A Presbyterian pastor in Miami is set to launch a fully immersive virtual reality worship service in a digital replica of Miami’s oldest organized congregation.
Christopher Benek, who pastors First Miami Presbyterian Church and is the CEO and pastor of the tech nonprofit CoCreators, believes a virtual reality service is an effective evangelistic tool to reach gamers and others with the Gospel.
“I think that it is important to understand that creation of CHVRCH+ (pronounced “Church Plus”) is not to displace the local congregation. That’s part of why we called it CHVRCH+ — because it is meant to be an additional complement to the existing physical church,” Benek told The Christian Post in an interview Tuesday.
Benek loves his local congregation, which is located in the heart of Brickell community and has nearly doubled in membership in the past year.
“But we also realize that we, like the rest of the church universal, have a lot of work to do. We live in one of the highest population densities south of New York City, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only intensified our understanding that we need to meet people’s needs both physically and digitally,” he said.
Digital and virtual spaces are no less God’s territory than our physical spaces, he continued, and when Christ called His followers to “Make disciples of all nations” he was not excluding digital ones.
“‘There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!’” Benek said, referencing the words of the Dutch Reformed theologian Abraham Kuyper.
“Certainly this applies to digital spaces as well.”
Creating virtual spaces is not a way to escape our present reality or ignore incarnational blessings, but rather a way to extend our understanding of reality and open our minds to the new possibilities that might exist in Jesus, the pastor elaborated.
“I think that it is the destructive flaw of many armchair theologians to assume that when faced with new ministry options that we can only experience God in one way. God is the Creator of the cosmos. Certainly, we are not so prideful as to assume that we know all of the ways that God might reveal God’s-self to us?” he said.
SOURCE: Christian Post, Brandon Showalter
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