Tourists to pilgrims

By Bob Cornwall

I’ve learned a lot by watching the tourists cruise State Street looking for California experiences. I live in a tourist town, so I can spot them quickly. They’re the ones wearing jackets on what Santa Barbarans consider to be shorts weather. They hail from warmer climates and consider our climate a bit too cool.

The presence of tourists in my community may explain why I’m intrigued by Diana Butler Bass’s choice of the tourist image to describe current spiritual landscapes in Christianity for the Rest of Us. Much has been said about seekers, and about the infamous church shopper who’s in tune with the American consumerist mentality and always asks, “What can you do for me?” Like any good shopper, the church shopper looks for the bargain and the most bang for the buck.

What makes “the church tourist” different? The tourist is more interested in the experience than in finding answers. Like those visitors to State Street, he’s just passing through, hoping to taste as much of the local ambiance as possible. The spiritual tourist might even suffer from a bit of spiritual ADHD, for he needs constant stimulation, and has a short attention span. He stops to admire the view, but quickly moves on to the next spiritual experience.

Out here in California there are a lot of these tourist types. We meet them in the religion section of the local book store or at community interfaith services. They may even visit our congregations, but they rarely stay long. I understand the attraction, but I wonder if they have any concept of a journey, or of how a journey might make a difference in their lives.

Standing in contrast to the tourist is the pilgrim. The pilgrim, Butler Bass suggests, seeks to go local, to become “a year-round person, who adopts a new place and new identity by learning a new language, rhythms, and practices.” Pilgrims stay around long enough to experience God’s transforming grace.

Disciples of Christ pastor Tim Carson has written Your Calling as a Christian, a book designed to lead seekers and tourists into a life-changing experience of God’s presence. Like Butler Bass, Tim suggests that we go local. We can’t simply cut and paste our way to a truly sustainable experience of God; we must make a choice and inhabit the tradition. This kind of pilgrimage is the costliest but most rewarding of spiritual experiences.

Seekers, tourists and shoppers, by and large, are solo artists, but pilgrims move and live within and are formed by communities. Communities are not perfect, but in the process of making the journey of faith together, we who are in community may discover that our lives have been changed and that we’ve become new people.

How does the church lead tourists into this pilgrimage? I suppose we begin by learning what it means to be a pilgrim community, and by learning how to be hospitable and welcoming.

Bob Cornwall is pastor of First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of Lompoc, California, a blogger, and editor of Sharing the Practice (Academy of Parish Clergy).

Comments

[Theojock]

Pilrimage. That's just the term, and concept. Thank you.

I'm looking for a called position as a Minister in the Presbyterian Church, and have been struggling to find the right word to articulate the way that we as Ministers lead, engage, and sojourn ourselves, with a congregation. It's so obvious, I can't believe I missed it. Thank you.

[Kris]

"Seekers, tourists and shoppers, by and large, are solo artists, but pilgrims move and live within and are formed by communities."

To be a tourist or a seeker or even a shopper these people must have a hunger to connect with God somehow. They probably want to experience fellowship with people who will accept them and love them. A pilgrim who has made a cautious journey to surround themselves with other believers is going stay put when they are warmly appreciated but also when their desperateness is met by the love of God.

[Scott Johnson]

Yes, this is a good way to put it. C.S. Lewis said something similar in _The Screwtape Letters_ when he critiqued folks who don't join their town parish, but look for something different or better.