Faith Works 6-16-07
Jeff Gill

Where Do You Go To Worship On Vacation?

Some folks have a strange idea that worship is one of the things you vacation away from.

Like the lawn, the timeclock, and grocery shopping, there are those who want to get away from the whole church experience.

If that describes you, there’s something about what attending a worship service means to you that needs revisiting.

Let’s be generous, though, and assume that you’ve reflected on why you are part of a worshiping community, are situated as well as you can find in your area for a church, and may not find everything fulfilling your spiritual needs. Maybe that issue is exactly what God’s trying to tell you: you need to worry less about your needs, and work on why we’re made to give thanks and catch a vision in community, and not just in solitude.

One way to get some perspective on whether you have some personal issues to sort out, or need to find a church somewhere else, is to visit churches while on vacation. In fact, even if you think your faith community is the best experience you’ll have this side of the Heavenly Choir, you should visit different churches on vacation.

At the worst, you’ll come home convinced that no one, anywhere, knows how to worship like you do at home. The best and most likely outcome is that you’ll learn a thing or two that your congregational leadership and/or pastor will appreciate hearing about.

Certainly the main point should be that a regular pattern of praise and prayer isn’t what you want to break up. Keeping those disciplines together, while you shake up the usual breakfast on the fly, check e-mail, and run errands flow of the day, can be illuminating in many ways. When you walk into a worship space among the new experiences of amusement parks or beaches or historic sites, there’s a whole new understanding that your heart will open along with that strange church door.

Don’t know where to go? Some folks don’t travel without reservations made in advance, and I respect that, but a church that you just step into can be the most revelatory experience. You saw it as you drove out to the beach, and thought “let’s just try it out.” If that feels a little too outta-hand for you, ask your pastor. Almost any clergyperson will happily help you find churches of your denomination near your destination.

You can also go online to your denominational website (most of them have pretty intuitive addresses, like disciples.org, ucc.org, or unitedmethodist.org; for Catholics, masstimes.org is pretty neat). If you know the zip code for your hotel or campground, you can find congregations within a certain number of miles, and even links to their websites.

But let me beg of you one more time: don’t try too hard to find a service that’s exactly what you’re used to. If there’s a worship style or approach that you don’t quite appreciate, vacation time is a good time to go sample and see for yourself. Stretch, grow, learn. If you just confirm your feelings from before, at least you can say you’ve been there, done that. Hey, you’re a stranger. You can always get up and leave!

You wouldn’t want to eat at the same fast food chain every meal on vacation that you frequent back home, would you? Oh, OK. Never mind. The rest of you, check out a new worship experience on vacation, and then come home and tell me about it. I’ll skip names and places as requested.

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and supply preacher around central Ohio; he’s worshiped a number of strange and wonderful places. Tell him your worship tale at knapsack77@gmail.com.