Photo (Chris D.) There are more fully supported pastors in Christchurch, a city of 350,000, than there are pastors and foreign “workers” among Turkey’s 78 million.
This second missionary journey of Pauls is as much about leadership training as preaching the gospel. He was a shrewd strategist and knew if the work was to grow he needed to train others. The first step in training is “selecting” and young John Mark, from the first journey, did not make the cut for the second.
“They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord.” 15:39-40
Soft hearted Barnabas could not see Paul’s point of view and so chose to break with Paul and spent time helping Mark find his true calling – a writer (The Gospel According to St. Mark).
Young Silas was Paul’s apprentice of choice for this second journey and before long he had recruited young Timothy of Lystra to join them:
“Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was Jewish and a believer but whose father was a Greek. 2 The believers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. 3 Paul wanted to take him along on the journey….” 16:1-3a
Now, look carefully at Paul’s methods of church planting.
He would travel with these young guys, no doubt teaching them as they travelled along, which took up a huge percentage of their time given the vast area they covered.
16:6 “Paul and his companions travelled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia” – central & Western Turkey…on foot or hoof.
The three of them travelled and preached not just where Paul had been on his previous journey, but also breaking new ground through the provinces of Phrygia, Galatia and over the Aegean into Macedonia (Greece). He then leaves the two young guys in Berea while he goes on to break new ground in Athens.
“The believers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea.” 17:14
[We learn from 1 Thess. 3:1-2 that after being some time in Berea, Timothy is then sent to Thessalonica to “strengthen and encourage them in their faith”.]
In Acts 18:1 Paul breaks new ground again by going to the city of Corinth. While there he meets and takes onto his team a promising young couple named Aquila and Pricilla.
“After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2 There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome.” 18:1-2
Paul spends time getting to know this couple as they work together making tents. After a short while he calls in Timothy and Silas to join him there in Corinth where he leaves them in charge of that new church, no doubt to “strengthen and encourage” the Corinthians in their faith, as with the Thessalonians, and he takes Aquila and Pricilla with him to Ephesus to begin a new work, eventually leaving them there while he briefly returns back to his home church in Antioch to report on progress.
“Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time. Then he left the brothers and sisters and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. Before he sailed, he had his hair cut off at Cenchreae because of a vow he had taken. 19 They arrived at Ephesus, where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila” 18:18-19
• He would recruit promising young local adults (A) from city #1 where he was evangelising.
• He would then move on to city #2, spending time teaching trainees (A) on the road as they travelled.
• The (A) trainees would then minister with Paul in city #2.
• During their time in city #2 Paul would select and recruit other promising young local (B) adults.
• After a short while he would move on with (B) recruits to city #3 teaching and training as they went,
• leaving trainees (A) behind, in city #2 on their own, delegated to pastor the new church.
• We learn from Pauls’ “coaching” letters, 1 & 2 Timothy, that those new pastors (A) were encouraged by Paul to appoint suitable local elders as soon as possible, then move along to pastor another flock.
• Meanwhile, Paul would be repeating the process with trainees (B), (C) and so on.
We often think of Paul travelling with the same group of individuals from place to place. We often use Paul as an example for ministry teams. In fact his team continually changed. It was not so much a leadership team as an apprenticeship team. He was very clearly the leader and the other team members students going through a learning process of recruit to trainee to pastor, to bishop (overseer).
Now look how Aquila & Priscilla imitate Paul’s methods:
18:24-28 “Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor[a] and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. 27 When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers and sisters encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. When he arrived, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed. 28 For he vigorously refuted his Jewish opponents in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah.”
As an important side note, it is fascinating to see that these young men and women do not end up leading/pastoring in their own home town or even home province. Aquila, a native of Pontus (Acts 18:2), is sent with his wife, by Paul, to pastor the church in Ephesus, the province of Phyrygia. Timothy of Lystra, Galatia, is sent to minister to congregations in the provinces of Macedonia & Achaia (Berea, Thessalonika and Corinth). Apollos of Alexandria (Egypt) ends up in Achaia (Southern Greece)
Jesus said, “A prophet is not without honour except among his own people and in his own home town.”
If leadership training is limited to providing only for local city needs, multiplication will quickly reach saturation point and stagnation, which in turn breeds sectarianism, schisms, and spiritual death. The lifeblood of New Testament growth was leadership training for cross cultural expansion. It’s time for the western church to get a whole lot more serious about church planting among the as yet unreached. Actually that “time” has come and gone. She has missed the bus. The serious decline in Christianity in the west bears sad testament to failure of the church to follow Biblical blueprints for growth.
Wow, thanks Chris. I like the detail here, and a very inspiring – although challenging message from a great biblical perspective.
Yes I agree the Church has missed the message too, it’s just so comfortable to be in our own culture getting paid a nice wage and buying nice stuff, rather than ministering in a far off nation for little or no pay with little or no support.
I’d love to see church planting teams go and plant churches in countries like Turkey but the reality is that when it comes to the crunch I see often see people choose a ‘Western mindset’ over a ‘kingdom’ one. I don’t want to be racist against my own culture but countries like Brazil, South Korea and India are putting us to shame with the hardcore missionaries they are sending out these days – maybe we should be attending their conferences and workshops.
We work with a lot of NZ churches taking their youth on short term trips and I would have to take my hat off to the Baptists for their strong focus on cross cultural missions but unfortunately a lot of other churches in NZ it would seem are not even waiting at the bus stop anymore!
Maybe a small part of the answer is training the youth of tomorrow in a more cross cultural and missional perspective of the gospel…. I hope we are doing a small part in that.
All the best over there.
W & E
This is wonderful food. The expanding of Acts is really an eye – opener.How I pray that our “bus” would run the right way without the blind fold !
Excellent article – Something to really ponder.