Key points:
- At a Nashville church, players gather to play Dungeons & Dragons and other role-playing games after worship ends each Sunday.
- The games sometimes reinforce the lessons learned during worship or Sunday school.
- In the 1980s, some conservative Christians attacked D&D as being evil or even satanic.
The cookies await in three Tupperware containers. The pizza is on the way.
And the game is afoot.
Two of the seven people gathered around a table wear the same black T-shirt, which says “All Are Welcome at the Table,” along with illustrations of a Bible, 20-sided die, figurines and other gaming paraphernalia. It’s a relaxed, cozy get-together. The figurines represent the imaginary characters in the Dungeons & Dragons landscape they will soon enter.
El Woodroof, a law student at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, stands up and reads from her tablet to make sure everyone remembers what they need from the previous session to continue the game.
“There are dusty halls, crowds of humanoids fleeing a black star that is turning people to dust with rays of light,” Woodroof begins. “Uh oh! Meta and Rosie go on ahead, and the rest follow behind. There’s a skeleton with a hexagon crest, and we grab the hat. So now we have four different hats.”
The imaginary setting is a world roughly akin to “Game of Thrones,” with elements of J.R.R. Tolkien, mythology and other fantasy-story ingredients like castles, knights, dragons and ancient evils.
The actual setting is the youth room at Glendale United Methodist Church. Every week after Sunday worship, a group gathers there to play D&D or Masks, another role-playing game that features superheroes.
“I would honestly say that it might be our most successful ministry,” said James Poland, a Glendale member, who was playing the game at the church on July 19.
“It is a way to connect to people,” Poland said. “It’s storytelling, but as a group, and you’re making up the story together.”
While they’re crafting the story, people learn how others think and what they care about, Poland added.
“If we start at 11 a.m., we won’t leave until 3 p.m. It’s four hours of us spending time together and laughing with each other, joking with each other.
“It really forms a community in itself.”
Six or seven people have joined Glendale after showing up to play games at the church, he said. That’s a pretty good average considering the total pool of players is less than 20.
Playing Dungeons & Dragons can foster spiritual growth, said the Rev. Derek White, who bills himself as “The Geek Preacher,” in a telephone interview. He founded the regular games at Glendale and wants to expand to other churches.
“You’re forming communities of mutual love, care and support,” White said. “We had one of the members of the gaming group; their child was ill and in the hospital. … I saw people checking in and checking up on that person.
“One of the people in the gaming group helped set up a food tree … where the family could (get) meals.”
The Rev. Stephanie Dodge, lead pastor at Glendale, does not play role-playing games — and is a little surprised at how things are turning out.
“Who would ever think that Dungeons & Dragons is a way to disciple people in the church?” Dodge said with a chuckle.
“It has been really neat to connect with some people who maybe aren’t the kind of people who would sit through a normal traditional worship,” she added. “They’re really connected. They have group chats so they’re chatting with each other all week long, which I think is really neat, because that’s the goal of discipleship.”
In the 1980s, some conservative Christians considered games like Dungeons & Dragons evil, even satanic, claiming it could lead those who played to suicide, murder, cannibalism and torture. The concerns helped inspire the thriller novel and subsequent made-for-TV movie “Mazes and Monsters,” starring a young Tom Hanks. However, fears of role-playing games have mostly dissipated as the decades passed.
“I would argue that the most Christian thing in the world is to come together to create something beautiful and something meaningful,” Woodroof said. “I think that building those bonds and reaching out to the community, establishing that there is hope in the world, and you can make a story that even if it starts from a dark place, ends in a place that is beautiful and poignant and full of hope — a happy ending. I think that is the most Christian thing in the world.
“What is heaven if not our happy ending?”
Although games can go in dark directions if the players want it that way, usually the goal of Dungeons & Dragons isn’t to defeat the other players, said Brandon Wenger, a structural engineer who was leading the July 19 game.
“In terms of who they’re winning against, it’s like they’re winning against the big, bad, evil guy of the game,” Wenger said. “It’s never player versus player; it’s always players trying to save the world, or the town.”
Moral quandaries can come up in a game and become learning experiences, he said.
“A good example would be, ‘When is violence the correct answer?’” Wenger said.
“There are times when this guy has some information we want, but he’s like a priest, so we’re not just going to beat the information out of him. … Let’s handle this peacefully, and oftentimes that has better outcomes, sometimes better rewards.”
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Wenger recalled a D&D game where a younger player wanted to fry up some frog legs after defeating frog characters in a fight.
“We’re like, ‘These are sentient, sapient creatures. We’re not eating them,’” he said.
Woodroof said a player determined to force a bad ending is sometimes questioned about that choice before the game goes forward.
“Just because someone is trying to take it down, it does not disqualify them from being allowed to participate,” she said.
“Why are you acting this way? Why are you trying to take it down?” she said.
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“Instead of rejecting them, sitting them down, talking them through it: ‘What feelings are causing you to act in this way? Do you feel rejected? Do you feel like you have no safe space, and therefore you resent others for having one?’”
With patience and understanding, the other players may supply that safe space the negative player is needing.
“If they want to take it, then they can,” Woodruff said. “And if they don’t want to take it, then that is all right. But it’s their choice, and we will be here either way.”
Laura Wenger, a schoolteacher and Brandon Wenger’s wife, was sitting out the game on July 19 but is currently playing Masks. She describes herself as an introvert, which makes her superhero character an interesting alter ego.
“I like being in community with other people and like being able to affect other people,” she said. “You notice the things that you do affect others, and I notice that a lot in teaching.”
Her character, Jordon, can amplify the powers of the people she is around, but has no power at all if she is alone.
Is this the introvert Laura Wenger challenging herself to engage?
“Being able to remain open-minded and reach out to as many different kinds of people and see as many different worldviews and perspectives as you can (is important) because it’s hard living in the world. … I feel like we’re all just better people when we hear other people’s perspectives.”
Jim Patterson is reporter for UM News. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.
