If you could visit any church...?

[meriam]

Hello, Gang!

Here's a little something to keep us busy as we patiently await the coming of Greg's album. Greg, I hope you don't mind the shameless abuse of your site, but I trust your friends, except that guy who has no vowels in his name, that's just creepy.

My husband and I have been dreaming for a long time about taking 2 or 3 month sabbatical from his youth ministry. Our hope has always been to take a trip around the country in a motor home visiting churches, large or small, that we had heard about, whether we had friends there or just ministers we wanted to hear. or intriguing stories. Well, youth ministers don't get paid that much and I'm a stay at home mom with three kids, also, our church has never offered sabbatical time so this was seeming to be just a pipe dream. Then God stepped in. This summer our Senior Minister took his first sabbatical. Then a friend's parents were selling their motor home. For $7,000. And it's not hideously ugly and, yes, my friends, it does run. Then, a friend told Ron about a grant for ministers that is used to fund sabbaticals. How wild is that? Now, we don't have the grant yet and out of 300 applicants only 40 will receive it. Ron has to write a paper, get a bunch of references, and make out a plan of what we will do and convince them that 3 months in a motor home with a 4-year-old, a seven-year-old, and a thirteen-year-old will be a restful sabbatical.

So, help us out here. What churches would you like to visit and why? We live in Tennessee and will probably confine our trip to the lower 48. I don't think we could get to Alaska since we will go in the fall and the RV doesn't float. Plus, if we go to Hawaii, we will NOT be taking the children! Ron loves modern church architecture so even if you just know of a church that looks cool, we're game for it!

Thanks for your help!

[Greg adkins]

Wow... I can't imagine planning a cross country RV trip around what churches I wanted to visit. I'd probably figure out what cities and parks I wanted to see the most and then just figure out if there are any good churches anywhere near them. But... that's not what you asked.

I wish I had a good answer... I guess you could always go the mega-church route if that's your thing. I'll admit, I'd like to visit some of them just to gawk but I'm not all that interested really in going to a Saddleback or Willow Creek. Although, I would kind of like to visit Mars Hill in Seattle (and Grand Rapids, MI).

Maybe you could go to that church in Ohio that has the giant Big Butter Jesus statue out by the interstate! That would be awesome.

Anyone have any good suggestions?

[meriam]

Thanks, Greg. Mars Hill is definitely on our list. I did a search for the top ten churches and didn't get much help other than some good stuff to laugh at. There is a cathedral in Germany that looks like a monster.

We do some mega churches to gawk and for Ron to talk to their administrators as part of the "furthering education" requirement. You know how he is about design and architecture, though. Other than that we want to see how much cool stuff we can see in between churches.

One of the churches on our list Ron visited this summer. It's called Church Under the Bridge and it's in Texas. Check out their website - www.churchunderthebridge.com, I think. It's pretty cool. My husband who never buys anything bought a t-shirt AND their book. They meet in an empty lot under the interstate.

[sharon]

A church I would love to visit is John Piper's church in Minneapolis. I think it's called Bethlehem Baptist Church.

[meriam]

Thanks, Sharon. I just checked out their website. Very intriguing.

By the way, the correct web address for Church Under the Bridge is www.churchunderthebridge.org.

[Greg adkins]

that one didn't work either.... maybe the internet under the bridge is out.

[meriam]

Try this one www.churchunderthebridge.org/

[meriam]

Sorry to double post, but the latest post worked for me. I don't know why the other one didn't work. They look identical to me, but you are the expert so you figure it out.

[growingyoung]

hey guys the previous one didn't work because there is a period at the end of the link.

[Pastor Bill Beatty]

On and off lurker...um...de-lurking

If you're heading near Pittsburgh PA there's a unique church called Hot Metal Bridge
www.hotmetalbridge.com/

Dunno if that's something you might be interested in...

Bill

[Greg adkins]

Hot Metal Bridge is the coolest name for a church I've ever heard. I don't know what it means, but it's amazing.

Thanks for de-lurking Bill and welcome to the board. I appreciate you taking the time to post.

- Greg

[meriam]

Thanks, Bill! That's a great website. Hot Metal Bridge has qualified for the list. Check out their site, Greg. They have a small group called "The Bible Fight Club." It meets at a place called the Tattoo Shop where they have debates.

Meriam

[Pastor Bill Beatty]

Hot Metal Bridge is actually the name of a bridge in Pittsburgh (there are over 2000 bridges in and around Pittsburgh, and a lot of them have names). Since Pittsburgh was a steel town, hot metal is certainly appropriate...

Bill

[meriam]

Just in case you were wondering, we've submitted our grant proposal. We will not know if we will get the grant until November 30th at the latest. I'll let you know. Our tentative list is:
Rob Bell's church in Grand Rapids, Michigan
Community Christian Church in Chicago, IL
Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis, MN
a church in Seattle, WA
National Youth Workers Convention in Sacramento, CA
Saddleback in LA
a church in Las Vegas
a church in Phoenix
visit some good friends on the Mexican border
Church Under the Bridge in Waco, TX
Journey Church in Norman, OK

In Seattle, Vegas, and Phoenix, there is a specific church, but I can't think of the names of them. (They are the ones Ron wanted to see and, well, it's not my sabbatical.) We are doing Saddleback more because we've been Doug Field's fans since long before we ever heard of Rick Warren.

We may plan a special trip just to Pittsburgh. It's a really cool city anyway.

Hey, Greg, we actually will be "Chasing the Western Sky!" We'll play your CD everywhere we go! Oh. The motor home doesn't have a cd player. Is that going to be available in cassette?

[Greg adkins]

uh, no.

Sounds like an awesome trip! Hope it works out!