(RNS) — Last year, leaders at Tate Springs Baptist Church hid thousands of plastic Easter eggs on its back lawn in Arlington, Texas.
This year, they plan to do the same. Except the eggs won’t be on the lawn.
Instead, they’ll be in Minecraft.
Since it was announced in March, Tate Springs’ virtual Easter egg hunt, set for Sunday (April 12) afternoon, has grown into a national event, even catching the attention of the National Esports Association.
“It started out as a local event to reach our own people and also people in our community, and then people from all over the nation — churches and parents — just started jumping on, and then it just started going out from there,” said Jared Wellman, lead pastor at Tate Springs.
Hosting the Easter egg hunt on Minecraft — a popular video game that allows players to build and interact in blocky worlds populated with characters with names like “creepers” and “Steve” — was the brainchild of Curtis James, the family pastor at Tate Springs.
As stay-at-home orders took effect to slow the spread of the coronavirus, James said the church’s family ministry team wanted to make sure young people at Tate Springs still had a place to connect.
That was easy for its teenagers, who already were connected via text messaging and social media.
The church was sharing resources with parents of younger children in a group chat online,…
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