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Finding Our Future in the Past
One of the most important jobs of a leader is to develop an effective team, which involves building, growing, entrusting, and unleashing them. This is not easy. It takes character, humility, patience, perseverance, and confidence.
Paul said, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6). There may not be a more concise expression of Christian leadership in the Bible. God grows His church, but He allows us to contribute to that process through the gifts and influence He has given us. That’s how it worked in the early church, that’s how it works today, and that’s how it has worked in every century in between.
What follows is a collection of case studies from Paul’s ministry that illustrate certain principles—how we are to influence the world around us.
Hereafter the words leader or leadership are not referring only to those who hold formalized ministry positions. Instead, the terms leadership and influence will be used interchangeably.
We are not perfect leaders. Let’s accept that reality, and ask the Holy Spirit to teach all of us through the example of Paul and his team.
The Quest for Common Ground: Gaining a Hearing with Your Audience
COMMON GROUND IN THE SYNAGOGUES
The synagogue was a place to foster solidarity, friendship, and religious community. When they came to a new city, Paul and his team typically started in the synagogue (Acts 17:1–2). This was a cornerstone of his team’s evangelistic strategy. The goal of this initial encounter was to create some intrigue and gain a receptive audience.
Paul had this dual background: he was raised in a city steeped in Greek and Roman culture, but he also had lived within the Jewish community of that city and was educated religiously in Jerusalem. As a result, Paul was able to engage knowledgeably on cultural matters with Greeks, Romans, and Jews. This diverse language and cultural pedigree enabled Paul to seek common ground with many types of people, especially those with Jewish cultural and religious heritage.
The lesson here is that common ground will not guarantee a victory in ministry, but it will certainly set the stage for one.
On Paul’s second missionary journey through the Roman world (Acts 15:36–18:22, ca. AD 49–52), he spent time in Athens, Greece, where he had an incredible opportunity to dialogue with the city’s intellectual elite.
Paul put himself in the lowest position possible; he put everyone else first. He spoke to the Jews on Jewish terms and to the Gentiles (non-Jews) on Gentile terms. He became weak to the weak, and so on. Paul tried to be all things to all people. Why did he do that? He tells us in Acts 15:22, “To save people by all means! To win as many as possible to Christ.”
Seeking common ground is wise because it’s disarming. Common ground helps to start conversations off on the right foot.
Paul looked at people who believed very different things from him and asked himself, “How can I build bridges to these people?” He tailored his message to the audience; he didn’t insist that they acclimate to his preferred presentation.
We need to stop viewing spiritual conversations as arguments that need to be won. We need to instead view our spiritual speech as a mechanism to get to know people who need to be won.
The pursuit of common ground is one of the most neglected leadership strategies in the church today, despite its being one of the most obvious tactics of Paul and his team.
Watch the Burden: Monitoring the Expectations You Place on Others
Despite our best intentions, we often overburden new believers with too much theological weight, too many required lifestyle changes (some of them unnecessary), and too many church obligations. It’s like we expect at the moment of salvation there is going to be a divine download of spiritual maturity that will instantly change the complexion of someone’s life.
A case study of one of the most important events in first-century Christianity was the Jerusalem Council. The council can serve as a counterpoint for our tendency to overload people with unnecessary burdens at the beginning of their faith journeys.
THE JERUSALEM COUNCIL AND OUR EXPECTATIONS FOR OTHERS
The Gentile Christians undoubtedly felt a huge sense of relief that their faith could be defined by their relationship with Christ, rather than their adherence to the Jewish law. Paul and Barnabas showed real leadership in the way that they handled this situation. They knew that ethnic and cultural divisions in the church were at risk of overshadowing the gospel, which was supposed to be good news for everyone.
Whatever spiritual leadership role we occupy, we need to accept one basic reality: people don’t change overnight.
If you lead in a church context, ask yourself, “What is essential for people to believe and do in order to play a meaningful part in this community?” Try to make your answer as succinct as possible. Whatever your answer is, don’t insist that new believers do any more than that in the early stages. Just encourage them, pray for them, and show them a clear path of growth that they can easily explore.
Encountering Christ should be an unburdening experience—an alleviation. It should feel like a profound, joyful relief. Throughout our lives of faith, we Christians should have a deep, abiding sense of freedom because of Christ. As Paul said:
Offstage Leadership: Unleashing the Influence of Behind-the-Scenes Leaders
As Susan Cain so insightfully pointed out in her book Quiet (see my summary here), many of us equate charisma, extroversion, and visibility with leadership, but there is much more to leadership than that.
The Bible is full of quiet influencers, and their contribution to the kingdom cannot be overstated. But they’re easy to miss because they’re usually mentioned briefly and in portions of the Bible we often skip over. For example, in the gospel of Luke, we find these few verses that highlight some important offstage leaders: [Jesus] went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means. And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, “A sower went out to sow his seed…” (Luke 8:1-5)
Luke drew attention to the fact that Jesus’ ministry was bankrolled, in part, by women—a very significant fact in such a patriarchal climate.
LUKE’S OFFSTAGE LEADERSHIP
It is hard to overstate Luke’s impact on the Christian faith today. His writings, Luke and Acts, make up around 27 percent of the New Testament, with a higher total word count than all of Paul’s letters combined. Luke wrote more of the New Testament than any other single writer.
Let’s summarize Luke’s contributions: He went around and interviewed eyewitnesses to Jesus’ ministry to write a historically and theologically reliable gospel. He traveled with Paul for significant portions of his missionary journeys, and stayed at his side during his imprisonment. Then he wrote the Acts of the Apostles, a companion to his gospel and the earliest historical record we have of the growth of the early church in the first century.
TYCHICUS’S OFFSTAGE LEADERSHIP
In Acts, Luke tells us that Tychicus accompanied Paul on a portion of his journeys. “Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage your hearts” (Ephesians 6:21–22). Tychicus was from the province of Asia—the name of a Roman province in the western portion of modern Turkey—and Ephesus was the chief city of that area. So, Paul was sending Tychicus back home to his old stomping grounds to carry the letter we call Ephesians to the church in the city of Ephesus.
Paul trusted Tychicus to inform the church of his activities. As Paul put it, “He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts, and with him Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you of everything that has taken place here” (Colossians 4:7–9).
At the end of his letter to Titus, Paul writes, “When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there” (Titus 3:12).
Similarly, at the end of 2 Timothy, Paul writes, “Tychicus, I have sent to Ephesus” (2 Timothy 4:12). He was a trusted friend and associate of Paul’s, and a courier of several important letters that ended up in our New Testament.
EPAPHRAS’S OFFSTAGE LEADERSHIP
Epaphras is one of those names that we easily skip over (or clumsily pronounce) when we read the New Testament. But he played a very important role as the original evangelist of the Lycus Valley, where Colossae, Laodicea, and Hierapolis were located. Paul was not the first one to bring the good news about Jesus to that area—Epaphras was. As Paul wrote in Colossians 1:7–8, “… You learned [the gospel] from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.” Epaphras laid the foundation of ministry in Colossae, on which Paul continued to build.
Paul used several key phrases to describe Epaphras in his letters, like “fellow servant,” “faithful minister,” and “servant of Christ Jesus.” He also describes him as a prayer warrior on behalf of the Colossians, working hard and traveling far to foster their faith and spiritual growth (Colossians 4:12).
More Than a Ceasefire: Reviving Relationships after Disagreements
Paul and Barnabas had it out over Mark. They disagreed so bitterly that Paul couldn’t even imagine working with Barnabas or Mark. They went their separate ways. Paul continued on with his new friend Silas, who had come to Antioch after the Jerusalem Council, leaving Mark and Barnabas to go their own way.
We don’t know exactly what the next decade of Paul’s relationship with Mark and Barnabas looked like, but we know that reconciliation happened to some extent. In the early 60s AD (over a decade later), Mark shows up in a few of Paul’s letters, and it’s clear they’re working together in ministry again.
If you’re reading Paul’s letters and you’re not clued in to the backstory, you might not even notice Mark’s name or connect it to the falling out that happened in Acts 15.
We know that Mark is with Paul in Rome (or in its vicinity), because Paul says hello to the Colossian Christians from Mark. Paul includes Mark in the group of people who have been a comfort to him during his imprisonment. That’s a far cry from Acts, when Paul didn’t even want to travel with Mark!
At the end of 2 Timothy—widely believed to be Paul’s final letter before his martyrdom. Paul is in prison again, and in his final words to Timothy he wrote, “Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry” (2 Timothy 4:11).
It takes real leadership to view yourself as peacemaker and to act accordingly. Families need peacemakers. Workplaces need peacemakers. Governments need peacemakers. Communities need peacemakers.
Peacemakers are a rare breed, and we desperately need more of them in the church. Today we experience all sorts of divisions in church leadership, and there is no shortage of opportunities for a lack of peace.
Perhaps the simplest place to start is to acknowledge that conflicts will happen.
The lesson from Paul and his team is this: don’t write people off. It’s the easiest thing to do, but God might have great plans in the future for you and that person if you’re willing to fight for it. He might want to revive your relationship for His purposes!
Worthy Conflicts: Contending for What Actually Matters
Abraham Lincoln, one of the greatest leaders in any modern context, had a very interesting coping mechanism for the onslaught of criticisms that came his way. Lincoln would write blunt, scathing letters to his opponents—and then not send them.
We all need to understand what it looks like to choose our battles and handle criticism in a Christlike manner. We all need to learn which sorts of conflict are worth our time and emotional energy.
PAUL IN CONFLICT
Apollos was an effective teacher who taught about Jesus in powerful and persuasive ways. He was gifted. Peter had been Jesus’ lead disciple, so it makes sense that some people would be drawn to him. Paul could have easily been threatened by these other two leaders: a gifted teacher and a close associate of Jesus. But his main concern was not defending himself; it was preserving unity.
Paul gave this statement on Christian leadership: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6–7). God is the one who is changing lives, so it’s misguided to pledge allegiance to one leader over another and allow those allegiances to cause discord. For Paul, his pride was not worth fighting for—but unity was.
Paul would not stand for false teaching and perversions of the gospel. In addition to fighting for unity, Paul consistently and vehemently defended the true gospel of Jesus Christ against those who would distort it. That was—and still is—a worthy conflict.
Later in Galatians, Paul describes a time when he dramatically confronted Peter in public because Peter was lending credibility (perhaps unwittingly) to those who were advocating for the necessary practice of Jewish customs. Paul describes this scene in Galatians (referring again to Peter as Cephas): “When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, ‘If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?’ ” (Galatians 2:11-14)
In 1 Timothy, Paul wrote about how a lack of understanding of the true gospel leads to disunity. A distorted gospel feeds an unhealthy craving for quarrels, which lead to continual friction. No matter what sort of leadership role we play, we should be very slow to initiate a conflict.
We need to remember that Satan wants us mired in disagreements. He wants to stir up a multitude of small perceived offenses in our hearts in order to keep us in a perpetual state of anger or bitterness, which cripples our ability to reflect Christ. Satan wants to keep us focused on ourselves, to turn our ministries into mechanisms of propping up our ego.
As Donald T. Phillips so eloquently put it in his book Lincoln on Leadership (summarized here), “Every man of courage must, sooner or later, deal with unjust criticism. And all individuals who lead other people … likely will be subjected to severe criticism as well as personal attacks on their honor and character. Lincoln realized this fact of life and was prepared for it, as every leader should be.”
We should be willing to fight for the heart of the faith—the truth of the gospel. We should be willing to fight for unity when unnecessary conflict rears its head.
Phillips continued, “Do what Lincoln did. Ignore most of the attacks if they are petty, but fight back when they are important enough to make a difference…. Maintain grace under pressure. Know right from wrong. And have courage.”
Genuine Collaboration: Finding Your Friends and Letting Them Lead
When we look at Paul, we see a man who was perfectly willing to ask for help in major ways. It’s hard to overstate the logistical and financial burdens of Paul’s ministry. Travel was expensive, slow, and dangerous.
COLLABORATION WITH PRISCILLA AND AQUILA
Acts 18:1-3 tells us, “After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade.”
First, since Aquila was Jewish (and probably Priscilla, too), they would have had some familiarity with the Jewish Scriptures. Paul would have had common ground with this couple, and he may have been instrumental in them becoming committed followers of Christ.
Second, we learn that they were refugees. They had been living and working in Rome and were kicked out of the city with the rest of the Jews by Emperor Claudius. This passage in Acts is corroborated by a Roman historian of the day named Suetonius. He wrote, “The Jews he expelled from Rome, since they were constantly in rebellion, at the instigation of Chrestus.” Scholars speculate about what exactly was going on in this episode, but they generally agree that Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome in the late 40s AD. Priscilla and Aquila had to pack up and head east to Corinth. The text also tells us that Paul, Priscilla, and Aquila shared more than their Jewish cultural heritage: they were of the same trade. They were tentmakers, and they went into business together in Corinth.
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When Paul finally left and sailed east, Priscilla and Aquila accompanied him and took up residence in the metropolis of Ephesus.
Paul asked Priscilla and Aquila to stay in Ephesus and help with the new Christian community in that city, because a little later in the same chapter we see them getting to know the influential traveling teacher Apollos (and straightening out his theology).
We also learn that a church was meeting in their house in Rome. It appears that Priscilla and Aquila had used their multi-city business to support Paul and the ministry, and were now hosting a church in their home in the Roman imperial capital. Owning a home would have been very expensive in the incredibly dense urban center of Rome.
We are now beginning to get a sense of just how affluent Priscilla and Aquila were. They had homes in at least three major cities (Rome, Corinth, and Ephesus), and we know for sure that the homes were large enough to host a church in at least two locations (Rome and Ephesus).
The ease with which Priscilla and Aquila moved back and forth between these cities indicates how wealthy they were. That sort of flexibility and stability was almost always associated with wealth in the ancient world. In Paul’s final letter, Priscilla and Aquila were two of the last names he ever mentioned. Their friendship and partnership in Paul’s ministry through the years had been invaluable, and he wanted to make sure to say goodbye to his old friends.
COLLABORATION WITH ERASTUS
In Romans 16:23, Paul describes Erastus as the “city treasurer” of Corinth, one of the most prosperous cities in the Roman world. Erastus, it seems, was someone whose life was oriented around serving the apostle Paul in his ministry. He truly partnered with him.
Erastus was a man of considerable power and influence. He had enough wealth to personally finance the paving of a street in a city that he helped to govern, a street that Paul, Priscilla, and Aquila routinely walked upon. He used his position, administrative skills, and financial resources in service of the church in a time when it was very unpopular and sometimes dangerous to be a Christian. In fact, he rearranged his life in service of the gospel.
It must have been so helpful and encouraging to be friends with influential people in the community: Priscilla and Aquila in the business sector, Erastus in the government. They gave of their financial resources, their time, their emotional energy, and their homes. All three of them ended up leaving Corinth as members of Paul’s team in order to share Christ with the world.
We in the church need to be better at finding people who can help us—people who might have a better idea than we do about how to strategically reach an area for Christ.
Kingdom Diplomacy: Building Bridges across Cultural Chasms
In the name of Christ we are called to bridge social boundaries like race and socioeconomic status. We are meant to reach across the chasms of gender and political philosophy.
One of the great ironies of Paul’s writing career is that the biggest social rift in the early church was dealt with in his shortest and most overlooked letter: Philemon.
Paul and his team were working to create unity in a highly stratified, racist, power-oriented society. The Roman legions took control and maintained it through brute force. The richest members of society grasped on to power and wealth and presided over a system that kept almost everyone else poor and subjugated.
Nothing in the Roman world was geared toward unity or leveling the playing field. This is the world in which the gospel of Jesus Christ—a truly countercultural message—first began to spread. Imagine Paul speaking these words into that sort of climate: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).
In the Roman Empire, it is estimated that somewhere between 20–50 percent of the inhabitants of cities were slaves.
The story behind Paul’s letter to Philemon involves three people: (1) The apostle Paul, who is imprisoned and awaiting trial in Rome. (2) Philemon, a wealthy Christian man from the town of Colossae who hosts a church in his home. (Colossae was near Ephesus in modern Turkey, hundreds of miles from Rome where Paul was incarcerated.) (3) Onesimus, a fugitive slave who ran away from the house of Philemon.
Here’s what happened in a nutshell: Onesimus was a slave in Philemon’s household. Because of some conflict he had with his master (or perhaps because of a general longing for freedom), Onesimus ran away. This was a perilous choice, because fugitive slaves were routinely tortured or killed if they were caught. Roman law required people to turn in fugitives if they were discovered, so it is likely that there were professional slave catchers, or even Phil… This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Scholars debate whether Onesimus fled with the intention of finding Paul and asking for his help in reconciling with Philemon. We are not sure how long Onesimus was with Paul in Rome, but we know that he became a Christian there as a result of Paul’s influence. The letter to Philemon in our New Testament was Paul’s attempt to reconcile Onesimus and Philemon. Fugitive slave and Christian master. Let’s look at what Paul wrote and—more importantly—how he wrote it. It’s a brilliantly diplomatic letter and we can learn a lot from it as we think about bridging sensitive social divides.
Paul genuinely expresses his respect for Philemon, while simultaneously softening him up for the difficult subject matter that is about to follow. Paul is carefully setting a tone—doing what he can to disarm Philemon.
Knowing that even the mention of his name would probably provoke Philemon, Paul introduces Onesimus as his spiritual child, a designation he typically used for those he led to Christ. The name Onesimus means “useful,” and Paul uses a play on words to say that Onesimus has been truly useful to him in service of the gospel. Paul calls Onesimus “[his] very heart”—additional affectionate language designed to produce sympathy in Philemon.
In the most revolutionary moment in the letter, Paul suggests that Philemon cease to view Onesimus as a slave, and instead view him as a brother in Christ. Paul expresses his confidence that Philemon will do the right thing, but can’t help but offer one more subtle pressure point: letting Philemon know that he hopes to visit in person soon.
Paul’s approach is an education in how Christian influencers should approach divisive issues. Paul was thoughtful. He advocated for the person at a social disadvantage by helping the more powerful party develop Christlike empathy. Paul was nuanced. He did not indulge in a simplistic culture-war mentality. He lovingly spoke truth into a volatile situation. Paul found a way to be disarming while also holding Philemon accountable.
In Galatians 3:28, Paul teaches us and—in the case of Philemon—shows us that we Christians are supposed to demolish cultural boundaries in the name of Christ: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Some barriers are not made of brick and mortar. They are made of something more durable: social norms. In the case of his letter to Philemon, Paul was trying to knock down the cultural barricade between slave and free, and he had many other occasions in his ministry to punch holes in the barriers between rich and poor, Jews and Gentiles, and men and women. We are called to do the same.
Relational Stewardship: Making People Feel Visible and Valued
Paul operated within a team, a group of people that has become mostly invisible to us over the centuries. He was not a lone ranger.
In an effort to focus on the more universally relevant content of Paul’s writings, we skim (or ignore) the beginnings and ends of his letters, which are deep reservoirs of insight relating to his team and their relationships.
Paul was diligent to include not only teaching content in his letters, but important personal and social information that fostered community and relationships within the growing network of churches.
RELATIONSHIPS IN SALUTATIONS
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, “To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:1–2).
Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, “To Philemon our beloved fellow worker and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philemon 1–3).
RELATIONSHIPS IN COMMENDATIONS
In Romans 16:1-2, Paul wrote, “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae, that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well.”
Then in 1 Corinthians 16:15-18, “Now I urge you, brothers—you know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints—be subject to such as these, and to every fellow worker and laborer. I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have made up for your absence, for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. Give recognition to such people.”
RELATIONSHIPS IN GREETINGS
Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you have received instructions—if he comes to you, welcome him), and Jesus who is called Justus. These are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me. Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis. Luke the beloved physician greets you, as does Demas. Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house. And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea. And say to Archippus, “See that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord.” – Colossians 4:10-17
Here’s what Paul wrote in Romans 16:3-15, 20-23, “Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well. Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia. Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you. Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. They are well known to the apostles, and they were in Christ before me. Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys. Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus. Greet my kinsman Herodion. Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus. Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphaena and Tryphosa. Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord. Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well. Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them. Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them … The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you; so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen. I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord. Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus, greet you.”
Paul seems to have racked his brain to think of anyone on the receiving end of the letter whom he wanted to greet, and also anyone with him who might want to say hello. It’s remarkable the amount of energy Paul exerted to finish the highly theological letter to the Romans on such a social note.
Taking our cue from Paul and his team, we should keep people in the loop with how we’re doing personally, spiritually, and professionally. We should look for opportunities to spiritually encourage others in the context of genuine friendships. We should take every chance to deflect attention from ourselves and highlight the achievements and character of others.
Perhaps most significantly, we should openly admit our own need for support and candidly ask others for help—and publicly thank them when they give it. Shine a light on people who would never shine a light on themselves. Relate to people as a friend and equal. Remember their names. Listen to them. Ask them questions about their life over lunch, with no other agenda. Find ways to authentically thank them for their ministry and for what they personally mean to you.
Relentless about Reconciliation: Restoring Relationships Even When It Hurts
Sometimes conflict resolution is about dealing with deep, personal hurts, in which resolution or reconciliation seems truly impossible.
We sometimes find ourselves looking to Scripture to find reasons why we shouldn’t continue to work for reconciliation.
We use Paul’s words as permission to stop making efforts to secure peace with someone. We must be different. Christians are meant to be relentless about reconciliation. Christ gave everything to secure reconciliation with us, and we are called to model that same sort of love to the world around us—even to our enemies.
Lokkesmoe explains, “God has taught me in a variety of ways that if I don’t walk toward reconciliation, bitterness will fossilize in my heart—and stay there.”
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR US TODAY
The unyielding pursuit of reconciliation is a hallmark of Christian influence, and Paul set a beautiful example for us in how he dealt with the Corinthians. He pursued reconciliation and communicated explicitly to the Corinthians that reconciliation is what he was after.
For someone who has encountered Christ, reconciliation should be a top priority. The work of Christ on the cross was the definitive act of reconciliation between God and humanity.
It’s no stretch to say that reconciliation is a key theme of 2 Corinthians. That idea is manifested throughout the letter, and Paul uses the Greek word for reconciliation, καταλλάσσω (katallassō), more in this letter than in any other place in his writings (see Romans 5:10; 1 Corinthians 7:11; 2 Corinthians 5:18–20). That word has the connotation of trading something for something else, in this case exchanging “hostility for a friendly relationship.”
In many cases of conflict, the person who initiates reconciliation expresses themselves clumsily, and the other person (who also wants reconciliation) hears a distorted version of what was said. That’s where a Titus can be so helpful—someone who can make sure things are verbalized with clarity and heard accurately. Look for opportunities to be a Titus! You can foster reconciliation even if you’re not a direct part of the conflict.
Satan is always looking to stoke division and fan it into an inferno. He is rooting against reconciliation because it is an especially powerful testament to who Christ is. Being relentless about reconciliation shows the world we are different.
Trust in the Fog: Leading When You Seem to Be Losing
Have you heard it said that Christianity no longer has the home-field advantage in America? It’s a poignant way to describe the shifting cultural landscape in the United States.
There are a number of precincts in our society in which it can seem like Christianity is “losing”: social media, certain political contexts, and especially university campuses. Globally speaking, however, Christianity is still growing steadily.
OPPOSITION IN LYSTRA
Lystra was a relatively small town in the region of Galatia (modern Turkey), and the account of Paul and Barnabas visiting there is tucked away in the weeds of Acts (Acts 14:8–20).
They walk into Lystra, and Paul heals a man who had been unable to walk since birth. That’s a fairly dramatic miracle, and the locals responded immediately and passionately. The locals think that Paul and Barnabas are Zeus, the king of the Greek gods, and Hermes, Zeus’s chief messenger.
One of the most long-lasting outcomes of Paul’s difficult ministry in Lystra is that he found Timothy there, his closest friend and arguably his most important ministry partner (Acts 16:1). When Paul wrote to Timothy many years later, he said this: “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well” (2 Timothy 1:5). An entire family tree—at least three generations including Timothy—was forever impacted by Paul’s ministry in Lystra, which got off to a really rough start.
OPPOSITION IN EPHESUS
Ephesus was a true metropolis—one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire, boasting a population somewhere north of two hundred thousand people. It was one of the most famous and influential cities of the time. Ephesus was fiercely devoted to the goddess Artemis. The Ephesians built a temple for her that was so large it was considered to be one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
Luke tells us in the book of Acts that many people in the region of Ephesus—both Jews and Gentiles—heard the message of Christ through the ministry of Paul and his team.
For a man named Demetrius—a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis—he gathered together with workmen in similar trades. His fellow craftsmen had a twofold grievance: (1) The message of Christ was hurting them financially, and (2) The gospel was disrespecting Artemis and the greatness of Ephesus. In their anger, the craftsmen created a furor that generated a large-scale riot in the theater.
We need to be persistent when sharing Christ with those around us. After Paul was driven out of Lystra—and nearly killed—he went back. He eventually returned a third time.
The ministry of Paul’s team in Ephesus was so fruitful, in fact, that it actually made an impact on the sales of Artemis shrines. That’s why the craftsmen were so upset; too many people were becoming Christians. They were worried that they would be out of a job.
The challenge is that there are Temples of Artemis in our world today, but they’re invisible—temples of desires, thought patterns, attitudes, and behaviors. For the Ephesians, the god commanding their allegiance was made of marble. In that sense, they had it easier, because they could see the god they worshiped instead of Christ.
We need to expose today’s temples—like the temples of materialism, professional success, political perspective, reputation, and physical appearance.
Fade to the Background: Admitting You’re Replaceable & Grooming Your Replacements
The handoff of the baton is a powerful metaphor for leadership in any context, but certainly within the church. At some point, whatever influence we have will be handed off to someone else. Someone will take over for us in whatever leadership role we currently occupy.
We have to make sure there are people waiting to run the next leg of the race, and we have to make sure they’re running before we hand them the baton.
God wants us to share our wisdom, insights, experiences, and strategies with them. It could be your kids, a coworker, a friend, or a student. God might want you to develop them over a period of many years, or in a shorter concentrated season of training right now.
Paul made it a habit to identify young leaders with potential and invest in them over time.
We also cannot fail to learn the lesson of the first century: the church had enough depth of prepared leadership that it could weather the storms of persecution and survive the loss of seemingly indispensable leaders.
Paul seems to have also taken a special interest in a handful of leaders and invested in them on a deeper level, the most notable being Timothy and Titus. First and Second Timothy and Titus have historically been referred to as the Pastoral Epistles because Paul sent them to men functioning in a pastoral capacity.
As Paul’s ministry was drawing to a close, he entrusted these men with huge amounts of responsibility and counseled them from afar. They were now on the front lines, and Paul was observing and supporting them from a distance.
Paul knew that the end was near for him and most of the first-generation Christian leaders, and he took seriously his responsibility to prepare the church for the challenges ahead. Paul led until the very end, but he did not hold on to control or view himself as irreplaceable. He knew he was going to be replaced, and acted accordingly.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR US TODAY
We need to accept that God has us placed in our roles as influencers for a season. Regardless of what the role is—parent, teacher, pastor, boss, coach, or some other form of influence—it will not last forever.
Ask yourself this diagnostic question, “Can you imagine leaving your current leadership post and serving somewhere else?” If you can’t, then you might be gripping too tightly to your role.
To hold our positions loosely means a couple of things: (1) We teach others how to do what we do, and (2) We continually seek the Lord’s guidance about whether we’re supposed to move on. It’s difficult to do that. It’s painful to leave ministries or leadership roles that we love. Paul experienced that kind of pain on a continual basis, as he would leave congregations and move on to other parts of the world where people needed to know Jesus. But what would his ministry have looked like if he had only shared Christ in Antioch? What if he had never ventured into Galatia? What if he had never gone to Ephesus? Or Philippi? Or Thessalonica? Or Athens? Or Corinth? What if he hadn’t invested in leaders along the way and taken some along on the journey with him?
Our Peculiar Posture
What would it look like for Christian influencers to lead in the twenty-first century in such a way that even our most enthusiastic detractors would aspire to follow our example? How would the world change if Christians had such a widely acknowledged reputation for benevolence?
Bedrock values underlying all of their actions—principles that were so thoroughly embedded in their lives that they’re more like personality traits than leadership strategies. Three traits stand out among the rest.
- Their singular focus was Christ. Many Christians today do not share the same focus on Christ and zeal for evangelism. Paul and his team shared Christ both with people who were enthusiastic listeners and people who were openly hostile to the message.
- They treated others as equals. Everyone is created in God’s image, and God loves everyone. Paul unleashed people for ministry who were new Christians, and he allowed their actions to shape the direction his own ministry took. There was reciprocal influence.
- They were agents of reconciliation. They sought common ground with people. They built bridges. They were not unnecessarily combative with people who didn’t believe what they did. They were thoughtful. They were kind. They did what would stave off the need for reconciliation. But when division did occur, they worked for reconciliation. They did so in ministry disputes (e.g., Paul and Mark), cultural chasms (e.g., Onesimus and Philemon), and deep hurts inflicted within a close relationship (Paul and the Corinthians).
Nearly all the lessons we have learned here can be fit into one or more of these three traits: a focus on Jesus, a commitment to viewing others as equals, and a commitment to reconciliation.
Paul first arrived in Philippi in the early 50s AD after traveling from Antioch westward through Asia Minor. When they arrived in Philippi in the northern part of Greece, they entered a city that Luke described as “a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony” (Acts 16:12).
On the Sabbath, Luke tells us, Paul and his friends went to a “place of prayer” outside the gate, where they spoke to some women who had gathered there (Acts 16:13). This is another instance of Paul and company seeking common ground, because they were looking to connect with the Jewish community.
One of the women there was named Lydia, who, according to Luke, sold “purple goods” (Acts 16:14). This indicates that she was wealthy, because she worked in a lucrative niche of the textile industry. God spoke to her through Paul’s words, and she paced her faith in Christ—the first convert to Christianity in Europe. She invited Paul’s team to stay at her home, another indication of her wealth (verse 15).
About a decade later, Paul wrote a letter from his Roman jail cell to the Philippian Christians, the very same community that started out with Lydia and the jailer. Paul sees God at work in their lives, and he wants to encourage the Philippian Christians to press forward and continue to grow in their relationship with Christ.
Familiar themes abound here, such as unity, peace, and viewing others as your equal (or in this case—as more significant than yourself!).
Everything we do is a reflection of what He has already done for us. On the cross, Christ humbled Himself and became the definitive agent of reconciliation.
We Christians are envoys of truth and reconciliation, and this should be seen not only in our relationships with one another, but in our conduct with “everyone.” We must not see ourselves as at war with outsiders, but as agents of God’s peace, loving those whom He loves yet who are far from Christ. As Christians, we seek common ground.
Having now looked closely at Paul and his team, there can be no better concluding words than some of Paul’s to the Philippians:
