Coronavirus: Leicester Church Uses Minecraft to Teach Bible to Teens

Coronavirus: Leicester church uses Minecraft to teach Bible to teens

17 May 2020

A church has turned to Minecraft to teach its children about Christianity during the lockdown.

Leicester''s St John the Baptist Church has been recreated on a server, so the youth club have somewhere to take Bible lessons.

Josh Young, the organizer said that it was a way to meet younger people "whereever they are" and engage with them in a world that is familiar.

Virtual reality means they have also been able to get creative with lessons.

For instance, Mr. Young created an underwater whale so they could learn about the Jonah story. Jonah and challenged the teenagers to build boats to study the story of when Jesus stopped a storm.

The 27-year-old youth worker added: "Having a community for these youth is extremely important and I wanted to carry that on during the lockdown.

They don''t have friends and some are struggling in the present. On Minecraft they can meet, talk and play games without physically being there. It''s a platform to connect and build communities.

"Young people are online" and the Bible shows us to meet people wherever they are in their communities.

"Jesus challenged the boundaries of what was considered normal worship, he would be happy that the church is moving forward."

About 20 youngsters aged between 11 and 17 years old, spend two and a half hours on server on Wednesdays.

During this time, they''re free to explore the world or work on their own ideas However, for 30 minutes, they''re transported to a shared area to complete a Bible-themed challenge.

Mr. Young said they ensured that the adults were able to keep out bad language, supervise who joined , and had permission from the parents for their children to join.

Rosie, 15 is one of the teens who regularly attend. She told us, "I love it because it allows me to talk to my friends while playing, it''s just like meeting up for our regular youth club."

"I thought it was great that Josh transported everyone to one spot. We also had a contest to build a boat based on Matthew Chapter 8, where Jesus stopped the storm. My team was the winner because we built lightning storm clouds."

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