A Study of the Missiological Themes Revealed in Paul’s Epistles

The Apostle Paul was a great theologian and an excellent missionary. His theology is missional and his missions were theological. Paul focused on communicating the Gospel message cross-culturally while planting churches all over the Roman empire in order to extend the kingdom of God. He devoted his total life to this crucial work. The Gospel which Paul communicated to many people groups was that Jesus Christ had died on the cross and rose from the dead according to the prophecies of the Scriptures to redeem the humankind in the world. This redemption is not possible by human work or by keeping the Law, but through believing in Jesus Christ who is the only Saviour and Lord. The primary purpose of Paul's life since he had been called by the Lord was to become an apostle for the Gentiles who were yet to be Christians. He made three cross-cultural mission trips after he had been sent by the Church in Antioch. He made a final mission trip to the city of Rome after he had been arrested at Jerusalem, and preached the Gospel to the people in Rome. Paul's ministry was centered on cross-cultural evangelism and church planting work. He committed himself wholly to boldly proclaim the Gospel and plant healthy churches throughout the world by crossing racial, linguistic, and religious barriers. He employed multiple methods of evangelism at different areas and times. Paul stressed urban evangelism by choosing cities as strategic points to evangelize the people in remote surrounding areas. Further, he carried out his evangelistic work with good team workers like Timothy and Titus. He usually began his ministry at homes so that he could plant house churches which became large churches. Paul's missions were based on the solid practical theology which tried to contextualize the Gospel in different cultures so that the Gospel could be meaningfully communicated to the people whom he was called to serve. He was always guided by the Holy Spirit when he attempted to move to another area to share the Gospel. According to Paul, Church needs to be a missional church which maintains the balance between evangelism and social service. He was a model for a witness-martyr community. He was concerned with not only preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles, but also having a compassion ministry to the Church in Jerusalem. He preached the unchangeable message of the Gospel to people across changeable cultures.