Church hopping observations

[nazpaz]

As a retired pastor I've had a lot of fun visiting various congregations in our travels. I've just done a blog entry of my observations. Even if you haven't been in the habit of attending churches in the past, you may find that attending as a traveling RVer adds an enjoyable and important dimension to your life. You'll find my thoughts here: http://pastorscott.com/travel/church-hopping-observations/

[bakerkids]

Larry, I'm often the same way. It's almost like nature prompts worship 🙂 I'm not a full-timer but would like to be some day. I have attended services while weekend camping. I've noticed over the years, though, that information isn't available at the campground like it once was, at least in my area. I remember getting maybe one sheet of paper with local church info, or maybe different pamphlets from churches inviting those camping to spend Sunday morning with them, when paying for my site. It's been a long time since I've received anything like that upon registering at the campground.

Since I only camp weekends, I do love to get in my camp chair, lakefront, with the Word of God in my lap. Awwww. It's precious time.

[wtmtnhiker]

Larryzv7 wrote:
I find a lot of comfort in church congregations which I have encountered at various stops while full-time RVing. My wife passed from breast cancer about 20-years ago and I never remarried, so I am alone but not really, because I feel the presence of spirit in my life and that presence is nurtured when I attend worship with a church congregation. Cultural influences are present in a lot of different local services.

It is like I have sampled many different denominations, from various cultures here in the U.S., and have found the presence of spirit in most. Attending a church service in Georgia can be different than attending a service in California, as is attending a service in Wyoming can be different than attending a service in New Mexico.

I have never felt un-welcomed and have involved myself in many church activities, at different locations during weekdays, that have uplifted me and nurtured a sense of camaraderie. Participation is absorbing while observation allows me to step back and see what is being absorbed.

But I have also worshipped alone in my RV or on top of a mountain, a beautiful lush green valley, or in the Mojave desert. Prayed, read scriptures, and sang spiritual songs in a very intimate and personal way of worship. I also feel the presence of spirit when I am close to nature and acknowledging in gratitude for this creation and my participation in it.

Thank you for sharing this uplifting post.

[tragusa3]

Very interesting. This thread just sparked a one hour conversation between my wife and I. We've been church hopping locally for the past year and want desperately to have a home like we have in the past.

[Larryzv7]

I find a lot of comfort in church congregations which I have encountered at various stops while full-time RVing. My wife passed from breast cancer about 20-years ago and I never remarried, so I am alone but not really, because I feel the presence of spirit in my life and that presence is nurtured when I attend worship with a church congregation. Cultural influences are present in a lot of different local services.

It is like I have sampled many different denominations, from various cultures here in the U.S., and have found the presence of spirit in most. Attending a church service in Georgia can be different than attending a service in California, as is attending a service in Wyoming can be different than attending a service in New Mexico.

I have never felt un-welcomed and have involved myself in many church activities, at different locations during weekdays, that have uplifted me and nurtured a sense of camaraderie. Participation is absorbing while observation allows me to step back and see what is being absorbed.

But I have also worshipped alone in my RV or on top of a mountain, a beautiful lush green valley, or in the Mojave desert. Prayed, read scriptures, and sang spiritual songs in a very intimate and personal way of worship. I also feel the presence of spirit when I am close to nature and acknowledging in gratitude for this creation and my participation in it.

[huntram]

Our experience has actually been great! Our home church, a Foursquare church in Oxnard, Ca has grown to over 2000 every Sunday. We we're very involved and our son still is on the worship team and works at the church.
We have been fulltiming for over 1 1/2 years and realized early on we couldn't just find our denomination. Every week we trust in the lord to place us where we belong. Obviously I am diligent to check out as best I can, but as a good brother told me if the spirit of God is not there before you arrive, God will be there when you get there. 🙂
We have been to Baptist, Methodist, EV Free, Calvary's, Foursquares to name a few and the power of God has been in all of them. The smallest had 26 including us and the pastor (I know because the pastor commented about it during service), up to about 7000 in a megachurch we went to. We have been warmly welcomed in all by the pastor in the small/medium churches or by hospitality teams in the larger churches. All seamed really interested once we revealed we were full timing rv'ers.
We LOVE our home church and enjoy when we are visiting family at home as we are now, but it has been fun and exciting to see what God has in store for us each week.
God bless,
Brian

[Notthru2]

For anyone interested in a "Live Stream" Presbyterian service, please check out this one in Colorado Springs, CO.

http://www.first-pres.org/index.cfm/PageID/2086/index.html

[rv2go]

A day latter, I feel that I need do a follow up on the so called "Church Hopping" from my experience. It may be different in the Churches you attend.

I am of the Baptist faith and our home Church in Knoxville, TN is a member of the Southern Baptist Convention. We have been members for over 40 years. Present attendance is over 1000 at Sunday Worship Service. During that time, I have greeted several visitors as a lay person. Unless you were seated on the isle on which the pastor and family was seated that Sunday during the "meet and greet" time, I doubt that the visitor would get to meet the Pastor before the morning Service. Then, after Church with 3 exits you might miss him again. Not always, but frequently, he will announce that he will be at the Welcome Center if you want to stop by. If not this way and you really want to meet the pastor, I am sure an Usher or someone at the Welcome Center would take you to him.

Now to our "Church" away from home. Using the SBC website, I try to find a church in the area we are staying. Generally with good results. Our experiences are that SBC Churches outside the Bible Belt are generally small. Maybe 50 to 100 there at worship time on Sunday morning. If no SBC Church, I use the web and other means to find a Baptist Church. I generally know weeks before I get there, the Church we will be attending. We will be the the area for 2 weeks to a month.

I like to arrive arrive about 5 minutes before the scheduled morning Worship Service. I have learned over the years that Baptist have their "regular" seating spot. Most of the time on the isle. I like to sit in the front, maybe 8 or 10 rows back. We pick a pew that is empty when we go in and sit in the middle. Latter at the meet and greet time, if no one is there we can move to the isle.
Most always there is someone to meet you at the door. If not, then at the Welcome Center. We like to introduce ourselves by name and tell all we meet that we are "full time RV'ers" and will be visiting for so many Sundays. If this does not start a conversation, the next thing we generally are asked is "where are you from"? If traveling out of the south, the southern drawl will surely spark some comments. We say "East Tennessee". That brings up the Smoky Mtn's., Nashville and of course Dolly Wood.

Some Pastors will ask for first time visitors to stand and introduce themselves. Others just to raise their hands.
After Church, we make it a point to meet the Pastor, do the intro and thank him for being there for us. The wife generally gets a hug, I get the hand shake.

We have visited some of these Churches several times over the 14 years that we have been roaming North America. It is surprising how often we are remembered. Not by name., but by face and that we are RV'ers from Tennessee.

I am not going to say that all visits have been perfect, but I am hard pressed to recall a negative visit. I think that if we start our visit to Church with the reason we are going, all will be great. It's all about Him, not us.

[nazpaz]

oldmattb wrote:
We had some friends that would choose a new church each week, mostly in rural areas to include a nice Sunday drive. On back-to-back weekends, they got rattlesnake handling and vomiting into trash cans during the service to purge demons.

My suggestion is to ask a frank question or two before you attend. I am sure most congregations, despite any fringe habits, would not intentionally make a visitor uncomfortable.

Matt B

Great story - made me laugh out loud. Have you ever heard Wendy Bagwell tell his rattlesnake story? This one is bound to hijack this thread. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSP_ZDV3htk

[oldmattb]

We had some friends that would choose a new church each week, mostly in rural areas to include a nice Sunday drive. On back-to-back weekends, they got rattlesnake handling and vomiting into trash cans during the service to purge demons.

My suggestion is to ask a frank question or two before you attend. I am sure most congregations, despite any fringe habits, would not intentionally make a visitor uncomfortable.

Matt B

[Shadow_Catcher]

For a number of years I worked contract jobs in nondestructive testing, power plants, nuclear and fossil fuel as well as other types of shutdowns. As a Christin who takes it seriously does not use four letter words or tell "dirty jokes" (I have a stock of clean ones) I was invited on a number of occasions to attend church with a local contractor and usually took them up on it.
Working in a refinery in the deep south I went with one worker to his church which was VERY conservative and used a shape note hymnal with no instrumental accompaniment.
My point is, do not limit yourself to one, or your own denomination. Sample the diversity of denominations. I have attended Jewish, LDS, Episcopal... services.

[jmtandem]

I a bit overwhelmed by the responses to the blog entry - I posted the link on three forums I enjoy and in a few facebook groups and getting a ton of feedback.

I have been on RV.net for long enough to be a senior member and my sense is that many regular members are part of God's family. And many perhaps don't attend a church while on the road for some of the first time uncomfortableness reasons you cited.

[nazpaz]

I a bit overwhelmed by the responses to the blog entry - I posted the link on three forums I enjoy and in a few facebook groups and getting a ton of feedback.

One thing that is surprising to me is how many retired pastors are fulltimers. I wonder what the connection is? Interesting to say the least.

Also, I seem to have lots of church attending company! I knew that in part because of people I've met in campgrounds but the response confirms that.

And, I'm getting a lot of agreement about churches being unready for pure walk-ins. I agree that this is something more churches need to think about.

A couple of things:
1. We attended a terrific campground ministry in Virgina last summer. A minister from an area congregation led the services, but there were several seasonal residents at the park who took the services quite seriously. It felt like, and was, a small church in and of itself.

2. I agree that this is an area of ministry that churches within a reasonable distance of campgrounds needs to cultivate. We saw a lot of church names and addresses on campground bulletin boards but I really think more can be done to make RVers welcome (including the offer of overnight dry camping on the property).

Thanks everyone for the great replies.

[jmtandem]

This is an excellent thread. There are 1.3 million Americans living in an RV. Most by choice and many in their 20's and 30's working from the RV, following the seasons, and earning money through the internet and other professions and jobs that are easily accomplished by not being in one place, going to one job location, and living in a stick and brick.

Most churches have traditionally catered to permanent full time church members and not transient full time RVers. Visitors were always welcome but they were not the mainstay of the church and everybody knew it. Maybe it is time for churches to re-think some of their basic instituational ways to make it easier for RVers to find the church, advertise that the church welcomes visitors with open arms and the visitor is not a commodity that is here today and gone tomorrow but treated the same as if they would be there forever, and make it easy for RVers to use the church, perhaps even having places to park on Sat night on church property. Many churches allow traveling bicycle riders to camp on the property, so expanding that to an RV that is self contained probably would not be a huge issue as long as local ordinances allow it. Maybe even have sermons that are motivational and inspirational and geared at least in part to visiting folks. It is a new frontier for churches to reach out to; a market that traditionally is not been all that church oriented, perhaps because some of the policies of the church. Of the 1.3 million Americans living in RV's, if only 10 percent went to church on a Sunday would be a huge amount of people. 130,000 people would fill most professional stadiums; some almost twice. This is a market the church should consider.

I am glad you as a pastor are seeing it from the other side and maybe you can be instrumental in beginning to effect change even if only on a small scale in the places you attend.

[revump]

We, too, are retired pastor (SBC) and wife. We try to attend SBC churches in our favorite towns. When on the road, we discover churches that we want to attend. Sometimes, we are disappointed. But, we try to encourage pastors in smaller churches.