Going to Church in 2017

Since we accomplished our goal of going to a church and a bar in every state in 2016, people have asked us what we’ll be doing in 2017. Chief among those who have asked are ourselves.

Some have asked if we’ll continue to go to churches and bars. For us, the real question is whether we’ll keep writing about going to churches and bars. And the answer to that question is yes.

After all, we were writing about churches before our yearlong trip. In 2015, we visited churches according to themes -- we took a month for urban churches, a month for rural churches, a month for clown churches, a month of cartoon churches, a month of nude churches… Actually, I’m not sure if I remember exactly which themes we used. But we did have themes. And we will have themes again in 2017. The theme for January is “Let’s Scramble to Get Together Themes for the Year.”

People have also asked if we have a "home church," where we’re committed to people from week to week. We have missed going to one place regularly, so in 2017, we plan to commit to a church that has Saturday night services, so we can regularly attend one church while continuing to visit different churches.

So we have something we’d like to ask of you, kind readers. If you know of churches in California that are doing unique and worthwhile ministries, please tell us. We’d like to make a visit.

And while we plan to continue visiting new churches, we also plan to write a book about what we learned during 2016. It was a special year for us.

Many of you have let us know that you enjoyed coming along for the ride in 2016, but the ride isn’t done. So we hope you’ll stick with us -- we enjoy your company!