A Reformed pastor in Switzerland has been running weekly devotionals inside the video game Minecraft, drawing about 20 participants per session — roughly half of whom have no prior connection to the church.
Florian Homberger, 43, leads the Protestant parish of Müllheim in the canton of Thurgau. He began exploring Minecraft after officiating at the funeral of a parishioner who had been an active player, Dienstags Mail reports. Members of the man's online gaming community showed up to say goodbye, and the depth of their bond struck the pastor. Shortly afterward, he created an account himself.
His first night in the game, his avatar died ten times. He kept going, built a virtual city he called Convento, and noticed that churches already existed throughout the game world. The question followed naturally: why not hold a service there?
Minecraft operates like a digital version of building blocks. Players construct landscapes, buildings, and entire settlements out of square blocks in an open world, with no fixed objectives. The game has more than 200 million monthly active users across tens of thousands of public servers. Teenagers and young adults make up a significant portion of its player base.
Homberger discussed the idea with his confirmation class, and in the summer of 2025 they decided to try it. The devotionals run about 30 minutes on Thursday evenings. At the start, the pastor led every session himself; others from the gaming community now take turns leading as well. Some of his four children also participate.
The format is interactive. Participants collect objects tied to the week's theme or help construct in-game structures that illustrate a biblical text. To explore the verse "When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned," the group built obstacle courses over pools of lava, then used a fire-resistance potion to pass through safely — a physical representation, in game logic, of trust during hardship.
Light functions as a recurring motif. Certain creatures in Minecraft can only be subdued using light, a mechanic Homberger connects to the role of light in the Bible, beginning with the creation account. The game's existing religious architecture — temples, rituals, and similar elements — gives him material to work with.
Each session closes with participants gathering in a circle for virtual fireworks. Those who want to pray may do so, then fire a rocket into the digital sky. "The rockets are like prayers rising to heaven," Homberger told the Swiss magazine Beobachter.
He argues the setting removes a barrier that the institutional church has long struggled to clear. "The traditional church is unfamiliar territory for many people," he said. "But Minecraft is their living room, where they feel at home." The virtual service is not meant to replace Sunday worship, he said, but to reach people who would not otherwise attend — including on major church holidays.
A reporter for Beobachter who covered Homberger admitted initial skepticism about a pastor using a game for outreach, but changed her assessment after speaking with him. "He meets young people where they feel comfortable," she wrote.
Homberger has also brought both worlds together physically, setting up laptops in the parish hall so that young people can log on together. He told the Thurgauer Zeitung that he considers Minecraft a genuine social space. "Anyone who claims this is anonymous or superficial has never experienced how intensely connected you can feel," he said.
