Oxford Study Tour brings history to life, draws people to Christ

Now in its 20th year, Southwestern Seminary’s Oxford Study Tour offers more than just a trip around the United Kingdom. Students visit sites of crucial importance to evangelical and Baptist history, earn credits for classes offered by seminary professors, and share the Gospel with people from around the world. Several factors made this year’s tour, July 5-21, even more memorable: the presence of Steve Gaines, newly elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), as well as several newly added tour sites for the new School of Preaching.

This year, 37 students from Southwestern Seminary, Southeastern Seminary and Midwestern Seminary enjoyed the opportunity of taking a class from the president of the SBC on personal evangelism. Besides teaching, Gaines interacted closely with students and faculty on a daily basis and accompanied them in a number of excursions to historical sites.

“[Gaines] showed genuine interest in the lives of the students who were there,” says Professor of Ethics Evan Lenow. “There were a number of occasions where you could see him talking one-on-one with a student. He really was wanting to find out about them, their ministry and what their plans were, and he took a personal interest in the students. It was really wonderful to see that.”

Gaines also preached in the church of William Carey, founder of the modern missions movement. He spoke on humble Christian service to the church and to the world, and when he finished, he asked the faculty and the pastor of the church to come to the front. Gaines then exemplified his sermon by washing their feet in emulation of the Lord Jesus.

“It was a very humbling and moving experience,” says Malcolm Yarnell, professor of systematic theology at Southwestern. “It touched the [local] congregation, and it touched the faculty and all of the students as well, to see this humble service by this great leader. … His point was that we need to model the same humility that Christ had.”

Since 2003, when Yarnell became director of the Oxford study tour, personal evangelism has been an important emphasis of the program. This year was no different, and the faithful witness of students and faculty led to numerous presentations of the Gospel and two professions of faith.

Lenow and two Southwestern students—Brenton Powell, a Master of Theological Studies student, and Wilbert Cloud, a Doctor of Ministry student from the Havard campus—were waiting to board the flight to England at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport when a woman interrupted their conversation. She asked, “How do you get started with this whole God thing?” Sitting in the airport, Lenow, Powell and Cloud proceeded to share the Gospel with her, and she accepted Christ into her heart.

In another instance, Brian Hendricks, a Bachelor of Arts student at Southwestern, was trying to find a place to eat lunch when he saw a man giving out literature on a religious cult. When the man approached him, Hendricks struck up a friendly conversation and shared the Gospel with him for the next 20 minutes.

“There were many encounters like that,” recalls David Allen, dean of the School of Preaching. “I am very proud of our students. They have such a heart for sharing the Lord.”

“If you want to learn to share the Gospel in a cross-cultural context, in a truly missionary context, this is a way to do it,” Yarnell says of the Oxford program. “I love to take students to Oxford, to London and to Edinburgh because these cities are not just populated by English and Scottish people. … In an afternoon, you can share the Gospel with people from all of the continents of the world if you will just start talking to people.”

With the establishment of the new School of Preaching, several new tour sites were added to highlight the lives of great Baptist preachers. In addition to visiting the Great Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, where Charles Spurgeon pastored for many years, the team also visited the church in which Spurgeon was converted, as well as Spurgeon’s gravesite at Norwood Cemetery. At each location, Allen offered lectures on Baptist history and preaching.

“If you want to share the Gospel with people from around the world, then I suggest that you go on the Oxford program,” Yarnell says. “If you want to walk where the great saints of history walked, then you need to go on the Oxford program. Stand in the pulpit of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Sing ‘Amazing Grace’ in the choir of John Newton’s church. See where Thomas Cranmer walked his last steps before he was burnt at the stake by Bloody Mary. [The trip] gives you a vision that a book or a lecture cannot give—it becomes a living experience in historical theology.”