Commandment 11: Thou Shalt Not Be A Gamer

So… when Blazer asked me to be one of the reoccurring Riverside Church bloggers, it only made sense that I shamelessly use the platform to wax eloquently (or not so eloquently) about all things addictively entertaining (from Reality TV to low budget Sci- Fi originals (holla out to my boy Brent Roam -- star of Tremors 4), from blockbuster movies to video games and everything in between. (How’s that for a run-on sentence?)

Anyhow… I’ll do my best to keep regular and share a tidbit or two about the latest and greatest of all these things, and do my best to provoke some earnest dialogue about how Christians engage within our everyday culture throughout.

For my first inaugural posting though, I thought I’d step back a second and talk briefly about video games and how they’ve led me closer to Jesus. (You laugh, but I’m serious!) It felt appropriate, in the wake of weekly scoffing from the churched and non-churched alike, that I tell you my story…

Like many, I grew up in a pretty good Christian home. One thing that stood out though, was that besides alcohol, the only other thing we never had around… was video games. All my friends had Nintendos and Play Stations, but for the most part, we had zilch. That is… until college. When college rolled around, I was baptized into the world of late night having, class-ditching Playstation and Nintendo 64 game delight! It was glorious! Then...I got married. (Pause)

To be fair to my wife, it was I who made the call to get rid of the thing, since I would frequently not be aware that she had gotten home from work 30 minutes earlier (as I was deeply engrained into the next mission on Golden Eye etc). It was the right decision!

For more than 6 years the Hogan home was video game free. Kids were born, hands were full, time was busy etc. Then, one day... (the heavens parted)...and a game called Gears of War came out on the Xbox 360. Within 3 months, me and 10 other dudes had all convinced our wives that it was gonna be different this time, and almost overnight each one of us got a system and spent every hour playing games. This time however, WAS a bit different. Technological advancements gave us the advent of the wireless headset (which allows you to talk to your friends as you team up and play games together), and since most of us only started playing after the wife and kids were in bed, games started being tolerated by our families and the world was in perfect balance.

So up until this point, you’re probably rolling your eyes if you haven’t stopped reading entirely. Thanks for bearing with me. Here’s the catch. Over the course of a few weeks, something happened. Similar to when guys get together week after week for a softball game, or to shoot hoops, community started forming. Real, honest-to-goodness community. It’s amazing how close you get to someone, when you’re huddled in a trench or behind cover, back to back trying not to get pwned. Real conversation, which led to real relationship building, which eventually led to (what’s now a 2 years and going strong) 14 man bible study… happened! In fact, guys who I’d only met online (friends of friends in town) started actually becoming real life friends. Bonds were formed, relationships grew and now I’m part of a gang of dudes who love Jesus and one another, and are committed to serving each other as the gospel has taught us to.

I’ve left a lot of details out, and this isn’t all due to the release of Halo3 or that Microsoft paid for this blog spot or anything. I guess I just see it as a good example of how God can use a “secular” medium for his glory. You’ll note a continued theme throughout most of my upcoming postings (via the likes of Tim Keller, Mike Erre) about how we as Christians are supposed to engage in our culture and not remove ourselves from it. Are there limits? Certainly! Are there problems with addiction and excess? Absolutely! But do we throw it all away because it’s not the over sanitized Christians only... Left Behind: The Kirk Cameron Video Game? Come on!

If video games aren’t your thing... that’s cool. Maybe it’s scotch. Maybe its quilting. Maybe it’s HSM (that stands for High School Musical... you nerds know who you are). Whatever it is, can we agree that in an appropriate context, God can use the most unlikely experiences for his glory?

Ask yourself this… WJBAG (Would Jesus Be A Gamer?)

The answer is an emphatic yes… (his gamertag is y@w3h#1)!

-Josh Hogan. Culture Thursdays will alternate (with little rhyme or reason) with Theology Thursday, and will feature many authors.