2025 September Newsletter Pastor’s Page
I have been a fan of Rick Steves for a long time. Rick hosts the very popular Rick Steves’ Europe travel program on PBS. If you walk in any book store travel section, or google “travel advice,” you will stumble upon a guide or post by Rick Steves. The way Steve talks about travel, culture, and the experience of opening your eyes to new people in new places is full of joy, curiosity, and deep heart.
Recently our UMC General Board of Higher Ed and Ministry did a webinar with Rick Steves called “Travel as a Spiritual Act.” Rick is a Scandinavian Lutheran, and this interview prompted a worship series entitled “Quest.”
Whether you travel far away or see your local surroundings as if for the first time, pilgrimage has long been a spiritual practice, and “journey” a deeply-felt metaphor for our spiritual lives. “Quest” comes from the Latin root meaning “ask, seek.” Over the four weeks of September, we’ll reflect on Leaving Home, Encounters with Others, Reflection, and Returning Home.
This worship series will encourage us to open ourselves more fully to the curiosity and wonder, reflection and transformation that travelers–not merely tourists–experience when they choose to immerse themselves in soul-widening adventures. We’ll see clips and hear reflections from Rick Steves’ UMC interview. If travel isn’t part of your agenda, it may open your eyes to our surroundings in new ways, and help us see the tourism around us through a spiritual lens.
The series begins on Sunday Sept 7 at 11am. Bring your pilgrimage shoes. No need to pack a bag – just bring your heart, soul, mind, and strength as we reflect on the inward and outward journey with God.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Jared