In review - Paul the Missionary

Eckhard J Schnabel, Paul the Missionary: Realities, Strategies and Methods, Downers Grove: IVP, 2008.

New Testament scholar Eckhard Schnabel's new book is a terrific addition to the literature on Paul's work as a missionary. In Paul the Missionary: Realities, Strategies and Methods, Schnabel revisits the terrain explored by Roland Allen in his 1912 Missionary Methods: Saint Paul's or Ours?, but seeks to take a closer look at both the New Testament texts and the "realities of the Greco-Roman world which impacted Paul's missionary work". Exhaustive, clear, and direct, Schnabel comes to some surprising but often convincing conclusions that again and again challenge commonly held views about missionary work.  

Surveying Paul's missionary journeys in Acts, as well as his understanding of missionary work in the epistles, and his message and goals, Schnabel argues that Paul didn't follow any well-defined plan. His fundamental concern was to reach as many people as possible, and especially Gentiles, through the oral proclamation of the gospel. So, Paul moved around from city to city to find places where there were people willing to listen to the message of Jesus Christ. He simply "moved to geographically adjacent areas that were open to missionary work". (Schnabel, 224)

Schnabel combines close biblical exegesis with a wide knowledge of the socio-historical background against which Paul preached, raising some significant critiques about the traditional view of Paul's methods. In a long chapter devoted to these methods, Schnabel questions whether Paul deliberately chose major cities as ministry bases. For instance, he points out that when Paul moved from Cyprus to Pisidian Antioch, he overlooked significant coastal cities in Pamphylia; and then, when Paul's outreach to the elites at Pisidia was not successful (Acts 13:50), Paul moved on — to the even smaller cities of Iconium, Lystra and Derbe.

Schnabel's desire not to push the evidence beyond what it can bear leads him to suggest that Paul's long periods of ministry in Corinth and Ephesus can be explained by recourse to circumstance as much as strategy. Schnabel points out several times that Luke does not give us insight into Paul's motives for his missionary movements — he may have had strategic reasons, but we do not really know. What we do know is that Paul was passionate about preaching the gospel and strengthening churches. He did focus on cities, but Schnabel asserts that it is too much to say he had a "metropolitan strategy". (281ff)

To the question "Was Paul a cross-cultural missionary?" Schnabel answers yes and no. Paul was cross-cultural in the religious sense, giving instruction in Judaism to pagan listeners, and expecting pagans to renounce idol worship, immorality, superstitions and magic practices. He had, in other words, a "cross-cultural agenda" that called his listeners — from all ethnicities and social classes — to turn to the God of Israel and to change their behaviour accordingly. But Schnabel helpfully examines the meaning of culture in the first century setting, and concludes that the notion of cross-cultural mission is a "modern construct" inappropriately applied to Paul. Schnabel notes the pluralistic nature of Hellenistic society where, despite some differences of religious practice, even Jews and Gentiles shared much of their cultural background. He asserts that Paul would have been a person who was "bicultural" both in a cognitive and functional sense, and would not have needed to "cross cultures" because he would have been equally at home in both. Cross-cultural mission, then, is an idea that has come from missionaries and missiologists who do not really understand "the cultural realities of the first century". (330)

Schnabel's warning is that much of our context is different to that of the New Testament, and that we ought not too quickly apply paradigms from Paul that do not really fit. It's a welcome reminder. Schnabel cautions us that looking to Paul for 'fail-proof' strategies for gospel proclamation is misguided: it is God who is the primary communicator, and it is by his power that people are convicted of the truth. This understanding of Paul's success as entirely God's work underpins Paul the Missionary. Schnabel shows that Paul didn't rely on strategies, but on God's power. He analyses a dozen social factors that are often asserted as important in the spread of the gospel through Paul, and finds them to be wanting. Schnabel emphasises how difficult it was for both Jews and Gentiles to accept the gospel of Christ, which was offensive in its exclusivity; not to mention that the early church suffered continual persecution.

Schabel holds that while Paul had little or no 'strategy', he did have missionary methods that we must apply, with, care, in today's context. One of the most interesting parts of Paul the Missionary is Schnabel's concluding chapter outlining the implications of his discussion for missionary work in the twenty-first century. Schnabel believes that the church has a task of local evangelism and supporting global missionary work — which means that there needs to be church planting. But he is sceptical of "seeker-driven churches", in which he sees too much reliance on marketplace techniques rather than the work of the Holy Spirit. Schnabel contrasts the success syndrome of much of the Western church with the Pauline use of the terms "servants" and "co-workers" to describe missionaries; he also points out that the biblical basis for good ministry is faithfulness, not numbers of attendees or members. Growing the church can never be reduced to "a simple, effective strategy and the necessary tools".

Another interesting discussion in this final chapter centres upon the targeting of homogenous units in missionary work. Schnabel thinks this practice is erroneous, because Paul emphasises the unity of local congregations comprising Jews, proselytes, God-fearers, Greeks and Romans. Taking Galatians 2, Schnabel argues that Peter and Barnabas were urged to continue to fellowship and worship in the same church as the Gentile converts. He claims that Paul did not establish separate congregations, and asserts that the unity of proclamation and church planting should mean we begin with mixed congregations.  At this point I feel Schnabel has over-extended the evidence.  While there is no evidence for separate congregations in the New Testament, there is also not the same degree of cultural distance we face today. Paul was not faced with persecution and ostracism because of cultural differences; nor was there a situation where the church was identified with particular cultural groups automatically excluding others.  The emphasis Schnabel gives to unity is something we need to hear, but in many places the situation is more complex than it was in the first century.

Schnabel goes on to say that "Authentic missionaries do not have a narrow vision that focuses on one particular group, and they are certainly not driven by a vision that is motivated by the promise and projection of success". While the latter part of this statement is undoubtedly true, we must question the former if it means missionaries today should individually try to work with all people in their area.  This approach almost always leads to working with those who are already Christian at the expense of outsiders.  The history of mission in the past 200 years has shown how important it is to focus on particular people groups.  This must not be done in a way that excludes others, but where there is opposition and cultural distance between the church and those outside then missionary work will occur at the fringes.

Schnabel's book is a great challenge for us all — missionaries, missiologists, Bible scholars, and all who desire to share the gospel. Schnabel makes us face up to the trap we have fallen into of reading our methods back into the New Testament. By placing the emphasis where Paul did — on finding ways to reach all sorts of people with the gospel, which is God's power for salvation — Schnabel helps us to refocus on our task. Not to find new strategies and methods, but to get alongside people and share with them.

A must read!