Exploring the Book of Acts: Leadership as ServanthoodSample

Prioritising Missions

The church in Antioch was started by Jewish believers from Cyprus and Cyrene and pastored by Barnabas and Saul who both grew up outside of Judea (Acts 11:19-26). It was a multi-ethnic church in a large cosmopolitan city. From early on it cared about the Jewish brothers and sisters in Jerusalem, sending them money in anticipation of a famine (Acts 11:27-30). As they led the church, Barnabas and Saul included others on the leadership team and followed the model of the apostles’ commitment to corporate prayer. In time, the church in Antioch became the first mission sending church.

Read Acts 13:1-5 and then consider:

1. The men on the leadership team in Antioch represented tremendous geographic diversity: Barnabas from Cyprus, Simeon from North Africa, Lucius from Cyrene, Manaen from Judea, and Saul from Tarsus. Why was this diversity significant?
2. The team was devoting themselves to worship, fasting, and prayer when they received instructions from the Spirit about sending missionaries. How did their corporate spiritual life prepare them for becoming a sending church?
3. Sending the most experienced leaders for pioneer missions and church planting is not common among churches and Christian organisations today. What made it possible for the church in Antioch?
4. John Mark, whose mother hosted a prayer meeting in Jerusalem (Acts 12:12), was young but had credentials as an eyewitness to Jesus’ death and resurrection. Why did Barnabas and Saul include him in their missions team rather than leave him in Antioch to help the growing church there?