Tully M. Fletcher IV
May 31, 2026
Decatur Presbyterian Church
Decatur, Georgia
Cold open
Man on bridge joke
Once I saw a man on a bridge about to jump off to his own demise.
I said, “Don’t do it!”
He said, “Nobody loves me.”
I said, “God loves you. Do you believe in God?”
He said, “Yes.”
I said, “Are you a Christian or a Jew?”
He said, “A Christian.”
I said, “Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?”
He said, “Protestant.”
I said, “Me, too! Reformed Protestant or Anabaptist protestant?”
He said, Reformed Protestant.”
I said, “Me, too! What denomination?”
He said, “Presbyterian.”
I said, “Me, too! Northern Presbyterian or Southern Presbyterian?”
He said, “Southern Presbyterian.”
I said, “Me, too!
United Presbyterian Church in the USA
Or Presbyterian Church in the US?
Or Orthodox Presbyterian Church?
Or Cumberland Presbyterian Church?
Or Evangelical Presbyterian Church?
Or Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians?
Or Presbyterian Church in America?
And with a smile on his face for the first time, he said Presbyterian Church in America.
I said, “Die, heretic!” And I pushed him over the edge!
Intro pre-scripture (all the things)
I tell this joke, because the splitting of churches into smaller denominations is a tale as old as the church.
The scripture we are about to read in Acts this morning, is a wonderful, and somewhat crazy story. And yes, it includes a church splitting,
and then the opening up a new church right next door to the old one!
Of all the stories in the Bible, I feel like this one resonates most with people working in corporate America.
The main character has a job, and he has a side gig.
There’s mergers and acquisitions,
There’s corporate board room drama.
One person even rage quits his job.
The heart of the story is two work besties, getting into trouble.
We also, get mention of one of the first female elders of the church, a little Lady COO action.
Trust me, this story is a lot of fun.
But also has some hardship.
Paul struggled, and came out the other side, not because of who Paul is, but because of who God is.
Let’s read it.
Acts 18:1-9
After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.
2 There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, 3 and, because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them, and they worked together– by trade they were tentmakers.
4 Every sabbath he would argue in the synagogue and would try to convince Jews and Greeks.
5 When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with proclaiming the word, testifying to the Jews that the Messiah was Jesus.
6 When they opposed and reviled him, in protest he shook the dust from his clothes and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”
7 Then he left the synagogue and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God; his house was next door to the synagogue.
8 Crispus, the official of the synagogue, became a believer in the Lord, together with all his household; and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul became believers and were baptized.
9 One night the Lord said to Paul in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent;
Intro (post Acts scripture) Paul’s work life
In my research for this sermon, I learned that work was really important to the Jewish community in Biblical times. Jews worked 6 days a week.
Rabbi’s, teachers in the Synagogue, were also required to work 6 days a week, but not 6 days a week as a Rabbi, 6 days a week doing something else.
And then only 1 day a week, as a Rabbi in the synagogue.
So, this is what Paul did. When he would move to a new town, and he’d set up shop in the local marketplace as a tent-maker. For Paul, as he states in other letters, “he didn’t want to be a burden” on the local people, on the new Christians he was teaching.
Now there were other Christian leaders at the time, including Peter, who did devote themselves to their religious work full time, and had generous congregations, like you, who donated to support them.
But the work of a missionary like Paul is rarely so luxurious.
The phrase tent-maker has a slightly different meaning today, but Paul literally made tents.
Tents at that time were made of leather, and were a very important aspect of life for a nomadic shepherds, cattle herders, traders, and anyone traveling great distances.
Now, Paul arrives in a new town, Corinth, located not far from the modern city of Corinth, Greece. Paul sets up shop like he always does, except there’s a slight difference here.
Corinth already has a Jewish tentmaker in town. His name was Aquila, he had recently moved to Corinth as well.
Now, as you can imagine this story could have played out very differently. Imagine if they had the cutthroat American business mindset, and the two of them set out as competitors, and worked 8 days a week to try and beat the other one.
Aquila could have ended up just as another foot note in Paul’s story… A hostile acquisition, a corporate take over, that Paul made, when he put Aquila out of business.
Thankfully that didn’t happen, there story is more like one of a friendly merger—instead of becoming rivals, they became work besties. Paul stayed in Corinth for 18 months, and the two of them worked together there for that whole time.
What is a work bestie
For those who may not be familiar with the term, a work bestie, is like your best friend at work.
A work-best friend relationship is often formed by bonding through trauma. The shared trauma, that two people have when they
don’t like their boss,
or don’t like their co-worker,
or they just generally have difficult jobs.
It’s the kind thing, where if you don’t laugh about it, you might cry.
Work besties, sit in the back of the conference room during the meetings, and crack jokes, cut up, and just like to be trouble makers.
Anyone have a work Bestie?
Raise your hand
Side story about pranks with Ken
I had a work bestie in a previous job, and we would play pranks on each other, and yes the pranks got out of hand. He filled my office with Boxes, I filled his office with Balloons.
He covered my books and desk in comic-sans stickers, I stole all of the light from his office… a Prank that took another 4 years to come to completion mind you.
Anyone else ever really get in trouble because of the shenanigans they were up to with their work bestie?
Raise your hand
Work besties stay at work
One of the other things about work besties, is that the relationship is often only at work.
Like these two people literally hang out 5 days a week, but may have never met each other’s families.
I don’t think this was true of Paul and Aquila, just the nature of life and work 2000 years ago, and the fact that they were both Jews living in a foreign land. There personal lives, their work lives, and their religious lives would have been all intertwined.
There is evidence of this too in the scriptures. As Paul and Aquila would travel together later on is the book of Acts, and Paul would appoint his work bestie as Bishop in part of what we now call Turkey.
Priscilla
Now before I tell you about the shenanigans Paul and Aquila were up to, I want to tell you about Priscilla.
Priscilla is amazing.
She is regarded as a Saint in the different Christian denominations who venerate saints.
She is one the really important female leaders, missionaries, and even preachers of the Early church.
Priscilla is wife the Aquila, and so likely she either worked in the home or worked as a tent maker too.
Priscilla & her husband were from Rome, but they had been kicked out of Rome, that’s how they ended up in Corinth.
Many scholars also suspect that Priscilla may have written the New Testament book of Hebrews, which is one of the only books of the New testament with an unknown author. You can see why that is the case if this book was indeed written by a woman, that some 100 to 300 years afterwards, as the Patriarchy began to dominate the church, her name might have been removed from Hebrews.
But that’s a story for another day.
So, Priscilla is significant either way. She is believed to have held the title and office of “Presbyter,” in her time. This makes her one of the first Female leaders of the early church.
If you Don’t know, The Greek word “Presbyter,” yes, that is where we get the word Presbyterian.
This word in Scripture and in modern context can be translated as Minister, Pastor, and/or Elder.
So, in Summary, Priscilla was either a minister or an Elder, and was without a doubt an important leader of the church. I like to think she was a Presbyterian Pastor, she was just about 1600 years too early.
Paul Rage quits
Alright let’s get back to our main story, about Paul, and Aquilla and Priscilla too.
So, Paul has been in Corinth for a while, making tents, and making converts.
He spends every Saturday teaching in the Jewish Synagogue trying to convince his people there that Jesus is the Messiah.
After some time, Paul’s old work besties show up—Silas and Timothy.
Well this sort of raises the temperature in the room, the pressure is on.
Paul’s work convincing the Jews to follow the Way of Jesus is not going well. Many of them reject him and reject his message. And to make matters worse, the Jews in Corinth are insulting Paul, saying lies about him.
Paul’s feeling the tension, he is feeling a bit hopeless, he is for sure feeling frustrated.
His new work bestie Aquilla is there cheering him on, trying to help him out.
His old work bestie has just walked in the door, no doubt with a look of shock and surprise on his face. When he sees Paul failing so hard.
Paul has to do something big and dramatic. He has to either win the argument, or go down in a flame of glory.
So, Paul, Rage quits in spectacular fashion.
He says, “Your blood be on your own heads!”
He shakes the dust from his clothes, which is a 2000 year old sign of major disrespect.
It’s like he took off his preaching robe, threw it on ground, and was like “peace I’m out” insert a few explicative words here, Mic drop, end scene.
If I had a time machine, I would love to go back in time to this moment, just to see the look on everyone’s faces when Paul storms out the door.
And as he’s leaving, he says one more thing. “From now on, I will go to the Gentiles”
He’s like no more Jesus for you, you’re dead to me, I’m going to go preach to the people you hate the most.
Oh, this would have been so good to see
This was like the ultimate mic drop.
Take a long beat
Paul and his besties start a new church
So, what happens next.
Well you have to imagine that it took a few hours or even a few days for Paul and his buddies to finally calm down. Now, they were calm, but they were still angry inside.
I like to imagine they were sitting around having some drinks, a little happy hour after a really bad day at work. And one of them hatches a really good plan.
Silas & Timothy are brand new to town, so they don’t know much of what’s going on, they are listening, hearing the stories, and appropriately responding with comments like:
“that’s unbelievable”
“No way, he said that?”
And “what a jerk!”
Any of you have drinks with your co-workers, complaining, and said something like that?
Raise hands
Eventually, one the four of them says something like, we should open a new church.
Yeah
yeah that would be great
A new place away from those jerks.
Yeah!
And you know what would make it even better?
If we opened up right next door!
Ha ha ha, yeah that would be awesome..
Take a beat
More on the new church
They start to sit with the idea… at first it seems impulsive and silly…. But the more they think about it the more it feels like a good thing to do.
Then I imagine Aquilla or Priscilla, being like, you know what… I know guy… his name is Tititus, he has a really big house, perfect for a new church…
Someone asks…. Where does he live?
Priscilla, perks up, well that’s the best part, he lives right next door to the Synagogue.
They all laugh, finish their drinks, and then go to their respective homes… to sleep.
But then this crazy new idea starts to fester… and it starts to seem less impossible, and more like some they should actually do.
New church
So that’s what they did.
They got in touch with their new buddy Titius, and his big house, they convince him to open up a new church.
Then, like any new corporate start up, the venture capitalists start poaching talent from the old company.
They recruit Crispus to join the new start up, and Crispus of course brings his whole team from the old company to the new one.
The new start up does really well.
Scholars, believe that the church in Corinth was probably one of the Largest churches in the New Testament era.
Paul writes several letters to the Corinthians, and visits them multiple times.
Takeaways…
Work & Church can mix?
So what can we learn from this story?
Well, I think that life is life, and that our work life, our corporate life, is not totally separated from our spiritual life.
We could learn a bit from Paul, Aquilla, & Priscilla, and be a bit more willing to let our faith lives extend beyond the walls of this place.
We can share our stories, share our faith, in ways that make a positive influence on the world and on our community, and dare I say it, even on our work place?!?
Maybe Work and religion can mix
Well Maybe not work and religion, but work and “faith” or work and “spirituality” can mix.
You may be wondering, well what is the difference between religion and faith.
Religion is the guy in the joke I told at the beginning of the sermon.
Religion is the guy who has 99% of what he believes in common with someone else, and can’t reconcile that 1%, so he pushes him off the bridge.
Religion is when the Leaders of the synagogue reviled Paul forcing him to rage quit.
Faith, is Paul’s perseverance.
Faith is Priscilla rising up as a leader in the early church as woman.
Faith is the supporting friendship of Aquilas, Silas, & Timothy.
Speaking of friends, this brings me to the 2nd takeaway…
Get a crew
One of the special things about this story is how Paul was surrounded by good people, they accomplished together, the building up of the new church in Corinth.
It took a lot of people, working together. Each person had their role and their part in it.
So for you, get a crew.
Surround your self with good people, who share your vision and values, and then go forth and do amazing things.
When you think about your faith & spiritual life, you are already part of this community, but get yourself a crew with-in the church.
A small group, a break bread group, join the choir (they are the fiercest crew we’ve got).
Closing
The final takeaway, which is kind of the undercurrent to this whole story…
God is great, not us.
All of these crazy and amazing things that Paul and his crew were able to accomplish, because God was working through people and the Holy spirit was wild and free at work in the city.
The same is true for us.
DPC has been here 200 years not because we are great, but because God is great.
BAM camp will be fantastic, not because Emily, but because of God
So, go worship, Love & serve, and God will make your accomplishments amazing!
