Confessions of a Clan Chaplain:
Loving God, games, and the gamers who play them

My name is Rob, and I’ve got a secret. I’m a 30-year-old gamer. Ever since Frogger, I’ve been hooked. Side-scrollers, roleplaying games, adventure games, first person shooters, simulations, massively multi-player on-line games, I love ‘em all. But that’s not my secret.

I’m also a pastor, an Associate of Youth and Family Ministries to be exact. Over the years, many have asked me when I was finally going to become a “real” minister. I usually just laugh and say, “I’m very happy where I’m at, thank you.” Inside, it ticks me off. But that’s not my secret either.

Like most secrets, mine started small. I was bored one day, and broke, so I searched the net for a new game, something fun and free. I stumbled on what I still believe is one of the greatest games ever made. (Gamers can find out more at freeallegiance.org) I tried it, loved it, and joined a squad.

For the non-gamers, the difference between squad games and pick-up games is like the difference between Church League Softball and AAA Minor Leagues. Squad members discuss tactics in online forums. They schedule practices to improve skill and teamwork. What started as a simple distraction had turned into a commitment.

You know what the greatest part was? I was one of the guys. When someone swore, they didn’t apologize to me. When I got angry, they didn’t lecture me. And best of all no one assumed they knew me just because they could label me. It was a meritocracy of humor, intelligence, and skill. Finally, after a year, I took the big step. I told them I was a minister. What started as a commitment had become a community.

Members joined and members left, but the core became fast friends. We shared family pictures and work frustrations. We argued philosophy and politics. And because they trusted me, occasionally they would come to me with a question, or a problem, or even a prayer request.

Another year passed, and I posted a poll in our forum volunteering for clan chaplain. (clan instead of squad because the connotations hinted at the family we had become for each other, and chaplain because our community was so diverse) They overwhelmingly accepted, and dubbed me “Padre.” What started as a community had become a ministry.

So now you know. My big secret is out. I’m a shepherd with two flocks. I minister to kids in a suburb of Milwaukee. I also minister to a misfit band of gamers from LA, to Slovakia, to Australia, and points in between.

What surprises me every day is how much these two groups have in common. They like Jesus and hate church, which means I can’t hold a service and wait for them to show; I go to them. When they cry, I mourn with them. When they laugh, I dance with them. When we talk, I try to listen as much as I speak. I show them as much love as I’m able. When they ask why, I tell them stories.

“Did you hear the one about the guy with two sons?”

That’s real ministry even if the guy you’re praying for is a computer programmer from Germany. That’s real ministry even if the girl you’re counseling has braces and ADHD. It’s ministry because Christ is present, transforming us. These glimpses of the coming/present kingdom remind me that God is here too, inescapable, relentlessly loving, even on the Internet. Why would I give that up just to be a “real” minister?

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door-frames of your houses and on your gates.”

People have been examining these verses for millenia, so I’m not going to attempt to find some new meaning in it. I only want to draw your attention to a few things. The first is, look how kid-centric it is! It opens with a statement about God, and the whole rest of the text is about passing this truth on to the next generation. The next thing I hope you notice is how this learning takes place. Not in a book. Not in a school. In real life, side by side.

We lock our kids up in schools. Can we at least admit that? Kids have to go and they can’t leave. They’re stuck there, this milling, restless, bored population, given little of real importance to do, with a small cadre of supervisors doing their best with minimal funds to keep things from blowing up. Sounds a bit like prison to me.

So who do they get to emulate? Other kids! Who is their social network? Other kids! Who do they look to for protection when someone threatens them? Other kids! Who defines their place in their little gated community? Other kids!

Where are the adults? Too busy dealing with their own problems to deal with the problems of young people. It’s much easier to just cart them off to school, or soccer, or speech, or band, or even (rarely) church. Better yet, why not drag the kids to all of them at once. Then we can keep them out of our hair while at the same time feeling like martyrs for sacrificing so much time and money keeping them in all of these activities “for their own good.”

You know what? Kids don’t need more activities. They need more grownups. They need adults to be involved in their lives, face to face, one on one. They need someone who knows the story to tell them the story, or else they’ll just go make up their own with the help of their equally mature friends. The only way that happens is with time, because these kids are way too familiar with advertising to believe a single word that comes out of your mouth. Everybody lies. They know it like they know they’re alive. The only words they’ll believe are your actions, your habits, your life lived in front of them in the real world with real problems.