Implications of Apostolic Leadership in the 21st Century Part 16 ( Pauline Apostolic Methodology B) See Part 15

Excerpts from MAPS Project at Southwestern Christian University

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Paul mentored Timothy through the books we know as First and Second Timothy. Normally, we refer to these books as Pastoral Epistles.  As a matter of fact, First and Second Timothy and Titus are apostolic training epistles.  Titus is another son of Paul’s, who wholeheartedly embraced apostolic responsibility.

• Titus – Timothy, Onesimus and Titus were noted in the scriptures as spiritual sons to Paul. Titus was a quintessential troubleshooter for Paul’s apostolic ministry. Paul trained Titus for apostolic ministry by giving him responsibility incrementally. The following enumerates how Titus functioned as an apostle in Crete and Dalmatia:
• Titus had to encode new values in the culture of Crete. He was prepared for this contextual responsibility when he assisted Paul in Antioch, Corinth, Crete, and Dalmatia.
• It was necessary for Titus to exercise wisdom in selecting leaders for governing the church.
• Women Eldership – When Titus instructed the older women, it appears he was referring to women who function as elders in the church without the position of eldership.
• Embedded the doctrine of salvation in the foundation of the church in Crete.
• Combated heretical teachings and doctrines.

Titus was a successful apostle. Over ninety-five percent of the population of Crete remains Christians even to day.[1]

Not only do Paul’s mentorees affirm the success of Paul’s apostolic ministry, regional churches established by Paul adduces Paul’s apostolic success. Within ten years, Paul established regional churches in Asia, Galatia, Macedonia, and Achaia. The remarkable aspect of this phenomenon in these metropolitan hotbeds is that there were no churches in these regions before Paul’s apostolic expeditions. Roland Allen’s, “Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or ours?” condenses the methods that Paul used to establish regional churches.

Allen asked, “Was there any antecedent advantage in the position or character of the cities in which St. Paul founded his churches?[2] Obviously, Paul, by reason of experience, acquired fundamental truths for planting churches in non-churched territories.  Paul used these maxims as guidelines for planting regional apostolic centers:

1. Paul’s theory of evangelizing a province was not to preach in every place himself, but to establish centers of Christian life in two or three important places from which the knowledge might spread into the country round. He planted churches in all the cities and towns where there were centers of Roman administration, or Greek civilization, or Jewish influence, or of some commercial importance. Paul seized strategic points because he had a strategy.  In his hands, the strategic points became the sources of rivers: mints from which the new coin of the Gospel was spread in every direction.[3]
2. Paul was able to adapt to morbid demonized social environments for the sake of procuring souls for Christ. Many of his converts were slave owners and slaves. With slave owners, he always advocated clemency.
3. Paul used miracles to address the crowds, not individuals. In Paul’s era, miracles were universally accepted as proof of the Divine’s approval of the message and work of him through whom they were wrought. Moreover, Paul saw miracles as announcement of the invasion of the Kingdom of God in a region.  Miracles represent the newness of the message of salvation.  In Western civilization, we’ve attempted the works of Paul without miracles.
4. Financial management was a key element in the success of the churches he established. First, Paul did not solicit financial management from his converts or churches for his personal warfare. He required that his churches become financially independent so that they could be a reservoir of life to the poor.
5. His preaching testified to the authenticity of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. His preaching emanated from a deep level of faith that God sent him to that region. The faith of being a sent one to a region resulted in the multiplicity of churches in pagan cultures.
6. Paul’s method involved training for leading. The whole community of faith was responsible for discipleship, baptism and ordination.
7. Training for future leaders was essential to the longevity of the regional churches.

Certain aspects of Roland Allen’s compilation of Paul’s apostolic methodology are applicable to our 21st Century apostolic ministry.   After Paul, the church fathers were the viable means of God to protect the church from heresy and advance its influence into Rome, Greece and Alexandria.

SEE MORE POSTINGS OF THIS NATURE IN MY BLOG AT  YULCRAWFORDGROUP.COM

[1] F.F. Bruce, The Pauline Circle, p. 64.

40 Roland Allen, Missionary Methods: St Paul’s or Ours? (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1962), p.8.

[3] Ibid. p. 15-17.