As more people build friendships and spend significant portions of their lives in virtual spaces, Cru’s missionaries are adapting familiar evangelistic practices to reach them.

“At first we were like, what is it like here? Who comes here? Why are they here?” said Frank Kuligowski, the digital strategist for Cru who spearheaded the idea of Cru missionaries purchasing VR headsets. “How can we bless them and, you know, love them and listen to them?”

After praying, the missionaries pull up their virtual maps and choose a world to enter, which Kuligowski described as an art of its own — 20 users is the sweet spot, he said, enough activity without chaos.

Once inside a world, the missionaries split up and seek out small groups chatting in quieter corners. They begin casually.

“Cool avatar,” Kuligowski might say. “Did you make it?” After some conversation, they gradually turn to religion: “Is faith part of your life at all?” or “I was reading in my Bible earlier today.”

Nic, a 30-year-old social worker from The Netherlands, met the missionaries during one of their Friday outings. He declined to give his last name because he prefers to remain anonymous online — part of what attracted him to VRChat in the first place. In the virtual world, he appears as a small, floating cat.

“You guys are really calm,” Nic told them when they first met in a Japanese garden world. “Just listening.”

After that encounter, Nic joined the missionaries for several Friday outings and traveled with them to VRChurch. He said he considered himself Christian largely because he had been raised that way. When he mentioned that he had begun using oracle cards to make decisions, one Cru missionary sent him an article on Discord that cited a Bible passage warning against divination.

Nic eventually stopped joining the missionaries, but said he appreciated having a place to discuss religion.

“It’s nice having people to talk to about spiritual in-depth things online,” he told RNS.

“It’s pretty rare in VR.”