Was AFK; now back.
ROFL! I c ur noob face. I’ll
xlate…
Most of you reading this (unless
my demographic statistics are way off), are going to need some help. Here’s
what I said:
"I was Away From my Keyboard (not on the computer; doing
other things); but I’m back now (from whatever drew me away).
Rolling On the Floor Laughing! (This is hilarious!) I see your ignorant (as in ‘one who
does not yet know’) face. I will translate…"
“Back...” That’s online gaming
shorthand for “I have returned from whatever drew me away.” And I’m back
writing the blog… at least for now.
In any MMORG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) you are
usually connected with many other people, all interacting, chatting, and working
with (or against) one another… all within digital worlds of great complexity,
danger, and stunning beauty (Like World of Warcraft, RuneScape, Eve, and other
MMORPGs). I’ll get back to this theme in a bit.
Though I was AFK for a while,
nobody seemed to take much notice. There were no comments on the blog wondering
why I wasn’t posting, and while that’s pretty normal for the blogosphere, that
nobody in our fellowship at Messiah mentioned anything was a bit surprising… and
TBH (To Be Honest)… a little disappointing.
To be sure… that the blog now posts on Facebook probably accounts for the
almost total lack of comments within the blog. It’s easier to click ‘Like’ than
it is to post a continuation of the topic on the blog.
And with over a billion people
on Facebook… well, it just makes sense to repost a blog out to a social media
stream. Not that I reach anywhere near 1 billion readers. Hahahaha… I’d be
happy knowing I had any impact at all. It’s hard to see an impact with
automated blog statistics hovering near zero all the time.
Now let’s run some numbers:
NationMaster website reports that the Lutheran population amounts
to 104 million people throughout the world; this number includes not only
Lutheran Church members, but also people who claim to be Lutheran. If only
Lutheran Church members are considered, this number scales down to about 70
million (data provided by the Lutheran World Foundation). Europe is the
continent which has the highest number of Lutherans: 66 million; in Germany
alone there are about 40 million Lutherans.
Again, according to statistics
provided by the NationMaster website,
there are about 18 million Lutherans in the US. Even though there are no
government surveys on religion, a number of studies suggest that there are 9
million Lutheran-church members in the US and 9 million Americans that claim to
be Lutheran but are not members of the Lutheran Church.
Wikipedia states that: “As of December 31, 2009,
the ELCA (that’s us) had 4,543,037 baptized members, with 2,527,941 of them
counted as active participants in their congregations.”
Therefore, on a post that generates a lot of attention, say 13 hits (100%
of this blog’s membership), I manage to reach 0.000005% of Lutherans in the US.
LOL! Considered by ANY mathematical
standard, that’s a whopping 0%. Woot!!!
Now, let’s get back to online gaming. There are currently upwards of 250
million people playing online games. Last year, online gaming was a $16
billion market…expected to top $30 billion in the next 4 years.
I have written about integrity,
honesty, commitment, and faith on several gaming forums (think conversational
threads). The language on threads is a whole lot more irreverent and raw than
what you will find on our church blogs, but participation is off the chart!
People are hurting and searching for meaning in their lives. They may not
present themselves at our church’s doorstep, but they are out there! Perhaps
you aren’t called to enter the unknown country of online gaming, but you could
listen at work… at the coffee shop… at school… or just standing in a holiday
checkout line. You don’t have to do much more than listen, and then offer a
simple invitation for them to come experience the peace, the music, the prayer,
the acceptance, and the love of our fellowship in Christ at Messiah (if you are
not a member of Messiah, substitute the name of your church).
YBIC,
Dave
