Think of our church like a pirate boat. We built this boat ten years ago and set sail on many adventures. We've made many friends. We have won and lost many battles. Through peaceful oceans and vicious storms, we've continued to sail. This is important to celebrate… we continue to sail after all these years.

Through our journey, we've grown strong and resilient. Not only have we grown strong and resilient, but we also have unearthed multiple treasure chests worth of knowledge and practice. These treasure chests of knowledge and practice are the type of stuff money can't buy. In other words, they are invaluable.

As Bishop, I've been watching how the boat sails. Perhaps this is part of the apostolic gifting: to be able to see how the ship handles in certain conditions. I notice where the sails need patching, and what supplies are needed for the next leg of the journey.

As we approach the tenth anniversary of our church, let's imagine that we are docked at port. Let's take this opportunity to take stock. Then let us restock for the journey ahead.

The following mechanics are not mechanics for mechanic's sake. They are elements that will lead to clarity and movement. Movement is life.

When you add sails to a boat, we see cloth, but it is much more. Sails are the mechanics for movement.

The following may seem mechanical and unimportant to our voyage. On the contrary, they are critical for moving us forward.

People may confuse this as a re-branding, but let us think more transcendent. Renewal is the word that comes to mind, lest we become like the churches and institutions of the past who fail to renew and find themselves stuck in the mire and muck of the seas.

They beset themselves into the rut and rhythm of use, refusing to change. Change is hard, but necessary to avoid the gravitational pull toward the worst possible thing: irrelevance.

A new Discord is needed to hit the refresh button. It's an opportunity to create a new alignment for our community and for the future that reflects our living signal and values.

Why not update our current Discord? From experience, I find it is easier to restart than to change what exists. Changing what exists would be a difficult task because of use and resistance.

A new Discord will be like putting on new sails.

I think the logo should stay the same. It is fire. After all these years, I think it's the coolest logo. I do think we should use separate logos for VR Church and MMO Church and not the combined one. This will be spoken about more in the identity and nomenclature of the church.

Much has changed since we've cast vision for VR Church and MMO Church. One of those changes is the advent of artificial intelligence, a technology moving at light speed.

We use language models for research and to amplify our thinking and organization. We use music generators to create copyright-free worship songs tailored for our experience.

We can use AI code to create what we need. We don't need to purchase platforms because we can create our own. The idea is to become a sustaining platform unto ourselves. We don't need third parties because we can create our own. This means service scheduling or volunteer processes can be created on our own platform, tailored for what we need, even with back-end technology.

We are entering an era where all the tools are available at our disposal. Let's use them.

AltspaceVR shut down. Rec Room closed. Horizon Worlds is limited. However, VRChat remains. I believe people may look at the landscape and declare the metaverse is dead. This is far from the truth.

The old can't create the new. Facebook created the new amongst legacy institutions. Years later, Meta (Facebook) can't create the metaverse because they are established in their Web 2 model. That's where they make bank. Thankfully, they've sustained the hardware vision, but they don't have the vision for the future in terms of virtual experiences.

The future of the metaverse is coming. And like Zuckerberg who created a new era in his dorm room, we will discover a college student or young-mind creator who will create the true metaverse.

Another way you can tell that VR is not dead is Valve. Arguably, Valve is one of the influential companies in video games. We wait with anticipation for the Steam Frame, the new VR headset.

On a consistent basis, VRChat has 50,000 concurrent players every day. These are crazy numbers. Games of any type would love to have those numbers. In other words, the metaverse, VR, and Web3 is far from dead. VRChat and Steam Frame alone are carrying the next wave.

A quick note about the seminary I developed to help train leaders. The content and interaction are currently on Discord, but perhaps we'll make it a live experience.

I'm not sure yet. However, I wanted to at least write it down as a possibility. At least, we update the leadership pathway.

Last but not least, we want to think about world building for the future. Altspace and Rec Room were unique. We created amazing worlds. It was the first time in church history where the scriptures were experienced in an immersive way as if you were there.

However, VRChat is difficult to build in. As we journey through Voyage 20, we must have our finger on the pulse of upcoming world-building platforms.

Ideas on the horizon

There are many possible ideas to implement. Spatial. Minecraft. GTA. For right now, let's set sail in this current direction before adding anything else to the ship. Let's get our bearings down, and then come together on the high seas to see where the wind is leading us.

I want to thank each one of you who have sailed with us. If you are getting off the boat, we want to say thank you for all you have done. If you are new to the crew, buckle up. We are about to hit the seas again. Who knows where our adventure will lead.