Easter services in Second Life happened. Kinda. Before I get into the story and details let be give a HUGE shout out and praise to the entire team, staff and volunteers alike. For the guys that got very little sleep, to the volunteers that saw and heard some things that I am sure you were not expecting…thank you! You guys all rock!
Ok, here we go, the Second Life services happened, but they did have a few “hitches” in them. I can now look back and say “the funny thing”, ok, no, I really can not say that…it really was not funny at all to be honest. We had a full server failure at the most critical point. About 10 minutes into Craigs message during the first experience the Darwin Streaming server LOCKED UP. Complete server failure and hard lock. CRAP! Now, there is a huge long story here that I will not go into the details, but bottom line…server was down with no backup, and we did not get it up and semi functioning until 1:11 CDT, 11:11 SLT (11 min after our start time for the final service). It was total and complete chaos, phone calls, text messages, IM’s in Second Life and near heart failure for me. Finally, we fed the stream into Second Life and prayed like there was no tomorrow. Just typing these words make my heart rate go up.
And it worked like a charm! Praise Jesus, Darwin Streaming Server worked. (Side bar) Maybe its the name Darwin. That might of added to the spiritual warfare that was going on. I just thought about that, maybe we will change the name to Creation Streaming Server, or Alpha Omega Server.
So, a ton of learning for sure on our first weekend. Many technical learnings, but really for me much more ministry learnings. The audience was VERY diverse…just look at the pictures. Some devoted Satan worshipers, many Jesus fans, and some Second Life celebrities. One of the awesome things to me was seeing and hearing many of the Avatars that were not Jesus fans, and seeing them engaged into the Experience for an entire hour and a half (30 min pre-roll, 1 hour worship and message).
Anyway, this week we will have a lot of action plans to execute on both the technical side and ministry side. After seeing what I saw this weekend, I am more excited about the opportunity in Second Life than I have ever been. This community needs Jesus and I am excited to be a part of it.
How was your Easter weekend?
I love seeing the screencaps from life church and second life.
hey, there’s even people sitting in the front row!
You guys did an amazing job getting it to this point.
That was definitely the wildest church experience I’ve ever had.
Well…despite the cool character from Men in Black, oh and the guy on fire, most people looked to be enjoying themselves! I was there for the “locking up” part, as bad as it may have appeared to you Terry…it was pretty freakin awesome to see the turnout! We’ll get it going and all will be well in SL again. Congratulations to you man. The campus looks incredible and the cool little “finds” all over the place are a nice touch. Can’t wait to see what God will do here!
Only wish I could have experienced it on Sunday…but due to our own services…
You guys rock…and it is great every time we talk in SL..~Everjay
terry,
if you don’t mind taking the time, could you explain to the technologically challenged why the video game type images? i clicked on the thumbnails expecting to see photos and got jak and daxter instead. i’m not complaining — i’m apparently just getting old and confused.
btw, i’m really enjoying “the blogging church” and learning a lot!
it’s almost 12 and i’ve gotta roll to the nursing home cafeteria for my oatmeal (on mondays they add prunes!).
Tim:
Second Life is a metaverse, so that’s why it looks like a video game. It’s a virtual universe in cyberspace where you live a second life. The people there are avatars, characters, if you will, of real life people who control them.
Terry,
Great job! I was able to attend the final service on Sunday after working 3 services at my church. I think what you guys are doing is so very needed. I have been apart of online communities for over 15years in some way or another. I can say with confidence that people DO form relationships in these areas that often lead to relationships outside the virtual worlds. I know people will come to know Jesus in real ways with the SL church.
On the downside, I would suggest that you make an ask of those attending who are probably already Christians, those that read this blog or the Swerve one, to let the service speak for itself. I saw a number of over the top comments from believers that felt like they were pushing Christianity down others throats. Now I’m sure they didn’t mean it that way but it came across that way. It would be like me walking up to someone at your church and telling them to accept Jesus NOW without any relationship with the person. Kind of a turn off if you understand. Your worship team and those directly involved speak Jesus as a part of the service. Others chimming in just feels odd to me. I understand their heart just not sure their execution of that works in that kind of an environment.
I’ll be a regular attender for sure. Keep up the amazing work God is doing thru your church.
Terry,
Great job with this – I sat through the 1:00 (ish) service on SL….after attending South at 8:30 and 10:00 – I had lots of difficulty seeing video, and others kept telling me that something was wrong, just to wait…so I did and finally I saw Stephen’s last song and then Craig. Having heard the message 3 x already (Sat night too) I just hung out to watch all the chatter…..some of it was a bit more than I expected, but I had never been on SL other than at LC. I guess I’m pretty “sheltered”…..it was powerful though seeing the non-believers sitting thru service…..the power of God is working all the time. I can’t wait until next weekend to watch again – wonder if any of those avatars (people) will be back…? That will be interesting to see.
What a great heart for God you have and how exciting to see what you all are doing through Him.
Thanks Terry….and everyone else involved.
Thanks for the great words can comments. Tim, I think Jeremy covered your question.
Jason you are right on. We are talking about that in a debrief this week! Great insight.
Thank you Lori! We pray they all come back, and bring friends with them…
Glad to hear you guys got it up and running. I look forward to hearing more stories of how God is using this amazing and unconventional means of ministry.
man, i wish i could have been there. had our own version of crazy (albeit a few lightyears behind the level of crazy y’all had).
so glad you’re posting this stuff. and that you’re doing all the stuff you’re doing for the Kingdom. dude, this is something i dreamed of when i was in high school in the early eighties but never thought would ever be remotely possible.
such a stinkin’ cool deal you’re doing. yay lifechurch. yay terry and bobby. yay God.
Terry-
Great job and thanks for your hard work.