Our Friends and Allies — August 2019

The Christian Gamers Guild is not alone in our efforts to build faith communities among the geek sub-cultures. Numerous other organizations, ministries, and individuals are also doing valuable and powerful work among Trekkies, roleplayers, cosplayers, video gamers, and many other segments. As the nature of Internet communities is to change constantly, we’ll try to continue updating and republishing this list twice a year to keep it fresh.

This time around, it’s categorized by type so you can more easily find the kinds of groups and ministers you’re interested in. Some entries fall into multiple entries, of course, so I’ll try to put them in their most salient category, with a note about other things they do.

Although several of these organizations produce (or are) products, the Christian Gamers Guild does not endorse any of them, in accordance with our policy to neither condemn nor endorse any particular game product (and by extension, any other organization, ministry or service). If you have any questions about the appropriateness of any product for yourself, your family, or your gaming group, it is up to you to investigate and decide.

Where possible I’ve paraphrased what each group has to say about itself, replacing all the “we” language with “they.”

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Charities and Compassion Services

Gaming 2 Give unites players everywhere through gaming marathon fundraisers that provide scholarships, mentoring, internships and more to single moms and their children! They’re running a 12-Hour Virtual Gaming Event that will take place on 12/7/19 at 12 pm-12 am EST. Funds are used to focus on the economic empowerment of single mothers between the ages of 18 and 35, by lifting them from poverty to professionalism. They identify barriers that hinder single moms from success and remove them by creating practical solutions centered around career coaching, mentoring, scholarships, financial literacy, and on-the-job training through paid internships.

Mighty Grace Positive Gaming reaches out to video gamers through various media, shares the message of Jesus Christ, creates a positive encouraging community, facilitates spiritual growth and wellness with people. They have a very exciting personal support and counseling service for gamers available in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Japanese. That is in addition to convention and local game store ministry, streaming, and game reviews.

Developers, Publishers and Resources

Cactus Game Design publishes a variety of Christian-themed games and toys, including Solomon’s Temple and the Redemption Collectible Card Game.

Camping Grounds is a game studio ministry that focuses on making fast pace visual novels of praise and worship.

Cenokga is an independent Native American owned video game studio based in Arkansas. Creating 8-bit and 16-bit style games, it was started in 2017 by Kyle Ransford. Games by Cenokga usually have a multiplayer theme to them, so that no matter what game it is, you can always play with friends or family. Games by Cenokga will always be family friendly and suitable for most ages. In addition to operating Cenokga and his personal blog, Kyle also streams retro 90’s games on Mixer.

Chara Games designs and publishes innovative and fun tabletop games with Christian themes. They want to help you, your family, and your friends find joy through the relationships built around the games they publish.

ChristGames.org is a Christian game development organization on the Internet devoted to teaching you how to make family friendly video games. If you have ever wanted to make a game, but were not sure where to start, then you have come to the right place. They will teach you every part of the industry, from design, to programming, and even to marketing and distribution. They are a community of like minded people serving the risen lord wanting to help you succeed in your dreams of becoming a faithful game developer!

The Christian Game Developers Conference is a unique event, focused around encouraging and edifying those who are interested in both making games and glorifying God. The conference is three days of talks, workshops, and fellowship, fellowship, fellowship. Come prepared to show what you are working on, and to encourage others in their projects and be inspired.

ChristiAnime welcomes writers, artists, animators, music producers, game developers & designers, and so much more! The content that you will find on this site will be biblically sound. Their artists vary from all around the world! Their goal is to feature only the best Christian Anime and Christian Manga created.

Mythos & Ink is a small press with a passion for publishing great stories and the community built around them. Keep an eye on them for their upcoming podcast The Wayfarer’s Guide to Worldbuilding.

Shattered Studios is committed to share the hope, healing, and love of God by: utilizing the performance, creative, and media arts; unleashing the artistic gifts of individuals; and supporting other organizations to do likewise.

Wild East Games (warning: this link plays music!) makes board games and is owned and operated by the husband and wife team of Brian and Jill Bollinger. Brian is a pastor, and his personal testimony is prominent on the company web-site. Geeky polymaths, they also operate Bollinger Edgerly Scale Trains, which sells model train kits and building supplies, and tickcomics.com, a guide to collecting Tick comic books.

Podcasts

The podcast 1 Geek 411 is the brain child of friends Cameron Franklin and Chris Nicolay. Cameron and Chris met at Oklahoma Christian where they bonded over ultimate, video games, and Magic: The Gathering. They began discussing social norms and questioning why it’s okay to watch sports for hours a day but then geeks and nerds are questioned about playing video games or their other activities for hours. As a result 1 Geek 411 was born.

A Christian Gaming Podcast is focused on putting God before gaming, being more mindful of our faith while we are gaming, gaming news, and more!

Christian Geek Central exists to equip, encourage and inspire Christian geeks of all kinds to live more and more for Christ. To this end, they’ve made it their goal to be both a gateway to, and creator of, the highest quality entertainment and resources on the web that they believe will be of special interest to Christian geeks. In addition, Christian Geek Central is an active and growing community of Christian geeks who come together to both celebrate and examine their favorite hobbies from a biblical perspective.

The Christian Nerd examines the intersection of the Christian faith and nerd culture. God is speaking to us all the time, so why wouldn’t he use our favorite nerdclinations to show us something new about himself? Star Wars, Star Trek and the Marvel Cinematic Universe are filled with stories that address the human condition and the different ways that God created us. Hopefully by looking more closely at those stories and nerd culture in general, we can find some new ways to better honor Christ with our lives. Hopefully The Christian Nerd will help people draw nearer to God by showing them how he’s already engaging them through culture.

Church of the Geek looks at the intersection of geek culture and faith.

Cinematic Doctrine seeks to set a Biblical filled precedence on how to engage film, and encourages Christians to do the same.

City on a Hill Gaming is a 5th edition D&D actual play podcast. They looked in vain for a family-friendly actual play and couldn’t find one, so they made their own! Currently featuring players from Saving the Game, and occasionally both Min/Max and Geek @ Arms.

The Dorkness to Light Podcast is dedicated to wrestling with questions of faith, religion, and theology that arise in comic books and other pop culture media. Occasionally irreverent, rarely sacrilegious.

Geek@Arms is a podcast at the crossroads of geek culture and Christian faith. Your humble editor is one of the hosts. We discuss comics, sci-fi, fantasy, historical swordsmanship, video games, medieval reenactment, tabletop gaming, and more.

Helix Reviews is a Christian geek podcast bringing you reviews from a Christian geek worldview!

Higher Score Gaming wants to build and grow a Totally Righteous Gaming Community that encourages fellow gamers in the character of Christ, and to bring gaming back to what it was always supposed to be: Fun. In addition to the podcast, they’re on Discord and maintain a calendar with regular community gaming events such as Destiny raids and Minecraft parties.

On the Min/Max Podcast, two seminarians and a photographer explore the intersection of gaming, nerd culture, and theology.

The Nerd of God.cast is a forum for Christian nerds who love to talk about all things geek. The timeless truth of the Bible is reflected in culture, and never before has our culture been so influenced by things once considered “nerdy.” We embrace both sides of this discussion, living on the edge of where Christ-culture and nerd-culture find sweet, sweet two-player co-op.

The Nerdy-Gritty is a podcast a weekly discussion where pastors Dez and Fox delve deep into the details of pop-culture! Comics, movies, video games… even YouTube itself! Everything is up for grabs when Dez and Fox start spewing their opinions. They have a YouTube channel, and can be found on Facebook and Twitter.

One Cross Radio is a podcast, and 2099 One Cross Street is a website, exploring Christianity and pop culture.

The Pop Culture Coream Deo Podcast examines the artifacts of pop culture in light of God’s self-revelation.

Redeemed Otaku is a podcast about anime for the Christian consumer. Reviews, discussion, recommendations on old and new and rarely covered anime from a Christian worldview.

Retro Rewind, hosted by Captain Fransisco Ruiz and First Officer Paul Powers, is a time-travelling podcast that takes a fresh look at movies and video games from 15 or more years ago.

Saving the Game is a podcast at the intersection of faith in Christ, tabletop roleplaying games, and collaborative storytelling. They provide resources for Christian gamers, and in their own way they aim to close the gap between non-gaming Christians and non-Christian gamers. They have a Discord channel, where you can chat with them and their other listeners.

Strangers and Aliens is a podcast and blog that explores the relationship between God and man through the lens of speculative and imaginative fiction. Ben and Steve are old friends and have collaborated on comics and podcasts in the past. Ben and Dr. Jayce met at the Gideon Media Arts conference and are working together on a super secret project. Together, this terrible trio are fans of sci-fi and fantasy and, more importantly, Christians who enjoy looking at how story can give insight into the relationship between God and man.

The Reformed Gamers is the podcast all about theology, video games and anything else we can think of!

The Untold Podcast wants to recapture the power of story and use the weirder genres to do it. Science fiction, fantasy, horror and supernatural stories serve as metaphors for our lives. The distant star systems, the shining knights, the abominable yetis, and the ghosts remind us of our own struggles, triumphs and losses. Every month they’ll bring you a new story and flash fiction presented in a unique and dynamic way! The producer and narrator of the podcast is Nathan James Norman, an author, pastor and theologian living in Northern Michigan. ​

With Reverence and Awesomeness is an intergalactically renowned podcast featuring 3 Reformed Christian Dads Discussing Faith, Family & All Things Nerdy!

Streamers

CrimsonConquerer52 is a youth pastor who joined Twitch so he could tell the gaming world the Good News of Jesus Christ. He wants to share God’s love with the world and is actively looking for other Christian gamers with the same goal and message. He mainly plays shooters, survival and exploration games, but other games will get tossed into the mix as well.

The Gaming Chaplain is a Twitch streamer playing both video games and table top RPGs, with the hope of expanding into miniatures.

Geek Devotions is a ministry created by a couple of devoted geeks who are devoted to telling people that they are loved. They make videos designed to encourage and uplift people all the while embracing all things geeky such as comics, video games, books and movies!

On the DrHeals channel we build up characters, build up each other, drink coffee and glorify Jesus. DrHeals (Jeff Evans) also operates That Bold Life, a YouTube channel dedicated to motivating and educating Christians to go out and live a Bold Life for Jesus.

Through the good news of Jesus Christ, God Mode Activated will elevate gamers all over the world, both IRL and in-game, to the next spiritual level and drastically change how they play THE Game. GMA welcomes both novice and seasoned players to join in fellowship with one another and to grow in faith and maturity together, all while shining the light of Jesus into the world of lost gamers.

igopherlife is a husband, father, and gamer with a mission to spread positive vibes and the Love of Christ while raising awareness and support of Suicide Prevention efforts. His favorite games are Halo, Fusion Frenzy, Sid Meier’s Civilization, Red Alert, Assassin’s Creed, and Left 4 Dead.

LifeChurchGaming‘s goal is to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ by living out His Great Commission: to go into the world and make disciples. Life.Church can’t send people to every nation, but they can send digital missionaries. Every week, they reach over 200,000 people from countries all over the world. Church Online is making knowing and following Christ possible for people where it is discouraged, illegal, or unknown.

Pastor Gizmo is a seasoned gamer since 1984, devoted reborn follower of Christ since 2007. He has been called to pastor on Twitch. “I know it won’t be easy but I trust in Him and know He is greater, so I fear no evil, armored up and ready to see some lives changed! To God be the glory!!! Game on!”

PastorSKAR has a huge passion for helping young people be all they can be and doing anything he can do empower and help the next generation to thrive. He loves playing video games and following Esports, as well as playing one of his many instruments and just having a good laugh!

Rainna SwiftSage is a Reborn Christian. A Mom. A Wife. A Veteran Podcaster. A Dirty Casual Gamer. Probably old enough to be your mom. She won’t live up to your expectations. She loves playing MMO’s and Survival Sandbox Games! She spontaneously cackles or screams at random; you have been warned!

Streamers for Christ is a group of Mixer steamers who have submitted their lives to Jesus Christ. All streams are curse free.

Online Communities

The Bridge is a Facebook group for those who bridge Christianity and Fandom. It took over from where Fans for Christ left off a couple of years ago.

Costumers for Christ: Mild-mannered minister by day, Scott Bayles and his family are active costumers and comic-collectors who share the message of Christ through comics and cosplay. There’s also a Facebook page and associated group and Scott has written a book entitled Holy Heroes: The Gospel According to DC and Marvel.

GodSquad Gaming is a place where gamers from all over the world can come and find a place they can call home no matter their beliefs or background. Our community is a place where people can come game together, grow together, and build relationships that will last a lifetime.

The Grave Robbers reach out to the Goth community with the love of Jesus Christ. They provide an exciting and God honoring environment to connect with other Christian Goths around the world and help our Goth brothers and sisters to grow spiritually in their walk with Christ. They are God’s Night Watch.

Innroads Ministries is the umbrella organization for the Game Store Prophets and Bard and Bible podcasts. They have a number of articles about ministering through tabletop games, both roleplaying and board games, and how to bring your faith to bear on your hobby. Check out their Facebook group The Tavern to interact with them. That’s not the whole of their efforts, though! Check out their What We Do page for more information.

Love Clan is a Discord partnered, active chat community that has game nights and events, small groups, and people who care. Play some games, explore the bible, love like Jesus.

Love Thy Nerd wants to speak redemption, hope, truth, and love into the parts of nerd culture that have often been alienated, demonized, dismissed, or simply ignored by Christians. They also want to educate Christians on the value of nerd culture and how we can love our nerdy neighbors better. They minister at conventions; host articles on comics, video games, roleplaying, film, and more; and host three pocasts: Humans of Gaming, Free Play, and The Pull List. Interact with them in their Facebook community.

Local Communities

Cardboard Koinonia brings people together in fellowship to foster relationships, and build community across cultural, social, and generational divides using games. They run Family Game Nights in which they invite people from all walks of life around a board game table. They have a Facebook group.

Open Table Ministries puts on strategy game nights three Saturdays per month in Kettering, Ohio.

Clans and Guilds

Christian Soldiers, 7th Division plays World of Tanks, World of Warplanes, World of Warships, Star Citizen, Armored Warfare, Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, Brawl Stars, Star Trek Online, Farming Simulator (there are clans for Farming Simulator??), Minecraft, Space Engineers, Boom Beach, Hay Day, and probably some others.

Books and Games

The Aetherlight is a swashbuckling steampunk action-adventure game based on the greatest story ever told! Astute players will recognise echoes with the epic story of the Bible at key points: characters, major plot shifts, life lessons, and personal encounters. The Aetherlight is a story as old as time, reimagined for a digital age.

Christ and Pop Culture exists to acknowledge, appreciate, and think rightly about the common knowledge of our age. Their mission is to edify the Church, glorify God, and witness to the world by encouraging and modeling a biblical presence within culture that is characterized by nuance and appreciation while resisting the extremes of thoughtless condemnation and uncritical embrace. They stand on the gospel and exist for the Church.

Deliverance is an epic “Christian Fantasy” Boardgame Adventure that features Angels vs Demons in a cooperative tactical dungeon crawler for 1-4 players. And yes, it 100% fits within the Biblical narrative while being a fantasy game! It’s not available yet (as of 2/4/2019), but there’s a Kickstarter campaign starting up soon, and there’s a Facebook group to follow for news and playtesting opportunities.

Faith & Fandom is a book series by Hector Miray of devotional essays on faith & geek culture. There are 5 volumes out now, plus a kids edition! They also do podcasts, art, panels, apparel, memes, and Comic Con life in general. They travel to roughly 28 comicons a year in the south east and also have a podcast series and a video series.

God Loves the Freaks is a book that points to a serious issue facing the church today – reaching out to subcultures and those who are considered the freaks of society. Stephen Weese (voice actor/director and founder of Fans for Christ) paints a vision of a church living by grace, in unity; without the legalism that divides and causes us to shun others based on outward appearance. God looks at the heart and he loves everyone, including the freaks. If God loves the freaks, shouldn’t the church as well?

The Holy Lands RPG is an expressly Christian high-fantasy tabletop RPG.  Real Christianity is the fundamental faith of the character, not some allegorical fantasy faith in a polytheistic (multi-god) world. The character believes in, proclaims, and fights for God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the real message of eternal salvation.

Blogs, Articles and News

Beneath the Tangles bridges the gap between anime fans and the Christian church by discussing Christianity as expressed through anime, supporting and loving Christian anime fans, and demonstrating faith through interaction with our readers.

Christ Centered Gamer looks at video games from two view points. They analyze games on a secular level which will break down a game based on its graphics, sound, stability and overall gaming experience. If you’re concerned about the family friendliness of a game, they have a separate moral score which looks at violence, language, sexual content, occult references and other ethical issues.

Dungeon Master Pastor is a blog where Pastor meets Dungeon Master, and following Jesus meets tabletop fantasy role playing. As baptized children of God, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. One of those things happens to be: Play Dungeons & Dragons like a boss. They run an annual Pastors & Dungeons Retreat where, with a mixture of gaming, learning, and Sabbath rest, ministers will explore the connections between life, ministry, and the world’s greatest roleplaying game.

Games For All is a blog by Stephen Taylor, who wants to help you discover your character and skills for life through gaming.  And give you pointers to help your children/partners/friends do so to.  For parents in particular he hopes this blog will give you an insight into what on Earth your children are talking about when they discuss their gaming hobby, and perhaps give you some alternative games to suggest when they want one that makes you feel uncomfortable to buy them.

The purpose for Gaming and God is to bridge the gap between the pastime that is playing video games to scripture, biblical values and life lessons that we can use daily.

The Geekpreacher, Derek White, is a United Methodist pastor who not only serves his own church, but also ministers at several gaming conventions, including serving as the chaplain for Gary Con. He realizes that geeks need a pastor too and tries his best to share faith and spirituality in a way that complements geek culture.

Geeks Under Grace wants to Educate Christians on how to safely consume pop culture, Evangelize geeks with the message of the Gospel, Equip Christians and churches to reach geeks with the Gospel, and Encourage Christians as they grow into a deeper relationship with Christ. They have articles and reviews about video games, board games, rpgs, television, movies, comics, music, anime, and Christian life. There is also the podcast GUGCast, a daily Twitch stream, and a thriving Facebook community.

The Godly Geek is a Facebook page that frequently posts links (and memes, of course; it’s Facebook, after all!) to Christian nerd resources. Recognizing that God made us who we are (Psalm 100:3), geek/nerd/dork/dweeb or not, He expects us to acknowledge His authority, rest in His love, and develop and use our God-given talents for His work. The Godly Geek is dedicated to all those above and anyone who loves one of them.

At The Hoot and Howl, blogger Shaneen Thompson set out to reclaim her passions and felt called to put them to good use. She strongly believes in the power of stories to touch lives, and the story of Jesus impacts a heart like none other. She’s super passionate about diving deep into the richness of God’s Word, and is here to share what she discovers with you. And, as a moderate geek, she fits together faith and fandoms, helping you grow to be a bold Christian in today’s world.

Lorehaven is a digital Speculative Fiction magazine dedicated to promoting quality Christian science fiction and fantasy novels.

Press Upwards provides Christian devotionals based on video games.

ScreenFish is where faith and film are intertwined, creating a place for dialogue and discussion on the latest in film, tv and movies.

Theology Gaming is a community dedicated to the intersection of games and life with Christ. It exists to unify the voices of folks thinking about how following Jesus relates to games. This translates to Theology Gaming cross-posting community member’s content and aggregating it all under one Theology Gaming banner.

Theology of Games hosts board game news, reviews, and interviews. They also feature three boardgame podcasts: Theology of Games, That’s How I Roll, and Boardgames Daily.

Conventions and Convention Ministry

Doxacon is a conference-style event aimed at exploring how our favorite genres of entertainment intersect with the Christian worldview. Given the dominance of secular themes and atheistic assumptions in “nerd” entertainment and culture, it’s easy to think that Christianity has no natural place there. However, we pray daily that God is “everywhere present and fills all things,” and the primary goal of Doxacon is to create a place where Christian lovers of sci-fi, fantasy, and all things nerdy can share how our fandoms interact with our faiths.

Gamechurch is a non-profit dedicated to bringing the message of Jesus’ love, hope, and acceptance into the culture of video games. They are most well-known for their presence at gaming conventions and trade shows, but they also operate the Gamechurch City Facebook community.

LTNCon is the first-ever conference hosted by Love Thy Nerd! If you want to learn how to love and serve your nerdy neighbors better, you know, like Jesus would, then this is for you. There’s literally no other conference like this. Oh, and we’ll play a bunch of games and nerd out about all kinds of things, so there’s that.

The Nerd Chapel is committed to being a bridge between the Body of Christ and nerds/geeks/gamers who are interested in exploring the Bible and Jesus. We also want to be a resource for Christian nerds of all sizes.

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And finally, what about us? The Christian Gamers Guild is a community of Christian gamers that has been working to explain roleplaying to Christians and Christianity to roleplayers since 1996. Joining the Guild is as simple as joining our email discussion list, which is the core of our ministry. In addition to the discussion list and the articles on this web-site, we also organize and host worship services and panels at a few gaming conventions each year, and CGG members are frequently in attendance at many other cons, regardless of whether the Guild itself has an event scheduled. We have a few branded items in our Store, if you want to show your allegiance, or you can make your own using the materials available in the publicity package.

You can find your sisters and brothers in Christ all over the place, at conventions, in games, on Twitch and Discord, and on Twitter. Whoever you meet and game with, whether they’re a believer or not, remember to extend the love of Christ to everyone!