St Peter’s Church, Ropley, felt incredibly blessed this week as it was the final (and Christmas themed) session of their new ‘Minecraft Church,’ and they’ve seen amazing things created!
Each week, the team had around 10 to 12 children come along with their screens, engage in Bible stories and the world of the Bible and then re-create them in Minecraft. This has allowed them to explore the Bible, learn Bible stories and really think about the context the narratives happened in.
A typical timetable for Minecraft Church includes arrival and setting up, an icebreaker question (such as ‘what’s been your favourite build’ or ‘what is your favourite rock in Minecraft’) followed by a Minecraft themed prayer. Then the main part of the session involves listening to a Bible story, after which the children and young people are given a mission to build and recreate the world or an element of the story.
For example, when discussing the Prodigal Son, the children made a ‘bad party house’, a pig farm and then a ‘good party house’, at the Father’s farm and then reenacted on Minecraft the father running to greet his son, before all going in for a party – all virtually! The children then show each other their builds on the big screen and encourage each other.
Minecraft Church then ends with three questions about how the story and build made the children think and feel, followed by a worship song, prayers, and the Lord’s prayer.
The children have been absolutely loving it, and most of the children who attended were those who wouldn’t usually come to a regular Sunday service. This week, St Peter’s were blown away by one of the children, who, in his spare time, had made a Minecraft animation on a worship song video, the Nick and Becky Drake song Hear the Bells Ringing, which they sing at school and church.
The team ended the term with a Minecraft Christmas, recreating Bethlehem and the manger on Minecraft, whilst enjoying square shaped food and Minecraft crackers.
Toby Beresford, who runs the group, says, ‘We’ve been blown away with the level of engagement from the young people. It feels like a winning idea for youth and children’s mission that attracts and retains the gamer generation. And because the young people do the bulk of the session by building the Bible stories in Minecraft on their devices, during the service, it’s actually very easy to run.’
In the UK, 8.5 million people play Minecraft. It is an online virtual set of worlds or ‘realms’ where players build buildings, worlds and landscapes using blocks of rock. Sometimes explained as ‘Like Lego but online,’ this educational game enables players to learn about geology, engineering and architecture, agriculture, farming and resource management, all whilst playing together or as individuals.
Importantly, to enable the children at the St Peter’s Minecraft Church to play together in a safe online space, where no one but they could access, a Minecraft server was created so the Minecraft Church participants could only access through the unique church Wi-Fi. This allowed them to work as a team on their Bible builds.
One of the mums of the participants said, ‘[My son] thinks it’s amazing and it’s a great way of working together as a team. And I’ve really learnt something too – I know how to get onto servers now! It’s great for teamwork and imagination play with a group of your friends and a different way of learning around Bible Stories as well. That’s where he’ll thrive around the visual stuff.’
