Travel and Church
By Holly Scheer
Whatever the reason for the travel– for work, to see family, vacation, ect, travel that stretches past Sunday brings with with it the need to consider what to do about church.
My family was on vacation this last Sunday– a vacation that included my parents. This meant that Sunday morning when we visited a church there were two pastors sitting in the pew, and that they spent time researching where we should visit.
How many families spend time online researching hotels but don’t think to apply some of the same time and effort to looking for a church to attend?
If looking for another church to visit sounds overwhelming, don’t worry. There are some easy tips for searching for a good place to attend.
- Ask your pastor. The church is actually pretty close knit when you get down to it. If you tell the pastor where you will be staying and give him some time to look, there’s a chance that he knows one of the pastors in the area and can help connect you.
- Look online. Just like we search for hotels, pull up area churches on a search engine and read through the website. How often do they offer communion, and is it close /d/? Do they mention if they follow the liturgy?
- Ask your friends. We’re in an increasingly mobile society. And with social media added on, our networking can connect us quickly to people not just all over the country but all over the world. Ask if anyone else has been to that place and if they found a great church.
When you travel how do you pick a church to visit?
3 Comments
MrsReeder
My husband always checks out lutheranliturgy.org when we or someone in the Congregation is travelling. :)
Kim
I always check the issues etc. web site. We have found several wonderful churches on their list that we have enjoyed visiting.
Diane
I like your post, Holly. My husband and I always try to find a LCMS when we’re traveling. Most of the time the services are reasonable. Since most of the LCMS churches have LSB, we usually encounter competent services from our hymnal. When we look on-line we try to avoid churches that have a contemporary service listed on their website. I’m a cradle Lutheran and I can’t abide the music of so-called contemporary/blended services. We went to St. Paul’s in Fort Wayne on the last leg of our vacation this summer. The DS was straight out of the hymnal. No announcements before, during or after and no children’s sermons. Loved it! Where most of the diversity comes into play is during the offering, etc. Also, each congregation is unique. We know of one congregation that sits during the Gospel reading. It really bothers me to sit during the Gospel reading. Communion practices vary widely too.