Kingdom City Church: Spreading the Gospel of Christ in a Pixelated World – Josh (Thomas1 Bellic, Reporting)

SecondLife a Virtual World creation from Linden Labs is known for its art, entertainment, building designs, fashion, theme parks, bars, dance halls, brothels, alternative life-style sims, and open-air forests.

But without a thorough deep dive into SL, you might well miss another side to life on the grid:  The Spiritual.  Today’s guest is Samuel James, pastor at Kingdom City Church.  Unique, even among other churches in SL, Kingdom City Church is, according to Samuel, inspired by God, and provides a place for the Gospel message of Jesus Christ to be made available to people who might not otherwise have access, or simply choose not to attend, mainline RL churches.  With Kingdom City Church being a fairly new arrival on the SL scene, I caught up with Samuel who agreed to share his vision with SL Enquirer readers.  What follows in his story.

Josh (Thomas1 Bellic) (JB):     Hello, Samuel.  Thanks so much for agreeing to meet with me today.  To start things off, please share with us how you decided to establish a Church in SecondLife?

(Samuel James) (SJ):     I saw a need, I felt that the way I envisioned church is SL was not available, I saw no real live worship in the churches and poor quality 96kb sermons on 40 dollar microphones, I’m not trying to sound mean here, I just felt like there needed to be the same standard we give to worldly things, like SL music/DJ scene, given to the things of the kingdom, and I have the equipment.. I have the zeal, so I took a page of Isiah's book, literally, here I am, send me.

JB:     I understand you are an ordained Minister of the Gospel. Isn't it quite a leap from RL ordained Minister to SL Church Leader?

SJ:     I am not ordained in that sense.  To be ordained, you have to go to a Baptist church or an Anglican church, recognized by a top-down hierarchy of promotion.  There is no high educational degree that makes you a pastor, no board of directors in a city has sanctioned my ministry. It is true that I have served as a pastor at 2 different RL churches and have been in ministry for over 10 years but, that was through "showing myself approved" to those local church bodies who were non-denominational and did not have a pope-like hierarchy to answer to…the word “ordained” is an archaic word that means older men gave me permission to do this.  God gave me permission, not a man in Rome.

JB:     Do you do this full-time, or is this a supplemental job for you?

SJ:     Ministry is a full-time lifestyle.  To pay my bills, I perform shows all around the grid, but that is not my job, its simply what I do to eat and live.  My job is to be about my Father's business, and that is the business of Kingdom Building

JB:     Have you done this on your own?  Or have you had help?

SJ:     Thanks to God I have a team of Godly people who started this with me, starting with my Wife Esther, and my two wonderful friends, Mandy and Zelly.

JB:     How big is your congregation?

SJ:     At the moment, we have around 10-20 coming as of our 2nd week, our building seats 72 with room to expand

JB:     I noticed your attire is a bit different from what is normally worn by pastors.  Why the difference?

SJ:     Yes so, lol, we are not interested in being what society deems as fancy.  I preach barefoot. I do not care about labels, expectations or dressing like an upper middle-class bank manager.  I was born in dirt. I come from the side of the tracks you don’t take your children to for picnics. I’m Australian… but I am what Americans would call "white trash".

JB:     I saw some other buildings on your property when I visited.  What are they for?

SJ:     So, we have lots of things on the KCC land, including two cabins, with general seating areas for activities such as bible studies etc.  We also host a podcast from the location called the Kingdom Think Podcast, as well as an entire area dedicated to games such as put-put golf, skippo and much, much more.

JB:     Are you on any other Social Media Websites?

SJ:     As a matter of fact, we are.  Please check us out at the sites below:

·         Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/kingdomcitychurchsl/

·         FaceBook:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61588822524101

·         TicTok:    https://www.tiktok.com/@kingdomcitychurchsl

·         YouTube:   https://www.youtube.com/@KingdomCityChurchSecondLife

JB:     Is there anything else you would like to share with our SL Enquirer readers?

SJ:     The kind of church God wants to build will make children laugh and adults angry, it makes demons scream in shopping centers, it loves people away from their suicide game, it invokes the ancient dream of Eden, it could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday, and it wouldn't even notice the difference, it is dangerously, obsessively, undeniably Jesus.  He will breathe out and we will breathe in.  I’m not interested in building a hangout sim; I mean to change lives, period.  We live as if it all depends on us but pray as if it all depends on God.

JB:     Tell me, Samuel.  How is your church different from other churches here in SecondLife?

SJ:     For one thing, we have real actually live worship with High Quality, along with the words on stage so all can see just like RL church.  Secondly, we have cameras in our church like other churches, but they are not for show, we stream live to YouTube.  Also, one of our missions is to build up leaders.  The obvious question to me is why haven’t I led worship at other churches in SL before now? The answer is most churches don’t want the help, the leaders log on… preach... log off.  They have no intention of raising up secondary pastors, preachers, worship leaders and ministers, and they certainly are not open to how things can be done differently, not that I’ve observed.  I tried going to many churches before I started this, and not one pastor ever had the time of day to have a coffee and a chat or sit among the people and fellowship.  It was always to log on, tell us how to think, and log off.  Even their bible studies are carefully curated mini sermons with no room for exploration or creativity.  We mean to break each...and every...one of those rules.  I wanna see hungry men and women of God with that Jeremiah fire that I can raise up to preach as I glorify God in their gifts.  I mean to see anointed worship leaders step into God’s calling for them.  I will be there to explain sound production to them and walk them through how to give God the best we can give with excellence and zeal.

So there you have it, folks.  Straight from the Pastor’s mouth.  If you are tired of the other options available here.  If you are looking to renew your faith…or perhaps build your faith or even if you have none…..Give Pastor Samuel James and King City Church a try.

And when you do, tell ‘em “Josh sent ya.”  You’ll be glad you did

Be there!  Aloha!!

JB