Thabiti Anyabwile is assistant pastor for church planting at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., and a council member with The Gospel Coalition. | Thabiti Anyabwile
The apostle Paul ranks as the greatest church-planting apostle and missionary the world has ever known. He determined to build the church wherever Christ was not named. At great risk to himself, he entered city after city to proclaim the gospel and organize converts into churches.
Yet, the great apostle did not achieve these things alone. Paul always worked in teams. To the delight of some and the consternation of others, Paulâs church-planting teams included women. When he wrote the Christians in Philippi, he instructed them to help Euodia and Syntyche. Paul describes Euodia and Syntyche as women who âcontended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of lifeâ (Phil. 4:3).