Being There -- Tim Phillips
Truth be told, I am very much an introvert. Unlike the woman in the Geico commercial, I don't think it is a rare thing. But it is a real thing, and it is not necessarily a good thing. People need to interact with other people. This is certainly true when it comes to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is one reason I was a bit surprised when, just a couple of weeks ago, I found out about the metachurch (which is apparently part of the metaverse). The metaverse, if I understand it correctly, is a virtual reality world where people can create avatars of themselves, enter the VR world, and "interact" with other people there. Space (property?) is even bought and sold in the metaverse. To some (introverts), this might sound like a dream, to others (extroverts?), it may sound like a nightmare. To me, it sounds a lot like The Sims video game from about 20 years ago.
So what, then, is the metachurch? It's a church that exists in the metaverse. I first heard about it listening to a conference presentation, then I learned more about it listening to this podcast. A person can create an avatar of himself or herself (whatever he or she wishes to be) and attend a virtual church in the metaverse, interacting with the other avatars of the "church goers." Yes, this is really a thing, and it sounds really weird. But are we that far away from it in our somewhat antiquated (by modern standards) ARP circles?
We have already seen, in just the last couple of years, people equating watching a livestreamed worship service with actually attending a church in person. We've seen, starting around the lockdowns of 2020, people suggesting that the sacrament of the Lord's Supper could be taken "virtually." Once those are considered to be normative practices, the lure of the metachurch probably isn't too far behind. And there is likely to be a great cost that we pay for this, not in terms of dollars and cents, but in terms of the quality of the spiritual life of the local congregation. It does not improve participation in the body of Christ, but it likely makes it worse, as it gives an easy excuse not to attend worship.
The New Testament assumes that believers will gather together for worship, and that they will be actively involved in each others lives in mutual love, encouragement, and support. Consider the "one another" passages (e.g., Romans 12:10; Ephesians 4:1ff; Ephesians 4:32; 1 Thessalonians 5:11ff, etc.) -- all of which would be difficult in the context of a metachurch. As I've written about elsewhere on this blog, 1 Corinthians 11 assumes that believers are meeting together, in person, to receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. How that would possibly take place in a metachurch, I don't know. I do know that watching a digital representation on a digital screen digitally consuming digital bread and digital cups of digital wine is not communing with the Lord Jesus Christ, much less other believers.
Thanks be to God that the Lord Jesus Christ was not meta when it came to us. He entered this world, not as an avatar, but as real flesh and blood. "Christ, the Son of God, became man, by taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the virgin Mary, and born of her, yet without sin" (Westminster Shorter Catechism Q. 22). "The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). The Lord Jesus Christ also promises us that He will be with us always (Matthew 28:20). This is something no avatar or VR environment can ever be a substitute for.
If the Lord did this for us, why would we not want to follow our Lord and do likewise for one another? Yes, you can be an introvert and be part of the church. But take it from me, you cannot behave like an introvert and be a spiritually healthy part of the church. We are joined to one another, as a body, with Christ Jesus as our Head. Being spiritually present in public worship is an important part of this. If we believe in Him, we will want to worship Him (John 9:38). And if we love Jesus, we will love His church (which means we will love those who are a part of His church). And that may be the most meta thing of all.