Priscilla and Aquila: Mentoring as a Team

27 July 2024

One of the most magnificent aspects of the body of Christ is that it is comprised of so many different people who are gifted and talented in so many different ways. Not one of us think alike, look alike, act alike, or do anything in just the same manner as anyone else. When we bring together all our differences, we not only are able to get a better perspective on just what the fuller image of God (imago Dei) is, but we are able to accomplish so much more in participating together in sharing in the mission of God so that others can come to know our Savior and grow, together in community, with Him.

Do you remember that old cartoon Peanuts? Lucy had her little makeshift wooden stand that looked similar to lemonade stand, except, rather than displaying a sign with the price of lemonade, tacked up on her stand were the words, “The Doctor is in.” Different characters in the Peanuts cartoon would drop by, asking for her advice. These sessions seemed to be impromptu, but they always concerned pressing “issues” that the characters had. Looking on, we could be quick to judge their “issues” as not important, but the fact of the matter is, whatever is pressing to someone, is important. We all have different crisis points in our lives and being heard can be helpful and necessary. Each pressing issue must stand on its own merit, not in relation to someone else’s pressing issue. Somehow, Lucy had gained the right to speak into the other characters’ lives and they trusted her to do so. Maybe it’s because she let each person’s “issue” be that person’s and did not judge them against one another.

When my husband and I first met as teenagers, we noticed very quickly that people would come to us, as a team, with all sorts of problems, needing advice or simply a listening ear. We began to jokingly say, whenever we saw this approaching or had just finished meeting with someone, “The Doctor is in.” Over time, as this continued, we would still make the reference to Lucy’s sign, but we noticed that people were truly seeking us out as a team and that we, as a team, were able to listen and advise well from our different and collective experiences in life with God.

While the invitation never fell fully away from our vocabulary or our lives, we have noticed, as of lately, that people around us increasingly have a need for us to intentionally open this space in our lives again. What that will look like and how that will play out is yet to be seen, but the fact remains that God has put us together as a team and we are responsible to do something with that.

While not all mentoring teams that God puts together are husband/wife teams, far from it in fact, the point I am trying to make here is that God often puts us together with a teammate in order to function more effectively for His Kingdom.

Priscilla and Aquila present one of the best biblical examples we have as a team God put together to help grow others and expand His Kingdom. Paul met Priscilla and Aquila in Corinth; because the three of them shared a common mode of income, tentmaking, Paul chose to stay and work with them (Acts 18:1-3). When people live and work in such close quarters, it is inevitable that they will learn from one another. Can you imagine the spiritual growth that Priscilla and Aquila were able to make during this time due to their close proximity to Paul?

The relationship between these three, Paul, Priscilla, and Aquila, must have been mutually beneficial and edifying, because when Paul left Corinth, he took Priscilla and Aquila with him (Acts 18:18). When the three of them reached Ephesus, Paul left Priscilla and Aquila there to begin a house church while he continued on in his journey (Acts 18:19-22; 1 Corinthians 16:19). Paul trusted them, Priscilla and Aquila, to carry on in the manner in which he, Paul, had taught.

Hosting a house church would have required mentoring and instructing many, many people in order to help people get to know Christ, grow spiritually, and learn to reach others with the Good News. Among the many that we can surmise Priscilla and Aquila must have mentored and taught, Apollos is mentioned (Acts 18:26).

Apollos first appeared on the scene in Acts 18 in Ephesus. It is in Acts 18:24-28 where we learn that Apollos, although a gifted orator, well-versed in the Old Testament scriptures and able to present well-grounded arguments for his defense of Christ, is off theologically as “he knew only the baptism of John” (vs. 25). Together, Priscilla and Aquila saw something in him and, as a team, took him into their home to instruct him in more solid doctrine (Acts 18:26). This instructional time, which included a time of sharing life together, grounded Apollos so well that Apollos was then able to be sent out to Achaia, with the blessing of the believers in Ephesus, where he was able to stand on firm ground, strongly and dynamically proving the Messiahship of Christ to his Jewish opponents (Acts 18:27-28).

Because Priscilla and Aquila were a mentoring team who worked well side-by-side, they were able to be mentored by Paul, which increased their spiritual growth. Their increased spiritual growth and willingness to work as a team allowed them to come to the place where, together, they recognized the potential in Apollos and took Apollos under their wing. As a result, Apollos was sent back out to continue instructing the church and mentoring others in a healthy manner.

It is interesting to note that while Priscilla and Aquila were mentored together as a team by one person, God gave this mentoring team an impactful role to play in turning out a mentoring teammate for Paul, the same person who mentored them, in Apollos. The mentoring team of Paul and Apollos looked very different from the mentoring team of Priscilla and Aquila, but it was nonetheless a team.

In 1 Corinthians 3:1-11, Paul called out the believers in Corinth for trying to split the team relationship he had with Apollos. In no uncertain terms, Paul detailed out the roles that each of them played on the mentoring team that God had put together: Paul’s job was to plant and Apollos’ job was to water, but their tasks only worked together because God was, and remains, the orchestrator of it all (1 Corinthians 3:6-7).

Every mentoring team looks different and every role on a mentoring team plays out differently, but the goal of those roles should always be to come together to help hold open space for people to grow spiritually in Christ so that they, too, are more effective in helping to hold open that space for spiritual growth for others. Do not be discouraged if something someone else builds on what God has given you to do; do not get upset because you think that you should have been the one to get someone somewhere. It is always God’s job to get someone where they need to be; it is our job to be receptive to where the Holy Spirit is guiding, to encourage one another as teammates, and to work when and where God leads.