How the Church uses video games and escape rooms to evangelize

This June 8, 2025, Christophe and Mélanie made the trip to the Toulouse convention center (Haute-Garonne). This couple in their thirties accompanies a loved one who came to receive confirmation during a mass bringing together 15,000 faithful. Upon arriving, their young son finds himself caught in a “paquito”, this human chain emblematic of South-West festivals, to the sound of the brass of a banda (fanfare).

Mélanie does not shy away from her pleasure: “If the masses of my childhood had been preceded by such joyful times, I would have gone running!” A priest leads the dance, wearing a spring-mounted flame of the Holy Spirit. All morning, he performed choreographies, games and escape games open to anyone who felt green enough in body or mind to take part.

“Our patronage is an intergenerational adventure”

At 32, Father Aymar de Langautier is priest of the Porte du Lauragais parishes and responsible for the patronage of Calvel, east of Toulouse. We find him there three months later, in the middle of the school year, more convinced than ever that the game can counter the ambient individualism. “Our patronage is an intergenerational adventure that brings together children, teenagers, parents. Through the game, we put into practice rules anchored in Christian anthropology: justice, surpassing oneself and respect for the most fragile,” he lists.

All subject to the observation of two immutable principles: few screens and an active presence of adults: “In schoolyards, adults watch at the edge, arms crossed. Here, people shout and play, but the adults are in the middle,” he assures. In fact, the “patros”, which fell into disuse in the post-war period after a meteoric rise in the 19th century, are making a comeback in parishes.

Challenges, badges, points…

If adults are not asked to play, it is because our time has installed play at the heart of adult life. Of course, we have learned and worked through play since Antiquity. History is full of examples, from the young Louis XIV trained in this way in war strategies to the workers of the Stalinist era. But with digital technology, gaming culture has changed in scale and scope. From now on, it absolutely colonizes all our spaces, from the screens of our smartphones to school, and even the world of work.

Anthropologist and lecturer at the Sorbonne-Nouvelle, Emmanuelle Savignac has made this question her research subject. She distinguishes two sides of the phenomenon, gamification and gamification. “Gamification focuses on the atmosphere around work: board game at break or go-kart outing, to create cohesion without modifying the task itself. While gamification introduces game rules into the task itself: badges, levels, achievements, points. These rewards support production or learning, as in the popular foreign language app Duolingo.”

This gamification takes everything in its path: according to the 2024 Loyalty Barometer, 87% of French people are registered in at least one loyalty program enhanced with challenges, badges and points. In business, a TalentLMS survey of SMEs reports better employee loyalty when gamification is used.

In terms of connected health, users of blood pressure monitoring applications or step counters are 30% more regular when the program includes challenges. The principle appeals just as much to those accustomed to prayer applications: Pray Today, driven by the Emmanuel community, stimulates spiritual progression by promoting a logic of content collection; Pray along the way, led by the Jesuits, set objectives to achieve; Let us pray in Church (Bayard group, publisher of Pilgrim ) offers an interactive Advent calendar, etc.

Imagination, a refuge

Far from marketing strategies, Father Bertrand Monnier also integrated the game into his life as a priest. For seven years at the head of the Saint-Vanne-en-Verdunois parish, in the Meuse, he has just celebrated his last mass there before beginning a new mission devoted to youth ministry. The man is a local figure, known by the nickname “the gamer priest”.

For this child of the 1980s, who combines a Roman collar and a t-shirt inspired by metal music, living with the game means living with the times: “I am a priest in the century to which God sends me,” he humbly says. The game is constitutive of today’s thought, culture and arts. The Church has missed out a bit. We focused on moral and social issues. This is a good thing, but it has come at the expense of cultural issues.”

An anchor in the era that Laurent Di Filippo, lecturer in information and communication sciences at the University of Lorraine, explains by a new relationship with the imagination: “Since the turn of the century, the era has granted increased importance to the imagination. We measure it in literature, cinema, business and games. New generations are diving there to escape worries linked to the climate, wars and uncertainties.”

Online games at the presbytery

In Verdun, Father Bertrand created a small parish group called CathoGeek. One Sunday a month, he plays online with young people aged 10 to 14, at the presbytery or remotely. During the games, shyness disappears and questions arise: “They ask me about angels or demons… A young person confided to me that in seven years of teaching, no one had spoken to him about angels even though they are omnipresent in his games. This is where we note a gap or an indifference for which we pay dearly in terms of evangelization,” he is alarmed.

The presbytery and the computer are not, however, his favorite terrain. Well introduced to the world of metal music concerts, role-playing games and video game tournaments, he willingly takes on the role of priest on duty: “There is a lot to do in these environments and the Church is well received there. Geeks are happy to play with a priest. They think, love history and are interested in religious themes,” he assures. Since the beginning of his ministry, he has widely shared his creativity with the faithful, developing role-playing games for catechism, escape games for adults and rallies: “Parishioners learn while having fun. It’s a faith that lives,” he concludes.

A cultural return to the Church

This fun way of living the faith benefits from being shared beyond the circle of believers. This is the conviction of Alexandra Katz, responsible for the pastoral care of tourism and leisure for the diocese of Strasbourg. The young woman has made a specialty of escape games and life-size treasure hunts in churches. It provides the parishes of the diocese with a turnkey catalog*. “This initiative is part of a movement of missionary renewal and promotion of our religious heritage,” she explains. Its spirit is at once cultural, playful and spiritual. »

If the plots are based on enigmas, codes and objects to manipulate, there always remains a spiritual or symbolic anchor: we thus discover in passing the meaning of liturgical furniture or the history of the first Christians. A way of facilitating a cultural return to the churches which is perhaps not without effect. According to the 2024 survey on the catechumenate of adults, conducted in a third of dioceses, no less than 32% of respondents cite access to “religious heritage” as a trigger for a move towards baptism.

On her scale, Alexandra Katz already sees the image of the Church evolving: “The first escape game that I developed for the Saint-Joseph church in Colmar focused on the day of the inauguration of our church, in 1900. It was just after Covid and upon registration. We registered 250 players, including bachelor party attendees and tattooed bikers… As we left, they said to me: “Many thanks. We didn’t know we could have so much fun and create so much in a church. We thought it was dead, it’s alive!” I came away from this experience full of hope.”

Testimonies of the same nature come from many dioceses. From “mystery evenings”, hosted by Father Éric Jacquinet in Talence (Gironde), to ready-to-print treasure hunts, offered by the e-chasses site and popular with catechists and chaplaincies, the formats are multiplying and show that the game is finding its place in the Church. Father Aymar de Langautier is delighted: “I always have in mind Pope Benedict XVI who spoke of the liturgy as child’s play and a rehearsal of what we will experience in eternity. This is what I tell young people when they drag their feet to go to church or to serve mass: what we do there is a game that familiarizes us with the real rules up there…”

* pilgrimagesculturetourismealsace.fr/escape-games