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Churches & Faith Communities

Launching a Travel Ministry Program

Does your faith community have a travel ministry?

Does your faith group, community, or religious organization have a Travel Ministry ? If not, why not? Few segments of the population are more perfectly suited for traveling together than people of faith.

Your faith community or organization is essentially a built-in affinity group. Virtually everyone shares similar beliefs and interests. This makes for both the ideal traveling group and one that is most likely to succeed in getting a large number of people to join.

People oftentimes wonder how many people it takes to operate a group trip. For most kinds of group tours you need about 30 to 35 people to make it cost-effective. Of course though, you can have as little as five people embark on a getaway retreat or 1,000 people embark on a community cruise. In short, no matter what your faith community size is, you can host a travel ministry program.

Travel ministry in every faith community

When you think of launching a travel ministry program, think of all the benefits to your faith community or religious organization. Think of the ability to attract not only active members, but also non-members and those less active. Think of the new tight-knit community you will create upon the group's return home. And think of the new programs that can be wrought from the new enthusiasm of members after such memorable and life-changing experiences.

Hosting a travel ministry for faith communities really should no longer be viewed as an option. Providing members the opportunity and choice to combine their faith with travel should be a part of every community's ministry and outreach.

The best way to sum up the benefits of travel ministry is this. Imagine what your community would look like if the majority of your members took advantage of your travel ministry. Imagine the lives that could be changed through exploring the holy lands, performing missionary travel, studying your faith's history on a cruise, or sharing fellowship on a retreat getaway or leisure vacation. Few activities can have such immediate, powerful and long-lasting effects as these types of experiences. It all begins with one person taking the initiative to launch or expand a travel ministry program at your respective faith community or religious organization.

Five-year Travel Plans

One of the most exciting and innovative ideas for your ministry is offering a five-year travel program. In other words, put together a list of planned trips covering a five-year timeframe. By doing so, individuals and communities can not only know well in advance which journeys they may like to join, but it enables them to prepare for them as well.

Here is an example of what a five-year travel program could look like:

Year 1: Holy Land Trip

Year 2: Faith History Seminar Cruise

Year 3: Missionary Trip

Year 4: Leisure Vacation

Year 5: Monastery retreat

Although you will need to discern whether a five-year travel plan is appropriate for your faith community or not, there are many advantages to it. For one it gives everyone in your congregation or religious organization something to look forward to and the trips become popular topics of conversation. In addition, it provides plenty of various options to choose from as many people will be drawn to different vacations. And for others who do embark on yearly trips, this presents them a wonderful variety of trips to join.

Other advantages of a five-year travel plan include the opportunity for people to save money or prepare for the trips financially. It also provides ample time for people to ask their respective family and friends to join the trip. Lastly, and possibly most importantly, it provides abundant time to promote the trips within the community.

The bottom line is this: be creative with your travel ministry. Whether you offer a five-year travel program or not, definitely develop different themes and ideas that both entice your members and help “create buzz” within the community. Other attractive initiatives your travel program can implement are pre-trip study and discussion groups. For example, if you're offering a missionary trip, launch a pre-trip program whereby the travelers meet and study the local culture, history language, etc. No matter what you decide with your travel ministry, just remember – have fun, be creative and continually strive to keep your ministry fresh, relevant, and vibrant.