The Impact of Virtual Reality on the Church of the Future

Various social media organizations and large technology companies — Facebook, Google and Microsoft, among several others — are investing heavily in virtual reality, because it indicates the next stage in immersive and interactive technology.

Virtual reality, in the case that you have not heard of it, is “the computer-generated simulation of a three-dimensional environment that can be interacted with, in a seemingly real or physical way by a person, using special equipment…” Some of the first wave of these VR devices, including the Oculus Rift and Samsung VR, have focused primarily on games. But, does the Master have need of this? That is, can the Gospel benefit from VR?

We believe VR technology can be utilized heavily by Christians for the Gospel’s sake, and we invite you to contribute to the discussion with #VRforGospel on KingsChat. But, the following are a few of our expectations for the use of virtual reality in the Church of the future.

The VR Bible — Imagine entering an immersive three-dimensional environment to see and hear the scriptures play out chapter-by-chapter and verse-by-verse, by simply putting on your VR headset. You could, for instance, watch the story of Noah unfold right before your eyes.

VR Tours and Exploration — Imagine going on a ‘Holy Land Tour‘ with Pastor Chris, without leaving your house. You could visit all the sites and places in Israel, using your VR headset.

VR Evangelism and Outreach Crusades — There are places in the world where it is prohibited to preach the gospel or distribute physical materials relating to the gospel. What if you could invite anyone to a ‘VR Crusade’ , where they see and hear Pastor Chris preach the message of Christ, without leaving the privacy and security of their homes.

We, at Techlopedia, are hoping the engineers, animators and others reading this begin to see the practicality of #VRforGospel. The Bible led the way in the publishing industry; it can do the same in VR technology . Follow the Techlopedia Superuser on KingsChat for more of our ideas.