“18 After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2 And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, 3 and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. 4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. 5 When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. 6 And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” 7 And he left there 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 ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. 9 And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, 10 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” 11 And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. 12 But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal, 13 saying, “This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law.” 14 But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime, O Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint. 15 But since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves. I refuse to be a judge of these things.” 16 And he drove them from the tribunal. 17 And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Gallio paid no attention to any of this. Paul Returns to Antioch 18 After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow. 19 And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there, but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. 20 When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined. 21 But on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you if God wills,” and he set sail from Ephesus. 22 When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and then went down to Antioch. 23 After spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples. Apollos Speaks Boldly in Ephesus 24 Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. 27 And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, 28 for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.” (Ac 18:1–28 ESV)

Fellow traveler with the Corporate Mind, the Christian Saint is oddly embedded, chances upon one Word or another, but hindsight is always twenty-twenty: he or she is in a weird and wonderful Social Current where simple gestures most meticulous or faith-filled, stir the pot.

They stir the pot because Professionalism around the terms Theology and Contrition, do go Red Alert, and go Weighty Landing. Ministry is taking place in any Corporate Setting, and the spook in the room, the shaded-in Ghoul or Ghost, is the Witness Curled in upon herself, himself. We need immediate Forgiveness in any setting, to live into the calling to speak carefree and joyously, hindsight still twenty-twenty, but no shame to be called by the Name.

Professionalism entails round-about ability likewise to Meet a Friend, to allow one’s Spirit to minister to and to inspire, the wild patiences or peaceful Explanatory concessions, the teaching moments, the Invite to query and be heart. Each of us has a Spirit, and the Ghoul or Demonic is not in fact accidentally ours to concede, rather full steam ahead, we finish the Illustration, we fill-in the Background, we illustrate the Setting. Having once to have advanced a Thesis, we do not let it dessicate or go untended to. We Talk. We Pontificate. We Free-Associate. No loss that our initial Intrigue was wildly audacious or Rampantly off-kilter: the Christian is a little Too Educated around the vast spheres of Human Experience. A little Too Provocative around all the helmsmanship and Directional Decision-Making Capacity entailed. We are Capable. We are Sagacious. We are, however, no less Gregarious and Benign than the Corporate would-be Spook now pundit and friend.

Christians live in the battlefield. Professional Respect is no abnegation of the Fact that Christians live and die on a lark, a far Vision, on wings and a Prayer. Christians are Present by way of enlisting for the Cause, perhaps, but moreso, to hoist a Flag on behalf of the brothers and sisters not present, a flag jealously guarded and permanently etched in the hearts of its adherents. You may join, if you like, but know this: that we are All Systems Go: we are Full Steam Ahead. We are Battalion in Formation Now. Around a few more curated and cultivated Principles: that God is Good; that any Calling is Holy like any other Calling; that both we were emboldened or rather resigned to infamy, but instead met with Gladsome Exchange and Rapport; therefore our Banner is not besmirched, our Colors are not liquidated, our Tooth is not chipped.

To serve the Father is to watch the thermometer of feigned distraction, disinterest, unalarmed Status, when things are Named. When say Christ is Named: the crowd goes Revelatory: revealing their first Inclinations around said Name. And the theological bounty, package deal, Assembled Instruction Set, goes first principles, goes Creedal and Theological, around a few points: that all are sinners, that the Mission is Cruciform and Real; that we live in the era called by the Reformers the Church Militant, awaiting the era called the Church Triumphant. So Ghouls and Goblins Be Gone! There is ying and there is yang for a copacetic Agreement to Co-domicile. For the Faith not to exclude or stick up the noses of the adherents, but to be Peace about behavioral differences, legalistic differences of Habits of Life, of means of dating and friendship, and so on. Anyone can either be a child of Law and all its lugubrious proximity mines, or of Grace, not that we need prove our criminal side, but that we can go No Judgment even as we live amongst those passing the peace in their own wild-eyed ways. The Peace of One Friend, is the Peace Jesus wanted each of us to know.