Virtual Reality Meets Real Faith

[May 25, 2016]

Good News Ministries is on the cusp of a very exciting, new development: Virtual Reality for evangelization and faith growth! Come with me on a ride into the future, which, as it turns out, is a very short distance in front of us.

Our journey starts with the question: What does spiritual hunger feel like? What can Good News Ministries do to meet this need? Is there something more we can do than what we’re already doing well? What might God be calling us to in the near future?

And what about the homebound? They hunger for a stronger faith, too. And what about those who live in countries where Christianity is such a minority that there is no nearby church? Imagine that hunger!

Terry peering through binoculars What’s GNM’s strongest asset? Teaching and growing the faith of adults. GNM fills in the gaps where people’s experiences of their local church and the religious education of their childhood have failed to stimulate faith growth.

The need is so great that we can rightly wonder: What more can we do? Building on what God has already inspired and built in Good News Ministries, we can develop ways to be more effective in our mission. To grow Good News Ministries, we need to (1) reach more people, and (2) reach people more effectively.

We are continually making good progress in #1. Regarding #2, the most effective way that people learn is by immersive education. GNM provided this in the first years by putting on week-long conferences. The very reason why I became passionately interested in getting involved with Good News Ministries was because I attended Charlie Osburn’s original Good News week-long school of Catholic evangelization in Pensacola, Florida, and I witnessed how this immersive experience changed people’s hearts and lives much more effectively than anything I had ever done as Adult Education Director for my New Jersey parish. Later, when Ralph and I launched GNM of Tampa Bay, we witnessed the same phenomenon: The weeklong events had a much greater impact on people than the parish missions we gave and the weekly courses.

The question is: How can GNM provide that same impact now, using the Internet to reach people regardless of where they live? Can we make it immersive?

Meet the future:

Virtual Reality can provide real faith