Vacation Church Visiting

Growing up as a PK (pastor’s kid), I had countless opportunities to attend worship services at churches around the country. I’ve been to Catholic masses, Episcopal services, Jewish synagogues, Baptist churches, Lutheran…, Presbyterian…, Assemblies of God…, CMA…, and I could go on and on. In general these were great experiences for me. It permitted me to see things from other perspectives. When we were on vacation, we would often pop in at a church that was local to where we were vacationing.

Well, we just got back from a week of vacation to Pittsburgh to pick up my in-laws motor home (hence the previous post), to Aurora, IL to stop in on my Aunt Elaine and Uncle Max, to Batavia, IL to spend a few hours with my Grandma, to Pike Lake State Forest in Wisconsin to spend several days with my parents, my brothers, my sister-in-law, and my nephew and new niece. Then we returned to Pittsburgh to drop off the RV, to Vienna, VA to attend the wedding of a college friend of Leanne’s, to Darlington, MD to drop Isaac off at Indian Lake Christian Service Camp, and finally home.

During this week, we had the privilege of participating in the worship services at two churches. First, we went to my brothers church in Milwaukee. Milwaukee Mennonite Church is a fairly new church, and it is quite a bit different than the church I now attend. It was special to get a different taste of how others worship our God. Today, we attended Journey’s Crossing church in Gaithersburg, MD. This church is similar to our own church. Through visits like these it’s great to walk away with new ideas for your own church as well as a renewed appreciation for what your church does. We’re certainly looking forward to returning to our home church (Christ’s Church of the Valley) next week.

If you happen to be away on vacation, I would encourage you to look up a local church that looks interesting. Check it out, and bring back a bulletin and your thoughts to your own church.

Until the next post…