After three months we put out to sea in a ship that had wintered in the island—it was an Alexandrian ship with the figurehead of the twin gods Castor and Pollux. We put in at Syracuse and stayed there three days. From there we set sail and arrived at Rhegium. The next day the south wind came up, and on the following day we reached Puteoli. There we found some brothers and sisters who invited us to spend a week with them. And so we came to Rome. The brothers and sisters there had heard that we were coming, and they traveled as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet us. At the sight of these people Paul thanked God and was encouraged.
Many people consider Paul to be a natural choice for a New Testament model for ministry.
- He always has the right words – think about the epistles
- He has a proven track record – a successful string of church plants
These are just a few of the reasons people often think of Paul as a model. But I would contend that this is a rather one sided view, that has more to do with false notions of leadership than it does with Paul himself.
It has been called the Great Man Theory: the belief that leaders have unique qualities that make them different from ordinary people. And I think has been historically paralyzing to the church.
- What if I can’t speak like Paul?
- What if I can’t achieve the things he did?
If this view of leadership is correct then the extent to which we don’t live up to greatness the church will suffer. If this is the case, perhaps it would be best to leave the work to someone else.
If we take a closer look at Paul though, we find that this view has caused us to selectively limit our perception of him to those traits that we think can explain his success. This over inflated view in turn eclipses the role that God played in the development of the early church. I’d like to take a few minutes to examine some of these perceptions.
Myth 1 - Paul always had the right words: The epistles are carefully composed letters; they provide no evidence that Paul was a gifted speaker. In fact we have testimony to the contrary. Paul himself admits in 1 Corinthians that he does not come across as wise or eloquent (1 Corinthians 2:1-5). In his 2nd letter we find out that the Corinthians agree (2 Corinthians 10:10). Paul asks the Colossians to pray that he might be able to speak his message clearly (Colossians 4:4). And Peter tells us in his first letter that Paul is often hard to understand (2 Peter 3:16). Paul actually gives the credit for his persuasiveness to the power of the Gospel – which itself is living and active and is at work in the world. He tells the Colossians that the Gospel is growing throughout the entire world (Colossians 1:6) speaking of it as a force in and of itself.
Myth 2 - Paul’s success record: Many people have perpetuated the myth that Paul was responsible for single handedly evangelizing the entire Roman Empire, which simply is not true. While the book of Acts focuses on his ministry, if you look a bit closer you see that God did far more though the collective contributions of average people than He did through any one individual – including Paul. Before Paul even set foot on the mission field God had used ordinary men and women to spread the Gospel throughout the empire. Jews who had traveled to Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost had heard the Gospel and taken the knowledge of Jesus home with them. Parthians Medes and Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Capadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia, Pamphilia, Egypt and Libya, Cretans Arabs and Visitors from Rome (Acts 2:5-12).
This brings me to the purpose of my passage. It says when Paul arrived in Rome he was greeted by followers of Jesus who had gotten there before him, and that he was encouraged and thanked God at the sight of them. Why was he encouraged? Not just because he had arrived at the end of his journey, or because there would be people to look after him, but because the church he was greeted by was a beautiful example of how God had been at work, laying the foundations of the church, and supporting the contributions of all believers. The success of the early church didn’t depend on the abilities of rare extraordinary people, but on the collective contributions of each of its members: a word here, a good deed there. No one person could take credit, or understand how it all fit together, but God was orchestrating it all to bring about His kingdom.
1 Corinthians 1:20-31
Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”