in mind the objectives you want to achieve to allow an opportunity for the Holy Spirit to touch someone’s life.

 

 

 

Witness For The Master

 

 

Tags: Call of Duty 2, Online Witnessing