How Would Things Change If Your Church Was In The Center Of A Tourist Destination?
A few days ago, while visiting family in Miami, we decided to visit Lincoln Rd by Miami Beach. I had never been there before. I was just told that it was a nice area to visit. It’s a closed off “walking street” with shops and restaurants spilling out over the side walks. As we walked along the road we were greeted with the expected sights of nice restaurants, shops, and well dressed people and dogs. One thing I did not expect to see was a church, though.
Here was this church in the center of this very touristy spot. And what I found to be interesting, is that people actually wanted to come inside. I watched as several people came up and tried to open the doors, but they were locked.
All this got me thinking: what if your church was in the middle of a tourist spot where people just naturally came? What if you didn’t have to rent billboards to let people know where you are, because so many thousands see it every single day? What if a lot of people just naturally came to your church without people having to invite them? How would that change things?
I had to check out their website, of course, and here’s what I found:
It did seem quite dated. I was disappointed by this, as I would have though that the denomination (United Church of Christ) would have put more resources behind this. But instead it was quite basic and rather unappealing. And I know it’s easy for me to say, but somehow all of this seemed like a missed opportunity. It would have been great if people could have been allowed to enter and, at the very least, sit in the pews and pray or something. I don’t know.
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Really thought provoking question, Rodlie! There is an SDA church right in the middle of town where the Cruise ships dock in Roatan. My dad had remarked of how good it would be if that church door would be open on ship days and an elder or other leader would be on duty there to greet people and give them literature or pray with them. I don’t know if he ever got to share this idea with the pastor before he left for another call, but it’s definitely an overlooked method to spreading the gospel.
Did the early churches establish themselves in strategic places where people were constantly coming and going? Fishing villages and ports, etc. Sometimes we may need to look back in order to move forward with the gospel message.
Theologically, Christians were absolutely to be lights in dark places. That’s why God wanted them to have the territory of Israel, which is right on the coast. If anyone wanted to travel north to any country in the middle east/ asia, or south to Egypt, they had no choice but to travel through Israelite territory, unless they wanted to cut across the desert, which was uncommon. Quite a few of the early churches were port cities as well. I think that would be a wonderful thing if you guys could do that. And maybe you could have a box where people could put in a donation or something. I’m sure people wouldn’t mind giving a donation to help offset the cost of having lights on in that place.
Go for it!