The 6-Month Plan

I remember this feeling from forty years ago when I was racing bicycles. My racing partner, Keith, worked at a bike shop and built his own bike frames. He loved tinkering with the bikes as much as the racing, I think. Me? Not so much.

Even though I did most of my own bicycle maintenance and repairs, including building my own wheels, I didn’t get much joy out of it except knowing that my bike was in tip top shape before a race. Really good racers just raced and had their own mechanics so they could concentrate on the athletic side of the sport. Racers like me had to split their time between being athletes and mechanics.

But I started this post saying I recognized the feeling. As I embark on this whole Pedal Pilgrim adventure I am finding myself playing both visionary and technician. I won’t lie to you. Technical stuff is not intuitive to me. I carried a little shame about this in my early years. My father is an engineer and he is a wizard at technical stuff. I still wish I had his passion for tinkering, but details are not my first love.

I write this post in the midst of drowning in dozens of little technical challenges and frustrations. I won’t go into all the specifics, but you might get the picture if I told you that I am switching from my work office set up of the last five years to a new personal office to launch this work. With that comes a really cool new computer that I am trying to get synced up with an older laptop, an older projector and an older printer. Let’s just say that at just about every juncture they are not talking nice to each other.

I am scheduled to do a workshop at the National Gathering of the American Pilgrims of Camino later this week. I had planned on having a slick presentation with pictures, videos and important links. Not going to happen! At this point, I have settled for a couple of handouts on colored paper like we used to do it before the turn of the century.

It will likely take me another couple of weeks to set up my new office, but I wanted to give you a couple of updates and a picture of the projected plan for the next few months. I think I have only laid out the fuller plan for you in bits and pieces over the last few weeks.

Communal meal in the alburgue

First, my soul seems called to something I might name as “nurturing a pilgrimage culture.” There is a lot I don’t know about what that means yet, but two pieces are quite clear to me. First, I want to be writing, speaking, offering workshops and retreats, and leading pilgrimages as part of nurturing a pilgrim way of life. This is important because we live in a culture where our identities are often rooted in being a consumer, a responsible citizen and contributor to society through our work or profession. Much of this is good, but in a time of seismic cultural change it may not be enough.

Lots of underutilized church space

Second, I intend to use my experience both as a cycling pilgrim and as a church executive to lay the groundwork for the infrastructure for more of a pilgrim culture in America. Those of us who have been serving in administrative roles in the church know that most churches have lots of ample space and many churches are projected to close in the next ten to fifteen years.

I will do another post on the growing phenomenon of designated routes and trails springing up across our country, but for now know that the growth of hiking/biking adventures and pilgrimages and the increasing availability of church property provides an historic opportunity to open up pilgrim hostels on designated routes across America.

So here is the 6-month plan:

April 13-16 Do a presentation at the National Gathering of the American Pilgrims of the Camino at Zephyr Point Conference and Retreat Center in Tahoe on the topic, “The Oregon Coast Trail and Pilgrim Hostels. This was the event that I had hoped I would have a slick presentation, but a couple of handouts and a deep dive into the subject matter will have to do.

May 15-June 30 Walk the Camino de Santiago (Camino Françes) in Spain to study both the alburgue (hostel) infrastructure and experience the Camino culture. My understanding is that along the routes the pilgrims, the alburgues, the churches, the townspeople, and the businesses are all part of a larger Camino culture. I have a feeling Americans can learn something from this.

July 1-15 Travel to London and Great Britain to meet with the leaders of the British Pilgrimage Trust and their Sanctuary Project. The British Pilgrimage Trust is many years ahead of me in nurturing a culture of pilgrimage. The Sanctuary Project is their version of repurposing church space and church buildings as pilgrim hostels along the approximately 75 pilgrimage routes in Britain.

July 30-August 5 Teaching/facilitating “Life as Pilgrimage” program at Seabeck Christian Family Camp in Seabeck, Washington.

August 28-September 29 Travel the length of the 3,547-mile Lewis and Clark Trail to assess where and in what communities and churches pilgrim hostels could be set up as a pilot project for other communities along historic routes across the country.

October 1 TRUST that the next steps will be revealed in due time!

Which brings me back to my opening paragraph. Forty years ago I needed to be both the athlete and the mechanic to race bicycles. I am convinced this time that my gift is to the visionary and I need to learn to rely on others to be the technicians, organizers and detail people.

No more color-coordinated handouts!

Brian Heron

Religious Innovator and Spiritual Pilgrim