Roads, Cities, Hellenism, and St. Paul’s Mission Strategy

The Acts of the Apostles gives us our most complete account of St. Paul’s evangelistic
travel. Our Bibles and Bible atlases have maps to help us understand where Paul
traveled in his famous journeys. For the past 20 years, Dr. Glen L. Thompson has co-
led a new project which has sought to travel in Paul’s footsteps and use archaeological
remains, ancient and modern travelres’ accounts, and modern GPS and satellite
photography to make those maps more precise. In the process new insights have been
gained on how Paul and early Christians traveled to share the Gospel.

The First Christian Mission to China

While the rapid spread of Christianity across the Greek- and Latin-speaking
Mediterranean world is well-known, few people are aware that an equally rapid spread
took place eastwards in the Syriac language. Not only did this result in Christian
churches in India by the second century, but a church body in China by the seventh
century. This first Chinese church called itself Jingjiao (the Luminous Teaching) and is
the subject of a recent award-winning history by Lutheran missionary and scholar, Dr.
Glen Thompson. He will tell this fascinating story and give a glimpse into who these
missionaries were, what their mission strategy was, what they taught, and what
challenges they faced.