The phrase “our plans are written in jello” didn’t originate with us. However, we think it’s a great way to describe not only our touring RV lifestyle but our general approach to living. Twice before we adjusted our plans to serve as interim pastor. This year we’ve been asked to serve the Houston Southwest Church of the Nazarene in Richmond, TX during their pastoral transition. We’re enjoying getting to know the good folks of the church – they’ve made us feel right at home.
Hopefully, our presence will smooth the transition between pastors. Once we finish at Southwest we plan on yet another type of RV adventure, but that plan is also written in jello at this point.
We had a pleasant Day in Bourbonnais, Illinois seeing long time friends Lee and Marilyn Turner along with a short visit with Scott’s cousin Phillis and William Harris. We were blessed by the good worship service at College Church on Olivet Nazarene University campus – our first time to worship there in nearly 50 years! After lunch with Lee and Marilyn and a quick visit to their beautiful home we headed back to the University. It has grown and prospered since we met on this campus and began our lives together. We found a few memorable spots (like where we met for the very first time). Scott noticed that for some reason there was no plaque marking the spot. He is sure that the missing plaque is just a temporary omission that will be fixed soon.
This is a beautiful place with great lake views, nice, up-to-date facilities plus a several old time camping cabins. We limited our involvement to attending the worship services which we felt were very good. As always happens with Church of the Nazarene events we met many people who know the same people we know.
One new friend suggested we put Prairie Lakes District Family Camp on our schedule for next year. I don’t think our travel plans will bring us to this part of the country next year, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we find our way back sometime over the next few years.
Our stop in Nampa was a short one, less than a 24 hour day. However, we enjoyed meeting friends for coffee and then took a quick walk around the campus of Northwest Nazarene University. Being members of the Church of the Nazarene we’ve heard a lot about this school and it was nice to finally see it in person. There are many original buildings giving it a feeling of history and stability and the campus offers open areas with flowers, fountains, works of art and open areas to enjoy alone or in groups. The plaques were helpful and a reminder of the history of this Holiness institution. It’s easy to see why Nazarenes throughout the northwestern United States are proud of their school.
Since retiring and becoming fulltime traveling RVers we’ve become church hoppers. It’s quite a change from being the parsonage couple and attending our local church every time the doors are open.
As traveling RVers we’re on the move about seven months each year, changing churches every week or two. We could visit the campground services or watch our home church online – and sometimes we do, but we like going to a local church. Honestly, we miss our church family. Going to church as perpetual visitors isn’t the same as being regular attenders.
Here’s our approach: after searching the web for an area church of our denominational flavor we look over the church’s web site for service times and directions. We look for photos of people at a regular worship service so we have a better idea of the unwritten dress code. Like most anyone, we just want to fit in and not be too casual or too formal. When I was a kid people wore their “Sunday best” to church. These days, not so much. That makes it challenging to know just what to wear. Also, we check the church calendar to see if there is a special event that Sunday. If so, depending on the event, it might make us more or less likely to attend that particular week (VBS program, less likely – southern gospel concert, oh yeah!). Often, the church with a website that provides us the above information is the one we visit. By the way, the church that is still promoting last winter’s Christmas program in July automatically loses potential as a likely place for our visit.
If our own denomination has no nearby church, we look for a “sister” group, but really, we’re pretty comfortable in a wide variety of churches.
We try to arrive at the church just a few minutes early. If we are too early we find ourselves sitting uncomfortably in a less than full sanctuary. If we arrive late, we fear we’ll interrupt a service already in progress. You’d be surprised at how often we’ve arrived at churches not knowing for sure which parking lot to use or even which door to enter. That’s especially true with large churches with multiple buildings on their campus or with older churches that have an old sanctuary and newer buildings around it.
We’ve concluded that most churches are completely unprepared for walk in visitors. They are comfortable with people who attend as a guest of a regular who is “showing them the ropes” but walk-ins are unexpected and unanticipated. After being the ultimate church “insiders” we’ve realized just how uncomfortable walk-in visitors are during a meet and greet time. Everyone is told to stand and greet those around them. We stand and say a brief hello to those around us and then remain standing with fixed smiles while everyone around us has short private conversations as friends do at such a time. Even churches that think they are friendly are mostly just friendly with one another, not with outsiders.
One eye opener for me, as a career pastor, has been the demeanor of pastors. When we first arrive they come up to shake hands and smile, telling us how glad they are we have visited. Then, they always ask, “Are you from around here?” When we say we aren’t the light goes out and they quickly move on, sometimes with hardly another word. I know how busy a pastor is on a Sunday morning, but this response to our not being “prospects” was surprisingly consistent wherever we visited and were greeted by the pastor.
Having said all that I want to add that, in general, we enjoy visiting churches. As a retired pastor I often remind myself that I’m attending church as a worshiper. I’m not there to look for interesting ideas or to “fix” the church. In addition, we’ve been impressed by how many good preachers and singers there are. We’ve enjoyed the variety and seeing the good that is being done in churches around the country. It hasn’t been unusual for us to drive away from a worship service and remark to one another, “If we lived here we could be a part of that church.”
We miss our church family and friends. We’re very aware that there’s a depth of spiritual life that is best fostered by being a faithful part of a good church family. Also, we’re glad for social media and the ability it provides for keeping up with what is happening “back home.” At the same time we’re enjoying our travels and the many opportunities to worship with the larger Church with a capitol “C.”
As we planned our summer adventure the “anchor” was Nazarene General Assembly in Indianapolis. If not for this big event we would likely have traveled west instead of to the Midwest and points east. For those of you who aren’t associated with our branch of the Christian family tree I’ll explain that every four years Nazarenes from around the globe come together for a big family reunion of sorts. There’s also some business to be conducted: elections and resolutions and the like; but this is mainly a celebration that draws not only elected delegates from over 150 world areas but folks like us — whom I call “Nazarene tourists.”
For us, Indianapolis has lots of pluses. This is our family’s home territory and there are lots of cousins and other relatives around. We enjoyed seeing our cousin Kathy Schreiber and her clan on Sunday morning.
Our family from Texas came too. Scott and Cherie and Matthew along with my sister Susan came because our wonderful granddaughter Sarah qualified for the big World Bible Quiz that took place on Saturday. “How’d she do” you ask? Well, let me tell you: she and several hundred others came home with the gold! We’re proud of our Sarah! On Saturday evening the whole gang sat together in the worship service: us, Scott and Cherie and the kids, Susan, Jackie’s brother and sis-in-law Jim and Phyllis. We even had our good friend Marsha with us. So our little group took our own bit of space in a crowd of over 15,000.
There were thousands of Nazarenes in Indianapolis. The Sunday morning worship service alone drew over 20,000. We saw lots of friends including folks who were at our wedding almost 44 years ago. It is so much fun catching up with so many people we’ve known in the past or who are friends of ours on Facebook or NazNet or elsewhere.
Our Indianapolis stay has been Nazarene all the way as we’ve been camped at the Indianapolis District, Church of the Nazarene campground at Camby just outside of Indianapolis. This is a grass campground and, because of the limited number of full hookup sites we’ve had only water and electric. It wasn’t much of an inconvenience because we spent most of our time at the convention center anyway.
On Sunday afternoon there was a big thunderstorm with considerable wind. There was some tree damage, including one big tree that came down. Thankfully, no buildings or campers were damaged.
Jackie and I really enjoyed General Assembly, especially seeing our family. Now, though, we’re ready to head for Ohio and back into our “normal” full time RV activities.
Sunday morning Nazarene General Assembly: it’s about as Nazarene as you can get. A case could be made that a person is never fully “Nazarene” until they’ve attended at least one of these signature services. The 2009 version was no disappointment. The music was excellent and the sermon by Dr. Cunningham was a blessing. The big communion service was blessed. Tradition finally won as the congregation sang (yes, we sung and didn’t just listen to) “Holiness unto the Lord.” The music team resisted the temptation to “contemporize” it up by mixing in a praise chorus or by updating the rhythm. It was nice to hear the whole congregation join together in a well known song of the church. I’m okay with the more modern songs, but I really like it when we all sing unto the Lord rather than just standing and clapping and listening to the talented folks with the microphones do our singing for us. Dr. Cunningham brought us another patented GS story telling sermon. It was fun to listen to and was quite inspirational. In preparation for communion we recited the Apostle’s Creed. If you like old fashioned worship, you would love seeing the church embracing this nearly 2000 year old Christian ritual! The hall was, I guess, around 80% full. That’s a lot of people, over 22,000 were in attendance. That means it wasn’t close to being the biggest Nazarene crowd ever…but that’s a lot of Nazarenes in one place at one time. Additionally, we’re told that there were over 6000 streaming internet connects. I can only imagine that that number will continue to grow. In 10 or 15 years we may have as many participants off site as we have on site.
We had a pleasant Day in Bourbonnais, Illinois seeing long time friends Lee and Marilyn Turner along with a short visit with Scott’s cousin Phillis and William Harris. We were blessed by the good worship service at College Church on Olivet Nazarene University campus – our first time to worship there in nearly 50 years! After lunch with Lee and Marilyn and a quick visit to their beautiful home we headed back to the University. It has grown and prospered since we met on this campus and began our lives together. We found a few memorable spots (like where we met for the very first time). Scott noticed that for some reason there was no plaque marking the spot. He is sure that the missing plaque is just a temporary omission that will be fixed soon.
