The Road
There are many ways to join us, many ways to get here. There are internships and apprenticeships, meetups and masterclasses. This is how a student, a veteran, or a faculty partner starts the journey to the Last Homely House.
The Road →The Imladris Thesis:
Video Games are discipling billions. The Church must rise up to embrace them and the creators who work there.
We begin with a cautionary tale…
It was 100 years ago and a steep hillside in Los Angeles still read ‘Hollywoodland.’ The movie business was exploding and an executive at 20th Century Fox wrote several Bible colleges pleading for assistance.
“Help!
We need Biblically fluent writers to create good scripts.
We can’t keep up!”
After a long silence he received only a single reply.
“I’d rather my students go directly to Hell...
than stop in Hollywood along the way.”
That really happened1, it’s not just an urban legend, and it exposes the roots of why many believers bemoan the animosity between movies and the faith.
Since then Hollywood has become the most influential culture-making machine the world has ever seen, for better or worse, and the stories told on the silver screen have shaped minds and hearts for literally billions of souls.
~~ Selah ~~
If we are honest we must say, as the Church: we blew it.
We missed an enormous opportunity because we thought ‘those people’ were weird. We judged something that was merely new as if it were something deeply wicked and then, wrapped up in the Holiness movement of the time, we abdicated a whole Sphere of Influence to whoever was more willing to understand it…and to love it.
If you could go back and change how the Body of Christ answered that earnest plea from Hollywood, what would you do differently?
Interactive Entertainment is the Hollywood of Tomorrow
Look and see that gaming looks a lot like Hollywood did in the 1930s:
- Explosive growth
- New business models
- Misunderstood by the Church
- Huge generational gulf
~~ And we are already far behind. ~~
Imladris is the manifestation of a conviction that we can, and must, learn from that mistake and do something different this time.
The field
God in the gaming industry
Game sales passed box-office sales as early as 2005. In 2025 the global games market crossed $200 billion2. In the United States alone, players spent $60.7 billion, more than movies, television, and music combined, according to the ESA’s 2026 Essential Facts3.
- Nearly half of U.S. players are women.
- The average player is in their mid-thirties.
- 75% of parents play games, and 81% of those play with their kids.
If you’re not in the industry there’s a good chance those demographics surprise you.
But money is not the point. The point is influence. Influence in the hearts and minds of billions.
Gaming is no longer a distraction. It is an art form. It is also no longer a one-off pastime. It is a new kind of enduring community. All of those people are looking for something: meaning, wisdom, connection.
~~ What will they find? ~~
It’s been said that story is the language of the heart. C.S. Lewis wanted fewer little books about Christianity and more books by Christians on other subjects — with their Christianity latent. Doesn’t the same notion apply to all art, including interactive?
If we conclude that Interactive will shape the next several generations across the entire globe, then people of faith ought to step into that ripe field with joy, grace, and practiced wisdom.
The question
How then shall we live?
In the middle of the pandemic the Lord asked a curious question:
What if you were the king of the game industry?
The question itself demanded different thinking. So if there was a king, or a queen, as compared to a CEO or an executive director, and she was given nothing but authority and favor over the sector as it currently exists, everything one set out to accomplish would be quite different from what's gone before.
You see a kingdom is not a game, it’s not a studio, and it's not a ministry. If it made a game played by millions, it would not matter because a hundred more would ship tomorrow. If it looked like a studio that ran for decades, and made millions of dollars, it might influence some people but that is still not a kingdom.
This is not a product problem.
This is a people problem.
The beating heart of any kingdom is its people. If someone wrote a blank check today to make the best video game the Church has ever made, we could not cash it because the workers are too few.
A king must be strategic. To articulate and establish a culture he must be deliberately apostolic. The work is to find, feed, and flourish tens of thousands of artists, technologists, innovators, and advocates — and to connect the players who will carry faith not only to the ends of the earth, but into the worlds they already inhabit.
In time, that blank check we couldn't cash today is reconsidered tomorrow when we've prepared, and suddenly resources become a different matter entirely.
Without doubt this will take decades. It will take billions. It is a long road through unknown territory but that is the call.
So be it.
Our answer
The world is hungry for Wonder — Again.
Look around with spiritual eyes and you’ll notice something has changed. You may find Tarot in the break room, Manifesting on the timeline, UAPs in Congress, little-g gods staring in sitcoms. The arid era of materialism is giving way to a generation that does not believe the universe is a dead, dice-throwing machine — and is shopping for a story that will make Life live again.
They are not wrong to want that, but they are looking in GameStop bins we abandoned.
If the culture is swinging to the woo-woo, that’s good news! We have the best woo-woo in the universe. Not a vibe or a supplement but a Person. A creation that is porous, charged, multi-plane — angels and matter and the hush after a good sentence. Trees that clap. Stones that would cry out. A Word that was spoken, and can be spoken to.
The first five years of our mission taught us this: Imladris is not here to make Christian products for a disenchanted market. We are here to invite makers back into an enchanted creation and then let them work. Dry faith will not survive this industry. Neither will thin magic. Re-enchantment is the move of God that meets this moment — wonder with a spine, adventure with a King.
Where we start
A foundation of people
We are building toward a hundred-year vision of an industry we’d want our children’s grandchildren to inherit. The first measurable work is not a product. It is a people:
- 5 Imladris Partners — Generous partners who lay the planks for a century of sowing.
- 50 Imladris Sages — Battle-tested veterans from every sector who share their wisdom training the upcoming generations.
- 500 Imladris Game Developers — Dedicated members with a fire in their bones to bring the scents and sounds of Heaven to gaming.
- 5,000 Imladris Students — Whole and holy, trained in the Way and excellent in their craft.
- 50,000 Imladris Players — The players, the dancers, the content creators who bring the art to life, and share it with the world.
The path
The doors of the hall
If something in all this resonates in your heart then know that you’re not alone…you’re not nearly alone. Imladris is growing every day.
Your invitation starts here:
Already on the list? The origin story lives on The Dream.
Once you have a key
The rooms
The House
The house is full of life. Given the chance it will feed you, challenge you, and give you rest. Join the unforced rhythms of Imladris for prayer, study, fellowship and more.
The House →
The Table
All great stories include a feast, as does this one. Our flagship event is a 4-day intensive retreat designed around the artist’s eye, the Hobbit’s stomach, and the Father’s heart. Registration coming soon.
The Table →The long work
Support the vision
A hundred-year redemptive game industry will not be built by a weekend. Imladris is a 501(c)(3). Gifts are tax-deductible.
