Saturday Side Quest - I Believe In Checkpoint Church
Where has faith and fandom intersected this week?
The title shouldn’t surprise anyone who knows me well—I am the founding pastor of a digital-first church plant called Checkpoint Church. Obviously, I believe in it.
What I mean to say is this: I am an advocate for the work that Checkpoint is doing outside of my role as a pastor.
If you’ll indulge me, I want to share an opportunity for you, dear reader, to be an advocate for nerds, geeks, and gamers, too.
Checkpoint is four days out from the end of their first-ever Indie GoGo campaign.
Since 2020, they’ve been distributing high-quality YouTube content in the form of ‘nerdy sermons.’ Over the four years since then, they have published over 150 of these videos.
That’s a lot of work. That’s a lot of time. That’s a lot of people impacted.
With this campaign, Checkpoint is offering, for the first time, a chance to partner with them in this work. Anyone can give any amount to the campaign to support the next season of Nerdy Sermons, releasing in Q1 of this year.
As they enter the home stretch of the end of this campaign, I’m asking if Pixel & Pulpit subscribers will consider supporting this effort. Checkpoint didn’t ask me to publicize this; I’m doing it because, as the title says, I believe in this ministry.
To put my money where my mouth is, I’m making this post, which is usually for paid subscribers only, available to everyone. That’s a $5 deal that I hope you’ll consider throwing towards the Indie GoGo campaign.
You can support this campaign by clicking here.
I’m doing this because I have seen firsthand the impact of these sermons on the Internet. In 2024 alone, they reached the feeds of 4.6 million people. Wouldn’t anyone be exhilarated to have their stamp of approval listed on those videos? Shouldn’t we be proud of the work being done here?
I know I am proud of this work, so I’m extending this opportunity to you.
I’ll share with you a peek behind the curtain. This is the impact that these nerdy sermons have made on the lives of real people online.
There is important work being done here. I want to see it keep going, so I’m supporting this ministry financially and professionally. I hope that you’ll consider doing the same.
I understand that this is not my usual Saturday post and hope you’ll forgive me this indulgence—your grace is appreciated.
Will It Preach?
I finished a few things this week, so I will reflect on them in this space. Would they preach? See if you agree with my take.
MiSide (2024)
I kind of fell head over heels for this random horror game this week. I played it and wrote a nerdy sermon on it in, like, twelve hours. It was a thing. Will absolutely preach.
Crypt Custodian (2024)
This is a cute indie game about making ghost friends. It’s also maybe a parable about how bad we are at judging others and how those who judge the most are often the ones who are the most vile. Will preach.
The Credit Roll
These are some of the things I found this week that I am sharing as a bonus. Enjoy my custom For You feed.
A life-changing video of a speech-language pathologist who presents his edited sentence and then the raw footage
This parody account makes a hilarious mash-up of fictional Father Mark’s digital ministry failure
TikTok creator Momo presents a dialogue with a people-pleaser and it gets real
I’d love to hear about something that you’re proud to be an advocate for in the comments below. I think it’s admirable to believe in something that strongly.