HOW THE FIRST CHURCH PLANTER SUCCEEDED

Watching the Apostle Paul enter Corinth to launch his Christian witness, we see both his success and our key to contemporary church planting success. As History’s  first successful church planter, Saul (aka Paul) had no church growth principles to guarantee his success. He lacked sponsors and oftentimes had no one to some personal support. So; how did Paul feel when facing Corinth?

He felt just like my wife and I felt when we sat down in front of three-thousand Texas Aggie Cadets sitting on the visitor’s side of the stadium at Texas Christian University. We could wish our home team Horned Frogs the best! At best, however, we were an island of hope drowning in a sea of noise. 

Our host was an A&M Alumnus and our only choice was to sit on his visitor’s side of the Stadium and that was precisely where Paul found himself when he marched into Corinth preaching and teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ (I Corinthians 2:1-5).

Paul faced multiple philosophies and lifestyles, each clamoring and competing for acceptance and approval. At best, Paul faced intimidating circumstances and he did it in the only way available to him--in the power of God.

Paul describes his testimony as drowned out by the crowd, with one exception: “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with the demonstration of the Spirit’s power” (I Cor. 2:4).

Corinth was enemy turf! Paul went to Corinth because he saw a very great need. Scholars describe Corinth as a mixed population, a Heinze-variety of ethnicities, well- seasoned with prostitution and prosperity. Corinth’s population shared the common Greek love of philosophy and speculation and had few men of Letters. They offered Paul no strong lay leadership potential. People came to Corinth for only one reason—to have a good time.

Corinthians quickly discovered an abundance of attractions to occupy their time. The Temple of Aphrodite stood on the high point of the city. Literally hundreds of Temple Women doubled as entertainers in the city’s night life. Archaeologists have long since recovered some of their musical flutes. On the Isthmus nearby stood the stadium where athletic events were second only to the Olympics in popularity. Trades people came, making it a prosperous ethnic melting pot. Corinth contained all the brutality of the West and all the sensuality of the East, all rolled into one fun-filled Vanity Fair.

Paul entered this complex community with trepidation and without sponsorship on his second Missionary Journey. He came as a Tradesman, plying his skills as a Tent-maker (I Cor. 2:5; Acts 18:3). Being bivocational, Paul worked weekdays and spent his weekends teaching in the Synagogues, later assisted by both Silas and Timothy (Acts 18:9).

When forced from the Synagogue, Paul began teaching Gentiles and ended up in Galileo’s Court (Acts 18:9).He stayed flexible, however, and willingly used a non-traditional approach to achieve his goal. As a result, he established a viable body of believers in that city (Acts 18:18).

This new Corinthian congregation comprised a cross-section of Gentiles. This included men of standing like Sosthenes and Erastus, but most were a common lot of people with many slaves (I Cor. 1:26). Many were deeply stained with sin before they found their new life in Christ.

Paul, always willing to go wherever the prospects were, invaded Corinth not in his own strength, but “with proof and power given by the Spirit” (I Cor. 2:4 Williams). He came “in demonstration of the Spirit and power” (I Cor. 2:4 KJV). He announced, “I let the Spirit and His power prove the truth to you” (I Cor. 2:4 Beck). J. B. Phillips paraphrased Paul this way: “What I said and preached had none of the attractiveness of the clever mind, but it was a demonstration of the Spirit” (I Cor. 2:4 JBP).

We sit overwhelmed by the raucous roar of religious winds blowing us about. Like Paul entering Corinth; we need a “demonstration of the Spirit and power,” if we are to succeed. We desire demonstration; indeed, we desperately need it that we may establish a fixed starting point. Luke used the word “demonstration” (apodeixis) here as a technical term of rhetoric. Paul continually looked for needs and for ways to fill those needs, and he spoke directly to the needs of the Corinthian people.

He avoided theological jargon and focused on what he experienced within. He displaying neither philosophical nor rhetorical brilliance, but spoke out of strong internal faith. Rather than depend on the power of educated humanity, he threw himself upon the mercies of God and depended upon God for all he was worth.

We hold certain presuppositions true; then we wait for their demonstration. Christopher Columbus proposed that the world was round rather than flat, but discovery waited for him to journey off the edge of the ocean to prove it. There are always a variety of demonstrations waiting to assert themselves, but we must consider the nature of not only the teacher, but also the learner and the message to be learned.

In this instance, it was not the demonstration of Gamaliel (Saul’s s teacher, or of Paul’s Pharisaical heritage; it was Stephen, a Spirit-filled Christian that most touched Paul (I Cor. 2:4).Thus, Paul entered Corinth “in demonstration of the Spirit” of God, rather than the human propositions of reason or the wise principles of church growth.

Every truth has its own kind of demonstration. In biology and reproduction, the human sperm will not link with animal sperm and produce cross-breeds Historically, World War Two stands as a fact of history, although I have heard this fact denied. However; I lived during that time; I served in the Military; and I met many emigrants who experienced the bloodshed, the suffering, and the powerful trauma.

The Annual Miss America Beauty Pageant produces an annual winner based upon certain criteria that demonstrate beauty and skill. Demonstrations may illustrate affection or faithlessness; nobleness or ignobility; something very right or something terribly wrong. When Adolph Hitler announced “Bolshevism is terror, and can be fought with terror,” he demonstrated Bolshevism  and died affirming the very principle he tried to deny.

On the other hand, Paul, was motivated by his singular belief in God’s intentional ministration of reconciling God’s lost world to himself. Paul invaded Corinth as a spiritual venture in the Will of God. His faith expressed a spiritual truth that he experienced internally; he had no proposition to be debated.

Thyra Bjorn described her family’s move from Sweden to the United States in her historical novel, Papa’s Wife. Bjorn caught the spirit of Paul’s faith in planting the Corinthian church when she wrote the following: “I bet it would take a lot of faith to move them, wouldn’t it?” asked Pella solemnly.

“Move what, dear?” asked Mama, who had been busy with her own thoughts. 

“Why, the houses big as mountains,” Pella replied.

“Everyone laughed, as much at his earnest big eyes as at the question. But papa put his hand on Pella’s shoulder and swallowed hard before he could speak. ‘It would indeed, Pela,

 He answered softly. ‘But just remember, nothing is too big for faith to move’”

[Thyra Ferre Bjorn. Papa’s Wife.
(New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston,
 a Bantam Book,, 1953, p. 101).

Can we, then, take the next logical step and acknowledge that as it was with Paul, so it had been with Stephen and the others of the early church. What reaches the soul is what is real. What reached the Corinthians of the first century will communicate with the Corinthians of the twenty-first century.

When Rick Warren left seminary to plant a church in California’s Saddleback Valley, his target was the young urban professional population. Saddleback Sam, as Warren described him, had some religious training as a child, but Sam had neglected the church for fifteen or twenty years. Affluent, recreation-conscious, interested in health, but stressed-out, Saddleback Sam mostly opposed organized religion. He did not want to be recognized if he did visit the church, and he was quite self-satisfied with himself.

When Saddleback Community Church finally did buy a building site, Warren described their special one-day offering as “the greatest miracle I’ve ever seen.” People sold their houses and bought smaller ones, giving the difference to the church. Some canceled vacations and gave the money. Others gave cars, boats, and one gave his pension. This was a congregation that had begun with two people and grown to more than four-thousand in eight years. During that time, they used thirteen buildings and did not move into the first church building of their own until Easter 1989.

The most amazing part of their story reports that seventy percent of these church members were new Christians. He who knows what Christ has done, knows what Christ is. Only he who knows what Christ is, is truly ready for Christ’s power on his or her own soul.

Paul saw what God had done in Stephen. It was this kind of demonstration that held Paul, the man, and not what the man held. This demonstration continues today in numerous church plantings around our globe.

An analyst described the rolling cameras stopping and the calm following the storm, as he evaluated Richard Burton’s illustrious career. One observation stood clear: Burton achieved the two things he most wanted in life’ to become an accomplished actor, and to become accomplished as a headline stealer. Sooner or later, commented the observer, Burton must give one precedence over the other; then, we shall come to know the real Richard Burton.

Paul worked in Corinth trusting fully in God, rather than the power of his own person and his personal achievements. In fact, Paul saw himself as a limiting factor; his preaching lacking wisdom and persuasiveness (I Cor. 2:4). Paul lived solely dependent upon the message of the crucified Christ and herein we discover the real Paul (I Cor. 2:2).

To reach our twenty-first century world, we must plant new churches. Herein, we will also discover our own true spiritual selves. God will honor us “in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,” when our faith rests squarely upon God’s power rather than our own wealth and wisdom.

This is walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com 

suggesting our current mission field is very Corinthian in spirit and it waits to be seen what WE CAN ACCOMPLISH WHEN WE, LIKE PAUL give ourselves so that Christ’s mission may go forth 

“in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.”

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