Antioch 2.0 and Hawaii

This is a response from John Honold to the three blogs regarding Paul and his time in the school of Tyrannus.

My model church in the Book of Acts has been Antioch – a church that “evangelized” [Acts 11:21], “organized” [Acts 11:26], and “deputized” [Acts 13:2-3] with a result of the incredible spread of the Gospel in the 1st Century.

However, insight into the church of Ephesus, the mentoring of Epaphras, and the 19+ churches that were planted from there is expanding my view of the Gospel.

I see Ephesus as “Antioch 2.0.”

Paul staying in one place for two years at the school of Tyrannus [Acts 19:9-10] reminded me of my first taste of leadership training at Hope Chapel in the 1980s. 

All of us who led MiniChurches and our “undershepherds” would meet every other Tuesday night in someone’s living room. Our format, “head, heart, hands,” helped us turn knowledge into action as we read books together. Our mainstay was that “everybody had something to share” [1 Corinthians 14:26]

The discussions were lively. Sometimes, we passionately disagreed with one another. We were taught early on that whatever we read must be filtered through the Word of God. That was my foundational understanding of apologetics.

Occasionally the book we would read might not have much to do with Christianity, yet the application did. Our first leadership book, In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters, is not rooted in the scriptures but stood firm when we were asked, “What did the Holy Spirit speak to you while you read the chapter?”

We talked about what was going on in our MiniChurches, coaching each other in navigating challenging situations and constantly being encouraged to develop our undershepherds to plant new MiniChurches.

It was here that we discovered our church planters. They were the ones who recognized potential leaders and delegated responsibility and authority, producing multiple MiniChurches. A leader planting three MiniChurches became a potential church planter in another town.

The key is that this happened over time in the security of our home congregation. 

Young people led and pastored the others in their mini churches each week. Then, they returned to the house where leadership training was “consistent, intentional, and relational.” We talked about what went well and what did not. Failure was never final—always an opportunity to “grow forward.”

The result was a sovereign season of church planting, with thirty churches planted in the first ten years. 

I was honored to lead the 30th church plant. When I planted, one of the first things I did was reproduce your living room and the “consistent, intentional, relational” training of MiniChurch Pastors and undershepherds. And we planted thirteen churches locally and globally.

Over time, we developed a five-stage process [the coconut tree] that encapsulated “evangelize,” “organize,” and “deputize.” But that is a story for another time.

One of my favorite phrases from In Search of Excellence is “Make haste slowly.” Paul figured that out at the school of Tyrannus. We experienced that in your living room. And it has been my standard operating procedure to make disciples and plant churches ever since.

Guest Blogger: John Honold https://journeychurchhawaii.org/