On Faith appears the first Sunday of each month.
The Rev. Victoria Heard wanted to provide her congregants with a religious experience far removed from any church building. So she arranged for them to go tubing on the Shenandoah River.
Heard, pastor of St. Ives Episcopal Church in North Arlington, said the 19 members who took the August trip enjoyed an afternoon of Christian fellowship in a natural setting, and she hopes it will become a regular activity.
"We're trying to integrate the life of our members into the experience of God, and sometimes what we do on Sundays is different from what we do the rest of the week," said Heard, 49. "Sunday worship is ancient, but it's also a habit, and many people who are exploring the notion of God aren't into that habit. We want to be sure there are opportunities for them to experience a Christian community . . . other than the Sunday morning 'We're all going to talk church now' scenario."
From recreational outings to workshops on parenting and financial planning, churches are involved in an increasingly wide array of programs designed to show that they are much more than a destination for Sunday worship.
At Ebenezer AME Church in Fort Washington, more than 300 members belong to a golf ministry. The Sanctuary at Kingdom Square in Capital Heights has a ministry called Kingdom Knights for members who ride motorcycles. Vermont Avenue Baptist Church in Northwest Washington, as part of its community outreach, has a bowling alley in the basement.
First Baptist Church of Glenarden offers an aviation ministry and a drama program. Among its many ministries, Woodstream Church in Mitchellville has a 50-member dance program that meets twice a week.
Pastors and lay leaders say such activities are helping their churches build and sustain membership, drawing in people who are not attracted by traditional worship and expanding the church's role in the daily lives of people who already attend on Sundays.
From a theological standpoint, the programs reinforce the idea that faith is an asset in every human endeavor and that a relationship with God can be forged and deepened in unexpected ways and places.
The connection between golf and religion is championed not only by several individual churches but also by a national ministry -- the In His Grip Golf Association -- that teaches golfers how to apply the principles of their game to their spiritual lives. "In golf, it is key to trust your swing and in life, it is key to trust in the Lord," the group explains on its Web site.
"What we like to do is take the golfer's game to a higher level and let them take their lives to a higher level by living in his grip," said Scott Lehman, 44, the golf pro who started the ministry. "Jesus told his disciples to go out and make disciples of others. We know that if we wait for golfers to come into [a place of worship], we may never see them. We feel it's important to go to golfers where they are at."
To reach twenty-somethings, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington sends clergy into bars. The program, called "Theology on Tap," was started several years ago by the Archdiocese of Chicago. Washington Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick is sometimes the featured guest and typically draws a standing-room-only crowd of more than 500 as he delivers a light sermon and fields questions, said archdiocese spokeswoman Susan Gibbs.
