Think the topic of travel sounds interesting? Want to meet others who love travel? Or want to connect travel to life’s deeper questions and find meaning to your travel? Why not create an event near you, or think of how you can make the most of this topic, at your local church, cafe, bookstore or other venue? Use it as a way to connect locally with others, or to get everyone thinking about a topic which deeply influences every person on this planet. The topic of travel often draws hundreds of interested people to events. And if you want me there, I’m regularly all over the UK and Ireland but I’ll happily consider invitations further afield…I mean, it is a book about travel after all! Below are just a few ideas which others set up.
- an international student cafe: travel is a brilliant topic which every international student will have something to contribute to. They’ve travelled to study, often long to travel the country they’re in, and have many experiences which can be great ways to get conversation going about life.
- an event at your local bookshop (Christian or secular): bookshops are often keen to have authors speak about their book or participate in an event in store, and often they’ll draw people who may not have come along if your event had been in a church building. I’ve spoken in bookshops in Cork, Belfast, Edinburgh and London so far.
- an event in the local university: travel may not sound like the ‘apologetic’ topic of the hour, but often speaks very deeply into life’s big questions without the controversy. Hundreds pack out travel clubs and pubs each month in Europe’s big cities to discuss travel and meet travel-lovers. So why not arrange an experiential evening around travel, or a lunch-time travel topic to discuss?
- a community in a local pub or cafe: the local travel community that was arranged on Meetup.com in Belfast and Edinburgh has a large following. In Dublin, the travel meetup group can’t accept any more people because it has so many! Travel is a buzz-word, and everyone is happy to meet to chat travel. Why not arrange your own community and give it a purpose? There’s groups already existing in Melbourne (Australia) and elsewhere.
- a travel trip: organising events about travel seems a bit daft when you could use the same time to travel! So many groups I’ve been invited to, have arranged purposeful travel trips which journey alongside all sorts of people and discuss the bigger questions surrounding travel and life. We’ve been a few miles down the road but we’ve also been to North Africa and beyond!
- host a conversation online: it was 2020 after all when I wrote this, and Covid had just about tried to kill more expansive travel completely. But in adversity sprang opportunity, and the Christian Travellers’ Network and other online platforms started gaining momentum far more in connecting faith to travel. Why not join them in the conversation?
- BBC Radio Ulster (playback here for those in UK – 1hr 23mins in)
- Transworld Radio (Playback here)
- Premier Christian Radio UK, 29th October: 8.05-8.30am (Playback here from 1 hr 9mins)
- Christianity Today
- https://www.thomascreedy.com/book-review-travel/
- https://ivpbooks.com/blog/ruth-clemence-s-top-5-ivp-reads-for-2018.html
- Travel Review (USA)
- Interview on the Christian Travelers’ Network Podcast about Microadventures
- Interview on the Christian Travelers’ Network about faith and travel
Not sure what would keep your group going?
There are many reasons why such groups exist and keep meeting, but one of them is the unique joys of a Christian view of travel. To understand how a Christian view of travel is different to any other, perhaps you could start here.
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