Minecraft Ministry

What is Minecraft?

Minecraft is the best-selling video game of all time with over 300,000,000 copies of the game sold. The game is kind of like playing with digital LEGO blocks in an infinite world. You can explore vast landscapes, gather resources such as wood and stone, and use the collected blocks to build almost anything you can imagine, from simple houses to elaborate castles or even functioning machines. It's a game where creativity is key, that can be played alone or online with friends to explore, build, and survive together in a blocky, pixelated world.

What hardware is needed for students to play it?

One of the reasons that Minecraft has been so successful in our student ministry is that it is one of the most accessible games ever made. Students do not need expensive gaming computers or the latest gaming consoles to participate along with their friends. It is available to be played on most major platforms (including iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Xbox, Playstation, and Nintendo Switch). The price is typically somewhere between $7.00-$30.00 but can be found for less depending on the platform it is acquired through and seasonal sales. If students have something available to play Minecraft on of their own that is portable (i.e. an iPhone, Android tablet, etc.) we encourage them to bring that to youth on Sundays. If they do not have access to a portable gaming system to bring on Sunday nights they may use a console provided for them by our Director of Discipleship, Alex Balch. There is a limited number of those consoles available so they are provided on either a first-come, first-served basis, or students need to rotate on and off of them to allow everyone to participate.

How do students access our Youth Minecraft Server?

We created our Youth Server to make it so that all of our students would be able to play online together on Sunday nights and have made it available 24/7. Any player’s account that wants to join our youth server must be whitelisted to do so by Alex Balch and receive joining instructions from him; random people from online are unable to join even if they had the access information. This server is solely intended for the students involved with our student ministry and their real-life friends from CISD. No exceptions.

How do we keep our Server MinistrySafe?

With the aforementioned ability to whitelist players we are able to control which accounts are able to join the Youth Server. There is also a server-side script running that relays messages anytime a player gets on, gets off, and sends messages via the in-game chat. All messages are logged and sent to a separate application on our staff members phones as well as some of our parent’s phones. We routinely monitor this to ensure that we keep this a safe, clean, and fun experience for any student involved.

Server Rules List:

Every player that joins the server is expected to abide by the rules; repeatedly breaking these rules will result in a ban (in certain cases, such as breaking Rule 1, it will result in an automatic ban).

  • This includes but is not limited to: email addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses, or any attempts to direct a player to a 3rd party messaging/social media app. This will result in an automatic ban.

  • There is a built-in chat filtering feature so most inappropriate language is automatically censored, but if there are attempts to circumvent this, players will be removed.

  • Griefing is the act of destroying another individuals creation in Minecraft with malicious intent. It's not much fun when the things students build are destroyed.

  • Minecraft does have a combat mechanic built into the game. Players that do not wish to participate in PvP are not allowed to be attacked.

  • This includes stealing crops, chests, interactive blocks, etc. There are typically community farms and resources available; there is no need to steal anything from other players.