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Churchgoers often think of Paul as an evangelist who addressed public meetings. Although he did this (in synagogues and in a sense at Athens), there was much more to his evangelism than that. When he first arrived in a city, he familiarized himself with the local culture and seems to have become an acute commentator upon it. The obvious example was Athens, where Paul described how he ‘walked around and looked carefully at [their] objects of worship’ (Acts 17.23). Living in people’s homes and working as in Corinth would have given him plenty of opportunities to listen to people and get to know their ways of life.

Paul seems to have spent considerable time sharing the gospel ‘from house to house’ (Acts 20.20). To do this he had to be invited, which meant building relationships; he hung out with people. This included developing relationships with ‘persons of peace’ – people who play a key role in mission by putting the carrier of the gospel in touch with their networks (Luke 10.6). Paul’s breakthrough at Philippi begun by meeting with a group of women who had assembled for prayer, in particular Lydia ‘who was a worshipper of God’ and allowed Paul to use her home as a base (Acts 16.13–5). At Corinth Aquila and Priscilla, Jews who were leather-workers like Paul, provided a bridgehead (Acts 18.1–4). In Ephesus he searched out some ‘disciples’ and baptized them (Acts 19.1–7).

At Corinth Paul broke his rule of not baptizing people and baptized Crispus, Gaius and the household of Stephanas. This may have been because Paul knew they were prominent people ‘who would sponsor his gospel to their dependents . . .’ (Osiek and MacDonald with Tulloch, 2006, p. 212). If true, they were classic examples of persons of peace.

The relationships he formed appear to have been strengthened through acts of loving service. ‘We loved you so much . . .’ Paul reminds the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 2.8). Paul’s leather-working trade required tools that could easily be carried with him. This made him ‘available for any little job that came along. He could repair the leather sandals, belts, gourds and cloaks of those who walked the roads with him’ (Murphy-O’Connor, 2002, p. 194). It is easy to imagine Paul repairing leather goods around the house in return for hospitality (Osiek and MacDonald with Tulloch, 2006, p. 11). Did this help to make him a welcome dinner guest?

Paul recounted how he and his colleagues ‘worked night and day’ so as not to be a burden on anyone. He described their work as ‘toil and hardship’ – an experience that would be familiar to many church founders (1 Thess. 2.9; 2 Thess. 3.8). Unlike contemporary orators, Paul did not use rhetorical and other devices to win a fee-paying following (Walton, 2011, pp. 220–33), but laboured sacrificially to demonstrate a life of service and model the gospel (Acts 20.35). He was willing to share what he earned (Philemon 18).

Paul’s miraculous healings and exorcisms expressed love and service more dramatically (for example Acts 14.3, 8). Did he heal the sick through the Spirit as he visited people in their homes? This is suggested by the episode on Malta, where as part of his interaction with the household Paul healed the chief official’s father. After this, many others were brought to Paul for healing (Acts 28.7–9; cf 19.11–2).

Forming community seems to have been another part of Paul’s evangelism. Often it must have started in the homes of people he stayed with. While he lived and worked with Aquila and Priscilla, for instance, one can picture a nucleus of enquirers forming. As individuals returned week by week perhaps, a sense of community would have developed till eventually the ‘workshop became a house church’ of between 10 and 15 members (Murphy-O’Connor, 2002, p. 195).

Presumably a similar process occurred in the homes Paul visited. It was customary for the wealthy to invite to dinner not only friends of equal standing, but also their dependent clients who had lower social status (Bradshaw, 2009, p. 21) As Paul shared the gospel in such gatherings, it is likely that people who were interested returned on subsequent evenings and over time a sense of community formed. Paul reminds the Thessalonians that he and his fellow workers shared their lives with them (1 Thess. 2.8). In settings where believers and not-yet believers met together (1 Cor. 14.23–5), this sharing of lives must have been part of the process of coming to faith.

Certainly, personal testimony was an ingredient in Paul’s evangelism (Acts 22.1–21), and in his letters he repeatedly wrote about the misguided direction of his earlier life and his journey into holiness. As he shared from personal experience, it would have been natural for some of his hearers to share their experiences, laying foundations for the participative worship that developed (1 Cor. 14.26) and for the strong fellowship that existed among the new Christians.

People often needed time to explore Paul’s claims. At Pisidian Antioch, those who heard Paul and Barnabas address the synagogue invited them to speak further the next Sabbath (Acts 13.42). Later the Beroeans received the message enthusiastically, but also examined the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul said was true (Acts 17.11). Because people checked out what Paul was claiming, the conversion of entire households at once – in the case of Lydia for instance (Acts 16.15) – was by no means the norm. Several New Testament texts, such as 1 Cor. 7.12–16 and 1 Peter 3.1, suggest that conversion could be more individualized (Osiek and MacDonald with Tulloch, 2006, p. 158). Like today, journeys to faith varied.

Once individuals had made the journey, church took shape in people’s homes, which were centres of family, work,13 everyday leisure (in so far as people had any), and family and friendship networks. ‘The Christian churches were probably the only communion in antiquity that had no special place of worship but rather came together in the places of daily life, the private homes’ (Becker, 1993, p. 251). Some converts went on to start further congregations, as in the case of Priscilla and Aquila, who were patrons of house churches in three different cities (Osiek and MacDonald with Tulloch, 2006, p. 32).

It would be a mistake to see listening, loving and serving, building community, exploring, church taking shape and then starting another church as a neat linear sequence. Sometimes it may have been, but often the processes must have overlapped, occurred in a different order or in some cases not happened at all. Not everyone, for example, took time in weighing up matters before becoming a believer (for example Acts 13.12). As now, people came to faith in different ways.

For reflection

Paul’s apparent practices of listening (including to ‘persons of peace’), loving and serving, building community, helping people to explore the possibility of faith and forming new gatherings in the heart of life are all echoed in Chapter 11, which discusses the birthing of contextual church among people with little or no Christian background. Did Paul stumble upon a series of practices that make sense whenever churches are founded in pioneer contexts?