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In the modern digital era, gamification—a method of incorporating game design elements into non-game contexts—has become a prevalent trend. As the church seeks innovative ways to fulfill its mission, we must consider whether gamification could be a valuable tool. Can it help us make disciples and transform the world? To answer this, we need to explore both the potential benefits and drawbacks of gamification in the context of the church's mission.
Recapping Our Mission
The stated mission of the United Methodist Church is to make disciples for the transformation of the world. This mission is rooted in the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Great Commission. But how have we traditionally approached this mission? Historically, we've focused on three main areas:
1. The Local Church: The local church has always been the primary hub for disciple-making. It's where believers gather, worship, learn, and grow together in faith.
2. The Mission Field: Beyond the local church, the mission field encompasses any area outside our immediate community where we seek to spread the gospel and serve others.
3. The Connection: The global connection of the church unites us in a shared purpose, pooling resources, knowledge, and support to reach broader goals.
What is “Gamification”?
To understand the impact of gamification, let's consider “Zenless Zone Zero”, a currently-trending game developed by miHoYo. This game captivates players with a menagerie of buttons, currency, and attention-holding measures. “Zenless Zone Zero” is an action role-playing game with rich storytelling, a dynamic combat system, and immersive world-building. The game employs various gamification elements, such as quests, rewards, and leveling up, which keep players engaged and motivated to continue playing.
Several factors contribute to “Zenless Zone Zero”'s success in maintaining player engagement. First, the game offers immediate rewards for completing tasks, which creates a sense of accomplishment and encourages continued play. Second, the game incorporates unpredictability through random events and challenges, keeping players curious and eager to see what happens next. This gives it the often not complimentary title of a ‘gacha’ game (which is short for gachapon, or as a Western audience might know them: capsule machines). The random nature keeps the audience hooked and often leads to fans of the game spending an exorbitant amount of real money on the in-game currency.
Pros of Gamification
Gamification offers several benefits that align with the church's mission. In an age of information overload, the church needs to learn how to hold attention effectively. Gamification techniques, such as point systems, rewards, and interactive challenges, can make learning and engagement more compelling. Historically, this has been an effective measure of attendance tracking in worship and study classes. More recently, it’s been incorporated into the arena of youth ministry.
With my particular focus on ministry to digital natives, I am reaching a demographic deeply immersed in digital media and gaming. By integrating gamification into our mission strategies, we can potentially reach people in their cultural context, making our message more relevant and accessible.
One way we’ve experimented with this is by reimagining the old-school Sunday School attendance method. Rather than a sticker chart, we are using Lego bricks as a gamified attendance tracker. By necessity, our communion elements are mailed to our congregation via a subscription box that comes with a myriad of other items. One of those items is two unique and random blocks. Each month, their collection of bricks will grow and they are encouraged to try and craft a trophy for themselves as a sign of how long they’ve been involved with our practice of worship.
Additionally, many ministries have successfully used apps and digital tools to engage their congregations, such as interactive apps like Yousician, to make learning musical instruments fun and engaging. Unlike zero-sum games, where one person's gain is another's loss, positive-sum games can create win-win scenarios. In the context of discipleship, this means fostering a community where everyone's growth contributes to the overall mission.
Cons of Gamification
Despite its potential, gamification comes with significant challenges and risks. The church must be cautious about adopting methods that might seem too worldly. Gamification, with its roots in entertainment and consumer culture, could be perceived as diluting the sacredness of our mission. It's essential to ensure that the spiritual depth of our teachings isn't lost in making them more engaging.
Moreover, many gamification strategies are closely tied to capitalist principles, focusing on competition and reward systems. This can conflict with the church's humility, service, and community values. We must carefully design our gamification strategies to align with our core values, avoiding the pitfalls of commercialism.
The article "Why Everything is Becoming a Game" by Gurwinder highlights additional insights into the pervasive influence of gamification in modern society. One key idea is that immediate rewards, unpredictability, and conditioned reinforcers are highly effective in shaping behavior. These principles can be seen in many successful gamified systems, from loyalty programs to social media platforms. However, the downside is that such systems can lead to addiction and a focus on trivial achievements over meaningful progress.
Moreover, the concept of "surrogate activities," where people engage in pursuits that give a sense of accomplishment without addressing deeper needs, is particularly relevant. In the context of church ministry, it's essential to ensure that gamification strategies do not become mere distractions but foster genuine spiritual growth and community engagement.
Tying to Mission
Ultimately, the goal is to tie gamification to our mission in a way that enhances, rather than detracts from, our purpose. Here are two ways to achieve this:
1. We Make Disciples by Holding Attention: Effective gamification can help us capture and hold the attention of those we seek to disciple. We can foster deeper learning and connection by engaging people in meaningful and interactive ways.
2. We Transform the World by Changing the Game: If we can harness gamification in alignment with our mission, we can transform our methods and the world. By redefining what engaging, learning, and growing in faith means, we can create a more dynamic and impactful church community.
As we rethink the church in this digital age, let's consider how gamification can be a part of that reimagining, helping us to engage, inspire, and grow in new and meaningful ways.
Nathan Webb is a major nerd in just about every way. He loves video games, anime, cartoons, comic books, tech, and his fellow nerds. Hoping to provide a spiritual community for people with similar interests, he founded Checkpoint Church--"the church for nerds, geeks and gamers." Nathan can be found lurking on some visual novel subreddit, reading the latest shōnen entry, or playing the newest Farm Sim. Nathan is an ordained provisional elder in the United Methodist Church in the Western North Carolina Conference. He hosts a weekly newsletter podcast: To The Point.
