© Paul L. Hudson, Jr. 2003
This book was written with an Indonesian
audience in mind. The word 'pendeta'
means clergyman.
Chapter 1
Traditions: Good, Bad, Neutral, and Apostolic
In the
One day an American woman was
cooking a ham, and her daughter was helping her prepare the meal. The mother cut an end off the ham, put the
ham in the pan, put the end of the ham on top of the ham, and put it all in the
oven.
The daughter asked her mother,
“Why do you cut the end off the ham before you cooked it?”
Here mother thought about it. “I don’t know,” her mother replied, “My
mother always cut the end of the ham and I just cook it the way she taught
me. I’ll have to remember to ask Grandma
about that some time.”
One day, while visiting with
Grandma, she asked, “Why do you always cut the end off the ham when you cook
it? Does it cook faster?”
“No,” Grandma said, “Our pan was
too small, so I cut the ends off the ham to make it fit.”
The Influence of Tradition on
Church Styles
Many church traditions are just
like this illustration. So many things
we do in church we do because of what we
have seen and heard in our church experience, and not because of what we read
in scripture.
Go into a Charismatic church in
Go into a Protestan church
and look around. In some churches, you
will see a high pulpit on the left, nice wooden pews, a piano, and an
organ. Listen to the music in a Protestan
church. You will hear old hymns written
in musical styles that were popular in northern
[footnote] The Open Church by
James Rutz says that, during the Reformation John Calvin wore regular business
clothes when he preached in church meetings.
The fancy, religious ceremonial clothes now worn by some Protestan
clergymen are the clothes that regular businessmen would have worn in
Special clothing for church
leaders has actually been a point of controversy since the Reformation. Many feel that it is appropriate for
ministers to dress like regular people in accordance with the priesthood of all
believers. If John Calvin dressed in
regular business clothes for church, it is ironic that the regular clothes he
once were are now associated with being a member of a holy pendeta
class.
According to an Irian Jayan church
planter, some mountain tribesmen who live in very remote areas have an
interesting tradition in their churches.
Some of the men still wear a koteka, though some may have a pair
of shorts. In church meetings in some of
these villages, the men will attend wearing nothing but a koteka-- but
not the preacher. He will wear a tie- no
shirt, no pants- a tie and a koteka or a pair of shorts. Why does he wear a tie? Because he is a preacher? Wearing a tie during a meeting is a common
practice for some western preachers, but it isn’t something the Bible teaches
us that we must do.
Many of these practices, such as
wearing ties or singing European-style hymns are not wrong. It is just strange that we, as humans, have a
tendency to consider non-essential traditions to be sacred. Many of these traditions evolve over
time. Unfortunately, some of these
traditions can actually hinder the spread of the Gospel.
Sundar Singh was born a well-to-do
Indian Sikh. His mother hoped that he
would become a sadhu, a religious holy man who traveled from place to
place. After his mother died, as a
teenager, Sundar Singh led a band of boys who threw rocks and Christians. He hated Christianity. On the verge of suicide, he prayed to God to
reveal himself and had a revelation of Christ.
In his teen years, Sundar Singh became a radical Christian. While still young, he began to travel from
place to place as a Christian sadhu, evangelizing Indians. He spent his life evangelizing in
Sundar Singh wore Indian clothes,
ate like an Indian, talked like an Indian, and acted like an Indian. This method of evangelism was quite
revolutionary. Some call Sundar Singh
the apostle to
What do English-style clothing,
English cooking utensils have to do with Christianity? The earliest believers had none of these
things. The
Let us consider Paul’s philosophy
of ministry in regard to evangelizing people of different cultures:
1
Corinthians 9:19-22
19 For though I be free from all men, yet have I
made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.
20 And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I
might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I
might gain them that are under the law;
21 To them that are without law, as without law,
(being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain
them that are without law.
22 To the weak became I as weak, that I might
gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save
some.
If a preacher every had a good
reason to impose his culture on others, wasn’t it Paul? Paul was Jewish. He was from a nation that God revealed
Himself to and through. God gave
There were some things from Jewish
culture which were important and carried over into the practices of the Gentile
churches. Jews would greet one another
with a kiss, and the Gentile Christians were to practice the holy kiss. The Lord’s Supper, practiced by all the churches,
had roots in the Passover feast.
Let us consider the issue of church
music. Gentile churches developed hymns.
Think of the old hymn Oh Come Let Us Adore. [semba dan puji dia] This Latin hymn is believed to date back to
the 300’s. No doubt these hymns sounded
quite different from the hymns sung by the Jews in the temple. The earliest
If the early Christians were not
completely adapt Jewish culture—clothing, musical styles, and various other
customs, should a modern Gentile Christian group expect new believers from
other cultures to accept their culture?
Let us suppose that a missionary
reaches a very remote village in
Sometimes the foreign culture
missionaries introduce into new native churches can make the Gospel seem
unnecessarily foreign to unbelievers in that area. Missionaries need to be careful not to
compromise to pagan customs, preserve essential Christian traditions, but also
keep from evangelizing people with their own culture, rather than the Gospel of
Jesus Christ.
The early churches we see in the
Bible met in homes. Yet some people seem
to think that pews, pulpits, and church buildings are essentials to plant a new
church. The apostles did not wear
neckties, white collars, or purple robes, yet some think that preachers must
wear special clothes. The apostles had
no organs or electric guitars. Yet some
feel uncomfortable without one of these instruments in their meetings. Let us truly consider what is Biblical
Christianity, and what are aspects of our own culture associated with religion.
European hymns and American
worship choruses are beautiful. Western
styles of music are now a part of mainstream Indonesian culture except in the
remotest areas. There is nothing wrong
with a little bit of cross-cultural experience in church. Americans sometimes like to sound Russian
sounding hymns. But we err when we begin
to think that Christianity has to be wrapped in western garb in order to be
legitimate. To this day, there are
people who think that a church is not singing properly if it sings worship
choruses rather than the old hymns. Is
this because the Bible teaches us to sing old European hymns? No.
Those who believe this way usually believe it because they sung hymns in
their own church experience. It is what
is familiar to them, and what ‘feels right.’
A lot of what we do in church we
do because we are imitating what we have seen and heard, not because of what
the scriptures teach. These are
traditions that we hold to. Some of
these traditions can be good, some can be bad, and others are neutral.
George Patterson is an American
missionary who planted churches in
One principle that George
Patterson stresses is that new churches that are planted have to be
reproducible. For example, if a
missionary goes into the jungle and uses an overhead projector to teach
discipleship lessons to new believers using colorful overheads, this is not a
reproducible pattern. Some of those
young believers may eventually turn into teachers. The way these believers know how to teach
discipleship methods is with color slides.
If they have had no experience even hearing a lesson presented another
way, the model they have learned is not reproducible.
Later, when the missionary has
gone on to another work, and this jungle church wants to plant a church among
their fellow tribesmen
Imagine a missionary from
These Dayak believers now
associate pews and raised pulpits with church.
Obviously, they are important, they reason, or else the missionary would
not have bought them. Later, when the
missionary has gone on to another field, this Dayak church decides to reach out
to other Dayak in other villages. Each
time a new church is planted in a village, special care is made to either
construct nice polished pews and raised pulpits, or else to raise money to buy
them from another island. The process
for completing the pulpit and pews may take nearly a year.
Slowly, one year at a time, one
village is reached and one church building complete with pews and pulpit is
assembled.
Just imagine the difference if a
missionary from
One missions magazine reported on
the missions efforts in
Following Apostolic Traditions
To many evangelicals, ‘tradition’ is almost a bad word. Many think of tradition as the enemy of scripture. But the Bible tells us about certain kinds of tradition that are actually good. Read the verse that follows carefully.
2 Thessalonians 2:15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the
traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.
Not only are we to follow the doctrinal
teachings of the New Testament, but we are also to follow the traditions of the
apostles. By studying the New Testament,
we can learn the way the apostles did things, and imitate them.
Paul realized that people imitate
what they see. Just think about a little
child. A little boy learns to talk like
his father. He may walk like his father
walks, use his father’s gestures, and repeat the phrases his father says. If his father says dirty words, you can
expect that the child will imitate him.
Paul, as an apostle, had to live a
clean life—a life worthy of imitation.
He also had to demonstrate the proper traditions to the churches to
imitate. Paul wrote, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of
Christ. Now I praise you, brethren, that
ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to
you. ( 1 Corinthians 11:1-2.)
Paul wanted believers to imitate
him, and also to imitate the traditions concerning church meetings he passed
down to them. Look at the arguments Paul
made to persuade the Corinthians to follow his instructions for church meetings
given in I Corinthians 14.
1 Corinthians 14:36-37
36
What? came the word of God out from you? or came it unto you only?
37
If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him
acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the
Lord.
Look at verse 36. Paul tries to persuade the Corinthians to
obey his instructions based on the fact that the word of God did not originate
with them and they were not the only people to have received it. The word of God had come out from
In verse 37, Paul offers an even
stronger argument for following his instructions. They were commandments of the Lord.
What kind of practices do we see
the apostles and the early church carrying out when we look in the
scriptures? The
Acts 2:46 “And they, continuing daily with one accord
in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with
gladness and singleness of heart,”
After the Gospel was preached
among the Gentiles, who lived far from the
This principle of apostolic
tradition is one reason many people in house churches choose to carefully study
the patterns of scripture, and implement them.
We all realize that there were some things practiced by the apostles
that were only for a certain time or only for people of a certain area. One example would be participating in temple
rituals. Paul was arrested while
preparing to participate in a temple
ritual. Yet we know from the teaching of
scripture that this is not required for Gentile Christians.
In some areas, Christians will
disagree on what is a required apostolic pattern. One passage in scripture shows believers
meeting on the first day of the week.
(Acts 20:7.) Another verse
instructions Christians to save their money for a particular offering on the
first day of the week. (I Corinthians
16:2.) Some Christians adamantly argue,
based on this, that Christians must meet and eat Holy Communion on the first
day of the week, even though Acts 2:46 shows the Jerusalem church meeting and
breaking bread daily.
We as believers must be tolerant
of one another, and be sensitive to other believer’s consciences. It is possible for some to go to far with
reading apostolic traditions into scripture.
On the other hand, much of the church pays little attention to many
Biblical patterns and traditions.
In regard to church planting, there
are many Biblical patterns that can be applied to modern evangelistic
efforts. From the first century to the
fourth century, Christians, though persecuted at times, grew rapidly until the
pagan
© Paul L. Hudson, Jr. 2001
How Paul Planted Churches
We use the Bible as a source for
doctrine and subject matter for preaching and teaching. But so many times, we overlook the fact that
the Bible contains examples of church practices for us to imitate.
Many of the modern strategies for
church planting are different from the strategies we see in the book of
Acts. Let’s consider a modern church
planting strategy for reaching unreached areas:
Send Indonesian young people who want to be preachers to Bible
school. When they graduate, send them
one by one or two by two to a village that does not have a church. During this time a church or yayasan
contributes money to support the church planters. After a church planter has started a new
church and the number of people has grown, the church then goes about raising
funds to rent, buy, or build a new church building. The church planter stays at the church he has
planted, serving as pastor. If he
chooses to leave and plant more churches, or to return to the city and minister
there, another Bible college graduate may be selected to take his place as
pastor.
No doubt many new churches have
been planted by this strategy. But how
does this strategy compare with what we see in the scriptures? The strategies for planting churches found in
the book of Acts are actually more efficient than this. Let us study the method of church planting
used by Paul and Barnabas on what is known as their First Missionary Journey,
recorded in the book of Acts.
Who were Paul and Barnabas?
Before Saul of Tarsus (also known
as Paul) was a believer, as a young man, he was a persecutor of Christians. He had been trained in Jewish religious law by
the famous Jewish scholar Gamaliel in
Saul was very zealous in his
religion, and sought to persecute the church. He held the garments for those
who stoned Stephen, consented to the death of other Christians who were
prosecuted for their faith. Saul went
around dragging Christians out of houses, to put them in prison. He got letters from the chief priests
authorizing the arrest of Christians in
Barnabas was a Levite from
When scattered believers went to
Paul and Barnabas’ God-Approved
Church Planting Methodology
Saul and
Barnabas were sent out by the Spirit from
Acts
13:1-4
1 Now there were in the church that was at
Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called
Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod
the tetrarch, and Saul.
3 And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid
their hands on them, they sent them away.
4 So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost,
departed unto
Something
important to notice in this passage is that the Holy Spirit sent the apostles
off on their journey to complete the work that He, the Spirit, had called them
to do. The brethren only separated them
to ministry by the laying on of hands.
After this, the book of Acts refers to both men as ‘apostles’ (Acts
14:4, 14.)
Did Paul and Barnabas complete the
work the Spirit gave them? Let us look
at the following verse about Paul and Barnabas at the completion of their
journey.
Acts
14:26 And thence sailed to
Here we see
that Paul and Barnabas had fulfilled the work they were sent to complete. Who had designed for them the work to
do? The Spirit.
Christians may
debate whether people in the stories in the Bible did what was right or
not. Some may say that David was wrong
to fight with the Philistines. Some
Christians think it was right for Paul to go to
In these
chapters, we see a God-ordained strategy for missions. Let us carefully examine these chapters to
learn how these apostles planted churches.
An Overview
of the First Missionary Journey
Saul and
Barnabas set off with John Mark, Barnabas’ nephew, They traveled to
From Paphos,
Paul and Barnabas sailed back to the mainland, to
We know from
Acts 13 and 14 that many churches were started through Paul and Barnabas’
ministry on the mainland in
After this,
Paul and Barnabas traveled to Perga, preached the word there, went to Attalia,
and from there sailed back to
This journey is
known as ‘The First Missionary Journey’ because it is the first of three
journeys Paul took that are recorded in the book of Acts. It is estimated that this journey may have
taken less than two years.[1]
Paul and
Barnabas’ strategy on the journey was to preach to the Jews, proselytes, and
believing Gentiles in the synagogues in the cities they visited. Usually, some people from the synagogue would
believe the Gospel. They would preach
the Gospel to the Jews first, before turning to the Gentiles, and therefore
preached in the synagogues first. (Acts
13:46-49.) Sometimes Jews who did not
believe their message would stir up opposition to them, and Paul and Barnabas
would flee in the midst of persecution and find another place to preach.
Principles
from the First Missionary Journey
Since the
missionary strategy that Paul and Barnabas followed in Acts 13 through 14 is
endorsed by God, we would benefit from studying it in depth. Let us consider some key principles from the
first missionary journey.
1.
Paul
and Barnabas were sent out by the Holy Spirit.
2.
The
apostles sent out planted many churches in a relatively short period of time.
3.
Paul
and Barnabas left churches behind, entrusting them to the Holy Spirit, instead
of remaining at a few churches pastoring them for decades.
4.
The
apostles visited churches started through their ministry to strengthen them and
to check up on them.
5.
The
churches planted by apostles were already ‘churches’ before elders were
appointed in them.
1.
The
apostles appointed elders from within the churches started through their
ministries.
2.
.The
apostles were commended to the grace of God by the
Sent Out by
the Holy Spirit
As believers in
Christ interested in evangelizing
Paul and
Barnabas were chosen specifically by the Holy Spirit for the mission they
chose. The brethren in
How did the
Spirit speak to the church, to reveal His will regarding whom to send? We are not completely sure from the
text. Prophets were present. It is conceivable that the Spirit spoke
through prophets. Compare this to
Timothy’s experience in recorded I Timothy 4:14.
Saul and
Barnabas were already faithfully serving the brethren in
Something to
notice about Saul and Barnabas is that the Spirit had called them to go
out. They weren’t sent on a mission
because they had completed Bible college and were looking for a job. They didn’t go out just because the church
members thought it might be a good idea.
The Lord directed the church.
What would
happen if the Spirit spoke to your church about people among you who were
called to go out, preach, and plant churches?
How would your church respond?
Would you support them with prayer and fasting.
Yayasan, Bible colleges and denominations
sometimes send out preachers. But how
often does a local church send out preachers to preach the Gospel? It does happen in
We need to pray
for the Lord to send forth laborers into his harvest, as Jesus taught (Matthew
9:38.) We need to pray in faith,
expecting God to prepare people from our churches to go preach the Gospel in
the unreached areas,
Planting
Many Churches in a Short Period of Time
Imagine the
criticism that Paul and Barnabas might receive from modern church leaders.
“Paul and
Barnabas, how could you leave those churches alone. You should have stayed there and pastored at
the first church you started. How could
you leave those churches so quickly?”
Paul and Barnabas’ method of leaving behind young churches and going off to start new ones resulted in many churches. We don’t know exactly how many cities Paul and Barnabas planted churches in on their journey together, but we do know that they preached in at least 7 cities.