How is a Protestant faith crisis different than an LDS faith crisis? David Boice details how his faith crisis led him to start attending other churches, and he came up with a book and YouTube channel by the same name: 52 Churches in 52 Weeks. He’ll give more details. Check out our next conversation….
Lutheran Faith Crisis Leads to 52 Churches
Interview
GT 00:35 Welcome to Gospel Tangents. I’m excited to have an internet superstar on the show.
David 00:40 Oh!
GT 00:41 Could you go ahead and tell us who you are and what’s the name of your YouTube channel?
David 00:45 My name is David Boice of 52 Churches in 52 Weeks.
GT 00:49 All right. You’ve really [grown] apparently. Tell us how this channel got started. I thought that was pretty interesting.
David 00:58 It’s a long story.
GT 00:59 That’s why we are here.
David 01:00 Yeah. So, [in] about 2014, I was looking. I basically had a falling out with my lifetime Lutheran church.
GT 01:10 Oh. You didn’t talk to Willie Grills? He would have talked you out of that. I had him on. He’s a Lutheran pastor over in Arkansas, but he’s far away. You’re from Wisconsin. Right?
David 01:21 Yeah. With that church, [I] just had a few things that came up where I’m like, I can’t keep coming. And what was happening–with my generation, like with millennials, we would often hear so much now about faith crisis’s. I was starting to go into a faith crisis. So, I stopped going to church. But there was something inside of me, where it [felt] like, something’s just not right. And it kind of hit me, well, maybe I need to find a new church. But I had gone to this lifetime church for 30 years. And where do you start over? I had this whisper. I don’t know. Is it the Holy Spirit? Is it God? Who knows? But I just had this thing to say 52 churches in 52 weeks. It sounds silly. But I’m like, “Well, that sounds [interesting.]”
GT 02:18 It sounds like a great marketing idea to me.
David 02:20 Right. Exactly. I just let it sit. And all of a sudden, things just happened, where, I was talking to a friend. He was completely opposite of me. For me, I have always been very Christian, I was always very conservative. [I] followed everything by the book. Whereas my friend was very atheist, very liberal, just very opposite of me. And in the past, we would have these religious debates. I was always [saying] well, you need to read the Bible. You just need to believe. [I] just sprinkled my little jazz hands to try and get him to believe what I thought. Whereas with him as an atheist, he was trying to get me away from faith, and get me, basically, that science, atheist a movement that was happening. I was just kind of stuck. And I decided with this thing, 52 churches in 52 weeks, you know what? Let’s try it. So, I just went to the closest church that was near me, [It was] maybe did an Aaron Rodgers/Tom Brady, Hail Mary pass away. I know you’re a Patriots fan (Rick laughing.)
GT 03:41 Are you a Jets fan now?
David 03:42 No. Heavens no. Packers all the way, Jordan Love, Utah State. [You] better get good soon. We’ll see how this ages and what happens with that. So, I went to that church for my week one. And I started blogging on a website called medium.com. I did several church visits. So I did the first six.
GT 04:05 So this was a blog, not a video, only.
David 04:07 Right.
GT 04:08 Okay.
David 04:08 Originally in 2014, this was a blog.
GT 04:10 Oh wow.
David 04:11 And so my friend had interested me to start blogging about it. So, he found me a website: medium.com. It was really crisp. It was a very easy layout. You could just get it out. It worked really well at that time. So, I started doing all these church visits. And then week seven happened. I went to a United Methodist Church for their Thanksgiving service.
GT 04:36 Now remind me again, this first church, this first non-Lutheran Church was what again?
David 04:41 The first church was a Lutheran church.
GT 04:43 Oh, it was?
David 04:43 It was just a different type of Lutheran Church.
GT 04:46 Okay.
David 04:47 So I came from a WEL’s Lutheran Church. WEL, which stands for Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. So, for this one, I went to a Missouri Synod.
GT 05:00 Oh now Willie Grills is from Missouri Synod. And I’ve heard that’s very conservative. Is that true?
David 05:09 Very conservative. The one that I came from was even more conservative.
GT 05:12 Oh, really? Oh, I thought Missouri was the most conservative. Okay. Wow.
David 05:18 Well, actually, let me back up. I think it was actually ELCA, was that first church visit. Because the first few visits I did, were all Lutheran churches.
GT 05:26 Okay, so you were trying to stay in the fold, kind of.
David 05:28 I was trying to stay comfortable, because I didn’t want to go too far out from what I was used to. I did a couple different ELCA and Missouri Synod churches that were Lutheran. And then I started doing other denominations. And so, when I did my week seven visit, it was a United Methodist Church.
GT 05:48 Okay.
David 05:48 And when I first sat down, a gentleman plopped a 12 pack of toilet paper right next to me, and said, “Here, give this to the kids.” I’m just sitting here by myself just wondering, what kind of greeting is this? {Rick laughing}
GT 06:03 So, this was before the toilet paper shortage, right?
David 06:08 Right, this was before the toilet paper shortage, before the pandemic 2020. So, the rest of the church service, I’m just sitting next to this toilet paper, just wondering, what am I supposed to do with it? Who are these kids, I’m supposed to give this to? What’s happening? But I remember that church service because they had a meet and greet. And it was the first church service I had seen where the meet and greet, they didn’t stop! They kept talking like for five minutes straight. They were genuinely curious about each other’s lives, and to contribute to that. So, I finally figured out what to do with the toilet paper. It was for this Thanksgiving food pantry that they were doing. They were going to have kids with these carts, and they were going to wheel it down, but they needed items to add it for their food pantry, so it looked full. So, that was done. So, I blogged about it. The title of my blog post was; Toilet Paper Puns Are Tearable.
GT 07:11 Oh, no.
David 07:13 So, what happened from there is the blogging website, medium.com, they had a staff that would upvote articles to its front page. So, they got a crack out of it. They weren’t featuring many religious stories. They put it on their front page. A lot of people started reading this. That then got on the Google algorithm. So, if anyone typed in toilet paper puns, my church visit was coming up. {Rick laughing} As more and more people read about this strange church visit, and they were just looking for toilet paper puns, which I had several of them, that were very “Charmin” [charming] anyway. {Rick laughing} So, that kind of blew up. And then after that, I’m like, oh, people could be interested in this as I continue on.
David 08:08 But from there, I started doing other church visits. It just started in Wisconsin. But then I started getting interested about more and more and more churches, and then I had start traveling further out. And I remember, I think it was week 13, I drove out to Minneapolis to do Fort Snelling Memorial Chapel. And this was a church that was specifically catered towards Army veterans, Navy veterans, Air Force, just any kind of veterans. And I remember driving back [thinking,] who drives three hours to church and three hours back?
GT 08:46 Wow.
David 08:47 And that kind of hit me. Okay, this is a bit of a spiritual adventure. What else can I do?
GT 08:51 Okay.
David 08:52 So I was just trying to make it very exciting and a little bit more of something where many people may think church is boring. All of a sudden now, church is exciting. What else is out there?
GT 09:04 Wow. So this is still in 2014?
David 09:07 Yes, 2014.
GT 09:07 So you’re just a blogger at this point. You’re not a video star yet?
David 09:11 Exactly. Well, I wouldn’t call myself a star, but with YouTube, that’s further enhanced the reach for people checking out this spiritual trek that I’ll do.
GT 09:25 See, I didn’t know you went clear back to 2014. You’re way old, as far as the blogging world.
David 09:32 Yeah. Well, at that point, I was just blogging.
GT 09:35 Right.
David 09:35 But then after I completed the 52 churches–
GT 09:38 You were done.
David 09:39 I was done for a while. I kept writing about it, because I was that interested in it. But just due to the time, the money, the distance, the travel, I had to take a break.
GT 09:49 Yeah. You weren’t going to go three hours one way again.
David 09:51 Right. Exactly.
GT 09:53 Until later.
David 09:55 Yeah, pretty much.
GT 09:57 So you took a break of how many years?
David 10:00 Oh, goodness, about seven years…
GT 10:02 Wow.
David 10:03 …before I started doing it again. Because I thought this was going to be a one-time deal.
GT 10:06 Okay,
David 10:07 I was just, do it one time.
GT 10:08 Now was this January to December?
David 10:12 What happened is, I think, it was October 14, 2014 is the first day I did it. I just woke up, or the night before, I’m like, I should go to church and do this.
GT 10:23 Okay.
David 10:24 And it was just kind of–24 hours beforehand, I didn’t plan doing it at all. That idea of 52 churches in 52 weeks was just so stuck in my head, let’s see what happens if you do it.
GT 10:39 Okay. Well, very cool. So, primarily back in 2014, you’re just dealing with churches mostly in Wisconsin.
David 10:49 At first.
GT 10:50 And you’re just blogging about them. Now, you mentioned a little bit of a faith crisis. But it doesn’t sound like a Mormon faith crisis. And I don’t know how much you’ve studied that. Can you tell us a little bit more about this faith crisis? Because it doesn’t sound like it was too much of a faith crisis, if you kept going to church.
GT 11:08 Right. Well, so what happened with the faith crisis is with the church I had been a part of my entire life, just different things would come up. There was a church scandal that was just kind of put under the rug.
GT 11:22 Like a sex scandal thing or money digging/laundering?
David 11:26 I won’t say. It was just very shady, I will say.
GT 11:30 Something shady happened.
David 11:31 Yeah, something shady happened.
GT 11:32 Okay.
David 11:32 And as it was put under the rug. We’ll never talk about it again. But at the same time, I was having issues with communion. What our church would often preach would be closed communion. You had to be a member to receive communion. With my conversations with my atheist friend, maybe that was like a little bit of an influence for me to be like, I don’t know if that’s right. Because if we are inviting people into our church, but we don’t invite them to the dinner table, what are we doing? With my old church, I was an usher. I would usher once every month. And I remember one time, this gentleman came in with his wife, just dressed to the nines, took a seat. My then pastor welcomed him. But I remember that the gentleman pointing at the back of our bulletin, where only members can receive communion. And they got into this little argument.
GT 12:42 This gentleman and your pastor.
David 12:43 Yeah. So, as the usher, I’m eavesdropping a little bit. But at the same point, people are walking in. I’m handing them bulletins, just smiling, “Hey, nothing to see here. We’re a great church.” But the gentleman took his wife’s hand, and they stormed out of the church. And that was like a little tiny snowball. And that just started to get bigger and bigger and bigger in my own head, to the point of, “Why do we do this?”
GT 13:14 And so the idea was, he was a member, his wife wasn’t, so she couldn’t take communion? Is that what it was?
David 13:20 I guess they both couldn’t take communion, because they were both visiting the church. At the time, I was thinking, “Great, get out of here. You have to be a member of our church.” I remember just thinking afterwards, that’s not the right Christ-like response…
GT 13:37 Okay.
David 13:39 …to deal with that. I think that was one part of maybe my faith crisis: I’m starting to ask questions. But I didn’t have anyone to ask them to. I’m just asking myself about this, asking my friend who’s an atheist. I don’t even think I was asking him. But [I was] just questioning, why is it? Why are the things that we do, where does that come from? That always just bothered me to the point with other things that happened, just minor things. But that was the big one that just seems weird to me.
GT 14:15 So, if somebody was from, say, Missouri Synod and came to this Wisconsin’s Synod for lack of a better term, could they take communion, or no?
David 14:26 Oh, I don’t believe so.
GT 14:27 They had to be a member of that specific congregation?
David 14:29 I think so.
GT 14:29 Oh, wow.
David 14:30 So, I think in the 1950s and 60s, there’s a whole history on this. So maybe, who did you say his name was?
GT 14:37 Willie Grills.
David 14:38 Maybe Willie Grills will know. We need to put Willie on.
GT 14:40 Hey Willie, we need Willie on this.
David 14:43 My understanding is, I don’t believe so. I think you had to be a member of that specific Lutheran sub-denomination to be a part of it.[1]
GT 14:51 Oh, wow. That is pretty tight. I’m surprised to hear that. All right. So this community issue came up and then you said, “Ah, I don’t know if I like my congregation.” But you’re still a believer in God, it sounds like. You still want to explore.
David 15:07 I was teetering. Yeah, I was teetering.
GT 15:09 You weren’t going towards atheism, though?
David 15:12 I think I was beginning to feel that.
GT 15:14 Okay.
David 15:15 But what was different with my faith crisis is, instead of going to the full atheist side, I decided, okay, instead, I’m just going to go all in.
GT 15:26 Okay.
David 15:27 I’m going to devote a year of my life to figure this out. Is church true?
GT 15:33 Mm hmm.
David 15:34 Is God true? And I think when I started doing it, at first, it was just such an adventure, that it was building up this fire within me, where just due to the novelty of it, where are you going to go next? I got so excited about it and seeing other churches and how they responded to first time visitors. That was a much more, “Oh, okay.” Whereas maybe some people leave the faith due to one church, or two events, or I’m sorry, one church, maybe two churches, where they had issues with those particular churches. I’m like, well, I’m just going to try as many as I can. Because it can’t all be issues with one or two churches. I don’t know if that makes sense.
GT 16:21 So the idea was just you weren’t planning on joining any of these churches, you just wanted to see what was out there basically?
David 16:28 Right
GT 16:28 Okay, well, I think it’s a cool idea. And obviously, it’s turned into a YouTube channel now.
David 16:32 Yeah.
GT 16:33 I guess I should mention, for those of you who don’t know, a few weeks ago, back in October, me and David and Steve Pynakker, presented at the John Whitmer Historical Association. I got a preview of some other stuff we’re going to talk about. But before we jump into that, can you talk about that first year, 2014 to 2015? Do you have any big takeaways from other churches that you’ve really liked? Or really disliked? I’ll go both ways.
David 17:04 I think as I tried to do just all types, so as it progressed, the more exciting it would get. So, I would drive to Texas to check out some of these mega churches.
GT 17:16 Oh, wow. So, you did this clear back in 2014?
David 17:18 Yeah.
GT 17:19 Wow!
David 17:19 So you know, [that’s] a lot of miles on the car. And so I counted, so I actually figured out how many miles I had doing it the first time. So, it was about 26,000 (miles). So I learned on other podcasts, that was basically around the earth one time, all the driving to go to church.
GT 17:37 Wow!
David 17:38 Which was crazy. But yeah, I would go to Texas for the mega church.
GT 17:40 Because I thought you were staying in Wisconsin, but you went to Texas?
David 17:43 I blew it up. After that trip to Minneapolis. I’m like, how much further out can I go? I’d go to the mega churches in Texas.
GT 17:51 Oh, wow.
David 17:51 I went to a few, I drove to the east coast to New York, Manhattan to try a church there.
GT 18:00 How did you pick these churches?
David 18:02 Ah, sometimes people requested them.
GT 18:05 Okay.
David 18:05 Other times, I just would Google search. And if I saw a church that looked really interesting. I’m like, “Oh, that would be fun to visit.”
GT 18:12 So, these were predominantly Christian churches? You didn’t go to Jewish synagogue or Muslim [mosque] or anything like that?
David 18:17 I did do one Jewish synagogue. And then I did a Baha’i Temple.
GT 18:21 Oh, wow.
David 18:23 But what I learned is, I couldn’t do justice to different types of religions that weren’t Christian.
GT 18:31 Okay.
David 18:32 And it was called 52 churches. I didn’t want it–
GT 18:35 Not 52 synagogues.
David 18:37 Right. I didn’t want to be 49 churches, a synagogue, a Baha’i Temple, and some random meeting house in 52 weeks that just…
GT 18:45 Okay.
David 18:46 When I did the recent one on YouTube, I tried to be more, okay, only churches this time. I tried not to do the other faiths that I just don’t know enough about.
GT 18:57 Okay, so Texas, New York. That’s pretty good. I mean, Wisconsin’s kind of in the middle of the country.
David 19:05 A little bit. Yeah.
GT 19:05 Still, is that East time zone?
David 19:07 Central.
GT 19:08 Central, okay.
[1] Willie Grills said, “The LCMS (Missouri) and WELS were in fellowship until the 1961 when the WELS broke fellowship with us. So, we cannot commune with each other at this time. We do recognize that we each have a legitimate Lord’s Supper.”
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