Easter in SecondLife

I'm not usually a big Easter service fan. There are lots of folks who only come on Easter and Christmas (I call them two-timers), and so it's hard to find a parking spot, and it's hard to find a seat. I'm glad they're there, and pray they choose to commit to letting Jesus be the Lord of their life... but I'd rather avoid the hassle.

Well, I went to Easter service at our home church, and it was great! I'm glad I went (which I almost always do because it's important to my wife). But this year that service was my second of the day!

Virtual Worship is Real Worship!
Second Life is an online virtual world, and I've been researching it for the last couple of months. It's an interesting concept that isn't entirely new. Though I've found there's a very dark side to Second Life, I've also found opportunities to be salt and light, and to share the truth about God.

Easter morning I logged in to Second Life before getting ready for church. I knew there were some churches there, and I wanted to see what kind of Easter events were going on. Here's what I found:

• I searched for churches, 129 locations were found.
• Of those 129, twelve were real churches that were Christian (there were many satanic, new age, and cultic churches, as well as some wedding chapels).
• Of the twelve Christian churches, seven were Catholic and five were Protestant.
• Of the five Protestant, four were evangelistic.

LifeChurch.TV
Since I know some involved in LifeChurch.TV, I decided to attend their service. I was in a virtual worship center with about thirty others and enjoyed a streamed video service presented nicely on three screens. It was good worship time, and the message was good! It was inviting to the unsaved in every aspect.

I think many in the room were Christians, but many were not. It's great that some were there who may have been touched for the gospel for the first time, or were encouraged to come closer in their faith journey. I'm sure there were also many who have fallen away from the faith, and were encouraged to come close again.

When I went to our church's Easter service, I was surprised that I was already in a worshipful mindset-- more than usual, and certainly more than I usually am fighting the Easter crowds! I attributed it to the worship time I enjoyed at LifeChurch.TV.

Proceed with Caution
Like most media-oriented technology, Second Life has been latched onto by the enemy to tear people further away from God. It can be a bad place for people. The same has been true for videos, DVDs, etc. But there is definitely ministry happening there, and hopefully some real life people are being reached for Jesus.