10:30 PM
I have returned from an evening lecture in the Oxford Museum, by Michael Green. His lecture title was “With All Your Heart – Outreach.”

I was not expecting what I heard. Michael Green is one of the world’s leading evangelists, is 78 years old, and has for some years been a Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University. He left Wycliffe last August, and is currently co-Rector of Holy Trinity Church, Raleigh, North Carolina. This guy was funny, lively, witty, and very passionate about evangelism!

Here are some take-away thoughts
- “The key to evangelism is not technique. It is passion!”
- “We’ve grown cold. We don’t really care enough about people to love them much anymore.”

5 principles on evangelism in the New Testament Church:
1 – Dynamic church life: attractive to the community
2 – Get into the non-believers mindset
3 – Challenge people for a decision
4 – Ministry to individuals, one-on-one, build relationships
5 – Taking small teams with you – training and growth

5 more principles from the church today:
6 – Prayer for individuals
7 – Testimonies: especially in a post-modern world!
8 – Invitations: to homes, parties, cookouts, alpha courses — practice hospitality in homes!
9 – Church based outreach
10 – Use of non-church buildings and neutral spaces:
- One guy started “On the Move” ministry offering free BBQ’s! Read “Sizzling Faith” by Martin Graham.
- Read “Irresistible Revolution” by Shane Claiborne

4:45 PM

Just back from a walking tour of Oxford, originally known as Oxen Ford. Some of the buildings in this town are 400 and more years old. Oxford University is an organization that all the Colleges of Oxford belong to. There is no single campus called Oxford University.

We visited a number of colleges and sites including: St. John’s College (the richest), Balliol, The Martyrs’ Memorial, the actual spot (marked by a stone cross in the middle of Broad Street) where the Martyr’s (Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, Thomas Cranmer, who were burned at the stake), Radcliffe Square, Oriel College, Merton College (where J.R.R. Tolkien taught) and other sites as we walked by them. Our guide was excellent – a retired English teacher who lives in Oxford and is now a professional Oxford Guide. She told us many interesting stories and tidbits of history.

Here is a great resource I found online with “Virtual Tours” of many of these places.

1:45 PM

Am heading out for my walking tour of Oxford. Had a great conversation at lunch with a guy named Chris who lives in Tulsa and is in his residency program there. He is thinking about going into bioethics, and is here with his wife in the process of thinking that decision through.

I made sure he was aware of the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network that I receive regular email updates from.

12:30 PM

I just returned from Rhodes House hearing two lectures. The first lecture on the letters to the 7 churches in Revelation presented by John Lennox (see photo). The second lecture by Ravi Zacharias on “The Uniqueness of Christ in History.”

Take away thoughts from Revelation. The basic problem with the church in Ephesus was that they were good at hating bad theology and teaching, and really poor at loving. In fact they had left their first love. We skipped ahead to the church at Thyatira, and saw that they were really good at loving, but did not take a stand against sin and wrong teaching in their midst. Then we skipped to the church at Laodicea to see that they were just lukewarm, neither hot nor cold and were about the be spewed out for it.

If we are going to “overcome” we are going to have to figure out how to love one another and our neighbors and yet be intolerant of evil in a healthy and balanced way.

Then Ravi, in his overview of the Uniqueness of Christ in History pointed out how in revealing himself to us as a Trinity, God reveals himself as a being in relationship. When creating us then in his image, he reveals a foundational element of our being and need to for relationship with him and one another.

He noted that one of the last prayers of Jesus was for the church, that – “we would be one, even as I and the Father are one.” The church has lost one of its main callings – to be a community of healing. “We torment people who are already in agony.” Some episodes in my recent past immediately came to mind when I heard that statement. How sad and how true!

There is a clear need for the church to become a community of healing and restoration, without watering down the reality of sin and the call to repentence and conversion.

I’m off to lunch, then a professional guided walking tour of Oxford this afternoon! The sun has come out and it looks to be a perfect afternoon.

John Lennox – Revelation Notes

7:00 AM

Another rainy, cloudy, cool, Oxford, English day! Heading to breakfast.