In Lystra, the plotting against Paul became action. “They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing he was dead.” Luke didn’t explain how it happened, but wrote, “When the disciples surrounded him, he got up and entered the city again.” After preaching in Derbe, Paul and Barnabas went home—amazingly, by way of Lystra, Iconium and the other Antioch, encouraging the Christian converts in each city. When they got back to Antioch in Syria, they reported, not mainly their troubles, but “how God had opened a door of faith for the Gentiles.”

• Paul appointed elders for each church. Scholar N. T. Wright said, “All Paul did was to come through town, a few days or weeks after his first preaching, to appoint ‘elders,’ to fast and pray and lay hands on them, and then to move on. Apart from the odd letter, and a follow-up visit in a few years’ time if they were lucky, that was it. They were on their own. But they weren’t, of course. The whole movement … is built on the belief that Jesus is Lord over the church as well as the world, and that by his spirit he calls, he equips, he guides, he warns, he rebukes, he encourages. It’s his business.” How about in 2014—are the pastors, staff, lay leaders and members of Resurrection “on our own”? If Jesus is Lord over this church, in what ways do we experience that?