For something different, I'm presenting you with a story I wrote some years ago. I submitted it to the magazine "The Wittenberg Door", but they said they were changing their focus and it didn't fit in with the new focus.
And to ward off any potential protest about this story, I will tell you up front that it is a spoof on modern day mission practices, looking at how these practices would have affected the early Church.
Without any further ado...
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Missions in Hostile Lands: Only the Beginning...
Part I
The year was A.D. 44 and the city was Antioch. The fledgling church was growing by leaps and bounds, but mainly in one centralized area. At this time there was a church that had a missionary vision to reach the uttermost ends of the earth with the Good News of Jesus Christ. That was the church of Antioch, where we begin our tale. Since it was deemed unwise and foolhardy to begin missionary activities without the proper missionary structure, they set out to form their own, the world's first Christian missionary organization, founded A.D. 44: The Gentile Missionary Society of Antioch. Since they were the first they could do whatever they wanted, basically. But they decided that they needed to appoint a governing board of eminent church leaders in order to give the nascent organization a public image and acceptability. They found a group of such men who agreed with their doctrinal statement and aims. Then they had to set up a home office to process all the receipts of missionary support, take on administration responsibilities for the work of the missionaries' activities, and provide a support for the missionaries they sent out. This took about a year to accomplish, which brings us to A.D. 45.
Now as the church was debating about the need to fill a vacant position in the ministry to the Gentiles and praying that God would show them who would be best for this position, they just happened to receive applications, complete with references and transcripts from two men named Paul and Barnabas. They had been making the circuits around churches and Bible schools and they had met Paul in Damascus where he was found preaching to the believers. Paul later met Barnabas and suggested that they together consider joining up with this new venture.
After the mission leaders and board had sufficiently deliberated the matter, comparing their application papers with those of others, they decided to consider accepting them into their newly-formed mission organization. However, first they had to go through candidates' course to learn the policies of the organization and meet the leadership and allow the leadership to get to know them likewise. Then within about a month's time after all of the appropriate boards and committees had given their blessing on the acceptance of these two men and given them a job description for the role that they would play in the ministry, they sent them back home to raise support. By the time the applications had been considered, the (first) annual candidates' course had come and gone, and they had been accepted another year had gone by.
For the next year, A.D. 46, these two men each sent out circular letters requesting financial support and going around from church to church and meeting with individuals to extol the work being done in that part of the world by their chosen mission board and explain the part that they personally would have in it as well. After the necessary pledges for prayer and financial support had been received and sufficient initial finances had been raised to begin their ministry, they set off for Cyprus with the blessing of their sending board and supporters back home.
Finally, in A.D. 47 Paul and Barnabas set out on the first missionary journey sponsored by this sending agency. Eventually others also joined the mission, such as Silas and John Mark. This mission specialized in church planting and used the traveling evangelist/teacher approach to missionary work. Later on other modes of missionary work were developed, but this was the early primitive approach used in those days.
Part II
At this time there was great opposition to the gospel in this part of the world. Opposition came both from Jews and also from heathen believers in false gods. To better protect their missionaries from having to risk being imprisoned or stoned, the Gentile Missionary Society of Antioch created certain rules and safeguards for its workers. Among them was a code of secrecy, which is so secret that we are only aware of its existence today, but know nothing of the details of its contents.
However, I must say that we do know that this is why Paul was a tentmaker and why he worked in this profession while at the same time evangelizing the heathen. You see, these men had to sneak into these regions and cities because of the great opposition to the gospel. If they hadn't done so they would most certainly have risked both their freedom and their very life. It is only because such safegaurds were not in place, in fact, that Stephen lost his life for the sake of the gospel. But these wise mission leaders had learned from that incident, as well as from the experiences of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ Himself.
So Paul was sent out to make tents in the places he went to. Now granted, he really did know something about this trade, too, so it wasn't as if it was like completely pulling the wool over the government officials' eyes. It was fortunate that this territory was completely under Roman rule and that Paul was a Roman citizen, however, because he didn't have to worry about getting passports and visas. But nonetheless, as soon as it was found out that he and his coworkers did more than make tents they still faced the risks I've already mentioned, namely stoning or imprisonment.
Part III
Now the leadership of the Gentile Missionary Society of Antioch was careful about maintaining unity and controlling the movements of its workers. After all, it couldn't be that its missionaries would just up and go wherever they wanted. That would be very chaotic and sloppy. And what would the supporters back home say? The mission leadership had to know what its workers were doing and why and where and with whom in order to keep accounts and make reports. And they were the ones responsible to make major decisions, such as where their workers went, what they did there, why and with whom. That was there job. Actually, it is a misnomer that the bureaucracy is a 20th century invention. It actually began centuries ago in a little known city called Antioch by a long forgotten mission board.
In case you haven't gathered yet, the Scriptural account in the book of Acts really leaves a lot of gaps in the story which modern scholarship has unearthed. You've probably heard of the Macedonian call? Well, it's obvious that they didn't have telephones back then, so there was no literal call like we think of today. However, the account in Acts 16:6-11 is somewhat misleading. At this point Paul and Timothy are together, Paul and Barnabas having split ways over whether to take John Mark or not just before this. Paul and Timothy had wanted to go on to Galatia, but when they sought permission from their mission board, they were denied. Something about it not being advisable or not in their overall plan for the mission or something along those lines.
So they proceeded on to Mysia and from there intended to go to Bithynia, but again their mission intervened. So they eventually agreed with their mission that they should go to Troas. From there their mission sent word to them that they should go on to Macedonia to help the people there. It's a good thing that Paul and Timothy had such good connections with their home office, because they would have surely been at a loss as to where to go. They probably would have wandered around the subcontinent of Asia Minor until some kind soul took them in. But thanks to the diligent oversight of their mission they ended out in a place where they were needed.
I don't know about you, but I think that it's just amazing how mature this early mission board was. Today we have all the experience of centuries of mission work and we have come to much the same ways of doing things as they did way back then. Think of it, the very first mission board doing things the right way. So meticulously and assiduously. Sometimes we like to pat ourselves on the back for having come so far, but in actuality that's just an illusion. We really haven't progressed passed what this early board did and was. We think that we've progressed on to bigger and better things, when in actuality we haven't. We're still at square one. I don't mean that to be a put down to modern missions, though, but rather a tribute to the Gentile Missionary Society of Antioch.
Part IV
Well, as I already said, the Gentile Missionary Society of Antioch was conscientious about not putting its missionaries through unnecessary risks. I don't mean to imply that they didn't have any faith or anything, but it's just that their faith was a little different than we think it was. Since these regions where they worked were so hostile to the gospel it was quite the rational thing to do, to protect their workers. After all, who would go out on such a mission if there was no protection? People like John the Baptist, Jesus Christ and Stephen don't come along just every day, you know. And this mission had grand plans of growing and becoming powerful. After all, it was the first mission ever and it had a right to do so. And besides, since they were the first, they were the specialists in how to minister to this part of the world. And they could set the standards, too. They could, in a word, do whatever they wanted.
Also, if their workers had to take great risks for their work they might have trouble raising support. Churches and supporters back home would wonder why they lost so many workers. It doesn't look good to show on a report that you took in 10 new workers, 5 others were stoned to death and another 7 were imprisoned for various lengths of time. And you just don't hide facts like those, especially the stonings. Eventually you have to inform a missionary's supporters back home that he has expired so they don't need to send any more funds designated in his name.
So here's what they came up with. In the places where the gospel was poorly received they wouldn't do street preaching and they would curtail synagogue appearances, too. Instead, they quietly set up small group Bible studies, did friendship evangelism, left tracts secretly in public places and offered correspondence Bible courses. These types of ministries were safer because they weren't so public and you could really get to know the people you were ministering to (although they might not have realized that that was what you were doing) to judge if you could trust them or not.
In fact this was a rather effective measure from one standpoint, in that the number of missionary casualties due to stoning or imprisonment was greatly reduced. And this seemed to more than make up for the fact that it also resulted in less people being reached with the gospel.
Part V
I do think the Acts account is very incredible. It's amazing the wisdom and insight we find in the lives of these early church fathers. I can see how they made the pages of Scripture.
Our mission that we've been working with now for some time, the Gentile Missionary Society of Antioch, still had other tricks up its sleeves, though, that have amazingly enough carried down to this day. I told you already about Paul and Barnabas breaking up over John Mark. Well that was nothing. I mean it, I'm serious! Before long there got to be other church groups and denominations. They split up and went their own ways, just like Paul and Barnabas did. Well, you know already how antagonistic some cities were to the gospel. But I haven't mentioned yet that the believers in those days could be almost as vicious towards each other. Fortunately this died out some where in the 16th century or so.
You see, they all understood that they were after a limited resource: the souls of men for the gospel. And each group viewed the other as contrary to their own and in competition with their own.
So to attract people to their group and keep them away from others they passed out broadsides and spoke in church against the others. In those days, you must realize, there was no New Testament, and so no supreme authority to tell them how they should act. If they had only known what we know today they wouldn't have acted so I'm sure. This is really a blotch on church history, and probably a predecessor to the Inquisition. Since they didn't have Scripture, the New Testament, to refer to, they reverted to primitive tactics like name calling and gossip to try to win over people to their side. However, the Gentile Missionary Society of Antioch was very good at keeping this from being known, which is why so few people know about it to this day. The thing is that since they worked in such a difficult part of the world, secrecy was vital to the success of their work and once you learn to work within that framework it's easy to apply it to other issues and situations as well.
Part VI
Missionaries who went out with the Gentile Missionary Society of Antioch were required to raise their own support, as I already mentioned at the beginning of this series. However, today I need to elaborate more on exactly what that entailed. The largest portion of the total amount to be raised went to their living and ministry expenses, as you'd probably expect. Another part of that total figure went to support administrative expenses (the home office), taxes and retirement. However, what you might not have been aware of is that there was also a set amount to raise for the use of bribes. Now before you get too bent out of shape about that, let me explain a bit. You see, the difficult situations that these missionaries found themselves in occasionally required advanced planning as to how to get out of them. One method that they found very effective was to give the authorities bribes in order to gain their freedom, when detained or imprisoned, or the like.
This came in very useful in Paul's meeting with Felix in Caesarea. Paul knew that Felix wasn't really interested in the gospel and that it would be useless to waste his time behind bars when he could very easily use the brains God had given him, which he did, to get himself free. Felix used to call Paul to himself regularly. At first Paul put up with his detainment, and tried some of the other means of gaining freedom, such as calling his embassy. But when none of that proved to be of any help he finally decided that the better part of valor is wisdom and that meant he should give into Felix's wishes to receive a bribe from him. After having done that he was quickly freed and continued with his preaching in secret as before, this time being somewhat more careful not to get caught.
Part VII
Today I want to let you in on some more secrets about the Gentile Missionary Society of Antioch. As you've seen, there are strengths and weaknesses to this mission board, just like always. No board is perfect, you know. After all we're all children of Adam and Eve and tainted by the fall, and it's fallen people who make up organizations. So far we've seen, however, that this mission board has a lot going for it, except for what I said earlier about the rivalries and how those were handled; very badly.
GMS of A still had more practices and policies, however, that we haven't even begun to touch on. One of them was that it took in everyone who was a mature Christian, had good references, could raise the necessary support and...well, you know, just like today. But there was another thing that they did that was a great time and money saver, which was to dispense with the study of target language and cultures of the places they were going to. This way, their workers must have saved a good year of preparation time plus all the money that would have been spent on that process. Talk about good management. These guys were really on the ball.
Every once in a while there was a problem with this, but rarely. The thing was that Latin was the international tongue and most people knew Latin anyway. If you were members of the Roman Empire chances are you had the opportunity to learn it somewhere along the way. This was extremely convenient for the mission.
However, there were a few times when a problem arose because of sidestepping this issue. They were minor, really, and wouldn't have justified the expense of time and money for learning a language or culture.
One such rare incident was in Athens, which is in Greece, and they speak Greek there. Paul didn't know Greek however. And he really didn't know anything about the Greek culture either. The sermon from Mars' Hill we have recorded in Acts 17 has been touched up somewhat and does not accurately represent the original. In actuality, a local scribe took notes on Paul's sermon there, which archeologists have only very recently discovered. The truth of the matter is that Paul spoke with a translator and he actually didn't know what to make of all their gods. The scriptural account is much shorter than it really was and Paul really rambled on. He mostly talked about Jesus fulfilling Old Testament prophecy and the like. That's actually why so many people reacted negatively to his preaching. However, GMS of A got a hold of the Acts manuscripts before they went public and touched them up to make their worker look better. It's a shame to use such a cover up tactic, but it worked! For so many centuries we all thought Paul's sermon on Mars' Hill was a brilliant showpiece of cultural sensitivity. That's how skilled GMS of A was at pulling the wool over people's eyes.
Fortunately, however, these situations were few it seems and so the lack of linguistic and cultural knowledge little effected the ministry of these first missionaries.
Part VIII
I already told you some about rival groups forming. Well, there was another sort of similar issue that bore on ministry in those early days of mission work too. It seems like there are always a few troublemakers who don't like change. The Pharisees weren't too happy about this new sect, for example, the "Christians". They really went all out to destroy this group of reformers. Well, the Christians also had their troublemakers. Some didn't like the things I've been telling you about here and got really all bent out of shape about it. They took to publishing pamphlets and preaching against these adaptations in ministry techniques. It got pretty hot, let me tell you.
You'd think that having the right doctrine would be enough for these guys, but no, that wasn't so. Not only did they require accuracy in doctrine, but in practice and ministry, too. The reformers, the progressive GMS of A'ers, thought, of course, that their attackers were completely out of line and simply too conservative. After all, it didn't say anything in Scripture about not doing these things, well, not really or directly it didn't. So they in turn labeled their attackers "legalistic."
The "legalistic" Christians insisted on a ministry based on faith, which meant being willing to risk persecution and being bold. As you can imagine, they had quite a tough time of it and suffered quite some number of casualties. Their numbers remained small, too, although it must be admitted that their adherents were quite faithful and true to their faith.
The progressives, on the other hand, suffered little in their ministry and prospered in numbers too. They were seen as moving the gospel forward into a new era. A lot of their adherents weren't so faithful, but their movement was effective in reaching the lost. These two groups never did combine forces and for a time the conflict between them was downright base and dirty. You wouldn't think that Christians could act like that, but we should be honest with ourselves and admit to such dark blotches on Church history too. Fortunately, however, the progressives seemed to win over eventually and the legalists were isolated from the mainstream of Christianity. If it hadn't been for that then missions might look quite different than they do today, which is terribly hard to imagine.
Part IX
This is the last in this series on the GMS of A mission. I hope that you have found it enlightening and informative.
Remember how I already told you how GMS of A took very careful precautions in protecting the welfare of its workers? Well, occasionally they weren't able to prevent mishaps. You probably remember the incident with Paul and Silas in prison. That was an awful day for the mission and a terrible mar on its reputation, before both the public authorities and the supporters back home.
So what happened in this incident? I mean, what really happened? Paul and Silas were quietly leading a house church group, which evidently the authorities had found out about. They barged into the meeting and disrupted it, taking Paul and Silas away to prison. They couldn't figure out how the police found out about them, because they had been so careful about changing location and who they trusted with the knowledge of where the meeting was being held each time. Plus, the police were supposed to think that Paul was just a tentmaker. That meant that his cover was blown. It was a disaster. I'm sure you can imagine.
Well, when they got to the prison, Paul took immediate action by calling his embassy. His embassy went straight to work on the matter, contacting the Philippian authorities and ordering them to free their citizens. In this manner the situation became somewhat political, but you have to understand: it was all meant for the sake of the gospel and the protection of innocent people.
The next morning he and Silas were let go. But they had to leave the city. They were afraid to go see any of the believers for fear of causing more trouble, so they just quietly snuck away, intending to have someone else go visit the Philippian believers to ease their concerns for them.
Well, now you have a picture of what the world's very first Christian mission was like. I know it's a little different picture than what you have in the book of Acts, but that doesn't really matter. What matters is that the gospel was preached and now here you and I are believers, maybe because of the work of that first mission!
