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GATE E5 · WORKSHOP · 25 June 2026

🕹️Digital Missionary Gaming Workshop 2026

One day on Discord — parable, play, and the ethics of the spaces gamers live in.

  • 7 sessions
  • 3 speakers
  • 217 minutes
  • Free
▌ KEYNOTE

Gaming as Parable

Dr. Steven Kelso

The mission field has a controller. On 25 June 2026 the Gaming Workshop gathered pastors, streamers, planters and players — live on Discord, free, in the place gamers already call home.

Millions of people will never walk into a church building. They will, however, log in tonight. They gather on Twitch, run raids in Discord, and tell their realest stories inside a game world because it feels safer than telling them anywhere else. Gamers, geeks and nerds are not a niche — they are a people group, and most of them grew up feeling like they did not belong in church.

Three talks and a closing conversation, all recorded: Dr. Steven Kelso on reading games as parables, Leighton Seys on a theology of fun, and Nathan Webb on digital ethics and AI — followed by an open Q&A with all three.

Speakers

  • Dr. Steven Kelso
    DrLevelUp · Professor and Dean of Students, Kansas Christian College
    3 sessions
  • Leighton Seys
    FlatCap · Director of Community, theChurch.digital
    3 sessions
  • Nathan Webb
    Nerd Pastor Nate · Founding Pastor, Checkpoint Church
    3 sessions

Sessions

  1. 01 Gaming as Parable Dr. Steven Kelso · 46:54
  2. 02 Gaming as Parable — Q&A Dr. Steven Kelso · 25:26
  3. 03 A Theology of Fun Leighton Seys · 42:27
  4. 04 A Theology of Fun — Q&A Leighton Seys · 9:07
  5. 05 Digital Ethics & AI Nathan Webb · 52:03
  6. 06 Digital Ethics & AI — Q&A Nathan Webb · 12:11
  7. 07 Is Digital Ministry Real? — Open Q&A Panel · 29:00

Questions

When was the Digital Missionary Gaming Workshop?
25 June 2026, held live on Discord and free to attend. All seven recordings — three talks, their Q&As, and the closing open Q&A — are available to watch.
Who spoke at the Gaming Workshop 2026?
Dr. Steven Kelso (DrLevelUp) on gaming as parable, Leighton Seys (FlatCap) on a theology of fun, and Nathan Webb (Nerd Pastor Nate) on digital ethics and AI. Leighton hosted.
Do I need to be a gamer to get something from this?
No. If you have never touched a controller but sense God moving in digital spaces, the workshop is for you — and if you already run a server full of friends who have never set foot in a church, more so.

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