Hipster Jesus : Pokémon Evangelism

Interested in the video version of this sermon? Click here to watch! 

Our new series about Jesus, the 30 A.D. hipster.

Welcome back, Wave-Makers! It’s a new week here on the blog and I am excited to be with you all once again. As many of you know, we are starting a new series this week. The name of this series is a bit of an odd one, but it’s called, “Hipster Jesus.” For those of you who aren’t familiar with hipsters, Google defines a hipster as, “a person who follows the latest trends and fashions, especially those regarded as being outside the cultural mainstream.” It derives from a modernization of the beatnik movement of the hippies during the rock’n’roll era. The hipsters of today and the hippies of a time past are and were discredited by society as being somewhat silly due to their unconventional beliefs and patterns. Now, I don’t want to dive too far into sociology (I only want this blog to be so long), but, during his time, Jesus was definitely a hipster. I’m NOT implying that Jesus is equivalent to our modern day hipsters, but during his time, Jesus definitely fits the definition.

However, before we dive into this metaphor head-first, let’s start with a quick dip in the Word of Jesus, taken from the gospel of Luke.

²⁵ Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ²⁶ He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” ²⁷ He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” ²⁸ And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”

²⁹ But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” ³⁰ Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. ³¹ Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. ³² So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³ But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. ³⁴ He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. ³⁵ The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ ³⁶ Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” ³⁷ He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

                                                                                                       – Luke 10:25-37

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts together be glorified in your presence. You are our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

What does it mean to be a Christian?

First, I want to recap you on an exercise we did this past Sunday in the worship service. Feel free to watch the video/listen to the audio to get this part. I’ll also post a picture below of the results as well. The way that we started the service was to open the floor to everyone to yell out answers to a question that I asked: “Think of someone who you love or has impacted you. What have they done for you?” I then wrote the verbs on the board in a past-tense nature. We took these verbs and I asked them, “Which of these has Jesus done for you?” Most of these positive actions were mirrored in Christ. At this point, I turned the verbs into present-tense and explained to the congregation that THIS is what it means to be a Christian. These positive impacts that we have on the world are the way we are meant to present ourselves to the world.

The whiteboard responses from 8/14/16 worship service @ Pelham UMC.
The top of the board initially read, "He/She _____ Me" then was "Jesus ______ Me"
then finally "I _______ Others" as above.

In Peter 2:21, the writer tells us, “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.” To be a Christian, we follow in Jesus’ footsteps.

Are any of you familiar with Rev. Charles Sheldon? You may be more familiar than you realize. Kansas Pastor Charles Sheldon was a prominent leader in the late 19^th century who published the book In His Steps, in which he laid out the method of thought that a Christ-follower should have. In his book, he coined a phrase that would last the rest of his lifetime and have a re-boost during the modern era of Christianity that we live in today. Many of you have likely worn this phrase on wristbands. Know what it is yet? WWJD. What would Jesus do? This phrase echoed in the halls of 90s era Christian conferences is incredible apropos for today’s message.

So, what would Jesus do? Why did Jesus come to us? Well, again in the gospel of Luke, Jesus explains this, he proclaims that,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
        to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
    and recovery of sight to the blind,
        to let the oppressed go free,
¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Why did Jesus come? To help those in need. Plain and simple. His mission was to come and to set the captives free of their sin. Thus, piecing that together with the passage from Peter, we can acknowledge that we are here to continue on Jesus’ ministry by doing what? Helping those in need.

I know that this is probably overwhelming in the realm of today’s culture, but I want to talk a little bit about Pokémon Go. For those of you that haven’t heard of Pokémon Go, it is an app-based game available on any smart cellular devices. Based around the classic role-playing game that has been taking the storm since the early 1990s, the app allows the user to find digital creatures in the real world through the integration of Google’s mapping technology and Pokémon Company’s wide array of these creatures. As a not-so-closet nerd, I am not ashamed to admit that I definitely own this game and have played it for many hours, but I am not trying to convert you to the nerd culture, instead I want to illustrate the insane popularity of this game. Since it’s release, Pokémon Go has received nearly 200 million dollars in app revenue, it’s been downloaded 100 million times, and it has exceeded the popularity of any other app on the market. In fact, it only took 13 hours for Pokémon Go to become the highest grossing app in the US. Now, here’s the incredible part, it increased Nintendo’s (the company behind the Pokémon franchise) market value by 9 billion dollars. That’s billion with a ‘b.’ It nearly doubled the total value of the company. With one app. A company that has been around since the dawn of video games in the late 80s, with countless hit games and major hard-hitting consoles had it’s legacy that it worked over two decades to forge doubled in just a few weeks by ONE measly app.

So, what gives? Why or how did this happen? Is it just some kind of statistical anomaly? A one-hit wonder? Maybe so, but I think what we’re seeing is something else. And, believe it or not, I think the church could learn a little something from this company and it’s success. If you haven’t closed out of this blog yet, thank you and hear me out… please bear with me.

Nintendo used to be a company synonymous with video games. Many of you probably recall purchasing a Super Nintendo Entertainment System for your children, grandchildren, or you might remember receiving one for Christmas. Every single kid out there had one. Having the ability to take not just one arcade game to your home television but a seemingly never-ending number of games was any child’s dream. Nintendo had an advantage of being one of the first gaming companies and also being one of the most memorable of its time. With lovable characters like the mushroom-eating, turtle-kicking plumber Mario to the adorable, other-worldly critters of Pokémon, Nintendo cemented itself as THE game company of the 90s.

Now, let’s compare this to the church. The church, during its formation in North America, was one of the leading, and only, religious venues available. Some of us out there likely remember growing up in this era of church. Known as the “Golden Age of Churches,” it was a time when everyone went to church. Most places were closed on Sunday’s anyway and no one in the suburb would dare miss a sermon. People knew and loved the church and it had the most relatable characters, instead of plumbers, the church had powerful men like Samson, wise men like Moses, perfect men like Jesus.

However, there is always a ‘but’ in these situations, isn’t there? The golden age ended for both of these entities. Suddenly, other companies, like Sony and Microsoft, decided to get into the gaming culture. They brought harder-hitting and gorier gaming alternatives to compete with the bright and cheery nature of Nintendo. Nintendo went from being the only console that everyone in the neighborhood had to have to the one that sometimes people got picked on for having. Over the next several decades of growth and graphics, Nintendo evolved into the little brother of the gaming culture. The company always managed to stay relevant, thanks to an abundance of popularity during the golden age of gaming, but the company didn’t seem to have the same complete take-over that it once had.

Starting to sound familiar? In the same vein as Nintendo, the golden age of churches began to chip away. Families became busy. New buildings were built and people found that it was more fun to go to the sports bar on a Sunday for the game. Suddenly, there were better things to do instead of sit in a pew, and the church slowly but surely declined. And we have continued to decline, decade by decade. We’ve managed to stay relevant, thanks to a well-formed history during our golden age, but somehow we just don’t have the impact that we once had. Like Nintendo, we are in a rut.

However, Nintendo managed to break free of the rut, in spades. With the creation and implementation of Pokémon Go, the company doubled its impact and value in a few short weeks. So, should the church make an app where you capture little church members and then bring them to church with you? Unless someone out there thinks that will work, then I don’t think that’s what happened to make Nintendo relevant again.

Let’s look to Nintendo again. Since their inception, they have maintained a single mission statement: to entertain. Okay, we have one of those, too. Remember the statement from Jesus earlier? Our mission is to help those in need. So, Nintendo saw the need. They saw that people needed to be entertained. The next step is brainstorming how to reach people. Do you charge people a ton of money to purchase your product? They tried it and it didn’t work. Do you shame people into believing that it’s something you should get? We tried that and it doesn’t work. Eventually, after countless failed attempts, Nintendo has realized the secret.

You have to meet people where they are.

I think that those of us in the church make an assumption that churches were started by Peter sitting in a clay shack somewhere in the Middle East twiddling his thumbs and thinking to himself, “How do I get millennials into church?”  No, when Jesus gave us the great commission, He meant it. Jesus began the movement of Needs-Based Evangelism. Not Needs-Based Invite-ism. Or Exclusive-ism. Jesus saw the need, but He didn’t stop there. He didn’t just invite those people to his cookout. He didn’t say that people could come visit Him, but only if they made sure to wear a tie and have His version of the Torah. He saw a need, He went to them and met them where they were. He didn’t expect the people to want to save themselves; He went to help those in need.

Maybe it’s more than just WWJD. Maybe it’s time that we stop daydreaming on the feats of Jesus. Jesus wants us to live like Him, yes, but He didn’t sit in the pew and wonder WWGD (What would God do?) So, ask yourself, “What would Jesus do?” then ask, “What can I do?” and then DO it. I firmly believe you can change the world.

Please feel free to post any comments for discussion, I will try my best to respond. As always, if you have any private needs or prayers concerns, feel free to contact me personally at nathan@makingwaves.cc.