How to find a church while on vacation.

A long time ago my husband and I lived within driving distance of Las Vegas, Nevada. I was well-traveled but had yet to cross that colorful destination off my bucket list, so one spring break we decided to drive over for a few days.

Oh, and also: Easter happened to fall on Spring break that year, so ... You see my dilemma.

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When you’re out of town for Easter, do you find a place to worship? If so, which place?
That Easter Eve Saturday we drove from our Colorado Western Slope home through Utah, marveling at the stunning landscapes it unfolded outside our car window like a time-lapse video showing Earth’s natural history, mile after awe-inspiring mile. In gorgeous St. George, Utah, we found a restaurant with TVs so we could cheer on Indiana v. Oklahoma in the Final Four national semifinal game. We gobbled up our dinner, watched the Sooners fall to the Hoosiers (73-64!) and climbed into the car for the final leg of our holy week trip to Sin City, Easter services far from our minds.

 

After dark we checked into the MGM, walked down the street to take in the spectacular Bellagio fountains, and we around midnight fell into bed, road-weary.

In the morning, before my first legendary Vegas breakfast buffet, I called down to the front desk to ask where there might be a church within walking distance.

Clerk: A What?

Me: A church. It’s Easter. We'd like to walk to an Easter service.

Clerk: Huh. Let me ask. Hold, please.

After a full three minutes of hold music the front desk person came back on and said, “No. No churches nearby.” I seriously doubt there were NO churches nearby, but God is probably really bad for casino business, so “no churches” had to be the company line. So we were on our own to find a church.

How to Find a Church Out of Town Before Smart Phones

  1. Pull out the Yellow Pages and let your fingers do the walking.
  2. Wade through the pages and pages and pages of alphabetically listed churches.
  3. Find ads for churches in your denomination that may list holiday service times. (Back then the most progressive churches had ads.)
  4. Cross-reference the gridded map in the back of the Yellow Pages to see how far the church is from your hotel. Use a magnifying glass.
  5. If churches in your denomination have ads without holiday service times listed, call the phone number and hope for someone to answer.
  6. If someone answers and can tell you the service times, ask for directions! (Remember, no smart phones, no Google maps, no GPS, and that impossible gridded map in the back of the Yellow Pages.)

We lucked out. We found a Presbyterian church (with a person answering the phone) located just about a half-mile from the Little White Wedding Chapel but not quite walking distance from our hotel at the far end of The Strip.

Spruced up for Easter services we hopped and skipped to First Presbyterian (since rebranded, evidently, as Grace Presbyterian), and happened upon one of the friendliest, warmest congregations and one of the most beautiful Easter services we have ever enjoyed. The music, just wow. Did you ever consider how many professional musicians must live in a town like Las Vegas, with all the musical entertainment venues? And it stands to reason that at least some proportion of those musicians would have a relationship with God, right? And those faithful few would tend to be drawn to churches with excellent music programs. And we found them!

How to Find a Church Out of Town Now That There Are Smart Phones and Church Websites

  1. Google “Easter Services (City, State)
    • For example:
      • Easter Services St. Petersburg, FL
      • Easter Services Vail, CO
      • Easter Services St. Simons Island, GA
        (You get the idea.)
  2. Choose a church.
  3. Plug address into GPS.
  4. Go.

Easy Peasy!

Or you can choose a vacation church the way my friend, who plans to celebrate Easter this year at Christ Church Frederica over spring break, chooses her family's vacation churches. "We always try to find a church that is different from the one we go to each week. Different denomination, something historical, etc."

So, whether you celebrate at your hometown church or in a sunny vacation locale, Happy Easter!

Easter Communications Checklist