Video games with their reputation for violence, sexual content, and profanity, are probably not the first thought in anyone’s mind when it comes to evangelistic outreach. But a couple of brothers are using them to be online missionaries.
For a pair of brothers from Wentzville, Mo., the millions of people who play video games represent an opportunity. With a camera, a video game, an internet connection and infectious personalities, Joshua and Daniel Greening are leading hearts to Christ in a virtual world.
Joshua, 19, and Daniel, 16, use Twitch, an online platform for players to stream their games for people to watch around the world, as their vehicle of outreach.
Viewers can watch in real time as the Greenings play their games, and Twitch also offers a chat function so that viewers can talk to the streamers and to each other.
Joshua said. “We love to talk to people and we love to play games. Twitch allows us to do the things we love and honor Christ at the same time.”
And for anyone who might be led to their channel, it’s quickly obvious that it is Christ-focused. The name of the channel itself “TheWay_TV” is a reference to John 14:6, the favorite Bible verse of Joshua and Daniel’s grandfather, Ken Greening.
Greening and his wife Mary Sue ran a youth center in the 1970s also called The Way. That center is no more, but it lives on through Joshua and Daniel’s outreach.
Their Twitch channel, Joshua noted, has become “like an online virtual youth center where kids can spend time, have fun and hear about Jesus.”