The Board Game Faith Newsletter, Issue 25
Hello, Board Game Faithful!
Kevin: North Carolina is really beautiful right now. You must visit sometime. The trees, the trees!
Daniel: We’re enjoying our own fall goodness here in Missouri as well. Our new church (and home) are located in Columbia, home of the University of Missouri. This past weekend we had the joy of attending our very first “Mizzou” homecoming parade, and it was a delight (do other parts of the world have homecoming parades? Please let us know!). During the parade someone told me that Mizzou was the site of the world’s first homecoming parade. “Really?” I asked. “Well, no one has proven otherwise,” he said smiling.
Behind the Episodes
Kevin: I’ve been experimenting with CapCut for the video editing. It’s made by the company that owns TikTok, and it’s a little odd at times but it’s free and it’s really powerful. I used it in our recent episode on Board Game Rulebooks. If you look closely, you’ll notice that some of the early footage has our guest Jordan on a mild loop … something got garbled with the original footage. It’s so cool what one can do with technology today!
Daniel: You may remember that Kevin has been researching grants and other funding sources for Board Game Faith. It’s a fascinating world, and I’m grateful for his brave foray into it. If you know of any organization that you think might be interested in sponsoring what Board Game Faith is about, please let us know!
Coming Up
Kevin: Garphill Games and the man with a plan Shem Phillips! So excited!
Daniel: The episode with Shem is great! After that Kevin and I will return to part 3 of Jürgen Moltmann’s Theology of Play. If you have access to a copy from a local library and want to read along, we’re going to be discussing pages 25-36.
Games We're All About Right Now
Kevin: I dug out Paladins of the West Kingdom because of our upcoming special guest Shem Phillips. It’s been a good 9 months since I played that game, and wow it’s like going to your high school reunion and hitting it off with a former friend – so good! Now that I’ve played and studied games a bunch since then I can see what the game is doing with worker placement mechanics. Love it!
Daniel: I’ve had a really busy time at work recently and been unable to play many games, unfortunately. But our new game group at church was able to fit in a first play of Fun Facts, a spiritual successor to other great party games like So Clover and Just One. We really enjoyed it! As one group member observed, it’s a great way to learn each other’s names, as well as to get to know something about who they are.
Spirituality
Kevin: I’m wrapping up my 15-week sermon series on Dante’s Inferno this Sunday. It’s been a wild, fun ride, and I love that a medieval Italian poet has found resonance in a modern Protestant American church. He’s impacted my thinking a lot in terms of how virtues can become vices, and the immense freedom God gives us in our choices. (Dante sees the afterlife as very much a personal choice with our lives, and not something God does.) You can see the series here: https://www.facebook.com/fbcmg
Daniel: I got to watch one of Kevin’s sermons in the Dante series recently, and I find myself thinking about its insights often. At some point Kevin said something like, “the true basis of friendship is telling the truth.” I’m grateful for this really helpful point of clarity, especially in our age when so many are facing loneliness in its various forms. We feel we connect with others by telling them what they want to hear, but do we really? Which brings me to the media I’m digging below….
Media We're Digging Right Now
Kevin: Midnight Diner on Netflix is really heartwarming and good. Plus a foreign TV show is always fun for the small details of other places’ lives.
Daniel: Kristen and I just finished Mrs. Davis. I haven’t enjoyed a show this much in quite a while. It’s not for everyone: it’s quirky, odd, and a little adult. But it’s also from one of the makers of Lost (an all time favorite show of mine) and is similarly unafraid to explore explicitly religious themes head-on without feeling a need to appear overly pious. The premise is: a nun seeks to take down a global AI that is controlling the world. And it gets even weirder after that!! At its core it also makes the same kind of distinction Kevin made in his sermon between actually caring for others versus simply telling them what they want to hear. The show streams in the U.S. on Peacock.
Thank You!
Thanks so much for being a part of the BGF community. We are grateful for each of you and the ways you make the world more awesome. And if you haven’t had a chance to tell us a little about yourself yet, we would love it if you could fill out this form please!