The idea for this trip came out of a walk through the city last April. Brandon was there with his son Lucas, and what struck him wasn't just the history — it was that the history was alive. Every church, every plaque, every street corner pointed back to the gospel doing something in a real person's life. Tyndale dying so ordinary people could read the Bible. Newton writing Amazing Grace after decades of trafficking enslaved people. Wesley's heart broken open in a small room on Aldersgate Street.
But the past isn't the whole story. London is one of the most post-Christian cities in the world. And it is also home to people from nearly every nation on earth — many of them students, many of them immigrants, many of them spiritually open in ways that people born and raised in the West rarely are.
The vision for the trip is simple: gospel past, present, and future. How has it reshaped the world? Where is it still working? What does it look like in a city that has largely walked away from it?
"We started as a people who wanted to gather together in the presence of the Triune God and follow the Spirit wherever that takes us. That started in a living room. We're coming to London to see what that looks like when it's been going for 16 years on an estate in East London."
Ben has been planting a church on a council estate in East London for 16 years. He lives in government housing. His neighbors are roughly 80 to 90 percent Bangladeshi Muslims. He didn't choose that demographic strategically — it's just where he ended up living, and it became his life's work.
Their church meets in a building where the cornerstone reads: This stone was laid by C.H. Spurgeon. They sing John Newton hymns. Ben's son Gil, who grew up in the church, now shares the preaching with his father and is studying theology at Union.
After 16 years, they have not seen a single Muslim convert stay with the church. Ben doesn't say this with defeat — he says it with honesty. He knows that what breaks through the hardness won't be their skill or strategy. It will be the Spirit.
Ben also leads Christian heritage tours through London's streets and museums. That history is not just his job — it's the thing that fuels why he keeps going. The people who changed the world felt like they were accomplishing nothing. Their names are on buildings now.
Dan is a full-time IMB missionary. He and his wife Tara spent 30 years planting churches and working with university students in the US, most recently in Boston where the church they helped plant has grown substantially. They moved to London because they saw something familiar in what Ben was building, and felt the pull.
Dan works with a university team focused on Queen Mary University of London, roughly a mile from the estate. Queen Mary has students from over 180 countries. Dan runs prayer walks, whiteboard evangelism, and one-on-one meetings with students. The week our team arrives, he had just gathered five young men for the first Bible study — including a student from Afghanistan who sat and took notes with a fervor that Dan said he won't soon forget.
Dan will provide mission training for our team — prayer walking, how to tell your own story, evangelism tools — so that no one is sent out to do something they haven't been prepared for.
The week is a mix of serving alongside Ben and Dan's ministry, walking through the history, and spending time in the presence of God in some places that carry weight.
SundayWe join the church for their full Sunday. Morning starts around 9:30 with prayer and breakfast together — newspapers out, food around. Then as the weather permits, they set up a coffee table in the park and Ben gets out a microphone and just talks to people. Free coffee. Real conversations. People in our neighborhood moved here expecting to be connected and found they were completely isolated. A friendly face and a cup of coffee can open something.
Afternoon service includes a Newton hymn, preaching, and response. Brandon will share a few minutes about how SCC started and what God has done. Ben asked for that specifically.
Monday & TuesdayDan provides mission training before the team goes out. Prayer walking on the estate and at Queen Mary University of London. Monday afternoon is kids club — 12 to 14 kids, run by Rachel Virgo and Tara Byrd. Tuesday the team joins Dan for whiteboard evangelism and conversations with international students at Queen Mary, plus English as a foreign language classes and life skills groups in the afternoon. English as a foreign language classes are where the slow work happens: a Muslim woman learning English with a Christian who is genuinely glad to know her. That's the mission.
Wednesday morningCity walk heritage tour with Ben until lunch. The streets, the churches, the stories — the gospel pressed into London's bones.
Thursday morningBritish Museum heritage tour with Ben until lunch. 14 tickets reserved. Afternoon at the Metropolitan Tabernacle and prayer for church planting in the city.
FridayOxford with Ilona. CS Lewis's house, his church, his college, the pub where he and Tolkien used to sit, Addison's Walk where Tolkien convinced Lewis of theism. Brandon speaks at Lewis's church. Come ready for that.
See the city. Stay awake. Big Ben, Parliament, the Palace. Old and new. Kings and Kingdom.
Morning prayer and breakfast together from 9:30. Park outreach with free coffee. Lunch together. Afternoon service with a Newton hymn, preaching, and response. Brandon shares 5 minutes on SCC's story.
Mission training with Dan in the morning. Prayer walking on the estate and at Queen Mary University. Kids club in the afternoon (12–14 kids). Evensong at Westminster in the evening.
University outreach at Queen Mary. Whiteboard evangelism, prayer walking, conversations with international students. English as a foreign language classes and life skills groups in the afternoon. Evening: Les Misérables.
Full walking tour of the city with Ben. The streets, the churches, the stories of the gospel pressing into London's history. Afternoon free or alongside Ben's ministry.
14 tickets reserved. Guided heritage tour of the British Museum with Ben. Metropolitan Tabernacle in the afternoon. Prayer for church planting in London.
The Kilns (Lewis's home), his church, his college. Addison's Walk where Tolkien convinced Lewis of theism. Lunch at the pub where they used to sit. Brandon speaks at Lewis's church.
Ben asked for specific prayer. Here's what he said.
Pray for Ben personally. After 16 years of faithful work without visible breakthrough, he's asking honestly: is he ready? If God were to suddenly open doors among the Muslim community here — is he prepared for what that would mean and what would come with it?
Pray for the congregation. Small, growing slowly, faithful. Pray that having our team with them on that Sunday would be an encouragement — that the numbers swelling in the room would matter to them.
Pray for the families. Their kids are growing up on the front line of something spiritually heavy. Some of them are flourishing. Pray for that to continue.
Pray for Rufus, Ben's son, who recently made some significant decisions and chose the gospel over a relationship that wasn't right. He's not talking about dramatic experiences — just quiet, costly obedience.
Pray for Dan's Bible study. Five young men. One of them is from Afghanistan and he came to read the Bible and walked away with feverish notes in his pew Bible. Pray for that seed.
Pray for breakthrough among the Muslim community. Sixteen years. Not a single convert who has stayed. Ben knows it won't be their strategies that open those doors.