The Magical History Tour - Christianity Today

I was weary of the typical staff retreat. It was frustrating to go away for two days and come back to a full week’s work. It was irritating to have staff members’ cell phones constantly ringing with news of emergencies, real and imagined. It was boring to simply expand the normal business of a weekly staff meeting into a two- or three-day marathon. It was time for a change.

So, I took our team to England for a week. As a Brit myself, I wanted our team to encounter some of the giants of church history as I had met them, to meet with Christians of another culture, and to spend seven days in uninterrupted team building.

This retreat exceeded my wildest expectations.

Strange and warmed

We visited John Wesley’s house in London and noted the indentations in the floorboards of his closet, worn away by his knees from getting up at four each morning to pray. Charles Wesley’s great hymn “And Can It Be?” took on new meaning as we sang it together in the Foundry Chapel. At John’s grave we gave thanks for the lives of these brothers and how they were used by God to bring about the Great Awakening in England and America. Church history came alive for us.

Standing in Wesley’s church, we imagined his expositions. Karen, our high school pastor, confessed the most meaningful moment for her was kneeling at the rail where John Wesley had so often served communion. Later we visited the Wesley Room in Lincoln College, Oxford. I was deeply moved to realize that here John and Charles Wesley and George Whitfield had founded the Holy Club.

Opposite Wesley’s Chapel is Bunhill Cemetery where Isaac Watts, John Bunyan, John Owen, Susannah Wesley, and other Christian heroes are buried. Reading their gravestones we all felt challenged to make our own mark for God. We often heard this call during the trip. Admiring the statue of Eros in Picadilly Circus, we learned it was erected in memory of Lord Shaftesbury, a great social reformer of the nineteenth century whose social conscience sprung from his evangelical faith.

Children’s workers and other martyrs

Our children’s pastor, Cheri, found our visit to Robert Raikes’s house in Gloucester particularly meaningful. Raikes started the first Sunday school in 1780, paying his teachers to instruct the local urchins to read using the catechism. He was vilified by the established church, but by 1786 some 200,000 children were enrolled in Sunday schools throughout England. We noted with amusement that criticism of children’s ministry is nothing new.

In Gloucester we visited George Whitfield’s house and church. He walked 60 miles to Oxford to study for the ministry, yet we complain if the church parking lot is full.

We were constantly faced with the suffering that Christians of previous generations had endured. We paused at the memorial to John Hooper, the bishop of Gloucester, who was burned at the stake by bloody Queen Mary in 1555 because he had embraced the Reformed faith. In Oxford we visited the Martyrs’ Memorial where Latimer, Ridley, and Cranmer were burned at the stake. We could almost hear Latimer encouraging his friend, “Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle by God’s grace in England as I trust shall never be put out.”

As Baptists we found it particularly poignant to read the plaque on a bridge over Oxford’s River Cherwell celebrating 300 years of Baptist life and acknowledging that a riotous mob destroyed the local Baptist church in 1731. It put some of our difficulties in perspective and strengthened our resolve for ministry.

All of us had been influenced by the writings of C.S. Lewis, so it was wonderful to visit his favorite pub, The Eagle and Child, in Oxford. It was there that Lewis, his brother Warren, and J.R.R. Tolkien met to discuss their writing over a glass of light refreshment. We walked through Magdalen College where Lewis taught, and we saw his house, The Kilns. How remarkable that such extraordinary ideas could come out of such an ordinary residence. In Stratford on Avon, we saw the Royal Shakespeare Company perform The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Baptists in Anglican communion

In Tewkesbury Abbey, where Christians have gathered for 1,200 years, we discovered the local school holding their daily chapel service. The headmaster invited us to join them. We stood with the children to sing William Williams’s great Welsh hymn, “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah.”

We attended Choral Evensong at Westminster Abbey, London, sitting in the choir stalls right behind the choristers. The strains of the choir singing Cranmer’s Scripture-soaked liturgy was a foretaste of heaven. And on Sunday, we worshiped at St. Ebbes’ in Oxford, which has a significant ministry to students. Bill, our pastor of worship, found the experience of praying where people had praised God for centuries both stimulating and humbling.

There is a danger in thinking that the way we do it now is the best way or the only way. We are the beneficiaries of centuries of faithful witness by Christians from traditions other than our own.

In addition to sampling worship across denominational lines, we interacted with Christians from other cultures. We stayed at Redcliffe College, a missionary training center in Gloucester. We worshiped with the student body, representing 15 different nations, and ate meals with the faculty and students.

One evening members of the faculty met with us to discuss the Christian faith from an English perspective. This was just before the start of the war with Iraq. We were surprised to discover their opposition to the war and their suspicion of the United States. Our business manager, Steve, remarked, “I always thought we were the good guys.” It was challenging to see ourselves through others’ eyes. We found ourselves discussing politics, not just from a partisan view, but through a theological lens.

A renewed, stronger team

To break up the monotony of the long drives in our rented van, I asked members of the team to present papers on subjects like worship, stewardship, and outreach and then lead discussion. We interspersed this with times of prayer. This meant the hours passed quickly and profitably, although as designated driver, I was careful to pray with my eyes open.

I threw in a number of activities just for plain fun, but even these led to stimulating theological debates. We visited Stonehenge, where it was clear that 5,000 years ago people were concerned with issues of life and death. The underground Cabinet Rooms in London where Winston Churchill directed the Second World War made us realize that it takes a great crisis to produce a great leader. There we pondered the type of leadership the church needs today.

We began to develop a parable mentality. Wandering around Warwick Castle, the finest medieval fortress in England, dating back to 1088, we were awed and marveled at the Psalmist’s description of God as our strong fortress.

The kingship and majesty of Christ took on new meaning as we toured Windsor Castle. Gazing at Holman Hunt’s painting of “The Light of the World” in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London made us consider the implications of Jesus standing at the door of the human heart. We made a renewed commitment to use great works of art in our own ministry back home.

We marveled at the beauty of God’s creation as we walked through the Cotswold village of Bourton on the Water. Being in another country made us willing to try new things and speak more openly on subjects than we might have done back home.

We built memories together and discovered that some of the best moments of our retreat were little things like stopping in a tea room for a cream Tea, consisting of scones smothered in clotted cream and strawberry jam and a teapot of Darjeeling.

This was truly the mother of all staff retreats. We realized the benefit of being together for an extended period of time and are already we’re planning our next staff retreat, a short-term mission venture.

C. John Steer is pastor of First Baptist Church of Rochester, Minnesota.

Take a virtual tour.

We have links to many of the sites Pastor Steer and his staff toured. Start your trip by visiting our website: http://www.christianitytoday.com/go/RetreatTour

How We Did It

The Road Show Retreat

It’s cheaper than you think.

A week-long staff retreat in England sounds extravagant, but with price breaks on air fare and some careful planning, we found our ad hoc Wesley Tour affordable. Here’s how:

Travel off-season:

We flew in January when fares from Minneapolis to London were very reasonable. The weather in England, with temperatures in the 50s, was still a great improvement on a Midwestern winter.

Call it continuing ed:

The cost for the entire trip was $800 per person. Our church gives each pastor $500 a year for conferences, and each staff member provided the remaining $300.

Sleep cheap:

Many colleges, seminaries, and mission centers offer affordable lodging. For more information on using Redcliffe College, where we stayed, as a center for personal study, e-mail: admin@redcliffe.org.

Seek congregational support:

We explained the concept carefully to the congregation. It provided a marvelous educational opportunity for our leadership team at no additional cost to the church. The elders gave us their blessing and generously agreed to do the pastoral work in our absence.

Try a local version:

If an international trip seems daunting, try a stateside version first. Scope out the historical connections of famous missionaries and Christian movements, and take your leadership team on a day trip. Visit a mission center or denominational headquarters. Or meet with the pastor and staff of a leading congregation in your community and talk about your shared history.