Training Through Travel

Upcoming TRips

Prague to Geneva Reformation Study Tour

Tour Dates: May 31 – June 10, 2024

Cities: Prague, Wittenberg, Erfurt, Eisenach, Rudesheim, Mainz, Strasbourg, Zurich, Geneva

You are invited to join Urbana Seminary’s Dr. Joe Thomas, and Dr. Mark Draper as they trace our rich Protestant heritage through four countries: the Czech Republic, France, Germany, and Switzerland. Joe and Mark co-teach a doctoral level course on the Reformation and this is their second time leading a Reformation Tour.

On this 11-day journey, Joe and Mark will be sharing insights about the spiritual life of the Reformers, with a focus on the context and application of their teachings. There will also be time for spiritual reflection and group discussions. Suggestions for pre-tour study materials will be available.

Inklings Tour

Date: September 17-28 2024

Dr. Melody Green will lead this tour through Oxford, Cambridge, Birmingham, and London focusing on J.R.R. Tolkien, G,K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, Dorothy Sayers, and Charles Williams. 

 

Previous Trips

The Land of Israel Tour

MARCH 8-19 2023

A few words from our participants:

“I loved being in the actual places where so many Bible events took place – it deepened my love and appreciation for how TRUE everything is, how abundant the evidence from thousands of years ago – and how humbling to think ever more deeply about the impact God’s Word & His Truth has for all of us. The trip allowed us to see SO many places from N to S in Israel, covering both OT and NT history – no time was wasted….so we could make the most of all the time we had.”

“I really appreciated the theology of “place”.

“I really enjoyed seeing where Jesus spent his earthly life. It brought the Bible to life in a new way.”

In the Footsteps of Paul: Turkey and Greece

MARCH 8 – 20th, 2022

The Footsteps of Paul trip was devoted to tracing the steps of the apostle Paul on his missionary journeys in Acts. The tour visited strategic points from his ministry and from the Seven Churches of Revelation—Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Hierapolis, Laodicea, Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Delphi, Athens, and Corinth.

In the words of one participant, “We sat in the theater at Ephesus and pondered his 3-year ministry in that city, reconstructing in our minds the raucous riot that occurred right where we stood. We walked the streets of the city, and stood in the shadow of the Acropolis on Areopagus Hill in Athens where Paul preached the famous sermon recorded in Acts 17. We learned how the narratives of Scripture always fill out in all their dimensions when we see where they happened.” 

Reformation History Tour

MAY 20-30, 2019

Cities: Prague, Wittenberg, Erfurt, Eisenach, Mainz, Worms, Basel, Zurich, Geneva
Dr. Joe Thomas hosted this tour from the stunning city of Prague through Germany and finished in beautiful Geneva, Switzerland. Participants learned firsthand how reformation ideas planted in Prague bore fruit in the person of Martin Luther and spread to Zurich, Basel and Geneva. The tour stood where Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli and Jan Hus made their courageous stand for the Reformation ideas of Scripture alone, Christ alone and Faith alone. Tour participants experienced the spiritual revolution of the 16th century reformers by praying where they prayed, hearing what they preached from their actual pulpits, and seeing the sights where some gave their lives for their faith in Jesus Christ. The Reformation Tour expanded on the most important events in the church over the last 500 years while also deepening an understanding of the Christian faith and walk.

The Land of Israel Tour

March 15-28, 2018

The goal of the Land of Israel tour was to give participants a feel for the backdrop of the Bible—to see where it happened, how geography works into the exciting narratives and history of Scripture, and what we can observe and learn from the extensive archaeological work that has been carried out in Israel.

The teaching was given by our own Dr. Ken Cuffey, with a discipleship emphasis to give participants the tool of reading the Bible in its space and time context. For those interested the tour also had a value-added credit option: a course titled The Land of Israel: Geography, History, Archaeology, and Theology offered in Spring 2018.

Urbana Theological Seminary

Training Through Travel