A Pastor described the Metaverse as the "Netflix of Evangelism," saying it would be an avenue to reach the young and broken generation.
Pastor Bill Willenbrock recently talked to nearly 500 people at the Metaverse Church Summit, explaining the possibilities of Metaverse Evangelism, or the use of the Metaverse to spread the Gospel.
Also known as PastorBrock, he founded 4X Christian Fellowship on VRChat, reaching people in China, Romania, India, and undisclosed locations in the middle-east for over three years. According to New World Notes, VRChat holds a growing collection of more than 25,000 virtual reality worlds that 30,000 users could enter at one time.
Willenbrock said through VRChat, his avatar could approach thousands of people to talk about faith in God, The Christian Post reported. He compared the metaverse to the streaming service Netflix when it comes to the opportunities it offers to evangelize.
He said it's "revolutionary and remarkable" as evangelism internationally could take money and efforts to happen. While in the metaverse, a person could reach out to people at any time despite the distance. He said it's more convenient than doing it in the real world for several reasons.
Reduces Social Anxiety
In the metaverse, people were represented by Avatar or Digital Representation which according to him was an advantage for people who have social anxiety. It reduces the anxiety they feel when preaching the gospel, he said. According to the pastor, it could be a good training ground for people teaching how to preach the gospel. He added this was also an opportunity even for physical churches.
Oftentimes, people in the VRChat were the people neglected by society that developed their social anxiety called "agoraphobia." "These are the people that Christ embraced," he said.
Reach Younger Generation
Christian ministries should invest in metaverse evangelism to reach young adults, where most males could be found. "The demographics of VRChat are the inverse of the demographics of the Church, in general, in the United States," he said.
He emphasized that the generation in most churches in America is getting older every year whereas in VRChat is younger - ages 17 to 26. So, if ministry leads were reaching out to the next generation, he said the venue was in the VRChat. In his experience, younger males in VRChat were "excited to hear about Christ" from theologically equipped Christians.
Also Read: Chinese Communist Party Now Using The Metaverse To Indoctrinate People Into Communism
Safe Place To Discuss Religion
VRChat offers them a place for love and community. According to him, it's safer to discuss religion in the metaverse than in real life. Society impedes the talk about religions and politics, however, many times at VRChat when he opened a conversation about Christianity, many audiences joined him with the topic.
He said they were more "receptive and kind" as compared to Facebook. People were more conscious that they share the virtual space with other people, that's why the pastor said it's a great venue to share the gospel.
To churches and ministries who wanted to venture on VRChat, he said they must be prepared to answer different questions for the people to believe. He said trust strengthens engagement with people in the metaverse.
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