The popularity of Pokemon Go had already reached into new heights in various parts of the globe. In the case of the church, their stance regarding the mobile game has shifted upon its release.
Initially, some Christian churches have been against the game and condemned it as an evil game. However, upon its release, Pokemon Go is actually sending Pokemon trainers to go to local churches and some of these churches welcome these trainers warmly.
The trend was first noticed by Reddit user Fanatix_phil last Thursday after the game was released in the US and showed a screenshot of three churches tagged as Pokestops. In the meme, the user said:
"Decades ago, churches condemned Pokemon as being satanic and evil for children. Now that we're grown, we're finally going back to those very churches to tell them we turned out OK and also to stock up on supplies."
in the augmented reality game, Pokestops give trainers free items and they are usually public areas like statues, churches and government offices. Some church properties are even standing in as gym locations for trainers to compete.
Some churches in the US, such as the Griffith First Christian Church in Indiana, reported that they did notice an increase of people going to the church while holding their phones and realized they were a part of the game. With summer currently on full swing in the US and people drenched in the sun, a worker from the church said that they decided to offer water to these players, alongside the Gospel if they are open to the idea.
Joanne Adamoski, in her interview with the Christian Post on Tuesday, stated " We just found out that they have three gyms, I guess they are at our property so because it's hot right now they [the church] just put out a cooler of water and they advertised it on Facebook. I don't know who does that, I don't know who's in charge of where they place these. You see people walking around with cell phones, driving by... so we just offer them water. If we are able to, (we talk to them about the Gospel) if they pursue it at all. We're not doing it as any kind of high pressure. No tricks. It's just hot, 'how about a drink?' its like a good service thing to do."
The church's Facebook page also had a message for Pokemon Go players going to the church and it wrote: "It's time to love people in Jesus' name. From the biggest to the smallest things to everything in between... We MUST love people no matter what. As we see several kids (and adults!) come to our property in the coming days and weeks (As we are one of the most popular spots in Griffith with 3 destinations here alone), this is a great opportunity to show a no strings attached kind of love. Stay hydrated and happy playing!"
Pokemon Go players have all said their responses to the church with one player saying "Thank you so much. My Friends and I were in need of a drink by the time we biked there and thought it was amazing! Thank you!!"
The Reddit thread garnered quite a lot of comments since it was posted by Fantatix_phil, some of them are Christian ministry workers. These workers said that not all churches were against the Pokemon franchise and expressed that their churches did not hate the franchise.
