Diane Karney was tired of being a short, overweight, 42 year old whose chin-length brown locks revealed a few too many gray streaks. So, she turned herself into Jillian James – a thin, tall, 20 year old with long red hair. An extreme makeover? Radical plastic surgery? No, Diane simply logged onto Second Life, a three-dimensional virtual world created entirely by its residents. It looks very similar to a video game environment.

Jillian is Diane’s “avatar” as the customized characters are known – her Second Life identity. Perhaps even more startling than the new name and new look is Diane’s new online personality. In real life a shy single who tends to stay home every night, “Jillian” explores Second Life’s virtual pubs, drug connections and adult games with abandon.

At least she did until she stumbled onto one of Second Life’s Christian islands by accident. Now she is exploring the claims of Christ – anonymously – which, she says, is much more comfortable than being confronted by a zealous member of a real life church.

Created by San Francisco-based Linden Lab in 2003, Second Life was originally envisioned as a social platform for an idealized online society. According to the London Free Press, Second Life has had more than 8.9 million accounts registered since Linden opened the site to the public. Daily traffic hovers near 40,000 users, according to CNN.

Second Life’s users control their avatars with their keyboards and communicate with one another via instant message. Members trade in Linden dollars for fantasy houses, businesses, clothes and virtual sex. Sprinkled into this mix are a number of virtual churches that are owned and operated mainly by evangelical groups from the United States.

LifeChurch.tv, an innovative church with roots in Oklahoma City, launched a Second Life campus known as Experience Island this past spring. It is just one of the church’s many physical and Internet campuses. “People from all over the world, from Indonesia to Australia to France, gather in an area of the church’s website every weekend,” explains Bobby Gruenewald, whose title is Pastor, Innovation Leader. In addition to the global online group, with its own pastoral staff, there are LifeChurch.tv campuses in Texas, Florida, Arizona, Tennessee and New York.

During a recent interview, Gruenewald explained that LifeChurch.tv’s live weekend services are streamed via video and web cam on Second Life. Experience Island has two Sunday “experiences” as the virtual services are known. Avatars gather in “pews” to worship and listen to the message. The 3-D auditorium was designed along similar lines as the Oklahoma City location.

Due to limitations in technology, there is a limit to how many avatars can attend any one event. The first Sunday experience has about 40 attendees and the second is a little larger. Roughly 100 avatars attend church on Experience Island each weekend.