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Christianity at Thessalonica
1 THESSALONIANS 1:1 AND ACTS 17:1–10
CHURCH PLANTING was a crucial aspect of Paul’s ministry, but in recent years, especially in Western culture, the emphasis on planting churches has diminished. Instead of reduplicating, Western churches developed the attitude that if we build it, people will come. Thankfully, it looks as if that tide is shifting, and church planting has received more attention. The movement toward church planting goes by several names, but it is usually described as being missional, a term that means we are to be moving outward toward those around us. It is a movement that seeks to make the faith public and to duplicate the faith among people who are our neighbors.
This missional, church-planting direction has gained popularity, and although we should be encouraged by this, we should not jump into a ministry without understanding some of the aspects of what we are doing. Church planting takes work. It is important to know something of the location regarding a church plant. Will the church be planted in a major city like New York or Chicago? Or will the church be planted in a rural area like the mountains of Colorado or the plains of Kansas? A church plant in New York City is not going to be the same as a church plant in Memphis, and both of those will be different from the church that is planted in the midst of farms in the heart of the United States.
Church planters must know something of the city in which they are going to plant a church, but this is not new. As Paul went into new cities, he understood the area and the issues surrounding those cities. Each one of his letters was slightly different, not just because of the issues the churches faced but also because of their locations. The Christians in Rome faced a different world than the Christians in Thessalonica. So we must pause and consider some of the features of the city of Thessalonica.1
Background
Paul was on his second missionary journey. He had received a vision from Jesus that a man of Macedonia was urging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us” (Acts 16:9). So Paul took up the call of Jesus to push the gospel into areas we consider today as Europe. In order to preach the gospel to this area, Paul was traveling along theVia Egnatia, a Roman road that connected Greece to Byzantium (modern-day Istanbul), connecting what we know as Europe and Asia. Before this road was built, the journey would have taken three to four months by ship or five to six weeks by land. But once theVia Egnatia was finished, the journey took less than three weeks.2
As Paul traveled along this road, he came upon several key cities, and he brought the gospel to those areas. First he came to Philippi (Acts 16). While he was there, he faced a great deal of suffering and persecution, which resulted in Paul and Silas being thrown into prison. God miraculously got them out of prison through an earthquake, and in the process the Philippian jailer and his family became Christians. The church was established in Philippi, and Paul and Silas left to continue their work of the gospel.
Once Paul and Silas departed from Philippi, Luke
