The short answer: start 12 to 18 months before you want to travel, choose the itinerary that fits your people and your teaching, set a sign-up deadline, and let a faith-based tour operator handle flights, hotels, guides, and logistics so you can pastor your group. With Mission Travel Faith Tours, a group of 14 or more travels on its own private tour, built around your dates and your church.
Taking your congregation to the land where Jesus walked is not a vacation with a verse attached. It is discipleship on the ground. You read the Sermon on the Mount on the hillside above the Sea of Galilee. You stand at the empty tomb. Your people go home changed, and so does your preaching. Here is how to plan it well.
1. Start 12 to 18 months out
Most of a church trip's success is decided long before anyone boards a plane. A long runway gives families time to save, gives you time to promote it from the pulpit, and gives your tour operator the best options on flights and hotels. If you are reading this with less time than that, call anyway. Shorter timelines can still work.
2. Decide who the trip is for
Is this for your whole church, your leadership team, a couples group, or your students? The answer shapes the pace, the budget, and the itinerary. A first-time group usually wants the classic Holy Land sites. A group that has been before may want to go deeper into Jordan, Egypt, or the journeys of Paul.
3. Choose an itinerary that matches your teaching
Pick the trip that fits what God is doing in your church right now. Some good starting points:
- Holy Land Discovery Group Tour for a first church trip to Israel
- Grand Holy Land Tour for a fuller journey through the land
- Israel and Jordan Group Tour to add Petra and the east side of the Jordan
- Holy Land Baptism Tour if baptisms in the Jordan River are part of your vision
- Jordan, Israel and Egypt Group Tour to follow the story from Egypt to the Promised Land
Every group tour can be customized. You can add teaching times, worship at key sites, free days, or an extension.
4. Set the price and the deadlines early
Once you have an itinerary, get a written group quote and announce three dates: the sign-up deadline, the deposit date, and the final payment date. Clear deadlines protect you and your people. Ask about travel insurance up front, since many health plans do not cover illness or injury overseas.
5. Recruit your group the way you would build any ministry
Announce it from the pulpit, hold an information night, and let people ask questions face to face. Invite a few key families first. Their excitement is your best promotion. Remember that 14 travelers is enough for a private group tour, so you do not need a huge church to make it happen.
6. Prepare spiritually, not just practically
Use the months before you travel to disciple your group. Read the Gospels together. Study the sites you will visit. Pray for each other by name. A group that has been walking with Jesus together before the trip will see far more once they arrive.
7. Let your tour operator carry the logistics
Your job is to pastor your people. Flights, hotels, buses, licensed guides, entry fees, and the hundred small details belong to your tour operator. That frees you to teach, pray, and be present.
Ready to take your church to the Holy Land? Start planning your church tour or call 407-377-7912.
