By Brett Hetherington*

When Will Fenton-Jones, director of Multicultural Ministries, set out to create a space for clergy and laity in the East Ohio Conference to share a role-playing game experience no one in the group could have imagined that it would have led to ministering to people at one of the most family-friendly and multi-generational gaming conventions in the United States.

Everything started out with a connection to Rev. Derek White, an ordained Elder in The United Methodist Church. “I’ve done a number of TikTok videos and Will Jones saw some of my videos and said ‘we’re having various things in our Conference for clergy and many of things were fun events like bowling, but I know that not everything does things like that. I like Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), I’ve seen your videos I’ve seen the work you’ve been doing with the gaming community, and I would like to see if you would be willing to run some D&D games for our clergy via Zoom,’” he shared.

White has a unique calling as his mission field is primarily table-top gamers. He has produced multiple documentaries centered around faith and gaming. And under the moniker of “The Geek Preacher” he spends much of his time ministering to gamers, leading worship services at gaming conventions, and teaching how to incorporate gaming and discipleship.

“Derek practices ‘marketplace chaplaincy’ which truly exemplifies the phrase ‘the world is my parish,’ said Fenton-Jones. “Clergy are appointed not just to their churches, but to their communities and community chaplaincy, or marketplace chaplaincy, is a new way to think about ministry. In the Army Chaplin Corps where I served as a chaplain assistant, we called it ‘muddy boots ministry’ – going to where the people are.”

White wound up running two D&D cohorts via Zoom for the East Ohio Conference including both clergy and laity, and during this time he was able to share about his time spent at Origins Game Fair in Columbus, where he leads an ecumenical worship service. “Will said ‘hey I want to try to partner with you on that. So last year Will and the Conference helped sponsor me, this year the Conference sponsored a table,” White said.

One of the pastors who was a part of the cohorts and has her own passion for gaming and for reaching the same community that White does is Pastor Jennifer Darling-Mellott, who serves as a pastor of Moreland United Methodist Church (Central Valley District).

“When we did the cohort the Conference hosted with Derek White, I started following his ministry and we got into conversation about how that was part of his passion, the idea that he wants to be and has been at some conventions a chaplain,” Darling-Mellott said. “Somewhere at the end of last year I called Derek and said, ‘taking this a step further than just a worship service, is there a way we can have a booth and do gaming chaplaincy or anything like that?’”

Serving as a chaplain to a gaming convention that has approximately 20,000 attendees is a monumental undertaking, especially for one person. White shared that he had tried something akin before, but the task was too great for one individual. So, Darling-Mellott proposed putting a team together to help.

“We talked to Will to see if the Conference could sponsor the booth. The further we got, we talked about having not only EOC clergy but other denominations, and if we could ever get people who were not Christian clergy as well to truly round out the chaplaincy idea beyond being just Christian chaplains, but is something that is an interfaith chaplaincy,” she said. Ultimately the team included UMC, Lutheran and Disciples of Christ representatives.

Rev. James Lance, pastor of Smithville United Methodist Church and Wooster Church of the Cross (Central Valley District) was a part of the team from East Ohio that joined White at Origins to serve as game chaplains. “We were able to talk with people who have not set foot in a church for decades and listen to their struggles. We were able to share God’s love and let people know they are not alone. We even had multiple clergy (UMC and other denominations) that were attending visit with us,” he shared.

Conversations around the table were varied, and came from all sorts of perspectives, according to Darling-Mellott. “There were a lot of UMC who stopped by to say thank you for doing something like this, glad to see UMC in this space. We had other people who just wanted to talk about faith in general. Some of them were not Christian but they really believe that faith needs a space in these type of conventions for similar reasons. Things happen – major things happen at these conventions, and you need a space to talk about that,” she said.

One recurring conversation that White has taken part in this year has involved seeing United Methodists being unafraid to admit they are United Methodists. “After all of the restrictive language was removed at General Conference, I get a lot of United Methodists who will come up and share that they aren’t afraid to tell people they’re Methodists anymore,” he shared.

Darling-Mellott also observed a common conversational thread woven throughout her experience at Origins where people who were a part of The UMC reacting positively when they saw that the booth was sponsored by East Ohio Conference. They would freely and excitedly talk about the changes at General Conference that had made them happy.

Not every interaction was as exciting and effervescent for the chaplains.

“Conventions are like vacations, one of those places where things don’t always work right,” explained Darling-Mellott. “The friend from another state that didn’t show up. Your boyfriend broke up with you at the convention. Your favorite voice actor didn’t show. Everything from minor little things all the way up to your pet died or your parent died and you’re four states away and you can’t convince your group to leave because they spent a lot of money for the trip.”

She shared about one gentleman who stopped by the booth each day asking for a blessing because of soreness in his body. “He told us that was the only way he could survive the weekend,” Darling-Mellott shared.

Much of the time in the booth was spent being present with people. There were times where it was just the team of chaplains, and other times where there would be 10 or 12 people crowded in at the same time grabbing stickers or talking to anyone who was in the booth at that point. People could sit around the table to play a game together or chat, and there were resources from reconciling ministries, stickers, wristbands, pens and other items for people to take with them.

The weekend culminated in a worship service led by the team on Sunday morning. “We had 50 people registered for worship service by Friday Morning. None of them would have been in worship, had we not supported and held a space,” said Lance.

The worship service was intentionally scheduled early on Sunday morning before the dealer’s hall opened so anyone who would normally be in the hall was able to participate. This allowed for an option for convention participants other than skipping services that day or missing out on being involved in the bulk of the convention for the final day.

Darling-Mellott shared that she would very much like to be involved in this ministry again next year. The cost does go up as a second-year booth is more expensive so that does bring with it some more challenges. But it is a call that she is convinced is more than worthy.

“If you look at the very nerdy or geeky population of our culture in the US in general it’s a lot bigger than it used to be, it’s a lot more vocal than it used to be. Being nerdy or geeky is a lot more popular than it used to be,” she stated. “But it’s also a significant unchurched population. And if you look at the average age range of conventions it is much lower than the average age range of our churches. A lot of the people who have had a bad experience or even no significant relationship with the church are in that specific population.”

This ministry is an open one, welcoming all. A fresh expression of the love of Jesus Christ in an arena that does not often get the opportunity to experience it. “Derek truly sets an open gaming table – a table open to all people, just as the communion table is open to all people,” shared Fenton-Jones.

A handful of East Ohio clergy were able to help open the table to a group of people at one gaming convention over the span of a few days. They were able to connect in a space that was filled with unchurched, abused by the church and the inconsistently churched population in one city.

What more might happen in people’s lives if your church ministered in your community in new ways?

Listen to a conversation with Rev. White on the Storyboard Podcast.

The Conference Communications team would like to share other stories that highlight ways that each of us is answering the call to reach out to our communities in creative ways. Please e-mail your ministry story to EOC Executive Director of Communications Rick Wolcott at wolcott@eocumc.com.

* Brett Hetherington is the Communications specialist for the East Ohio Conference of The United Methodist Church.