Saturday, February 3, 2018

THIS PASTOR IS PUTTING HIS FAITH IN A VIRTUAL REALITY CHURCH

From Wired-

THE FIRST TIME D. J. Soto strapped on an Oculus Rift and stepped into virtual reality, he felt like the ancient prophets must have felt—arriving in the promised land that would fulfill his destiny. It was a summer Friday in 2016, and the virtual world he was visiting, AltSpaceVR, was just a year old. Billing itself as a free social network in virtual reality, AltSpaceVR allows its users to toggle between 2-D and 3-D, using a virtual-reality headset or a computer monitor to explore the space. When Soto entered, he found a virtual world that was practically empty: just a few avatars attending quiz shows or cheesy comedy performances. Still, the young preacher was electrified.

In the months since he’d quit his job as a pastor at a branch of his local megachurch in Reading, Pennsylvania, Soto had been looking for a way to create a radically inclusive church. After all, he had embarked on a career in ministry to introduce as many people as possible to God’s love. Scripture called for men of the cloth to reach into the most unreceptive corners of the world and find common ground with outsiders: the weirdos, the sinners, the dammed, the indisposed. But Christianity, Soto believed, had stalled in this mission. The ministers he knew were happy preaching only to those who walked through their doors on Sunday. The only way to spread the good news as he envisioned, Soto decided, was to found his own church.

More here-

https://www.wired.com/story/virtual-reality-church/

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