Antioch

Antioch, in ancient Syria, became the base of operations for the early church's outreach to the Gentile world, and Acts records it as the very place where believers were first called Christians.

Following the scattering of believers after Stephen's martyrdom, some travel to Antioch and begin preaching to Greeks as well as Jews, and Acts 11:21 records "a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord."

The Jerusalem church sends Barnabas to investigate this new, ethnically mixed congregation, and rather than expressing concern, he is glad and encourages the believers to remain faithful, then travels to Tarsus to bring Saul to help teach the growing church.

Barnabas and Saul teach in Antioch for a full year, and it is here, Acts notes, that "the disciples were called Christians first," a name likely originally used by outsiders that the church would eventually adopt for itself.

Antioch becomes the launching point for the first organized Christian missionary journey. The church, while worshipping and fasting, is directed by the Holy Spirit to set apart Barnabas and Saul specifically for the missionary work God had called them to.

After completing that journey, Paul and Barnabas return to Antioch and report to the church all that God had done, and had "opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles," treating the sending church as an ongoing partner in the mission, not merely its point of origin.

Antioch also becomes the site of a significant confrontation between Paul and Peter, when Peter, under pressure from certain Jewish believers, withdraws from eating with Gentile Christians, and Paul "withstood him to the face," a clash that shaped the church's later clarity on Gentile inclusion.