{"id":590,"date":"2016-07-20T19:36:43","date_gmt":"2016-07-20T19:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.brethren.org\/messenger\/?p=590"},"modified":"2018-09-21T19:43:27","modified_gmt":"2018-09-21T19:43:27","slug":"pokemon-go-and-a-cup-of-cold-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/uncategorized\/pokemon-go-and-a-cup-of-cold-water\/","title":{"rendered":"Pok\u00e9mon Go and a cup of cold water"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phoenix, Ariz.: Wednesday, July 13, 8:07 a.m.\u2014Coffee in hand, quickly scan e-mail. One of my pastor pals sends me an article, “How To Use Pok\u00e9mon Go as an Outreach Tool.” Have no idea what Pok\u00e9mon Go is, but I like outreach. Maybe I’ll sign my church up, maybe not.<\/p>\n

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Cross and welcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

9:34 a.m.\u2014Roll into our local coffee shop, across the street from our church building. The baristas (younger and hipper than me, great tattoos) excitedly inform me that our church is a site for Pok\u00e9mon Go. I’m confused, which happens easily. They explain that Pok\u00e9mon Go is a mobile app, a smartphone-based video game. In order to play, you walk around to different locations and do stuff on your phone. It’s like geocaching, or a digital scavenger hunt, and it’s hugely popular. OK, maybe I’ll sign my church up, maybe not.<\/p>\n

9:46 a.m.\u2014Baristas inform me, again, that our church is a site for Pok\u00e9mon Go. I assert that I did not agree to this. They patiently explain that nobody signs up to be a site; you either get chosen by the nerds at Nintendo or you don’t. We were chosen. I feel disoriented, and old.<\/p>\n

9:51 a.m.\u2014Associate minister (also younger and hipper than me, great beard) informs me that he has seen hundreds of people descending on various Pok\u00e9mon Go sites around the city. I download the free game on my phone. Can’t figure out how to make it work. I consider taking up shuffleboard instead.<\/p>\n

10:00 a.m.\u2014Coffee meeting with a young woman who visited worship on Sunday. She’s a trauma nurse, and tells stories about people getting in car accidents because they were gaming while driving. I privately have a worst-case-scenario fantasy and wonder whether we could get sued if someone died on our property playing this Pok\u00e9mon thing. Then I chill out and remember that our site is well away from traffic and perfectly safe. Hmmm. . . .<\/p>\n

10:30 a.m.\u2014Meeting over, I scramble the associate minister (beard) and a barista (tattoos) and another young adult (gamer) from our congregation. Find out that the precise Pok\u00e9mon Go site is actually at a stone labyrinth\u2014a prayer path\u2014and cross on our property. Nice. But forecast is 111 degrees F and there is not a shred of shade. We set out a welcome sign, a few brochures about our church, and a large cooler filled with bottled water. Ministry of hospitality. Take pictures and post to social media. Get slight sunburn where hairline is gently receding.<\/p>\n

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Note from Pok\u00e9mon Go team<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

3:17 p.m.\u2014Get contacted by several peers and colleagues across the country who saw my post on social media. They ask me how they can sign up their church to be a site for Pok\u00e9mon Go. They praise my expertise and amazing technological know-how. I humbly accept their admiration. I do not tell them I still can’t figure out how to make the game work on my phone.<\/p>\n

Thursday, July 14, 9:15 a.m.\u2014Come to church building, notice something odd. I almost expect vandalism. But someone has left a sticky note on our Pok\u00e9mon welcome sign. It reads, \u201cWe saw you were running low, so we wanted to return the favor. #Teamvalor. #Giveback.\u201d The cooler has been refilled with several cases of water and fresh ice, supplied by strangers. Consider the irony of a hashtag sticky note, and grateful for the experience.<\/p>\n

Wednesday, July 20, 9:25 a.m.\u2014Reflection: The Pok\u00e9mon craze continues. For now. But soon it will pass. I said \u201cyes\u201d to Jesus a long time ago, and part of saying yes to Jesus meant saying yes to outreach. And hospitality. And being a good neighbor. And offering a cup of cold water. I have no illusions that our little cooler of water will somehow bring about God’s kingdom or create world peace. But with all of the current ugliness in our world, I am grateful to help strangers be kind to strangers. So we will be faithful in the small things. We will seize the fleeting opportunities, in hopes of building lasting bridges in Jesus\u2019 name. And that is exactly what I signed up for.<\/p>\n

Photos by Jeremy Ashworth.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What happens when your church becomes a site for Pok\u00e9mon Go?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":592,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[113],"class_list":["post-590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-jeremy-ashworth"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":596,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590\/revisions\/596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}