Eerdmans, 2009.
Gehring, Roger W., House Church and Mission: The Importance of Household Structures in Early Christianity, Peabody: Hendrickson, 2004.
Schnabel, Eckhard J., Paul the Missionary: Realities, Strategies and Methods, Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2008.
Questions for discussion
How far can Saint Paul be a guide for today?
What might we learn about founding new churches from Jesus?
If you were writing a ‘pastoral epistle’ to a leader of a new contextual church, what points would you make?
1 Matthew 23.15’s reference to scribes and Pharisees proselytizing, the only ancient source that explicitly ascribes a missionary policy to a Jewish group, can be interpreted in four ways, three of which would not imply Jewish mission to the Gentiles. It may refer to the conversion of other Jews to Pharisaism or the attempt to turn God-fearers into full Jews, for example (Bird, 2010, pp. 66–70).
2 This assumes that the apostolic decree was agreed at the same Council and not on a separate occasion, as some scholars believe. For this alternative, see Gooder (2008, p. 19).
3 For these and other reasons for thinking that Paul ‘lost’, see Dunn (2009, pp. 489–94). For a different reconstruction of events, but reaching the same conclusion that Paul ‘lost’, see Hill (1992, pp. 126–47).
4 Paul’s second missionary journey was at his initiative (Acts 15.36) rather than, as with the first, at the initiative of the Antioch church, and – again unlike the first journey – there is no sign that he was commissioned by the church. He appears to have been operating on a more independent basis.
5 Unless otherwise indicated, all quotations from Scripture in this and the other chapters are taken from the New International Version, East Brunswick, NJ: International Bible Society, 1978.
6 Schnabel describes additional journeys to Arabia and Syria/Cilicia between Paul’s conversion and joining Barnabas at Antioch (Schnabel, 2008, pp. 60–71).
7 I am grateful to Peter Walker for this suggestion.
8 Acts 20.4–5. To the seven names listed in verse 4 must be added Luke, referred to as ‘us’ in verse 5.
9 For the high social status of Paul, see for example Schnabel (2008, p. 43).
10 Hock (2007, p. 33) suggests that Paul may well have engaged in spiritual conversations during his leather-work.
11 Additionally, it can also be translated as author, captain, founder or originator.
12 I am grateful to Professor John Drane for pointing this out.
13 Workers might reside on their employer’s property, or craftsmen might rent workplaces which were part of their homes (Gehring, 2004, p. 135).
14 Jewett (2007, pp. 54, 64–5). The idea that families could have removed partitions is contested by Gehring (2004, pp. 149–50), though he accepts that churches could have met in a workshop.
15Catto (2007, p. 104) notes that purpose-built synagogues were constructed when communities were large and wealthy enough, and had sufficient political leverage to get permission to build.
2
Contextual Churches in History
philip harrold
The incarnation reminds us that history is essential to Christianity. When the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, history turned in a new direction. In this chapter, we will see how down the centuries the church has translated that divine action into a dazzling array of cultural contexts. As a missionary community the church remembers God’s call to be a pilgrim people rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The church is on the move – ‘hastening to the ends of the earth to beseech all men to be reconciled to God . . .’ (Newbigin, 1953, p. 25).
The history of this movement has defined the church as we know it today, but nonetheless it remains a strange story. Neither the continuities nor the discontinuities should surprise us given what we have already observed about contextual churches in the New Testament. It was there that novelty and innovation mixed with traditional ways of doing things in a process that propelled the church for centuries to come. The unevenness of historical records does not allow us to recognize every aspect of the subsequent church expansion, but looking for missional, contextual, formational and ecclesial features makes the past come alive, as we shall see.
History may not be very good at telling us what to do, but it can stimulate thinking about new possibilities. It is tempting to read the past in order to justify the present or to mould the past into our own perspectives. To avoid this, the chapter will stress both familiarity and strangeness in the long history of new contextual communities. Given that the church is missionary at its heart, it is possible for modern Christians to see a family resemblance in the historic body of Christ, even as it sometimes confounds our expectations. We may then recognize ‘a whole immeasurable exchange of gifts, known and unknown’ by which we carry on the mission to which we have been called’ (Williams, 2005, pp. 25–7).
Recall from the last chapter that in the Book of Acts the mission to Antioch presented the early church with an unprecedented opportunity. The general contours of a new Christian community emerged as the apostles began to acquaint large numbers of non-Jewish people with the gospel. Meanwhile, the Jerusalem church provided leadership drawn from its rich heritage and venerable location. Together, the Jerusalem and Antioch communities comprised a ‘mixed economy’, existing and new churches in relationship with each other, with Antioch taking the lead in establishing a new mission frontier. The community of believers in Antioch, emerging among the Gentiles, was necessarily contextual
