by Robert Brow
REPORTER: I've come from the Antioch Faith Times. We'd like to produce a feature on your missionary society.
DIRECTOR: Sit down. I had no idea we were getting in the news. What are you interested in? I've got an hour before I meet the converts in Tyrannus's hall.
REPORTER: I've come from the Antioch Faith Times. We'd like to produce a feature on your missionary society.
DIRECTOR: Sit down. I had no idea we were getting in the news. What are you interested in? I've got an hour before I meet the converts in Tyrannus's hall.
REPORTER: You seem to have an outstanding group of missionaries. We need some details about your methods of selection.
DIRECTOR: Well, take Timothy. He was converted in the first Galatian campaign, and on my next visit I asked him to join me. He had the advantage of being half Greek and half Jewish.
REPORTER: Yes, yes, but what evidence of a call would you look for in your candidates? The question of recognizing a call to the mission field is agitating many young people these days.
DIRECTOR: I can't say I ever thought much about that. Our first assistant was John Mark. His mother had a prayer meeting in her home in Jerusalem, and we took him on as a kind of private secretary. He was a help in booking ship passages, arranging lodgings and food, and doing most of our correspondence.
REPORTER: But that's not missionary work. We're interested in real missionaries: street preaching, pioneer work, and that kind of thing.
DIRECTOR: I suppose Mark didn't do much preaching at first; he changed his mind and went back home when he saw what we were really after, but I hear he's making the grade now. Peter seems to use him as his interpreter. I'd be glad to have him back tomorrow. He could save me hours of time as I try to keep in contact with these new churches sprouting all over Asia and Greece.
REPORTER: Now what about the call of these others? In which missionary conventions, for example, did they hear the call of God?
DIRECTOR: All right, let's take Silas. He was active in the Jerusalem church, and was a gifted preacher. He came to Antioch after the Jerusalem conference. When Barnabas and I split up, Silas teamed up with me, and the Antioch church sent us out on the second journey. He was great as a preacher, but I badly missed someone like Mark, so I asked Timothy to join us as we passed through Galatia.
REPORTER: What about the call to a particular country or station? Isn't that an important factor?
DIRECTOR: That would be very awkward in our work. We have the whole Mediterranean to evangelize. We establish churches, move on, and then visit them again when we can. None of us are called permanently to a particular location. Luke felt he ought to stay permanently with the Philippian church, but I persuaded him he was needed elsewhere.
REPORTER: Do I take it, then, you don't believe in a call to missionary work?
DIRECTOR: Oh no, that would contradict my own experience. Jesus Christ called me to make the good news known to the nations at the time of my conversion. The point is that I didn't begin my present work till Barnabas invited me to help as a Bible teacher during the Antioch revival. That was fourteen years after my conversion. Then I began my mobile ministrv when a group of us organized the Gentile mission and Barnabas and I became their first missionaries.
REPORTER: What about these young fellows who go around with you? Do they have that kind of call?
DIRECTOR: When I find someone with firsthand experience of Jesus Christ who could make a contribution to our team I invite him to join us. Sometimes be may have the call of God as a result of my invitation, or he may have had an inward call long before and was waiting for the doors of service to open. I don't think you can make cast-iron rules about this.
REPORTER: Now I'd like something about your mission stations. How many do you have?
DIRECTOR: I suppose every major city in the Mediterranean area and beyond is a potential station, but most of my team members are with me right here in Ephesus just now.
REPORTER: So you've got a lot of unoccupied stations? Let me feature that as a special challenge:"Twenty-five stations unoccupied! Who will go?" That's the kind of thing our readers expect – they're all interested in missions you know.
DIRECTOR: Now wait a minute. The cities are unoccupied in the sense that we're not there just now, but there are churches in the capital cities of every province, and in most of the commercial centers as well. We could do with a lot more of the right kind of workers, but you can't talk about vacant mission stations.
REPORTER: What happens to the buildings and plant when you move out? Do you hand them over to the local church or leave the station unoccupied?
DIRECTOR: Oh, I see what you mean. We haven't needed to buy buildings so far. We stay with friends, or rent a house, so that we can move on as soon as the work is established. Of course the churches sometimes buy a place for a regular assembly and preaching hall, though this is a bit precarious in the present world situation. Often one of the converts has a big enough house to begin with.
REPORTER: Hmmm. That's disappointing. It's rather difficult to get people excited about your kind of set up. What about projects? Could we present some particular need-chariots, post horses, floating evangelistic center . . .?
DIRECTOR: Actually, all my possessions and equipment are in this room, except for some books back in Antioch and my cloak in Troas. I did think of a small ship to get me around the Mediterranean, but I discovered it was simpler to pay the shipping companies to take care of the crews, docking charges, insurance, and the like. Three of the ships I've traveled on went down under me, so you can imagine my relief at not owning them.
REPORTER: So you mean there's no particular project we can publicize for you?
DIRECTOR: I sometimes wish I had a decent study and proper library and copying facilities, but I suppose that would soon get me bogged down in one place, and there are still many cities to the west without churches.
REPORTER: Let's leave that then. Everybody is talking about mission/church relationships. Do you control your churches, or are your missionaries fraternal workers under the church?
DIRECTOR: I have a very simple system. As soon as there are a dozen men to form a Christ-believing synagogue, I ask them to choose elders. Then we lay hands on them, and put them in control of their own affairs. They can even refuse to let me visit them, and they're free to transfer their allegiance to other teachers.
REPORTER: But what happens if they go off the rails and don't stick to your principles?
DIRECTOR: I did have a sad experience with the Galatians, and I thought we'd lost them for good. just now the Corinthians are a headache – fanaticism and party spirit gone wild, but the Holy Spirit can do what seems impossible.
REPORTER: So your churches are really indigenous. Good our people believe in that. Now how do you integrate church and mission? Are your missionaries, I mean fraternal workers, located and controlled by the churches?
DIRECTOR: No, that would make things difficult. If, for example, I had subjected my team to the control of the Galatian churches, we'd still be stuck there solving their problems. They wanted me as their permanent Bible teacher and Barnabas to keep their accounts and look after the collections. We don't control the churches and they don't control its.
REPORTER: Then who does control you?
DIRECTOR: Well, ultimately, our commander in chief is the Lord Messiah, and He has left the Holy Spirit to indwell and direct us individually as a team. Sometimes we decide to enter a new area, but He stops us. When we've been long enough in one place, He seems to make us restless to move.
REPORTER: What I meant was, what board are you responsible to?
DIRECTOR: I'm answerable in matters of policy, of course, to my own board in Antioch, but they only see me when I come on furlough. They don't bother too much with details so long as things seem to be moving. They could always stop sending funds for our team if we went too far off beat.
REPORTER: How do you feel about the proposed international unified society?
DIRECTOR: Several years ago we were really brokenhearted when our original Antioch society split, and Barnabas went off and formed his own team, but now I feel it was much better that way. When he started operations separately we were able to cover twice the area. Thomas's team is doing great work in the far east, and has, I believe, planted churches in India. I hope that John's group is going to follow me here in Asia to consolidate, as he has some emphases I cannot give.
REPORTER: Surely these teams going about all over the place tread on each other's toes?
DIRECTOR: Sometimes they do. I wasn't too pleased when some people formed a party in Peter's name after he visited Corinth, but the existing system of fifteen or twenty seems to be doing a pretty good job. The Holy Spirit makes sure we fan out and keep moving where we are most needed at the time. Our paths cross and recross, but there's very little confusion as long as we remember that it's His church, not ours.
REPORTER: But wouldn't a unified society with a first-class headquarters make for more efficiency?
DIRECTOR: No. I think it's much easier for the Holy Spirit to move and control fifteen or twenty mobile teams than to move one great organization. Even in business there's a limit on bigness. I believe in dynamic, on-the-spot leadership.
REPORTER: We've just got time for a few questions on finance. Do you operate on a central fund or pledged-support system?
DIRECTOR: The people in Antioch pledge to stand by us in prayer, and they send regular support when they're not disorganized by persecution. I often get gifts for our team from the churches we've founded. Strangely enough, the less I take for them, the less they love me. When funds get short I go back to tentmaking, which relaxes my nerves and keeps me close to the people.
REPORTER: What about the support of your team members?
DIRECTOR: We all share together, and decide how to work according to the income that comes in. Dr. Luke can of course pay his way. The others too all have their own trades; I learned the value of that in my rabbinical training. We can earn our support when necessary, though we've had to go hungry in some places where local trade unions wouldn't let us work.
REPORTER: Why don't you support yourselves all the time? Your team costs Antioch a lot of money.
DIRECTOR: When funds come in regularly we like to give all our time to preaching, teaching, house-to-house visiting and conferences of church leaders. There'd be slower progress if we all had to keep at our trades all day. They don't have a fiveday week around here, and most tentmakers have to put in sixty hours a week to make a living.
REPORTER: Thank you very much. It's not quite the kind of news story I was expecting, but perhaps I can fill in with the story of those magic books that were burned the other day.
Why don't you come along with me -to Tyrannus's hall. There I'll be dealing with some basic questions you might be interested in.
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