Creativity and Nerd Culture Coram Deo

Over the last decade, I have found myself increasingly enamored with the intricacies of cooking, particularly regarding comfort foods – from lasagna, hearty wine-based stews, to my latest set of (unsuccessful!) experiments with chicken, waffles, and bourbon syrups.

I love cooking because it provides me with an exciting and sometimes daunting laboratory to be creative through playing with an endless variety of flavors. For example, I often ask questions such as, what if I switched out the ricotta mixture in this recipe for another one from that recipe, or what if I sautéed tomato paste in this oil and its unique properties instead of that one? The creative challenge of making delicious but beautiful meals is something I strive for and that brings me joy, if I pull them off that is!

Even though experimenting with flavor profiles may seem to have very little do with gaming, I have found my duties overseeing Dordt’s Gaming Guild to offer similar creative opportunities. At its heart, the Gaming Guild is a co-curricular club that celebrates all types of gaming, from PC and console gaming to board games, role playing, and beyond. The Guild is committed to providing authentic community that honors gamers as genuine members of God’s kingdom and to helping gamers be the best version of themselves in all areas of life.

The Gaming Guild as a concept is something new. It is missional focused and interested in developing exceptional leaders in gaming related spaces compared to college esports or game development programs. Building a program that meets these needs often requires a lot of creativity. From developing innovative gaming facilities and unique leadership curriculum to caring for and directing at least one hundred and fifty students who are active in our gaming community, I found creativity an essential part of my role and the Guild itself.

In this article, I would like to invite you for a closer look at how the Guild runs and challenge you to lean into creativity as you lead, serve, and grow in the spaces in which you have been called to serve.

How Theology Shapes Our Play

Creativity stems from a deep theological conviction: that God is the ultimate Creator and invites us to join Him in shaping the world around us. Practically, what this has meant is a layering process that includes documents like Dordt’s Task and Educational Framework, reflection on biblical stories and theology, and then insights from various fields such as sociology, history, missions, communications, and even architecture where I have been inspired by styles such as eco-brutalism and steampunk that tend to seamlessly blend nature elements with technology and modern architecture

I have found that these foundations were crucial for developing a clearer picture of how the world of nerd culture fits into a thousand-foot view of modern church mission. For example, if we hold to Abraham Kuyper’s view that every square inch exists perpetually under God’s sovereign reign and His continual redemptive activity, it follows that artificially bracketing off modern play domains as wholly fallen cannot be sustained theologically. Not only that, another logical implication is that nerd culture phenomena, while fallen, also must theoretically possess the potential to reflect God’s goodness, beauty, and truth in new ways that suit their own unique structures and methods. To achieve this however, they must be created and developed in ways that contribute to human flourishing and God’s glory; otherwise, they go awry and can do much harm.

Now, more specifically, my theoretical foundations lean heavily on Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck’s writings on common grace and Al Wolter’s notion about cultural structure and direction. Other primary ideas included Dordt’s emphasis on identifying serviceable insights, developing activities to support students’ whole persons, and insights translated from Dordt’s Defender Way and its helpful approach to competition and play.

These sorts of values also provide the beginnings of a roadmap – any Dordt Gaming program needed to focus on teaching students how to thoughtfully and faithfully understand, assess, and engage nerd culture well. In addition, any authentic Dordt gaming program would need to offer a thick enough variety of activities to successfully support students at the emotional, physical, and spiritual level.

Furthermore, nerd culture spaces represent groups of people – with their own cultures, tongues, and tribes - whom God loves and continually woos to Himself. Thus, it makes sense that we as the church and the Christian academy specifically should seek to support students’ callings in these areas and then prepare them for excellence and Christian leadership in them as well.

How the notion of Creation and Coram Deo Shape Play

Armed with an understanding of how theology shapes our play, we must also be able to define play from a biblical perspective that is easily applied in nerd culture participation. It seemed sensible to me to begin with a Reformed notion of coram deo, based on a serious commitment to God’s sovereignty and that can tightly connect play with our Christian call to celebrate our gifts.

The notion that every part of our lives belongs to God means that we are gently compelled to employ playful endeavors as not only part of our quest to craft beautiful lives rooted in Christ but also participating with all of our strength in God’s mission on earth – both adorning gaming spaces while challenging areas where evil has taken root. From this, when all is said and done, our play, whether serious or non-serious, should be a part of our greater efforts to consecrate our lives to God.

Of course, just because the notion of coram deo provides a helpful starting point to understand play, it does not alone provide us with guidance on what Christian approaches to play and nerd culture should look like.

Catholic play theorist Hugo Rahner in his book, Man at Play, noted that God’s very act of creation was in fact an instance of divine play which provides all would-be play-ers a blueprint by which to conduct their own play faithfully.

That is, according to Rahner, creation itself could be understood as an immensely playful act: God artfully, spontaneously, freely, and playfully arranging the stars, creating the vast diversity of creatures, systems, laws reminiscent of a play-er par excellence. Yet, and this is critically important, as the triune God, creation was conducted in loving and self-giving community, it was rooted in a relationality that involved truly seeing, acknowledging, and empowering each other. What is more, God’s playfulness was also serious, responsible, foresighted, and loving: preparing the universe for the creatures who would eventually emerge in the Garden.

All of this is what drives the mission of the Gaming Guild, and what I believe will help reframe nerd culture as not an escape from reality. Rather, nerd culture is a space to pursue God-given creativity to craft compelling stories and worlds, form meaningful relationships, and transform spaces of play into places of redemption – all to the glory of God.

Roleplaying Creed

One of the ways that all of this theology and philosophizing works itself out practically in the Guild is through the construction of nerd culture liturgy that allows players to remind themselves of who they are, creative attempts to shape their playing practices in faithful ways, and to bind each other together in love and common Christian purposes.

To conclude I wish to leave you with words copied from a role-playing creed that I helped create by using AI software which I then adjusted based on my own knowledge of the Reformed tradition and the Hippocratic Oath. It is a creative synthesis, based on ideas discussed here and created for Guild storytellers to unite us and guide our storytelling and roleplaying games. It is read aloud together at the end of semester long trainings that are designed to support our students to use their gifts for improv and storytelling to care for others. It is comforting to know that even when we go our separate ways, we will never be alone in our attempts to use storytelling to care and share the Gospel in this unique way. And it is just one small echo of our large mission that I call nerd culture coram deo.

I, the Dungeon Master, in the presence of the Triune God and this fellowship of players, do solemnly vow the following:

To steward the game world faithfully: as one entrusted with the shaping of story, space, and consequence. I will not wield power for vanity or cruelty but will serve as a just arbiter, crafting narratives that reflect both the gravity of sin and the beauty of grace.

To honor the dignity of every player, recognizing them as image-bearers of God. I will cultivate a table where the shy are drawn out, the bold are tempered, and each voice is welcomed in love and mutual respect.

To delight in the gift of imagination, knowing that creativity reflects the Creator’s own joyful work. I will not despise whimsy nor fear depth but will seek to weave truth, mystery, and hope into the worlds I steward.

To remember that my authority is ministerial, not magisterial, entrusted for the flourishing of others, not my own glory. I shall not play god but serve as a sub-creator in the great story God is telling.

To be attentive to justice, mercy, and humility, allowing the game to be a place where difficult truths may be explored, wrongs can be righted, and characters—even villainous ones—may be shown the possibility of redemption.

To prepare well and improvise wisely, seeking neither perfection nor control but to guide the story with openness, integrity, and a light touch.

To guard against idolatry and escapism, never letting the table replace the communion of saints or the call to live courageously in the real world. The game is not ultimate, but it can be penultimate—a gracious arena for growth, play, and fellowship.

To end the session well, honoring rest, limits, and sabbath. I will know when to pause, when to close the book, and when to simply laugh around the table.

And finally, to do all this coram Deo—before the face of God—with gratitude, joy, and humility, until the final quest ends and the true story begins.

Soli Deo Gloria.