Pastor Crawls Through Warp Pipe For Super Mario Sermon Series, Turns Into Video Game Character

Protestia ^ | July 9, 2025 | staff

[Morgana]

Northwoods Community Church is an evangelical multisite church with campuses in Peoria and Canton, Illinois. A member of the Fellowship of Evangelical Churches, they’re led by Senior Pastor Jon Rychener, who took over the role just a few short years ago.

For years, they have put on “At the Movies” sermon series, featuring films such as Spider-Man, Indiana Jones, Top Gun, Mission Impossible, and Seabiscuit, to name a few.

During their 2023 Super Mario Sunday, Pastor Rychener was seen being “sucked into” the Super Mario video game, becoming a character for a few minutes before “returning” to the real world via a green warp pipe.

In his sermon, explaining that they use movies in the same way Jesus told stories, he highlighted the brotherly love between Mario and Luigi, encouraging the congregation to express similar affection in their relationships.

See the sermon notes below: On link..

[DannyTN]

Too many mushrooms

[The Great RJ]

My mother often said that if you needed entertainment to get people to go to church, their being there didn’t amount to much.

[The Great RJ]

My mother often said that if you needed entertainment to get people to go to church, their being there didn’t amount to much.

[Republican Wildcat]

This sounds more like activities for a community outreach event - not the main service.

[Dr. Franklin]

The Greek word "philia" translates as the brotherly love. The Greek word "delphia" translates as "from the city of Delphi". The city of Delphi was considered by the Greeks to have been the center of the world, and the place of the oracle of Apollo. Put the two Greek words together, yields, "Philadelphia" which translates as the city of brotherly love, (which opposing players don't feel when play sports games in Philadelphia). However, the pastor isn't right to say that "Philadelphia" means brotherly love.

It is worth noting that in the ancient world, the city of Philadelphia in the bible, is the present day city of Alaşehir in Turkey. Amman Jordan was also known as Philadelphia in antiquity, and today there is a Philadelphia University there.

[Big Red Badger]

That’s Funny Right There!
.

[T.B. Yoits]

The closing infantilization of the American mind.

[lgjhn23]

Nope...nope...and more nope.
Next, it will be line dancing to country music.
I’ll pass. Ya’ll go on ahead.

[No name given]

Exactly.

[Lazamataz]

I think it's called a Jeffries Tube.

[fso301]

Were deacons walking up and down the eyes shouting "Peanuts! Popcorn! Cotton Candy!"?

[delchiante]

:)

[cross_bearer_02]

Look, I’m an avid gamer. Always have been all my life, and I have no qualms if a pastor is also a gamer and all that. But when it comes to the pulpit, I just believe there’s a certain degree of decorum that should be adhered to when delivering a message in God’s house and from His pulpit.

As a Southern Baptist, this genuinely strikes me as a bit too much. I would find myself extremely uncomfortable attending this church, I think.