Turkey

After 30 hrs of traveling and 40 minutes of sleep I made it back to the States. Wow, what an amazing trip. here are some of the logistical details. I traveled with 17 other seminary students and some prominent NT scholars as well. We spent 8 days in turkey and visited the western region. In Istanbul we saw the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Sultan Palace and took a boat ride in the snow up the Bosporus and of course visited the night life which included belly dancers and some cool night clubs.

From there we visited the seven churches (Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyaitra, Sardis, Laodicea, Philadelphia) that are addressed in Revelation as well as some other amazing sites including Assos. The highlight of the seven churches had to be Ephesus, a truly amazing city. I doubt any other city in antiquity can rival it (maybe Popmey). We saw the stadium mentioned in Acts as well as the Alexandrian Library, slope houses (where the rich folk lived), brothel, possible burial place of John and some other unbelievable sites.

I could give you many more logistical details but instead i am going to write down a few thoughts that occurred to me while gone.

1. Our churches - in the Middle Ages churches were built in a way to teach theology. As I walked into the Hagia Sophia (built 5th century by Justinian), it brought out the transcendence and holiness of God. When i walk into our Baptist churches what do theology does it teach us?? Well it pretty much teaches us that we have a practical God. Isn't that how we design our buildings? To be practical?

2. Turkey is such an amazing place. We didn't run into terrorists or people who hated Americans. We encountered people who wanted to talk with us and showed us hospitality (including free wine). I wonder if they came to the states, or even to our church, if they would have the same reception?

3. The Gospel is subversive. In Paul's day emperor and god worship was standard. There were buildings and monuments built around the empire meant to inspire worship to both the god's and emperors. Paul comes on the scene and preaches another kingdom and worship of the one True God. Paul's message did not go over well in this empire and might even have lead to his beheading in Rome. How different are things today! We have a church that sometimes fully embraces the wishings of the Empire (Just look at the Christian right). Now we align ourselves more with a political nation/state then we do with the Kingdom of God. Oh how far we have come.

Well those are my thoughts...if you have any questions about them or the trip let me know. If you want to see pictures you can go to

http://community.webshots.com/user/christopher_ellis-date