Featuring The Rev. David B. Garner, PhD, President of Westminster Theological Seminary
Sponsored content from EO Tours
You have preached Philippians. You have taught Thessalonians in a Sunday school class that asked harder questions than you expected. You have worked through Ephesians with a men’s study on Tuesday mornings, and you have handled the difficult chapters of 1st Corinthians in a session meeting where the application was not theoretical.
Your people know the lessons in these epistles, but they know these cities and cultures at a surface level: as addresses at the top of letters, read aloud before the sermon, and largely unexamined.
So what changes when you visit these cities and take your church members and attenders with you?
You and your church encounter a spiritually formative travel experience when it’s paired with you—the pastors, elders, ministry leaders, believers, churches, schools, and seminaries grounded in the Reformed tradition. EO Tours will take you to destinations steeped in Biblical history and church heritage. Plus, it’s designed to anchor you more deeply in God’s Word and cultivate gospel-centered relationships.
EO Tours’ reformed, flagship journey for 2027, Paul’s Voyages, spans twelve-days departing October 6, 2027, with guest speaker The Rev. David B. Garner, PhD, aboard Celebrity Infinity.
The Cities Your Congregation Only Reads About
What geography supplies is not theological authority. It is context. The distance between Philippi and Thessalonica, measured in walking days rather than map inches. The shape of a Roman agora, and what it meant to argue in one. A riverside outside a city gate, and why a woman seeking prayer would be found there.
None of this is new revelation. All of it clarifies what the text already says — and it clarifies it for the member who has never once pictured any of it.
That is the real opportunity. You have spent years teaching these letters to people who see the locations as abstractions. Twelve days along the route turn the abstraction into real places, and you are standing there when it happens. The questions you get at Philippi are not the questions you get in a fellowship hall.
This is the premise behind journeys built for the Reformed faith — not tourism with a chaplain attached, but travel ordered toward the whole counsel of God.
The Teacher Aboard: Dr. David B. Garner, PhD.
As of July 1, 2026, The Rev. David B. Garner, PhD became the fifth President of Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. He also serves as Chief Academic Officer, Vice President of Global Ministries, and Charles Krahe Professor of Systematic Theology.
He is an ordained Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church in America.
He led the PCA study committee on Insider Movements. He is the author of Sons in the Son: The Riches and Reach of Adoption in Christ (P&R, 2016) and How Can I Know for Sure?, and editor of Did God Really Say? He holds a PhD from Westminster and a ThM from Dallas Theological Seminary.
This is a floating classroom in systematic and biblical theology. It is not a devotional cruise.
Most of your members will never sit under a seminary president. On this voyage they will, for two full days at sea — October 10 and October 14 — with unhurried hours for lectures and questions.
And here is the division of labor that makes it work: Dr. Garner teaches, you pastor, and EO Tours’ guides will provide the historical and cultural backdrop on the locations where the epistles were written, where Paul spread the Gospel to the Roman gentiles.
The Itinerary as Catechesis
The route is ordered by the New Testament, not by tourism. Here is the full twelve-day itinerary, port by port, with the text each one serves.
Kavala (Philippi). Paul went to the riverside to pray, and the Lord opened Lydia’s heart — the first Christian baptized on European soil. You will see a Roman-period crypt believed to have served as Paul’s prison, along with the agora, basilica, and theater.
Thessaloniki. Acts 17:3–6, where Paul and his companions were accused of turning the world upside down. The Via Egnatia, the Galerius Arch, the Roman agora, the Basilica of St. Demetrios.
Kusadasi (Ephesus). One of the Seven Churches of Revelation. The agora, the library, the terrace houses, the Ephesus Experience Museum, the theater, and the single remaining column of the Temple of Artemis.
Athens. The Acropolis, the Propylaea, the Parthenon, the Erechtheum, and Mars Hill, where Paul declared “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.” Public defense of the faith before a hostile and educated audience.
Corinth. Aquila and Priscilla, and Crispus. The archaeological museum, the marketplace, the temples, and the Bema, where Paul stood before Gallio.
The voyage also calls at Rhodes, with its Old Town and the Palace of the Grand Masters, as well as Santorini and Mykonos.
One more thing worth carrying home. These cities sit where they sit because of Roman roads and sea lanes, and the gospel moved along them in that order. Providence is legible in a map — and a group that sees it together has something in common they did not have before, walking the paths Paul did throughout his missionary journeys.
A Matter of Session Stewardship
A session commending a journey to its people takes on a duty of care, and it should weigh that seriously.
The honest complications first. A group of members and attenders will span wide spiritual maturity. Some will come to study; some will come to see Greece. You will have communicants and non-communicants in the same van. That is not a defect in the tour — it is the ordinary condition of a congregation, and it is yours to shepherd.
What you are offering is not a perk and not a vacation. It is twelve days of concentrated proximity: to the text, to a Reformed theologian, and to one another. Congregational bonds formed over two weeks abroad tend to outlast the trip.
Here are the figures your session will need:
- Twelve days, departing the USA October 6, 2027, returning October 17, 2027, starting at $4,298.*
- Nine nights aboard the Celebrity Infinity.
- Round-trip international airfare from New York included.
- Clergy scholarships: $500 for clergy traveling for the first time, $350 for clergy spouses traveling for the first time. Apply via scholarships@travelwithus.com.
- Early registration savings of $100 for registrations by October 6, 2026. Full deposit required; savings deducted from the balance.
- Optional Rome Pre-Tour, October 3–7, 2027, starting at $1,848.**
On timing: EO Tours encourages hosts to book twelve to eighteen months ahead, and guests to register within twelve months. For an October 2027 departure, a session deliberating now is on schedule. It also leaves room for the announcement, the interest meeting, and the members who need a little time to decide and save.
If the dates do not suit, the Reformed track is not a one-off. There is Scotland and the Reformation: In the Footsteps of John Knox, departing August 31, 2027, and Reformation in Germany: In the Footsteps of Martin Luther, departing October 5, 2027. For groups who would rather not sail, Journeys of Paul in Greece 2027 covers comparable ground by land.
Leading a Group: The Host Pathway
An elder does not need to become a travel agent to bring his people. Gather travelers and you can become a tour host.
As a Host, your travel expenses are built into the overall pricing, meaning your participation does not require funds from your church budget or personal support when a minimum number of full-paying guests travel. Better yet, this is accomplished without increasing the cost for your guests. They will pay the same amount whether you travel or not. We structure our pricing to enable you to lead with integrity and stewardship, while your group receives the same high-quality experience at a fair, competitive price. It’s a model that honors your calling, values your time, and makes Christian-based travel accessible to all.
You provide the spiritual leadership, and EO Tours takes care of the details.
EO serves the session. Teaching, oversight, and pastoral care of your members remain with the elders, where they belong. EO handles registrations, payments, flights, hotels, ports, ground transport, guides, and more — lifting the administrative burden from men who have other work to do.
Sessions considering a private or custom journey for their congregation can contact Tim Brown directly at tfbrown@travelwithus.com. EO has served churches for over fifty years, and on this track, the goal is plain — to be useful partners in ministry and to stay in our lane.
What a Study Voyage Can Do
What twelve days along Paul’s route can do is furnish the people you bring with geography, with context, with a Reformed theologian’s teaching, and with a clearer sight of the ground on which the epistles were written. And it returns them to your pews, where the actual work continues.
Learn More about Paul’s Voyages with Dr. David B. Garner.
Become a Tour Host, or Register Today for the October 6, 2027 departure.
$100 early registration savings close October 6, 2026.
*Your Price from New York Includes: Round-trip International Airfare & Overseas Transfers, Additional baggage & optional fees may apply; see fine print for details, Fuel Surcharges and Government Taxes (Subject to change), Shore Excursions as listed on itinerary, Meals on Ship, Admin. Fees, Port Charges, Cruise Taxes. Prices are per person based on double occupancy. A 3.5% surcharge will be added to all credit card transactions.
**Guests taking an extension may be on a different flight than their group and/or traveling companion. Price is per person based on double occupancy. A 3.5% surcharge will be added to all credit card transactions.