Encountering God at 33,000 Feet

As we head toward the end of Lent, I always like to cast my eyes around the church, watching the pews fill up on the Sundays leading up to Easter Sunday. It's my theory that no one wants to be one of those C & E Christians who show up for Christmas and Easter and are A.W.O.L. for the rest of the year. But, there are some people who are part of the Sunday morning No-Show Club for reasons that extend beyond their inability to rise early and they're called Frequent Business Travelers, also known as traversus maximus. We all know the common Frequent Business Traveler (FBT), and, sadly, it's not the world's most handsome newlywed, George Clooney, in the film "Up in the Air". In fact, according to the National Household Travel Survey (2002), the typical business traveler is a white male, aged 30-49 years old, who works in a professional, managerial, or professional position. And, while those airline commercials might fool you into thinking that all business travel is a Shangri-La of on-board first-class cabins with lay-flat beds and 5-star hotels with Michelin-starred restaurants, the majority of business travel is under 1,000 miles from the business traveler's home. In 2013, the United States took the overwhelming lead in countries spending on business travel with $274 billion spent. In 2014, that amount was projected to be $290 billion (according to the Global Business Travel Association). And as the U.S. climbs out of recession, according to a U.S. Travel Association report conducted by Oxford Economics in 2013, every dollar invested in business travel generated $9.50 in increased revenue and $2.90 in profits.

That's a lot of numbers and statistics and while the economic implications are vast, the effects on the spiritual lives of these frequent business travelers and the churches they're not attending is immeasurable. Church communities live or die not only by the ability of their clergy to provide consistent engagement of their congregates, but by the ability of their congregates to consistently engage with their church communities. Engagement isn't just attending church service on the main day of weekly observance. It's going to the potluck supper on Wednesday night, or the Thursday evening choir rehearsal. While churches have been making excellent use of digital tools to engage the religious business traveler from afar, including uploading videos of the Sunday sermon, digitally distributing weekly bulletins, and issuing PDAs to clergy so that pastoral care is an email or text message away, these critical strides still pale in comparison to sitting in the physical presence of other parishioners. The same know-how and ingenuity that make these business travelers highly valued by their companies is the same know-how and ingenuity coveted by churches seeking to build their lay leadership. 

Absent the weekly rituals of church community life, the spiritual lives of those on the road, or up in the air, have their own challenges. If your job keeps you on the road and away from your family and home for more than 8 weeks a year, opportunities for spiritual formation are difficult to find and hard to maintain, especially when you're battling jet lag and the wait list of other home-life  activities that you've put on-hold because of travel. And never mind trying to schedule dinner or even a coffee with friends you see infrequently because you're on the road so much. A lot of road warriors I know use physio-spiritual practices like yoga, something that they are able to practice irrespective of their business travel schedules and locations. Runners are another group who make that morning jog in Singapore into their own spiritual practice. And some do a quiet meditation in business class while the plane climbs to cruising altitude. But, one thing is for sure, in the journey towards work-life balance, the frequent business traveler still has a long way to go, and hopefully our churches will keep working, prayerfully, to get on board.