Paul the Missionary: Strategy and Method

The first time I taught through the Book of Acts in a college class, I asked the students to write an essay describing Paul’s missionary strategy, with illustrations from the book of Acts.  I thought this was simple enough and most students caught on that I was looking for “what sorts of things does Luke describe Paul as doing when he first visits a new town.” basically, Paul went to the marketplace and the synagogue. One student, however, argued that Paul did not have a missionary strategy, rather the just did what the Holy Spirit told him two. I was rather annoyed by this, and re-phrased my question, “OK, then what is the Holy Spirit’s missionary strategy?”  My point was that the Holy Spirit’s strategy was Paul’s as well, and that we should be able to use this model in our ministry in the twenty-first century.

This anecdote gets at a serious problem for students of the book of Acts.  Did Paul have some sort of a plan for world evangelism?  If he did, how can we adopt that strategy for modern mission?  Should the modern church try and replicate Paul’s method in evangelism and church planting?  Or better, is it even possible to do mission in the same way that Paul did?  Eckhard Schnabel deals with this problem at length in Paul the Missionary. I plan on blogging through large sections of this book over the next four months as I teach through the book of Acts this semester.

Schnabel defines mission in terms of intention and movement.  Someone on a “mission” is sent out by an authority and the mission is defined by the sending party rather than the going party.  Geographical movement depends solely on the nature of the mission.  Schnabel points out that this is exactly the description of Jesus we find in the Gospel of John.  Jesus was sent by the Father and does nothing but the will of the Father.  In turn, Paul describes himself as sent by Jesus Christ and God the Father for the purpose of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles (Gal 1:1).

So did Paul have a strategy or method in his ministry?  Was there an actual plan in his mind, or did he simply following the prompting of the Holy Spirit?  Perhaps the answer is “yes.” Schnabel cites J. Herbert Kane: Paul had a “flexible modus operandi developed under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and subject to his direction and control.” (Christian Mission in Biblical Perspective[Baker, 1976], 73).  Paul claims to be led by the Spirit, but he also seems to have a logical plan in mind to get the Gospel into places where it will flourish and reach the most people.

That Paul put reasonable amount of thought and planning into his work seems to me as obvious as the fact that he was led by the Spirit in both creating and executing that strategy.  The modern church needs both a prayerful submission to the Holy Spirit and a rational, reasonable strategy for engaging modern culture with the power of the Gospel.

Mission in the Early Church

Schnabel describes mission in the early church as consisting of three elements (Paul the Missionary, 28-9) .  First, the missionary communicates the good news of Jesus as the Messiah and Savior.  Second, the missionary communicates a new way of life to those who respond to the good news.  This necessarily means that social and cultural patterns must change in the light of the Gospel. Third, the missionary tries to integrate these new believers into a new community.  The new believers are a new family (brothers and sisters) or a new community (a citizenship in heaven).

By in large, I agree with this general outline of method.  It is not difficult to demonstrate that Paul’s message centered on Jesus as the Messiah and that his death provided some kid of solution to the problem of sin.  What is more, Paul is clear in his letters that when one is “in Christ” everything has changed.  The believer is a new creation and therefore has a new relationship with God. The believer has a new family, which means there are new family obligations which bear on social connections.  The new believer’s relationship with God has social and ethical ramifications which go beyond the  typical confines of “religion” in the ancient world.

These elements of mission also explain many of the problems Paul faces in fulfilling his calling.  How does a person “live out” this new relationship with Christ?  How do Gentiles relate to the God of the Hebrew Bible? If Gentiles are in Christ, how ought the relate to the pagan world?  Two examples come to mind.  On the one hand, should the Gentile believer in Christ accept the Jewish law as normative for their worship and practice?  On the other hand, can someone who is “in Christ” attend a birthday celebration at a pagan temple without actually worshiping any god?  In the first case, the Gentile is radically changing his pattern of life which would create a social break with his culture.  In the second case, he is making a minor adjustment in order to remain socially accepted.  These are not straw-men, since there are clear cases of both things happening in the New Testament.

I assume Paul would be someplace between these two extremes, based on a reading of Galatians and 1 Corinthians. What is remarkable to me is that Paul would never compromise on any of these points, but he was flexible enough to present the gospel in a new context without compromise.  The Gospel is always centered on Jesus Christ and his work on the cross, yet there are times when Paul enters a synagogue and tries to convince Jews from the Hebrew Bible that this is true, and other times when he sits with pagans and attempts to show that even their own philosophy points to the God of the Bible.  In both cases the Cross is central, despite the fact that Paul knows that a Theology of the Cross is going to offend both groups.

This tenacious hold on the core of the gospel ought to be a “missions strategy” in any century.

Evenings at Rush Creek: Psalms of David

Starting on January 9 I began a series in our evening Bible Studies on the Psalms of David.  Originally I had not thought much about posting links here since this is a New Testament blog, but several people have asked about a few notes, so I have decided to post a reflection after the service with links to the audio file as I have done with Acts and Galatians.

My plan in this series is to collect all of the Psalms which refer to an event in David’s life, examine the event as it appears in 1 -2 Samuel, then look at the worship which results from that situation or event. I am going to assume for the sake of the series that the “historical David” really experienced the events recorded in 1-2 Samuel and that he reflected on these events at a later time, creating a prayer intended for public worship.   I am fully aware of the possibility that the Psalm Header identifying David as the author my be taken as “for David” or “dedicated to David,” implying that the psalm was written and well after David’s time, perhaps imagining what David would have said had he written then psalm.  In fact, there usually legitimate textual reasons for connecting the Psalm and the even in 1-2 Samuel.

I think my approach is a legitimate way to handle the individual Psalms since even if the writer lived 200 years after David, he was creating the Psalm as if David wrote it.  Within the story-world of the Psalm, David is the author. From a literary standpoint, it doesn’t matter who wrote the Psalm, the Psalm proceeds as if David is the author.

Psalm 56:8 – Tears in a Bottle

[The audio for this week’s evening service is available at Sermon.net, as is a PDF file of the notes for the service. You should be able to download the audio directly with this link, if you prefer (right-click, save link as....)]

Psalm 56:8–11 (ESV) —  You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? 9 Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me. 10 In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise, 11 in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?

Verse 8 is particularly difficult to translate (observe the differences between the KJV, NIV and ESV on this verse).  There is some rare vocabulary and wordplay and two or three unclear sections which make the translation of Psalm a challenge.

The first line  of the verse begins with nodi, my “tossing” or “wandering” (NIV, KJV), even “homelessness.” This appears to come from a root word which is used for a reed tossing in the wind, or  aimless, homeless wandering.  The verb is used twice in Job (2:11 and 42:11) as people comfort Job in his despair.  Since the next line of poetry refers to tears, it seems best to read this word as an emotional tossing, perhaps David laying awake at night, in fear of his enemy.  God has kept a record of David’s anxiety (sepher).

The second line, “you have put my tears in a wine-skin,” the noun no’d.  The word sounds nearly the same as “tossing,” but refers to a leather skin used for holding wine (Josh 9:4, 14, the Gibeonites), or milk (Jdg 4:19, Jael).  While the first and the third line have words related to writing, it is better to see this as God collecting David’s tears as he tosses in the night, worried about what tomorrow might bring.  The NIV tries to preserve the metaphor or writing in all three lines by reading the word for a leather wine-skin as a writing surface.

The third line uses sephred, a noun similar to the first line:  “have you not kept records?” or “are they not in your book?”  The noun can refer to a book or scroll, and in Mal 3:16 it is used for a remembrance book, a scroll on which someone might jot notes so they do not forget things.  The metaphor is of God recording all of David’s suffering so that can be used as evidence when God vindicates him and judges his oppressors.

What is the point of this metaphor?  David’s emotional response extreme fear and danger has not been ignored by God, in fact, the sleepless nights and tears have been carefully recording in God’s records and not a single tear has gone uncollected.  God treats David’s tears like precious water or valuable wine or milk.  In a desert environment, water in a skin is one of a most valuable possession.  God is pictured as collecting and preserving David’s tears.

This is a picture of God’s care for the suffering of his people.  He makes a record of every tear and every sleepless night and remembers them all.  When the time comes, David is confident that the Lord will turn back his enemies and oppressors, recalling his long nights of worry and anxiety.