You could search the world but I don’t think you would find a country with more church history per square mile than England. So let’s say you had five days and wanted to see just a little bit of that church history. What could you do? Take a look at what I did, how far I traveled, and how much I saw, in five days in England.
Transcript
You could search the world but I don’t think you would find a country with more church history per square mile than England. So let’s say you had five days and wanted to see just a little bit of that church history. What could you do? Why don’t you try something like this?
An around the world journey like this requires a ton of organization. I’m thankful for all I’ve learned from Matt Perman over the years. Matt’s got a new book that’s just come out called How to Get Unstuck. I’m going to tell you a little bit more about that book in just a few minutes.
Catch the red eye to be sure you land early in the day. Get the Heathrow Express down to the British Library. Enjoy some of the world’s great treasures. Hot maneuver to John Wesley’s house. Don’t miss his pulpit, his robes or his brother’s organ. Cross the road to Bunhill Fields to pay your respects to Bunyan, Owen, Watts, and so many others. Take the late train 200 miles north to Hull. Sleep.
Begin the day with Wilberforce, the hero to all of us. Grieve for slavery and rejoice at its abolition. Go west to Manchester to check out the oldest New Testament manuscript in all the world. Another 200 miles south will get you to Bristol. You better get some shuteye.
It’s a big day. See George Muller’s orphanages and be amazed at how massive they are. Go to his museum, sit at his desk, read his Bible.
In George Muller’s personal Bible, James chapter 1, verse 27, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
Visit the Wesley museum and walk through Charles Wesley’s house. Now drive down to Devonshire to see the oldest known Baptist building in the country. Just see if you can find the Baptistry. Then head to Bath and visit the Architectural Museum. It’s actually one of the many chapels build by the great Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon. Just imagine Whitfield preaching it’s inaugural sermon.
Start a new day in Oxford and consider the martyrs who were put to death in this very spot. If you can make an appointment, visit the Angus library, to look at William Carey’s effects.
“Second-hand shoes, bought and sold”, with the sold mostly missing. The sign that hung over Carey’s shop.
The Ashmolean has some amazing artifacts and a few related to the Reformation. In Olney, be sure to visit John Newton’s house and church and grave.
On the back of the grave, it says, “John Newton Clark, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy. Near 16 years as curate of this parish and 28 years as rector of St. Mary, Woolnoth.” A pretty good testimony to a life.
In Bedford, spend some time with Bunyan. In Hackleton, see where Carey lived and worshiped, and in Pury End, the place he was born. Central Baptist Church in Leicester and Carey Baptist in Moulton have little museums with amazing artifacts from Carey’s life and times. Be sure to stop by Fuller Baptist in Kettering to learn about Andrew Fuller.
Head back to London and be sure to spend a few hours at the British Museum, there is nothing quite like it.
Close out the evening meeting some new friends.
Many people with great, even world-changing ideas just are not able to make them happen. Most people, they’re trying to make a difference where they are, but they feel overwhelmed, they feel overloaded, they feel far too busy. So how do you get unstuck? And how do you get unstuck without resorting to complex systems that take far more time to keep up than they actually save? Matt Perman’s new book, How to Get Unstuck, answers this question. It’s available right now from Amazon or wherever good books are sold.
