Acts 17:1-9

Much of our life is about doing. One of the first questions we ask people when we meet them is, “What do you do?” Proverbs is full of wisdom about work and relationships, but this article is not about work; it is an article about Paul and his missionary work. Paul knew what his work was; God had called him to it. His mission was to share the gospel with the Gentiles of the Greek-speaking world.

Paul knew something that all people on a mission have to learn; you cannot do everything, everywhere. To be effective in any ministry, you have to make choices. You have to choose where, when, and how to work.

Paul chose to go to Thessalonica. He walked over 90 miles to get there. He passed through two other major cities on his way there without stopping to preach. God guided him, but he also allowed logical rational thinking to guide his decision-making.

Thessalonica was a good choice. It was the capital city of Macedonia. It had a population of more than 200,000 and a large colony of Jews with a synagogue. Paul followed the same methods there that he had used elsewhere. He preached in the synagogue first. He knew that’s what worked, so he kept doing it. However, the value of Paul’s ministry was not in its method, but in its results.

Paul needed to be effective in his ministry; opposition limited the amount of time he had to invest in any one location. The opposition quickly forced him to leave Thessalonica, but not before he established a healthy and growing congregation. That would have been impossible if he had been haphazard or careless in his ministry.

Christian ministry is work. For full-time Christian ministers, it is full-time work, but we are all ministers. To be effective we must make hard choices, choices that are decisive, rational and deliberate. God guides us in our work, but he will not do our work for us. Ministry is what we do.