Monday is for Missiology: Paul's Strategy, Contextualization, and Preaching
I'm currently in the midst of a series (part one, part two, part three) through Paul's Missionary Methods, a new book I contributed an essay to with the assistance of Lizette Beard, my coauthor and colleague at LifeWay Research. Other contributors include Michael Bird, David Hesselgrave, Don Howell Jr., Craig Keener, Chuck Lawless, Benjamin Merkle, J.D. Payne, Robert Plummer, Michael Pocock, Eckhard Schnabel, David Sills, Christoph Stenschke, and John Mark Terry.
I'd encourage you to get the book and see the other essays as well. For now, here is the next installment on Paul and church planting.
Paul's Intentional and Inclusive Strategy
While Paul traveled great distances throughout his missionary career and preached in a variety of settings, his travel strategy appears to have focused on staying in cultural contexts he understood and could build upon, according to Stark. Paul developed a strategy and basic plan as he moved about on his journeys. Allen says that Paul would preach in some cities and skip others; he would start out preaching in a synagogue but be sent away. Glasser notes that in Romans 1:16, Paul writes that the gospel was "to the Jew first": although known as an apostle to the Gentiles, his actions reveal a commitment to the Jewish community first even in the exercise of that mission.
Allen writes that some of Paul's converts came from the synagogue-- Jewish Christians and God-fearing Greeks who brought with them foundational beliefs, familiarity with the Old Testament and experience with public worship. The believers' background was helpful to Paul as he began to instruct young churches. Though they were not the largest group of converts, Allen observes, they were an essential key to the sustained and ongoing teaching of the Old Testament after Paul moved on to his next location.
It appears the majority of Paul's converts came from the "lower commercial and working classes, laborers, freed men, and slaves," Allen writes; yet, Paul did not target them exclusively. It is likely that Paul attracted people who were easily drawn into what is new and different. According to Allen, there is no indication that he tried to keep these people away, but he did not make these his first converts. Instead, he ensured that the churches he planted began with a strong foundation of respectable leaders. While Paul understood cultural differences, he did not foster them. In his book The Spirit, the Church, and the World, John Stott argues that when Paul insisted these young churches have pastoral oversight in place and not remain dependent upon the missionaries, he was ensuring their continuation.
Paul's Contextualization in Church Planting
Paul appeared to have strong sociological instincts regardless of whether they were intuitive or intentional. Stark provides several key principles for understanding how and why people adopt a new religion or system of beliefs. One of his first principles is that the willingness of a person or group of people to change beliefs is related to the degree of "cultural continuity" with their current religious beliefs and practices. Stark describes this as a natural human tendency to "maximize" a situation or to get the largest benefit with the least amount of sacrifice. This is measured by how much of the old people have to discard (beliefs, actions and relationships) to make room for the new. When a religious convert can hold to parts of their original cultural heritage, Stark says, the sense of cost or sacrifice is lessoned during the transition.
In Paul's ministry, the Gentiles knew something about Jewish culture-- especially the "God-Fearers" who were familiar with Jewish theology and monotheism but unwilling to fully convert to the Jewish religion. Glasser believes that God-fearers had already been willing to break with their pagan idolatry but were unwilling to make the full transition to Judaism.
They were not well integrated into the Jewish religious community, and they were open to this new one. Stark contends that the mission to the Jews was successful in terms of the steady number of Hellenized Jewish converts to Christianity through the first four or five centuries. He believes this success in reaching the Hellenized Jews related to the cultural continuity of their Jewish heritage and Hellenic cultural elements with Christianity. Stark believes further that the existing social networks facilitated rapid growth. For Michael Pocock, the goal was not simply sharing a message of the faith but equipping the new adherents to live out the faith in their cultural setting. Whole books have been written on Paul's approach to contextualization, and the topic is addressed elsewhere in this volume. While this is not our main focus here, contextualization is an important consideration in church planting.
Paul's Preaching
In his letters to the churches he established, Paul continually requested prayers for the ongoing mission work that was advanced through the "word of the gospel." According to Schreiner, "Paul has no conception of his mission advancing apart from the proclamation of the gospel" and that fundamentally the "Pauline mission advances in and through the preached word." Paul planted churches through preaching.
William Baird, in Paul's Message and Mission, contends that Paul's conviction about the lost condition of both Jews and Gentiles motivated him to preach the gospel. Paul saw the Gentiles as under the condemnation of God (1 Cor 11:32) and referred to the time as "the present evil age" (Gal 1:4).
"After his conversion, the apostle saw all men as standing under the shadow of the cross of Christ which stood in stark judgment on all the pride and pretensions of men," according to Baird. Paul clearly understood that neither legalistic religion nor the Jewish law could justify persons before God. He viewed sin as the reason for mankind's tragic situation and not something from which persons could free themselves. As Baird describes it, mankind's difficult and desperate situation moved Paul to mission to the point that he felt obligated to go and tell.
There is no doubt that Paul had complete confidence in God's power and authority when he preached. However, it would be a mistake for church planters to believe that preaching with confidence alone will make them effective missionaries. Paul was well trained and had earned a reputation as a speaker before his conversion. No doubt, God used those skills along with his confidence as he preached Christ.
Allen outlines some of the recognizable patterns in Paul's preaching. Attempting to connect on a point of common truth or agreement, Paul opened with an appeal to his audience's past. Next, he typically made a statement of facts that could be easily grasped or understood, such as a concept concrete in nature or a story of life and death. Third, he answered questions his audience was inevitably asking in their minds. Finally, he warned about the danger involved in rejecting God's message. Preaching was central to beginning new churches in the ministry of Paul.
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