EuDMS #4: Daniel Schönke - Mission Among Gamers

00:00:02: Hey everyone, my name is Daniel and I've worked as what people call a missionary, two gamers and nerds for good twelve years now.

00:00:11: I am very honoured and happy to share a tiny amount of my thoughts with you today.

00:00:16: May God give you discernment about which thoughts to keep.

00:00:22: So a few weeks ago, I wanted to play a game of Legion TT-II.

00:00:27: I had just figured out a new strategy.

00:00:30: I knew exactly what to do.

00:00:33: I wanted to win.

00:00:34: so I started building until I realized that I picked the wrong playstyle.

00:00:39: and now I did not have enough gold to build what my start build required.

00:00:44: So my what did not match my how.

00:00:47: Why?

00:00:48: Exactly, because I forgot my why.

00:00:50: The reason I picked the how.

00:00:52: I make a little more sense of it.

00:00:54: Just follow along.

00:00:56: So it was the wrong way to start with what?

00:01:02: Ironically, the question that Christians asked me the most is what we do.

00:01:07: And this is the very first question that Simon also sent me when he asked me to speak here.

00:01:14: Gladly, his second question was about my learnings.

00:01:18: I have learned that if you want to obsess about one thing in missions and in life, please focus on why instead of what.

00:01:27: We have to know why we play the game in order to be successful with it.

00:01:31: So let us start there with the why.

00:01:34: We believe in a God who himself is loving relationship and he values loving relationship above all.

00:01:42: It is the core of everything we know about him.

00:01:45: Love God, love your neighbor, love yourself.

00:01:48: This is it.

00:01:49: Now we love because he loved us first.

00:01:53: This is our motivation.

00:01:54: This is the reason why we are in mission, what God invited us to join him in.

00:02:00: Enabling loving relationships.

00:02:03: When I am a person that just like God values loving relationships above all, where do I build those?

00:02:10: Well, everywhere.

00:02:12: This also settles the when.

00:02:15: Since in this life, you will always be in a certain place, even in a digital or virtual place, you are present.

00:02:22: And wherever you are present, there is at least you and God.

00:02:26: So two of the three relationship building opportunities are with you all the time.

00:02:31: Now, when I am a person that just like God loves on people everywhere and all the time, how do I actually do that?

00:02:39: How do I love?

00:02:40: Well, do it like Jesus did by helping and preaching.

00:02:45: This way Jesus says the people will see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven.

00:02:52: So there is a good deed, but they do not praise me for my good deed, but they praise the Father in heaven.

00:02:57: So we need the good works.

00:02:59: But then we also need to speak about where the good works come from, to have a transition.

00:03:05: in the direction of the praise.

00:03:07: It's not directed towards us, but towards our Father in Heaven, who by His grace has done all the things that enable us to actually be a loving person.

00:03:18: How do I know how to help in the first place?

00:03:20: Well, it is by having an open eye and an open ear, by listening, by actually having an interest for the people we are with, so that we see how to help them, so that we hear what they need.

00:03:31: and then step in and make their life taste better.

00:03:33: Be the soul that makes their life taste better.

00:03:36: before I start speaking my agenda.

00:03:41: Why would I listen before I preach?

00:03:43: Like I said, this is the way that God describes his mission, that he goes on with his own mission.

00:03:50: So if I do not listen before I preach, then I will maybe fail the mission completely, even though I'm in it and want to fulfill the mission.

00:04:01: Remember how I failed my game of Legion TT-II?

00:04:04: Had I thought about my why first, I could not have chosen my what.

00:04:11: My why sets the priority and it will disqualify some of the what.

00:04:17: Same for the why that God sets.

00:04:20: If why is loving relationship then some of the what will not work.

00:04:26: Some methods may they be as Well, meant as possible are not an option due to them negating the motivation that enabled my work in the first place.

00:04:38: So if I do not follow the process, I might find myself failing the very mission I set out to accomplish.

00:04:45: The same goes for doing the right thing for the wrong reason.

00:04:49: If the what is legit, but the why is wrong, it may look like serving while it remains but a shiny shell hollow and empty.

00:04:58: The mission of God that he called us to participate in is not about doing something for God or for church or to feel better about myself.

00:05:10: The mission of God he called us to participate in is about becoming and being a person that reflects the character of God and we can see that in Jesus himself.

00:05:21: Now in the past twelve years I have worked in the US and Germany as well as a lot of other countries via digital consultation and conversation.

00:05:30: I have seen dozens of ministries and I've seen dozens of churches and people be hyped about Jesus and revival.

00:05:37: Yet since you asked what I learned, it is that the what does not hold anywhere near the importance we think it does.

00:05:47: When you look at all those healthy ministries, all those people of faith that live in a healthy, inspiring way, even in their lows that is inspiring.

00:05:57: Churches that thrive, they all have this focus of why, over what?

00:06:02: Sustainable mission is always about creating opportunity for steady growing relationships.

00:06:09: The last twelve years taught me that.

00:06:13: they taught me to value enabling loving relationship to what God, to what other people and to what the self above.

00:06:20: All.

00:06:21: When you obsess about the why of the mission, then the what will automatically follow.

00:06:26: And that finally brings us to answering the all-time-favoring wrong first question of what does mission among gamers in Europe look like.

00:06:35: Here's the fun part.

00:06:36: It is according to who you are as a person.

00:06:39: It might look like my friends from For the Wind Gaming in Northern Ireland going into games, helping people by being good teammates, inviting people to join the gaming community, where they simply talk and when asked, share about the hope they have in Christ, loving people towards them.

00:06:56: It might look like my friends from Nerds and Frankfurt starting a house church locally with Nerdie setting, gaming and doing events together, inviting Nerds to discuss the Bible texts and listening to what's on their mind.

00:07:10: then helping them with the issues they have and sharing about Christ in the process, thus loving them towards him.

00:07:17: It might look like my friend Chris from Boston who at a game church mission trip to Pax East remained calm and friendly when a guy approached the booth, wiped the table clean, shouted insults.

00:07:28: Chris prayed for that guy because he had compassion for that guy.

00:07:31: Throughout the entire next year he prayed for that guy, only to meet him again in the Pax East the year after.

00:07:37: He approached again and said, remember me from last year?

00:07:40: I took one of your Bibles to curse you every time I saw it.

00:07:44: And instead, I read it and it touched my heart.

00:07:47: And I'm so very sorry for being such an asshole.

00:07:52: Will you pray for me?

00:07:55: That touches me.

00:07:56: Stories like these touch me so very deeply.

00:07:59: More than having a great event, more than doing the best target group analysis resulting in the best method, more than speaking at this Conference about anything I have ever accomplished or what not anything else I I don't care.

00:08:14: I long for the simple gospel lift out like that through normal people meeting other people So that every game I will encounter the love of God.

00:08:25: As far as I am concerned there are a good over one hundred and fifty million hardcore gamers in Europe right now.

00:08:31: Their souls long for loving relationships.

00:08:34: their lives are in need of people who are willing to listen and to help.

00:08:38: The hearts are more open to this great love of God than we might think.

00:08:44: A hundred and fifty million might sound a lot, sure, but there must be a million hardcore gamer Christians among them.

00:08:53: I think a hundred and forty nine people for each of us might be more in the range of a possible mission to love that many people over our lifetime.

00:09:04: And it gets less and less the more we love people towards Christ, right?

00:09:08: So they will then love as well.

00:09:10: So let us gather and equip as many of these Christian hardcore gamers as we can.

00:09:15: And then next time someone at a conference can say that gaming mission in Europe might look like, my friend, insert your name here, doing what you love to do and what you're good at in the context of listening to people, helping them and sharing their faith authentically among gamers.

00:09:32: Yes, there are some principles I could talk about to further help with how and what, but that is not worth obsessing about as long as being honestly interested in people is the focus.

00:09:46: You will do a lot of helpful setups or automatically or figure it out along the way if you focus on loving people.

00:09:54: well.

00:09:56: Else we can talk about these principles in another setting.

00:10:00: So I hope we all will be able to keep some of the thoughts of mine with us so that IFR-I might not do stupid mistakes in Legion TT-II anymore and you will feel encouraged to love gamers authentically in your way towards the saving beauty of Christ so that all gamers will encounter the love of God.

00:10:23: Cheers!