“So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.” – Acts 11:25-26
Here we catch a glimpse of a pivotal moment in the history of our faith. Most of the time we Christians want to keep doing church the way we like to do church. It’s familiar and comfortable for us. It helps us worship more easily. We don’t tend to like change and strongly prefer to keep doing what we’ve always done. Not so with the church in Antioch! They had the courage to change church and in the process, they changed the world!
This was the first church to actively reach out to non-Jews with the good news of Jesus Christ. When those non-Jews started believing in large numbers, the church had to adapt. The church was growing rapidly and the culture of the church was changing radically. Those new believers weren’t like the old believers. No doubt there was tension between the groups. There were challenges about how to disciple people coming into the church from a pagan background.
However, this church didn’t ignore those challenges or waste the opportunity God provided. Barnabas went and found Saul (aka Paul). Saul was a brilliant scholar, a formally trained Jewish teacher, and a man who knew how to navigate the Gentile world and speak effectively to those from a Greco-Roman background. In this bold decision to bring in a unique (and relatively inexperienced) new leader, the church positioned itself to become the church we know today. From the Antioch church would come the great missionary journeys that would spread the faith across the Mediterranean world. It was in Antioch where The Way came to be known as Christianity.
Give thanks for these Christians who didn’t hold so tightly to how they’d always done church that they missed out on reaching the world for Christ! Be inspired by their flexibility and courage. Examine yourself and see where God might be calling you to set down some preferences and traditions for the sake of reaching those who are far from God today. #FollowJesus