As we’ve been studying Paul’s mission strategy in our biographical study of his life there is one final piece I would like to focus on. In his ministry he poured a lot of time into those he chose to be teammates. He wanted them to be ready for whatever God directed them to do. This enabled him to develop his strategy and have the help he needed to carry it out. 

 

But, so that you don’t get the idea it was all about him and his team fulfilling his strategy, it’s interesting to see how strongly he believed in the church universal and the local churches that made up that network. 

 

He wrote letters to churches he did not plant. He collected money to help meet the needs of churches and their people in areas he was only peripherally associated with, namely Jerusalem. He saw the importance of including churches in his plans that could help him in his mission to reach those who had never heard. We will see this specifically as we study the book of Romans. 

 

He writes to them in Romans 15:25-29, “I am on my way to Jerusalem in the service of the saints there. For (churches in) Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews’ spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings. So after I have completed this task and have made sure that they have received this fruit, I will go to Spain and visit you on the way.”

 

Paul affirmed and encouraged a beautiful network of interdependence between churches large and small who comprised the church universal.