Dearest Friends,
I have led The Robloxian Christians since its founding in December, 2011. I have watched watched as the congregations has gone through many ups and downs. Great leaders have come and gone. People have grown up, quit, moved on. Some have died or contemplated dying. Some have gone on to lead thriving churches and ministries – on Roblox and elsewhere. Some have stuck around for several years. All have played a role in bringing us to where we are today.
The mission of our church has always been rooted out of Jesus’ great commission for the disciples. To “go now and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). But as time goes on, how we do that seems to be fading. In times past, we would go to different games on Roblox and literally tell people that God loves them by spamming chats and annoying them into following Jesus. Additionally, we have always had our virtual church services where we teach, pray, and worship.
Somehow it seems to me, that we have possibly been going about this whole evangelism thing wrong. I strongly believe that the best way to make new disciples, is by living into relationships. Cultivating meaningful and lasting relationships with others may very well be the best thing we can do on Roblox to spread the gospel.
How do we building meaningful relationships on Roblox? This is a difficult thing to do. First and foremost we must realize that we already hold a great amount of prejudice against many people groups in the Roblox community. We must abandon our clout and approach the situation fearlessly; with humility and grace.
This is one of the largest problems with the Jews in the gospels and the early church. They are strongly prejudice against against anyone that is not fully Jewish. Jesus, God in flesh, teaches time and time again that we need to abandon our high horse and welcome with open arms all that approach us. And as we go into the cities and the towns, we should go peacefully, ready to have real conversations and really love.
Look into the scriptures and you will see. Do you remember the parable of the good Samaritan or of the prodigal son? How about the woman at the well or the woman that put oil on Jesus’ feet? Jesus ate with tax collector, cheaters, adulterers, idolaters. Jesus ate with us.
We must as a church afford the same grace, love and kindness to our neighbors in the Roblox community.
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A dear friend of mine once shared that “anything rooted out of fear, cannot be associated with faith.”
To a certain degree, I believe that statement is true. In order to fully comprehend it, we must define fear.
Surely, not all fear should be disassociated with faith. We are called to “fear God” in the sense that we submit ourselves and give honor to God. The commission that Jesus gave to his disciples certainly caused great fear. But I believe that there should be a distinction between fear, courage, and reverence.
What I believe that my friend is referring to when she speaks of fear is an honest fright, or dread, of certain people, groups, or institutions. A trepidation caused by interacting with people that look, speak, or act different than ourselves. A fear of people for whatever reason almost always leads to prejudicial and desecrated relationships.
We must have courage. We must be reverent to God. But we must not fear people.
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Which command is the greatest? The man asked. Jesus replied saying “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself."
We are called to love our dear neighbors as ourselves.
We are called to love God.
We are called to loves others.
We are called to do all of this without fear.