Paul’s Earliest Ministry: CILICIA TOUR

May 9-23, 2027

Join Us for an Extraordinary Trip to the Cradle of Christianity and Paul’s Earliest Mission.

Shortly after Paul’s conversion, the apostle returned to this hometown Tarsus in the Roman province of Cilicia. There, Paul spent the next nine years learning the new faith. There he received revelations (Gal 1:11-12, 2 Cor 12:1-2). This was the time when the former Pharisee learned the fullness of the Gospel and began his earliest ministry. The Acts of the Apostles mentioned nothing of this ministry, although Paul briefly mentioned it in Gal 1:21. The trip will be led by Professor Mark Fairchild who recently authored a ground-breaking book on Paul’s work in this area, Unearthing Paul’s Forgotten Mission: The Archaeology and History of Rough Cilicia (IVP Academic, 2027).

The Cilicia Tour will visit St. Paul’s hometown of Tarsus and will follow an itinerary taking us to places seldom visited in the region known as “Rough Cilicia.” Here, Paul established the earliest churches of his ministry. The tour will visit the ancient coastal cities in the area and will advance a short distance into the mountainous interior to observe Jaw-dropping ancient villages and towns that Paul likely evangelized. These are places with spectacular surroundings, rock-cut reliefs, first-century watchtowers and fascinating stories of the ancient residents’ survival. Here, Paul preached in Jewish synagogues, including the earliest synagogue ever discovered.

***Since most of these sites are within a short distance of one another, we won’t need to change hotels often. We have also included many more sites than what we may be able to manage on each day. If so, we may drop some of the less important.

Dr. Mark Robin FairchildHuntington University