Oh, the Places You'll Go!

Dr. James Emery White | Mecklenburg Community Church | Published: May 26, 2013

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

I recently tweeted, “Travel every chance you have, to every place you can. After reading, it’s the best way to stay in school.”

(You can follow me on twitter @jamesemerywhite)

Many responded in one way or another with the following question:  “Where are the best places to go?”

In what may be my most overlooked book, but one my editor called the best I had ever written, I listed nine places that I had been to throughout my travels that had the greatest impact on my life.  Through each I took readers, to the “best” of my ability, to not only a place, but a strategic life-lesson.

The genesis of the book was simple:  if I were to pour into another person’s life, how would I do it?  When first asked that question, I knew.  I would take them to various places around the world, using the time of travel and destination as a means to speak not just information, but hopefully wisdom into their life.  Then, once at our destination, I would work to reveal all that the place held for Christian life and thought, and then follow-up with all the mentoring application I could muster.

InterVarsity Press took the bait, and “A Traveler’s Guide to the Kingdom” was born.

So what were my nine places?

I unashamedly hope they intrigue you:

*The “Eagle and Child” pub, Oxford, England

*The Isle of Iona, Scotland

*St. Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai Desert, Egypt

*The Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa

*Chartres Cathedral, France

*The Billy Graham Library, Charlotte, North Carolina (USA)

*Lutherstadt-Wittenberg, Germany

*The ten Boom House, Haarlem, Netherlands

*The Dachau Concentration Camp, Munich, Germany

The larger conversations each afforded, through the book, proved to be profound:

*You are converted

*You are spiritual

*You can hear God

*You are called into community

*You are sexual

*You have a calling

*You can make history

*You can trust God

*You will have doubts

I’ve now written, or contributed to, over twenty books.  I don’t say this often, but I will now.  I truly hope you buy this book and read it.  It’s one of my most personal and, I believe, helpful.

But after reading it, do one more thing.

Go to some of the places.

You will never be the same.

James Emery White

Sources

James Emery White, A Traveler’s Guide to the Kingdom (InterVarsity); click here to purchase on Amazon.

Editor’s Note

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and the ranked adjunctive professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, which he also served as their fourth president. His newly released book is The Church in an Age of Crisis: 25 New Realities Facing Christianity (Baker Press). To enjoy a free subscription to the Church and Culture blog, log-on to www.churchandculture.org, where you can post your comments on this blog, view past blogs in our archive and read the latest church and culture news from around the world. Follow Dr. White on twitter @JamesEmeryWhite.

Oh, the Places You'll Go!