Mixed reality. Augmented reality. Virtual reality. It’s all confusing, but as a church leader you should be paying attention. Don’t get lost in the tech. Focus on the potential. If you use SnapChat you have already played with augmented/mixed reality by using it’s lens feature. You already understand the power of mixed reality. I know my family is addicted to SnapChat solely because of the lenses. My kids love it. It’s silly tech, but an interactive and compelling feature.

Heard of the HoloLens from Microsoft yet? A friend at faithvr.com let me try it out.

It was a trip. It’s a little bulky, but another compelling and interactive experience. I tried out a game, which took the wall in front of me, made a virtual hole where robot bugs were crawling out of and then suddenly flying to attack me. If there was video from the event you would witness me dodging virtual creatures and walking up to the wall to peer into the hole to experience the depth perspective of the HoloLens. It was seriously awesome!

So why is this important to you the church leader?

You don’t need to know exactly how to integrate with this technology now, but I just want you to be thinking about it. Start getting ready for it. Try it out. Don’t be afraid of new things. Embrace the future now. Change is always coming. Our message will never adjust as a church, but our methods can.

3 ways I believe mixed reality will impact the church:

• Powerful discipleship experiences
• Compelling worship environments
• Next level outreach events

How do you think mixed reality will most impact the church?

This post was also inspired by the post “The Dark Horse of Augmented Reality” by Josh Miller.