Paul and His Fellow Workers—Chapter 1

By Bard M. Pillette [1]

The Oddities of Paul’s Leadership

The Anomalies of Life

My youngest daughter is named Tamin, a Hebrew word that means perfect and complete. We wanted to see her grow to be complete and perfect in Christ. She was born with a number of physical and mental anomalies, none terribly serious. The first thing I noticed was that when she cried, her lips pulled to one side. The nerve that controls the muscle around one side of her mouth was not functioning. I thought that the problem was on the side where her mouth drooped, but later I learned that the problem was just the opposite. The side that seemed normal and did not droop was actually not being pulled by the muscles to balance her smile and her crying.

Tamin’s many anomalies have forced me to rethink what is normal, attractive, and valuable, and to sharpen my judgment about what counts for all eternity. The anomalies of life have a way of making us question what we have always accepted as established human wisdom or convention. They tend to remind us that God prefers to go against the grain. As Paul put it in 1 Corinthians 1:28, “God has chosen, the things that are not (the anomalies), that He might nullify the things that are (human convention).”

Paul himself is an anomaly. He does not fit the pattern. He is a misfit. He throws things out of kilter. He does not follow convention. And as a result, he forces us to question even the accepted normal Christian wisdom about leadership.

Think about it. Is it not an enigma that the twelve apostles provided little leadership for the extension of Christ’s message into the world? Is it not even more odd that they were not the ones to elaborate on the implications of Christ’s message for the church? Yes, Peter and John did contribute to the New Testament letters concerning church life, but they do not compare to the volume and influence of Paul’s writings. Why would not the Twelve who lived and learned from Christ be the ones to leave the greatest mark on the early beginnings of Christianity?

There had to be some reason for Paul’s going against the norm. The anomalies are meant to intrigue us and to capture our attention. They bait us. They tempt us to think about the small subtleties that often make big differences. Let us consider some of the oddities in Paul’s development as a leader.

Paul’s Abnormal Entrance into Leadership

His Atypical Converson and Call as an Apostle

Paul knew that his entrance into the work of Christ was all backwards and said so in 1 Corinthians 15:8–9. [2] Untimely born. Abnormally born. Literally he was an abortion, or as some say, a stillborn, or miscarriage. [3] Some believe that figuratively it meant that he was a freak. [4] Others say that as a miscarriage, he was a failure, or as a premature child, he was in need of development. [5] It is best to understand Paul as saying that he was abnormally born into his role as an apostle alongside the Twelve who were normal and conventional.

There must be some point to all this. Perhaps there are two reasons for Paul’s rather atypical conversion and induction into leadership for the mission to the Gentiles.

No Self-Importance

The first reason is given in 1 Corinthians 15:9: “I am the least of the apostles, who am not fit to be called an apostle.” He would never be allowed to nurture feelings of importance. There was no red carpet treatment for Paul. He came in the back door. He was not a rising star being groomed for great things. If his departure from Damascus was any indication, he often had to go unceremoniously out the back door (Acts 9:25). He would never be an insider in the Jerusalem circle of Who’s Who. Jewish skepticism about his genuineness would hound him to the grave.

As if all that were not enough, he was given a mid-course reminder, a thorn in the flesh (2 Cor. 12:7), to extinguish any faint possibility of considering himself to be a distinguished, popular first-class spokesman for Christ. A sense of self-importance would never creep in.

The temptation to think that our success is the result of intrinsic ability is tremendous. For example, after leaving most new works in Mexico with a fairly strong group of elders in a relatively short period of time, I would sometimes toy with self-congratulation. I would say to myself, “It is because I am a man of strong conviction. I attract potential leaders because they sense I know where I am going. They feel my confidence and leadership abilities.” It is rather disturbing the pride that effortlessly seeps to the surface. God so worked in Paul that he could never entertain thoughts like mine.

God’s Sovereign Control of His Life

The second reason is found in 1 Corinthians 15:10: “By the grace of God I am what I am.” He would not merely carry a message of God’s grace, but rather, because of the way he was converted to Christ, he himself would be the message of grace. [6] Ultimately, Paul believed because he was chosen to believe. Psychological studies on Paul’s conversion argue that he was already on his way toward believing when Christ confronted him on the Damascus road. [7] They try to explain away God’s apparent seemingly despotic intrusion into the inviolable domain of Paul’s free will. But Paul understood clearly what had happened. He would always carry with him a strong sense of God’s sovereign intervention and imposition over men’s wills. This would encourage him to believe that God moved circumstances, even unpleasant ones, to form him into the leader he was. [8]

I have found that I have a disconcerting ability to reconstruct God’s past sovereign dealings with me. My mind deceives itself into taking credit for the way things turned out. I now tout the benefits of involving sons in men’s meetings rather than in youth meetings. My son Cabe was changed into a spiritually mature young man as he watched men who were new believers discuss passages in the Bible and relate how their lives did not match up. He heard the interactions among numerous growing Christian men as we ate dinner after the meetings. Then as we drove home we would talk about what it meant for a particular man to say what he did in the meeting. All of that is fine. The disturbing part is that I am inclined to state it in such a way to give the idea that it was all a result of my wisdom and parenting skills, when actually, it had nothing to do with me. It was God’s sovereign working of circumstances. In that new work there were no youth. Also, it was not I, but rather my thirteen-year-old son who asked if he could attend the men’s meeting. Furthermore, in the Mexican culture, children are much more freely included in adult situations. The combination and timing were perfect. It was God’s design through and through, and my propensity to reconstruct events to make myself look good is very unlike Paul.

The Time Required to Make a Leader

Now that leads me to a related point. It takes time, substantial time, for us to learn from the circumstances God puts in our lives to produce the right kind of leader. Paul was intelligent and skilled as a leader since he says that he was advancing beyond his contemporaries (Gal. 1:14). Nevertheless, it was another thirteen years before he began to do aggressive pioneer work and altogether fifteen years before he clearly became a leader of leaders. [9] This issue is seldom given proper attention. There is no shortcut to competence. Seminars and D. Min. studies will not speed up the process. We have to pass through various stages in our lives. There is something about growing older that opens a person’s eyes. Time sharpens our perspective as we look back and can see what was human-centered and did not last. With fewer years to live, we become more aware of what will have eternal value and what is faddish.

When I was younger, working on my master’s thesis, I wrote on the private use of speaking in tongues. I wanted something controversial. I wanted to get to the bottom of the issue and solve all the difficulties. I was naive enough to think I could become an expert on the issue. Almost twenty years, later when I worked on my doctor’s dissertation, I was by then a different person. I had seen the inner workings of organized Christianity and was no longer naive about the way popular Christian leaders can lose direction. I was more experienced, having been involved in various stages of starting new works in Mexico. I had held high-level leadership positions within the country and had taught in seminary over twelve years. As a consequence, I purposely avoided a controversial area or a topic that would be narrow and technical. I had less energy and wanted something that would feed me, teach me, change me, something that would give me wisdom and discernment to deal with subtleties. What a difference twenty years can make. We cannot bypass the stages of life in leadership development. We cannot speed things up.

Suffering and Leadership

Sufferings as a Means of Teaching Trust in God

It took time to make Paul a leader and it also took suffering. That is why God makes hardship a part of his commission in Acts 9:15–16. Paul’s commission is most odd: “I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.” That is a very strange beginning. He was not told how many healings he would perform or how many books he would write or how many thousands he would convert to Christ. And furthermore, God did not ask him if he would accept His ministry proposal. Paul had no choice in the matter and there was no glorious incentive. Why was this suffering imposed upon Paul as part of his commission to be a leader of the Gentile mission work? For one, hard things are all part of God’s way of developing character for leadership. [10] They test a man’s trust in God to use the terrible things for his good.

About some twenty years ago, something very difficult happened to me that I never expected. For a few years I tolerated the results of that situation, sure that time would correct the problem. Then for about ten years I fought thoughts of “This is unfair, I deserve better than this.” Finally, I realized that I probably would never be able to resolve the thing in my lifetime. The hard part is that I never will know for sure why God determined to bring such a hardship my way. But I have finally decided that I would never have become who I am today without it. It is part of growing up. It is part of submitting to God’s purposes. Leaders have to lead in every area, even in the area of trusting God while in pain.

Sufferings as a Means of Exposing True Motives

There is another reason why suffering was imposed upon Paul in his commission. When his motives or his genuineness were attacked, Paul never referred to his healings, his thousands of converts, or his fame. On the contrary, he referred to his sufferings, noting that he had no choice in the matter of his ministry and that he personally had nothing to gain from his work.

It is normal for us to speak of our accomplishments as the reason we should be given a hearing. When my authority is questioned, I tend to say, “I have two masters and a doctorate. I have helped plant five churches, taught in seminary, and developed leadership at the church level for many years.” I can remember a young man speaking to seminary students years ago. To give greater authority to his message on youth ministry, he informed us of the multitude of conferences he had given at youth gatherings. That is the normal way.

Paul was an anomaly. The three times he was forced to give a defense of his legitimacy and genuineness, he gave what are called catalogues of hardship (1 Cor. 4:9–13; 2 Cor. 6:3–5; 11:23–30). [11] For Paul, true leadership and authority were established by demonstrating that he had absolutely nothing personally to gain from what he was doing. His suffering proved his pure motives and authenticated his commission from Christ. Oddly enough, his claim to leadership was that he was not popular, he enjoyed no perks, and he was not eloquent, not a crowd pleaser.

Authority and Influence

Avoidance of Titles of Position or Office

This very same attitude toward leadership is reflected in his use of titles. He avoided titles of position, preferring titles that pointed to his suffering and hard work. [12] Curiously enough, he never called himself nor any of his colleagues pastor. Best, a liberal scholar, was going to title his series of messages Paul the Pastor, until he realized that Paul never used that title of himself. [13] He called himself a teacher and preacher only twice. [14] He avoided designations that might attribute to himself some intrinsic superior skill or personal accomplishment. Likewise, he avoided titles that might distinguish himself from his fellow workers or imply that he was first in command. Whatever title he used of himself, he used freely with his co-workers.

Influence through Character and Work

His authority and influence as a leader were not tied to titles of position or office but rather to his competence, his experience, and hard work. It is therefore no wonder that his favorite designation was that of a worker or fellow-worker. [15] To describe his gospel work, he used the same two words (ἔργον [ergon] and κόπος [kopos]) that he used for manual labor. [16] He avoided terminology that elicited respect, honor, and privilege such as might be accorded a college professor or the CEO of a business. His terminology was blue-collar.

Paul taught that submission was required of a wife no matter what the character of her husband. Citizens were to submit to a less than honorable government. Employees were to submit to bosses that were unfair. Submission was expected based solely on the other person’s position. But he never asked for submission to leaders in the church because of their position as leaders. Submission was forthcoming because of a leader’s hard work and character (1 Cor. 16:15–16; 1 Thess. 5:12–13; 1 Tim. 5:17). “Be in subjection to such men and to everyone who helps in the work (συνεργέω [sunergeō]) and labors (κοπιάω [kopiaō]).” “Appreciate those who diligently labor (κοπιάω [kopiaō]) among you.” They deserve esteem because of their “work” (ἔργον [ergon]). Elders deserve double honor when they “work hard” (κοπιάω [kopiaō]).

Biblically speaking, respect, influence, and power are not based on educational accomplishments nor upon positions gained. They are based upon remaining in work that has no privilege, no perks, and no personal fame.

This is where I learned a hard lesson about influence when taking on leadership roles in an organization. I thought that I would have more influence as I took the role of director over a missionary body in Mexico. And, superficially, I did. I had more direct touch with everyone and my advice and ideas were given a greater hearing. Certain changes were instituted. But quickly I realized that the changes were at best superficial and temporal, the result of accommodation rather than a change in conviction. As long as I was present, I could prop the new system up, but I realized everything would go back to the way it was once I was gone.

The true influence that had lasting effect upon others was based upon my competence and my character. Only those who observed me up close in a new work could see who I really was. Only they saw me at all hours of the night dealing with unbelievers. My influence was most powerful when my example could be observed. By removing myself from that work, I was unwittingly weakening my authority as a leader. That is why we need to fight the temptation to go on the seminar circuit and give conferences to large crowds. Our fame may grow but true powerful influence diminishes. Conferences can tend to entertain and stimulate temporarily. But effective influence in making leaders like ourselves with our convictions can only be accomplished as they observe us working over a good period of time. They must see it in our dealings with all sorts of people in different situations. Teaching with anecdotes is good, but there is nothing like teaching by doing it.

Hands-On Leadership

There is a trend afoot for the church leader to be the CEO who shepherds only the under shepherds and thus is no longer truly involved with the hoi polloi. He maintains some direct contact with the congregation, but usually only with the significant people, those with clout in the church. Some think this is based on Christ’s model, but a closer look shows that when He sent out His disciples, He Himself did the same work as His disciples (Matt 11:1). Likewise, Paul’s model is explicit. His influence was so powerful because he never became simply an administrator over other workers. There is something lost in removing oneself from the dirty work.

The problem here is one I heard my parents often discussing. They were both career schoolteachers. There always seemed to be a struggle between the teachers and the administration. My parents felt that the administrators did not have the heartbeat of the classroom since they were no longer involved directly with the students.

This same complaint arises constantly on the mission field. Those at headquarters attend seminars on how to run mission organizations as a good business. With good intentions, policies are made in a state-side environment. Usually the outcome is that those in the field have more paper work to do. There is a loss of trust. Many complain, “Mission leadership is out of touch with our lives.” So then home office plans more trips to the mission field to improve communication. But the real solution is to have top leadership still involved in the same work as those over whom they serve.

Every time Paul referred to himself as a model to be followed (“imitate me”), without fail he referred to his suffering, humility, or hardships which arose from his continued involvement in pioneer work. [17] There is no good substitute for a living close-up example.

Conclusion

My dear Tamin. I would have chosen that she be perfect and complete in body as well as spirit. But God in His sovereign love chose to put a chink in the image of the “normal” family. She was an anomaly to teach me about what is important in life. She forced me to keep things simple, to remember what things are essential and what are not. As I contemplate that little life with all sorts of defects, I often wonder if we have not lost our way with all of our education and technology. What would Paul think of all the time and money spent on leadership seminars and conferences on world evangelism? Perhaps we have lost the power of simplicity. Perhaps we need to compare what is conventional wisdom with the oddities of Paul’s leadership.

Notes

1. Bard Pillette was for many years a missionary in central Mexico. He is presently involved in an assembly in Medford, Oregon in a ministry of evangelism and Bible teaching to Hispanics. This is the first of a series of four articles on Paul and his companions.
2. Archibald Robertson and Alfred Plummer, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, ICC (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1911), 339.
3. J. Munck, “Paulus Tamquam Abortivus,” in New Testament Essays: Studies in Memory of Thomas Walter Manson, ed. A. J. B. Higgins (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1959), 182.
4. Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987), 733. See also J. Schneider, “ἔκτρωμα,ς in TDNT, ed. Gerhard Kittel, trans. and ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964), 2:465–67.
5. Munck, “Paulus Tamquam Abortivus,” 190. P. von der Osten-Sacken, “Die Apologie des paulinischen Apostolats in 1 Kor 15:1–11, ” Zeitschrift für neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 64 (1973): 252-54.
6. John Howard Schütz, Paul and the Anatomy of Apostolic Authority (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1975), 232. “In a sense all that Paul does is a reflection of what the gospel does; all that he is, is a reflection of what the gospel is. As the gospel is the manifestation of God’s acting, so is the apostle.” This concept is similarly touched on in 2 Corinthians 2:15. See Scott J. Hafemann, Suffering and the Spirit. An Exegetical Study of II Cor. 2:14–3:3 within the Context of the Corinthian Correspondence, Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament (Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1986), 51–54.
7. Adolf Deissmann, Paul: a Study in Social and Religious History, trans. William E. Wilson (New York: Harper & Row, 1912), 132. Deissmann recognizes the dramatic events around Paul’s conversion but still must say, “Yet it was no magic transformation, but had its psychological preparation both negative and positive.” William Barclay, Ambassador for Christ: The Life and Teaching of Paul ( Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1951), 47–49. Barclay also claims to see psychological elements at work in Paul’s conversion: “So then we have Paul still hating Christ and the Christians with all his heart; but in the same heart strange feelings are moving. The sight of the calm heroism of the Christians had left him wondering how they could show it. The death of Stephen had left him wondering what was Stephen’s secret. His devotion to the Law seemed to be making more and more of a tension and a struggle of life. Whatever else the young Paul was, he was a desperately unhappy man.” Günther Bornkamm, Paul, trans. D. M. G. Stalker (New York: Harper & Row, 1971), 23. F. F. Bruce, Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977), 75–76. Both Bornkamm and Bruce reject the psychological explanations for Paul’s conversion. Paul’s change was the result of God’s elective purposes.
8. D. A. Carson, How Long, O Lord?: Reflections on Suffering and Evil (Grand Rapids, Baker, 1990), 89. Carson asserts that there is a theological tie between suffering and Christian leadership. Sydney H. T. Page, Powers of Evil: A Biblical Study of Satan and Demons (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995), 197. Paul’s conviction that God controlled all things, including suffering, in order to keep him on course as a leader is captured in Page’s comments on 2 Corinthians 12:7: “Paul could ascribe unpleasant experiences to Satan, while at the same time subsuming them under the overarching sovereignty of God.” “Satan might use Paul’s ailment as an instrument to torment the apostle, but at the same time God was using it as an instrument to keep Paul from being conceited and so to foster his growth in grace.”
9. Harold Hoehner, “Chronology of the Apostolic Age” (Th. D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1965), 381–382. Paul was converted in the summer of a.d. 35. He began his pioneer work with Barnabas in April 48. Then in April 50 he became the undisputed leader of the Gentile mission work.
10. Carson, How Long, O Lord?, 90. Carson believes that the “best Christian leadership cannot simply be appointed. It is forged by God himself in the fires of suffering, taught in the school of tears. There are no shortcuts.”
11. C. Forbes, “Comparison, Self-Praise and Irony: Paul’s Boasting and the Conventions of Hellenistic Rhetoric,” New Testament Studies 32 (January, 1986): 22. “For Paul apostolic authority is the authority of the Gospel itself, mediated through the apostle. Since the Gospel is the message of the ‘foolishness’ and ‘weakness’ of God himself (1 Cor. 1:18–25), the apostle if he is such at all, embodies that foolishness and weakness. That is to say, his life and work bear the marks of the death of Christ: the physical sufferings and the social stigmata which we find enumerated in the ‘catalogues of humiliation.’” Ronald F. Hock, The Social Context of Paul’s Ministry: Tentmaking and Apostleship (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980), 64. Hock claims that Paul’s tentmaking was responsible for the toils, thirst, and exhaustion that produced his humiliation. “When the physical exhaustion and the social humiliation that came from Paul’s tentmaking are kept clearly in mind, it is easy to see that his boast of offering the gospel free of charge was true, a boast in his ‘weakness’ as an artisan.” Hock’s proposal depends too much upon similar use of language by the philosophers of Paul’s day and their debate over whether to charge fees, beg, enter households of the rich, or work. Paul’s toils included working with his hands, but his work as an artisan being the major reason for his weakness and humiliation is unconvincing. J. T. Fitzgerald, “Cracks in an Earthen Vessel: An Examination of the Catalogues of Hardship in the Corinthian Correspondence,” (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1984), 395. The catalogues of hardship like that of 2 Corinthians 11 reveal character. “It is axiomatic in the ancient world that a person’s true worth or character is shown most clearly in times of adversity.” See R. Hodgeon, “Paul the Apostle and First Century Tribulation Lists,” Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 74 ( January-February, 1983): 63-65.
12. Fitzgerald, “Cracks in an Earthen Vessel,” 395. In an ironic way, Paul, at times, does commend himself. “In so doing he reflects the tradition of praising oneself when necessary, in terms of one’s hardships.”
13. E. Best, Paul and His Converts (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1988), 22.
14. Paul may be reflecting Christ’s exhortation in Matthew 23:8 as well as the Old Testament concept of teacher. The Old Testament avoids the title teacher in order not to give the idea that one is being trained for a trade rather than for life. The teacher was one who stressed the rational and technical aspects of developing job skills. K. Wegenast, ‘‘διδάσκαλος,” in The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, ed. Colin Brown (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1975), 3:766. Karl H. Rengstorf, διδάσκαλος,” in TDNT, ed. Gerhard Kittel, trans. and ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964), 2:137, 148–51.
15. In fact, the term fellow-worker is for all intents and purposes a uniquely Pauline term. Wolf-Henning Ollrog, Paulus und seine Mitarbeiter. Untersuchungen zu Theorie und Praxis der paulinischen Mission (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1979), 67. G. Bertram, “συνεργός,” in TDNT, ed. Gerhard Friedrich, trans. and ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971), 7:871–76. The noun and verb occur only four times in the Septuagint. Outside of Paul’s letters, the noun is used only once in the New Testament (3 John 8) and the verb only twice (Mark 16:20; James 2:22).
16. κόπος [kopos] and κοπιάω [kopiaō] are used of manual labor (1 Cor. 4:12; 2 Thess. 3:8) and of gospel work (1 Cor. 15:10; 15:58). ἔργον [ergon] is used of gospel work (1 Cor. 15:58) and ἐργάζομαι [ergazomai] is used of manual labor (1 Cor. 4:12). The reason, no doubt, for his use of these words is that proclaiming and teaching constitute hard work. Ollrog, Paulus und seine Mitarbeiter, 75.
17. David M. Stanley, “‘Become Imitators of Me’: The Pauline Conception of Apostolic Tradition,” Biblica 40 (1959): 877. “Paul urges ‘imitation’ of himself only to those communities which he has founded.” Best, Paul and His Converts, 68. Only those churches he founded had observed his conduct. See also W. P. de Boer, The Imitation of Paul: An Exegetical Study (Kampen: J. H. Kok, 1962), 206. His calls to imitation all relate to suffering (1 Cor. 4:9–16), deprivation of rights (1 Cor. 9:1–11:1), humility (Phil. 3:14, 17), and hardship (1 Thess. 1:6; 2 Thess. 3:7–9). de Boer states that “Paul ranked his example alongside his teaching and instruction. In fact, it constituted a part of his teaching and instruction” (p. 139).