The Power of Pilgrimage
An Ancient Approach to Transform Lives
The Camino de Santiago is a pilgrimage in Spain that has roots going back a thousand years. Behind the Holy Land and Rome, it is considered one of the most significant pilgrimages in the Catholic tradition. In the modern era, the Camino is proved to be just as popular with secular pilgrims as Christian ones as demonstrated by the thousands of people who walk the Camino every year.
The popularity of the Camino signifies that the desire to interact with the transcendent and develop a connection to God is high. These pilgrims are trying to get in touch with a purpose and mission that is beyond themselves. There is little apathy among the pilgrims on the Camino. They may not all be followers of Christ but there is a desire for the divine and the spiritual and a belief that God can be found on the journey.
When contemplating the depths of a pilgrimage experience, I began to wonder if a pilgrimage mentality could be a powerful way of connecting people to the transforming power of Christ and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. As someone that wants to lead groups along the Camino, I think that a missional approach to a pilgrimage would include a deep commitment to the spiritual growth of the pilgrims, a connection and openness to the people you meet on the Camino, and an awareness of God’s immanence and movement.
Could this mentality be used in other ways to connect people with Christ? Could pilgrimage hold the key to an effective discipleship evangelism model? Instead of inviting individuals to a religious event or small gathering, we invite them to a pilgrimage, as a metaphor or an actual pilgrimage. This could simply be a four-to-six-week journey in study and conversation that introduces the individual to the life of Jesus, the power of the Holy Spirit, the guidance of scripture, the need for Christian community, and the reality of the human condition apart from God.
Like the pilgrims on the actual Camino, those on this discipleship journey will have their own unique experience and personal development. Each individual may be on different phases of transformation but the hope would be that the prospective believers would have an encounter with Christ and leave either a new creation, seeking further, or in intentional discipleship.
People long for life changing experiences, that is why the Camino de Santiago is so popular, and moving away from an attractional Christian outreach model to a pilgrimage model could tap into people’s pull towards a spiritual journey and provide plenty of metaphorical and actual context for addressing the saving power of the Gospel.