This church is a so called "gym" for people playing Pokémon Go. This means that players who are standing by this church can claim the "gym" if they can beat the person who last held it. That being said I have visited this church on many occasions to make progress in my game. Now I understand that the people intended purpose for this church isn't so gamers can crowd the parking lot and property with their smartphones however I was here at this church and I would say it was about 10:00pm at night. I choose to go here later because I drive and I do not want to interrupt anyone visiting by taking up a potential parking spot. The church service was over and there was just one van in the entire parking. There were no other services to be held here that entire night and as I mentioned before, I have been very mindful not to loiter here. I arrived here, was sitting in my car playing my game (an average session to beat the previous person in the "gym" can last between 5 and 10 minutes so it's not like I would be here for hours. As I am playing Pokemon a few minutes of me arriving, I had 2 older gentlemen knock on my car window. I roll it down and they were asking me to leave. They had said "the service is over, you must leave here" I explained quite respectfully to the gentlemen that I will be leaving shortly and that I was just leveling up my game that can only be played at this church location. Please note I cannot park on the street as there is no legal parking nearby. The men insisted I leave immediately completely ignoring what I had just explained to them and in quite a rude manner too. I respectfully left. Now driving by here at night I have noticed that there is a small chain they have started using to block people from, entering. It's quite sad to know that this church is so unwelcoming. No one was causing a disturbance and I was very respectful to the people there. If anything the church can actually email the game makers and have them remove the "gym" from their church but this has not been done so either. I suppose I am just offended that a place of worship and respect can treat someone in such a hypocritical manner. I think even if I was religious, I wouldn't choose this church to be the place I would go to attend service and I would tell my friends and family about the same experience.
1
8 years ago (26-04-2017)