And Sopater of Berea accompanied him to Asia – also Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia…These men, going ahead, waited for us at Troas.” (Acts 20:4-5)
One of the great lessons we find when we study the life of Paul is that he was absolutely committed to teamwork as he carried out the Great Commission. There are more than 70 of Paul’s coworkers mentioned in the New Testament, and multiple references to Paul viewing individual churches as partners in extending the Gospel’s impact. Think of it like a“beehive.”
As part of discipleship, Paul invited people to join what God was doing. Many people left their home churches for a time to join Paul’s team. AsPaul travelled, he would leave coworkers behind in cities to keep the work going, he would send teammates ahead to places he was going, and he would send partners back to other churches to exchange progress reports.They were teammates working together to advance Christ’s work. Let’s do our part as teammates within our churches, among our churches, and with our state and national partners to advance Christ’s work.
