Player or Played: How Does the Counseling Pastor Help Someone Suffering from Video Game Addication?

Abstract

Video games have exploded in popularity in the past decade or so. With the rise of video game prominence on the global scale comes an emergent concern of video game related disorders like addiction. Addiction can be a silent and destructive force that leaves lives and relationships in ruin. The destructiveness of video game addiction presents harrowing results equal to those of other types of addiction. Research remains ongoing for video game addiction and its treatments. The Lutheran pastor is called to communicate God’s Word to his flock, but what does he do when he finds one of his flock enslaved to video games?This paper strives to equip pastors with knowledge about video game addiction and offer practical advice on how to counsel someone suffering from video game addiction using God’s Word.To achieve this goal, this paper will examine the current literature regarding video game addiction. It will offer some implications for the church based on the current literature, present counseling considerations for pastors faced with video game addiction, outline practical guidance for the counseling pastor concerning video game addiction using the repentance model, give additional encouragements for pastors and their ministries concerning video game addiction, and recommend additional areas for further research.