Penny Arcade and Evangelism

I read webcomics. One of my favorites is Penny Arcade. Though I'm not technically a gamer (playing bubblebreaker on my phone in class [it helps me pay attention, honest!], tower defense while I should be studying, and Super Mario anything on the NES/SNES/GameCube does not a gamer make), I do like to keep my finger on the pulse of the gaming world. I know gamers. I'm friends with gamers. I'll probably meet more gamers. And most importantly, I like to be able to talk with folks about the things they like; it's the evangelist in me. Gabe and Tycho help me do this.

Last week, the duo critiqued Microsoft's new method of buying music for the Zune (here's the comic). Now, I haven't really bought any music in several years, be it through online retail or at a store, but their critique of Microsoft's marketing methods stuck me as interesting.

What Microsoft needs badly is a shaman. They need somebody who is situated physically within their culture, but outside it spiritually. This isn't a person who hates Microsoft, but it's a person who can actually see it. I can do this for you. Give me a hut in your parking lot. I will eat mushrooms, roll around in your cafeteria, and tell you the Goddamned truth.

The world need shamans and pastors need to be those shamans. Pastors need to be actively and physically engaged in the culture around their churches, from as intimate as the familial all the way to the breadth of the global. In a way, it's not far from John Wesley, who, "submitted to be more vile, and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation…” Granted, Wesley was not reading webcomics or the like, but he did go to where the people were, saw and spoke to the truth that he encountered in the streets of Bristol--something that many of his contemporaries were unwilling to do.

The only way to do this safely is by firstly and constantly seeking spiritual and scriptural holiness. If one is going to be physically within the culture, then one also must be spiritually steeped in the ordinances of God. I'm not promoting dualism of body and spirit, for they both affect each other. It is, however, easy to lose one's center--to slip into idolatry or syncretism--while physically engaged with the world.

So pastors, get out of your offices and get out of your heads, eat your mushrooms (or you know, the Lord's Supper), walk around in your towns, and be able and willing to tell the world--in a language and context they can understand--the God-blessed truth.