Travel ministries can expand and strengthen your religious organization, and can make your traveling experience not only spiritual, but affordable. Here are a few points about how a travel ministry will benefit your religious organization.

Build a Strong Bond Between Congregation Members

People are busy, and bonding time between other members of the group can be slim to none, especially if you are only seeing them at the weekly gathering. A travel ministry takes everyone out of their normal setting and puts them on a bus, train, plane or ship to stop the routine of everyday life for a little while and enjoy the company of the church. This leads to a more active membership after the trip, after people get a chance to spend quality time with one another.

Bring Together Generations of Your Church

It doesn’t matter if the trip lasts a day or a week, the time spent together will bring members together for a common cause. These trips give generations a chance to chat and understand each other.

Set up a Religious Travel Fund

This gives members a chance to travel who otherwise wouldn’t have the means too. This is one of the greatest gifts your organization can do in outreach. For example: An elderly member of an organization could no longer travel, but donated money to allow a college student to study on a fellowship tour of Greece and Turkey called “The Steps of St. Paul.”

Support Missions or Missionary Families and Organizations

Traveling to parts of the world where these organizations and families operate can help others and give you a feeling of fulfillment. Visiting missionaries in the field give you a whole new perspective that you could never get from a letter or speech from them. You get your own point of view of the joys and challenges they face daily, and learn how you can support them after your trip ends.

Develop Volunteer Projects

This could be as simple as pulling weeds, or as complex as building schools, health clinics or churches. Travelers today want to leave behind more than money during their trips‑ they want to leave behind the fruit of their labor. With a variety of activities, age is never a limiting factor. Anyone can read a story to children, or listen to them tell you a story. Big or small, these projects lead to tearing down the old walls of misunderstanding between cultures.

Plan Religious Retreats

Allow your members to take a break and refresh their body and soul. Everyone needs a break from the routine, and enjoy each other’s company in a new setting. Retreats allow this to happen in a short amount of time.

Get more inforamtion about the benefits of forming a travel ministry from Religious Travel Planning Guide.