The Cyber
Church P At the time this story was written, Chelsy Tyler worked in the Office of Adventist Mission.
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eople are finding God in virtual reality. Even as a 20-something “digital native,” I was intrigued. I was visiting Daystar Adventist Community Church, a Global Mission–funded virtual church plant. It began in 2010 when computer software developer Bob Curtice, then-university student Theo Zelin, and stay-at-home mom Pheona Avon dreamed of creating a Seventh-day Adventist church in Second Life. Second Life is an online virtual world that allows users to meet other users from around the world, create and buy content, participate in individual and group activities (like worshiping in churches), and more. Seeing that other Christian denominations had already established cyber churches in Second Life, Bob, Theo, and Pheona wanted to form an Adventist presence there as well. On September 17, 2010, Daystar Adventist Community Church was dedicated and held its first virtual service in Second Life with attendees from around the world. It’s been holding Sabbath services online every week since. I sat in on one of these services—well, my avatar did. In this
“In this crazy little virtual world, God found me and fed me what I needed to make me whole.” cyber world, users create avatars—graphical representations of themselves—to get around, speak with other users, and participate in various activities. After I finally figured out how to get my avatar to sit on a pew (it was my first time in virtual reality), I took in my surroundings. Nearby sat the Information Center, where people could watch Amazing Facts TV and read Adventist publications. Inside the church, a female avatar played a hymn on the piano. Other avatars were scattered about the pews, gazing up at the display screens where a recording of Doug Batchelor played. It was definitely a church experience I had never had before! After the service, I chatted with the attendees to find out how they came to this cyber church. Many were from other denominations or other faiths entirely. Some were bedridden and
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couldn’t easily make it to a church in real life, didn’t feel comfortable returning to a church in real life, or had no church to turn to at all. One such attendee was a man whose username was LightWave. He described finding the cyber church “like finding water in the desert.” Living in a closed country, LightWave felt God calling him to learn more about the Bible. As he began to secretly read the Bible and watch sermons online, he came across the Adventist message and felt convicted of its truth. But he felt isolated; he craved fellowship with other believers, particularly Adventists, but he knew that trying to find other believers in his country would risk his safety. One day, LightWave felt God leading him to look into an online community of Adventists. Through a series of links and webpages he had never visited before, he found Second Life, where he immediately
Explore the Cyber Church To learn more about this Adventist virtual church ministry, go to gospellearningcenter.com/SDAChurch.aspx.
