One year since altspaceVR
On March 10, 2023 Microsoft shutdown their virtual reality platform known as “AltspaceVR.” For most people, this was not a news worthy action. No, literally, it wasn’t news worthy. This wasn’t announced by any major news stations. In fact, it would have taking intentional digging and internet surfing to find any information about this shutdown. And, to be fair, unless you are a constant user of virtual reality technology, you have probably never heard of AltspaceVR.
However, this shutdown had a huge impact on churches doing VR ministry. Altspace was the platform that many churches investigating in launching a VR ministry, or did launch one, found themselves turning to.
Some of the reason why were:
the platform was user friendly to novice VR users.
It had a great custom world building toolkit, allowing you to dream up anything and make that dream become a reality.
A stellar “friends” feature, allowing you to stay connected with friends in and out of platform.
A “main event” board making it easy to advertise your church and services you are holding for anyone to find.
So. Much. More!
It has been over a year since the shutdown. So, how are VR churches doing? Well, I would argue that the Church has been more effective than ever before at reaching people in VR spaces.
As the announcement came out that the shutdown was coming, many of the churches began to ask the question, what’s next?
Altspace became such an easy starting point for most churches, that instead of doing ministry in VR, they all stuck with Altspace and did Altspace ministry. Now, hear me out. There was nothing wrong with that. The opportunity to reach the lost was great there. However, of the nearly 200 million VR users, not all of them were in Altspace. There were other platforms like Spatial.io, Bigscreen VR, VR Chat, Meta’s Horizon Worlds, Rec Room, etc., yet most churches stayed with what was known and comfortable.
In Acts 1:8, Jesus tells His followers that they were to go into Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the world, and through the power of the Holy Spirit spread the Gospel. However, the disciples didn’t begin going to the ends of the world, or their neighbors in Judea and Samaria until persecution came upon them, forcing them to scatter, and as they scattered the Gospel went with them.
This is why I say churches have been more successful at reaching people in VR one year latter after the shutting down of Altsapce. Due to the shutdown, the churches were scattered, and for those who stuck it out, we found ourselves doing ministry on different platforms, being light in places many of us were unwilling to go to. In the same way persecution forced the disciples to fulfill the calling to spread the good news all over the world and leave their safe space of Jerusalem, the shutting down of Altspace forced churches to leave their safe space in Altspace and go into the unreached VR spaces, taking the gospel with them.
So, it’s been one year since the shutdown of Altspace…And the Church is just as impactful as ever.