Sometimes we have the great privilege of having conversations with leaders on the other side of the world. This week we do. Director of Christian Heritage London, Ben Virgo, joins us this week as we chat about the Reformation and the impact the gospel had on the culture. Ben recently edited a new book called Freedom Movement. This small (shaped as a square) book is like a glorified tract (a tract is a small booklet that says the gospel – used to be very popular). Written by Church historian Michael Reeves, this book creatively explains the life of Martin Luther – one of the key figures of the Reformation. Our conversation looks into how the gospel impacts the culture (something Freedom Movement also looks at), and what still needs to be reformed today. You’ll enjoy this fun, fast-paced conversation.

 

Who’s Our Guest?

Ben Virgo is the Director of Christian Heritage London. He comes from Sussex and studied Classics at University College London. He has worked mainly in the financial sector in and around the City of London and with the homeless and drug addicts in London and Hong Kong. He has also worked for a Westminster think tank and continues to work in a freelance capacity in marketing. He and his wife and children are involved in church planting in East London where they have lived since 1998.

Episode Links

The book Ben was talking about (and that he edited) is called Freedom Movement.

Also, Ben is Director of Christian Heritage London. Check out their site for resources.

Read It

*Below is an edited transcription of the audio conversation.

With me today is Ben Virgo, the Director of Christian Heritage London. Ben recently edited a small book called Freedom Movement and it’s this book that our conversation will kind of revolve around, sort of. Anyways, thanks for being with me today, Ben.

Hey, it’s really great to have some time with you, Isaac. Bless you.

Where are you calling from, by the way, just so we can know? We don’t often talk to people that are halfway round the world, so …

Well, I tell you what, the extraordinary thing is this, I am sitting in the church building associated with the conversion of John Wesley. I’m in the middle of the City of London, the City is the old Roman part of London, which goes back to Roman times and in the streets around us here, I can literally go down the road and go to the place where William Tyndale’s New Testaments were burned, down another road and I can go to where William Wilberforce met John Newton, down another road I can talk about where Cranmer was put on trial, down another road …

It’s extraordinary, so we take people on walks through this history and tell the stories as well go, so, yeah, I’m actually in the middle of a church. I’m sitting in an office in the church building associated with the Wesley conversion.

That’s so cool. You’re just making us jealous over here. I mean, you have so much rich history there. Over here, we’re in Vancouver, and at least on the east coast of North America you have a little bit more history but the farther you go west, the less and less it comes, so you’re just making us jealous over here, but, anyways, why don’t you just let us know a little bit about who you are, Ben, and maybe quickly how you met Jesus, as well, and sort of what you’re up to now.

Yeah, sure. Well, I am a husband to one wife.