Joe essentially pioneered what is now a thriving ministry to Oxford’s graduate students.
He grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, in the deep south of America. While studying history at Harvard, he met Christians who challenged his recently-avowed atheism. Those early days in the Inter Varsity Fellowship left him with a deep appreciation of and commitment to student ministry.
Joe went on to Princeton Theological Seminary, hoping to become a pastor, but a visit from Francis Schaeffer changed his course. Schaeffer was beginning to establish a reputation as a brilliant apologist and evangelist, especially to younger intellectuals. He and his wife, Edith, had recently opened L’Abri in Switzerland as a place for people to seek ‘honest answers to honest questions’ in the context of warm hospitality. This approach, as well as Schaeffer’s clear orthodoxy and his prophetic analysis of contemporary culture, struck a chord with Joe, who joined his team.
