Christian missionaries have found a new (virtual) mission territory

Geoffery Powell, a 28-year-old multimedia artist and computer scientist, said he was drawn to VRChat for its imaginative potential. Via Geoffery Powell/Photo courtesy of Geoffery Powell hide caption

(RNS) — Ten figures stand in a circle inside a Japanese-style penthouse. The lights are low. A white stormtrooper huddles beside a large, orange cat, who bows his head and clears his throat.

"Father God, just thank you for this opportunity to go and reach out to people who need you," said the cat, in the voice of Curt Curtis, a Christian missionary in his 60s from Texas.

The room is virtual, but the prayer is not.

"Guide us and direct us to people who have a need in their heart," Curtis continued.

For three years, Christian missionaries with the evangelical organization Cru have gathered every Friday in VRChat, a popular social platform where millions of people from around the world interact through avatars resembling anime characters, animals, robots and humans. Users can explore thousands of virtual worlds where they talk, flirt, play games and, in the missionaries' case, spread the gospel.

As more people build friendships and spend significant portions of their lives in virtual spaces, Cru's missionaries are adapting familiar evangelistic practices to reach them.

"At first we were like, what is it like here? Who comes here? Why are they here?" said Frank Kuligowski, the digital strategist for Cru who led the idea of Cru missionaries purchasing VR headsets.

After praying, the missionaries pull up their virtual maps and choose a world to enter, which Kuligowski described as an art of its own — 20 users is the sweet spot, he said, enough activity without chaos.

Once inside a world, the missionaries split up and seek out small groups chatting in quieter corners. They begin casually. "Cool avatar," Kuligowski might say. "Did you make it?" After some conversation, they gradually turn to religion: "Is faith part of your life at all?" or "I was reading in my Bible earlier today."

In retelling one of his success stories, Kuligowski describes a virtual world in which he and a colleague were talking to a woman from China who said she wished she could go to church. They invited her to a virtual church, and as the three of them stepped through, a fourth user, who had quietly been listening in, slipped in behind them. That encounter eventually led to a virtual church service and a connection with a real-life campus ministry.

"That's been one of my great memories," Kuligowski said.

Cru missionaries evangelize in a VRChat world this January. Geoffery Powell hide caption

Founded in 1951 as Campus Crusade for Christ, Cru has traditionally focused on evangelism and discipleship among college students and other young people, but in recent years has ventured into video games and, now, virtual reality.

Heidi Campbell, a Texas A&M University professor who studies digital religion, said efforts like Cru's date to the 1990s, when the Billy Graham Foundation began training Christians to start conversations in online chat rooms.

"It's the work of seeing these digital spaces as, like, the new religious frontier for evangelism in many respects," Campbell said.

Their presence in VRChat, however, is not unanimously accepted. A thread in the VRChat subreddit questioning the "influx" of Christians drew nearly 200 comments. One user listed "sunset bar" and "midnight rooftop" among the worlds where missionaries are most active. Several commenters raised concerns that the missionaries may bring anti-LGBTQ+ views into VRChat, a platform known for embracing diverse gender identities.

Campbell said concerns that missionaries could upend the culture of an online space are common.

"I think that's one of the big criticisms, that people come in and try to kind of take over and turn it into something it's not," Campbell said. "Whether missionaries are from Cru or other online mission groups, there is this idea that (they) should really be part of the culture, the same kind of rules that apply about adapting to foreign countries."

The missionaries who join Cru's weekly meetings range from Geoffery Powell, who has logged thousands of hours in VRChat, to Curtis, who said he rarely uses the platform outside of evangelization.

Powell, a 28-year-old multimedia artist and computer scientist, said he was drawn to VRChat for its imaginative potential, allowing users to create "whatever worlds or characters you want."

But after spending seven years on VRChat, Powell came to see a community often plagued by loneliness, alcoholism, suicidal ideation and explicit sexual activity, including using the space to share pornography and have virtual group sex. In recent years, allegations of sexual harassment and children gaining access to virtual reality strip clubs have made headlines.

"As I got to know the community more, I really started to feel the hurt," said Powell, who helped Cru members navigate VRChat in the group's early days and remains its resident technical expert. "I knew that the people in VRChat were real people that God wanted me to reach."

For Stewart Freeman, connecting with a pastor in VRChat changed everything in his life.

After a six-year relationship ended, Freeman fell into what he calls his "lowest point" and began spending his nights in VRChat — logging more than 10,000 hours overall, often playing from after work until 5 a.m. He said he threw himself into the world's darker side.

"I was juggling relationships with different women in that space," he said. "And chasing every way that the space would try and claim that it would have a reason for hope."

That changed when he met Jason Poling, a California pastor from Cornerstone Church who started visiting him in his VRChat "home world," the private world each user creates for themselves, to read the Bible and walk through Scripture with him every week.

"As crazy as it sounds, God used virtual reality to call someone into that space to lay out the gospel in its fullness," said Freeman, who grew up Christian but said he only called himself that because his parents did. "It was the first time where I believed the gospel."

After being ministered to in VR, he said he sensed God calling him to do that work full-time, eventually selling his business and moving to Orlando to join Cru's Jesus Film Project and help other people in VR find God.

"One of the main things that's nearest and dearest to my heart is stepping into the darkest of those places, of getting to know the individuals in that space, growing in relationship with them, and then pointing them to the answer that they're searching for," Freeman said.

This story was produced through a collaboration between NPR and Religion News Service.