PAUL SETS A MISSIONNARY AGENDA

WEEK 41
PAUL SETS A MISSIONNARY AGENDA

KEY VERSE: “It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on some else’s foundation.
ROMANS 15:20

SCRIPTURE LESSON: ROMANS 15:14-29; ACTS 19: 21
ROMANS 15:14 I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another.
15I have written you quiet boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me.
16To be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. 17 Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my services to God.
18 I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done -19 by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel where Christ. 20 It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation.
21 Rather, as it is written:” Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.
22 This is why I have often been hindered from coming to you
ACTS 19:21 After all this had happened, Paul decided to go to Jerusalem. Passing through Macedonia and Achaia. “ After I have been there,” he said,” I must visit Rome also.”

INTRODUCTION
Numerical church growth arises from the following:-
Transfer growth which involves individual Christians changing their denominations or changing their congregations because they may have changed their place of abode.
Biological growth takes place when children of Christian parents are raised in the church and they grow to become part of the congregation.
Conversion growth occurs when unbelievers come to accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour and remains in the Church of the three, conversion growth is the only one which brings new converts into kingdom of God.
Of the three, conversion growth is the only one which brings new converts into the kingdom of God. However, in Ghana, the churches appear to concentrate largely on transfer growth. Some denominations including The Methodist Church, Ghana churches especially the charismatic ones.

The end results of these accusations and counter accusations about “stealing:” of members is that the Church in Ghana as a whole does not grow. The majority of unbelievers have generally not been reached. There are large areas of the country which are UN churched, and there are fertile soils for church planning in the surrounding countries and beyond, where the gospel seed can be planted.

What can the church in Ghana including The Methodist Church, Ghana learn from Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles?

EXPOSITION
Paul’s Missionary Agenda
The Focus:
It did not take much time after his conversion for Paul to demonstrate that his missionary activity had a clear focus. In Ro. 11:13, he wrote; “I am talking to you Gentiles, Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry”. The Early Church also came to recognize that Paul’s missionary activity had a clear focus distinct from that of Peter. He stated it as follows; “They saw that I had been given the task of preaching the Gospel to the Jews. For God who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles” (Gal.2:7-8) A purpose-driven church must therefore know where its strengths are and which groups of people and what arrears it wants to evangelize. We cannot spread ourselves thinly everywhere. Having a focus leads to effectiveness in evaluation. You may recall that in giving the Church an agenda for evangelism and missions, Jesus taught the principle of targeting, and so Paul was not doing differently. (see Lessons for Weeks 38 and 39)
Paul’s Missionary Advances.
Paul missionary work began when the Holy Spirit told the Church in Antioch; “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them” (Acts 13:2). The Acts of Apostle record that, from that time. Paul land his associates embarked on three missionary advances.
These are described below:

a. Paul’s first Missionary Journey:-
This took them to Cyprus and many important gentile cities. They knew that they had to return to their home church in Antioch and give an account of what God had done through them. They were not just planning churches, but they disciplined them and appointed leaders for them.

b. Paul’s Second Missionary Journey:-
In this second missionary advance, Paul and his team moved in a different direction and went further than the first. By the time he came back, he had moved as far as Greece and other parts of Eastern Europe. Again, he saw the need to report back to his home Church.

c. Paul’s Third Missionary Journey:-
This is a journey which Paul and his team undertook to consolidate the gains that had been made in his first two journeys. It is often sad when churches which have been planted through SICE programmes by GHAMSU are often abandoned and allowed to die, because we fail to nurture them.

d. Sensitivity to the leading of the Holy Spirit:-
Even though Paul had an agenda in his missionary advance, he was very sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. A good example of this is given in Acts 16:6-10, where Paul had to abandon his own plans and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit to go to Macedonia.

My ambition is not to build on someone else’ foundation.
In Ro 15:20-21, Paul opens our eyes to what guided him in his missionary work. On the face-value, it would appear that Paul was not a good team player and wanted to have the credit for himself alone. But that is not what guided Paul in his missionary work at all. He was guided by the fact that there are large tracts of fertile soils to plant the Gospel seed, and therefore there was no need to compete with other. He quoted Isaiah 52:15 as justification for this attitude.
“Thos who were not told about him will see and those who have not heard will understand”
The question then is why are the Christian Churches in Ghana fighting over transfer growth or “stealing of members” when many communities of the country do not have active, worshipping congregations?

THE WORD IN OUR LIVES
The Church in Africa has greatly benefited from the missionary advance of the Church in Europe some 200 to 300 years ago.

Even now, our concept of missions is to have some whiteman to come into our country as medical personnel and others and to help spread the world of God. As has been stated in other parts of this material, many of our Churches in some parts of the country and outside the country are chaplaincies. As much as these chaplaincies are important, we need to find out what our missionary agendas are in these areas. In many parts of West Africa, especially in the northern sectors, the Christian influence is minimal and churches are not as prevalent as in the southern sector. There is also the question of the language barrier as many of the surrounding countries?

There are many well-endowed congregations in the southern parts of our country. How many of such churches have budgets for missions. The church of Antioch was not a big church, but it must have taken pride in the fact that it was the home church of the great apostle to the Gentiles, Paul and he always reported back to them. They supported Paul not only materially, but more importantly with their prayers.

A church without any serious missionary agenda cannot be a serious New Testament Church which is following the example of Jesus and the apostle Paul.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What justification has Paul to declare that he would not build on the foundation of others?
2. Of what significance is missions to the fulfillment of God’s purpose of saving all humanity?
3. If missions is empowered and directed by God, why is there a need to set an agenda or plan for it?
4. Formulate a missionary agenda (plan) to reach people of your ethnic group or other ethnic groups (near yours) or an identifiable social group (eg. Bankers, tomato farmers) who have not been effectively touched by the gospel.
5. In what sense is every conversion a power encounter in which the Holy Spirit overpowers Satan to rescue and regenerate a sinner?

BIBLE LESSON APPLICATION
1. Make some time this week to reflect on your role in the church’s mandate for missions. Suppose the mandate was given by you and all believers were doing it the way you are, will you be pleased?
2. What can you do personally to promote the work of missions?

DAILY BIBLE READINGS

Monday Acts 19:8-14 The Courage of Paul
Tuesday Acts 19:13-20 Paul turned Many Hearers to the Lord
Wednesday Act 19:23-27 Ephesus becomes a Missionary Centre
Thursday 1 Corinthians 1:18-23 Preach Christ to the Nations
Friday 2 Corinthians 4:1-6 Our Mission
Saturday Ephesians 2:14-17 The Message of Peace