“When we say ‘yes’ and head out on the road trip, we open ourselves up to the unexpected”
– Dan Esch, Regina, Saskatchewan
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Topics:
Invite people to Christ | Hills of Peace | Leading Congregations in Mission (LCN) | Men’s Retreat |
A few years ago, I fell in love with the ideas of (1) the road trip and (2) the power of invitation. For the first 20 or so years I went to the same church at the same time. I was guilted out of bed by my mom who either wanted some company on the four-minute ride to church or was hoping that maybe after enough Sundays, some of her experiences would stick to me.
It didn’t. God kept early hours and we didn’t share any of the same interests. However, at 18, I accepted an invitation for a road trip to ski in Red Lodge, Montana, which eventually spawned a trip to a “work” camp at Hills of Peace. I took another ski trip and the mother-of-all road trips two years later to go to Graceland (that was not an invitation, but an escape from an existence I no longer had an interest to face).
As I discovered, road trips take some planning. They usually involve travelling with others and they almost never turn out exactly as planned. After three years of travelling between Saskatchewan and Iowa, I returned home to a congregation that had suddenly become populated with people whom I found intriguing and friendly. I had seen a glimpse of what worship could be, so a few years later I travelled back to Graceland with Dan Woynarski for a week-long congregational leaders workshop where we struck up a friendship with Bob Kyser (and scored a free pizza at Pizza Shack).
This relationship paid off when we invited Bob to be our first guest minister at the inaugural Western Canada Mission Centre (WCMC) men’s retreat. Our road trip to Hills of Peace with Bob and the celebration that weekend led to over a dozen other road trips — with guest ministers who had never been to camp and with native sons who returned home. It was there I rediscovered the joy of the shared experience and a spirit that spoke of boundless grace instead of the eternal hellfire. As a result, I accepted the invitation to attend a weekend retreat in Idaho.
The road trip was hilarious, the weekend was evangelical, and the impact on me was life-changing. I had no idea that church could be so “live-wire”. So, when the Regina branch had a chance to become part of Leading Congregations in Mission (LCM) I accepted the invitation on behalf of a group that didn’t exist.
It wasn’t a leap of faith. Seven times a group of five of us flew to Palm Springs and headed up the mountain. I called it Senior High camp for middle-aged adults. The worship, the fellowship, the classes — we returned from each session with new ideas for community partnership and a different view of who we were being called to become.
Now in the time of Covid we are on a different road trip. We started by taking a short jaunt from the chapel to the parking lot. Imagine church outdoors surrounded by the sounds and the lives of our neighbors! Then we took the journey one step further. Now we don’t arrive at a place. We meet in a common (virtual) space. Our invitations have travelled outside the city and the province, and I realized that this is the easiest invitation ever offered.
If our gathering doesn’t reach you, you don’t have to awkwardly walk out, you just leave the meeting. Our worship isn’t a sermon delivered by a speaker from the front. It is the group sharing personal responses to questions. In the future, when we return to our building we will continue to share through technology, but we will also appreciate the gift that is in-person community.
An invitation is often inexplicable, sometimes brave, perhaps a spiritual nudge. We can refuse, but when we say “yes” and head out on the road trip we open ourselves up to the unexpected. I am thrilled to be part of that group — inclusive, diverse, and adventurous. We create memories, but just as importantly we create community.
It didn’t. God kept early hours and we didn’t share any of the same interests. However, at 18, I accepted an invitation for a road trip to ski in Red Lodge, Montana, which eventually spawned a trip to a “work” camp at Hills of Peace. I took another ski trip and the mother-of-all road trips two years later to go to Graceland (that was not an invitation, but an escape from an existence I no longer had an interest to face).
As I discovered, road trips take some planning. They usually involve travelling with others and they almost never turn out exactly as planned. After three years of travelling between Saskatchewan and Iowa, I returned home to a congregation that had suddenly become populated with people whom I found intriguing and friendly. I had seen a glimpse of what worship could be, so a few years later I travelled back to Graceland with Dan Woynarski for a week-long congregational leaders workshop where we struck up a friendship with Bob Kyser (and scored a free pizza at Pizza Shack).
This relationship paid off when we invited Bob to be our first guest minister at the inaugural Western Canada Mission Centre (WCMC) men’s retreat. Our road trip to Hills of Peace with Bob and the celebration that weekend led to over a dozen other road trips — with guest ministers who had never been to camp and with native sons who returned home. It was there I rediscovered the joy of the shared experience and a spirit that spoke of boundless grace instead of the eternal hellfire. As a result, I accepted the invitation to attend a weekend retreat in Idaho.
The road trip was hilarious, the weekend was evangelical, and the impact on me was life-changing. I had no idea that church could be so “live-wire”. So, when the Regina branch had a chance to become part of Leading Congregations in Mission (LCM) I accepted the invitation on behalf of a group that didn’t exist.
It wasn’t a leap of faith. Seven times a group of five of us flew to Palm Springs and headed up the mountain. I called it Senior High camp for middle-aged adults. The worship, the fellowship, the classes — we returned from each session with new ideas for community partnership and a different view of who we were being called to become.
Now in the time of Covid we are on a different road trip. We started by taking a short jaunt from the chapel to the parking lot. Imagine church outdoors surrounded by the sounds and the lives of our neighbors! Then we took the journey one step further. Now we don’t arrive at a place. We meet in a common (virtual) space. Our invitations have travelled outside the city and the province, and I realized that this is the easiest invitation ever offered.
If our gathering doesn’t reach you, you don’t have to awkwardly walk out, you just leave the meeting. Our worship isn’t a sermon delivered by a speaker from the front. It is the group sharing personal responses to questions. In the future, when we return to our building we will continue to share through technology, but we will also appreciate the gift that is in-person community.
An invitation is often inexplicable, sometimes brave, perhaps a spiritual nudge. We can refuse, but when we say “yes” and head out on the road trip we open ourselves up to the unexpected. I am thrilled to be part of that group — inclusive, diverse, and adventurous. We create memories, but just as importantly we create community.
