Christopher Chelpka

Imagine that after working together with Paul to bring the gospel to the island of Crete, Paul leaves you there so that you “might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town.” It’s hard to know what “every town” means, but historians think there were about 15 major population centers at the time. To consider the task, you can explore all of Crete’s towns, temples and topography with the Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire.

Thinking about the geography of Crete can help us better understand what Titus' ministry was like and think about our own ministry in our own places. As Charlotte Mason said, “The peculiar value of geography lies in its fitness to nourish the mind with ideas and furnish the imagination with pictures.”

Considering the size of Crete in comparison to your own ministry area can provide perspective. For me that means noting that Crete is roughly one-third the size of Pima County. To visualize the dimensions, I can imagine traveling east to west from Sells to Willcox, and south to north from Green Valley to Casas Adobes at its widest part.I made a map that compares Crete to Arizona to visualize this.

Based on what I know so far, if Titus focused on developing leaders in these 15 cities (with approximately 12 distinct stops since some towns were close together), he could potentially visit every town and return to the starting point in less than 30 days, assuming a brisk walking pace. However, this plan allows only one day per stop, which is not much considering the assignment Paul lays out in his letter. Additionally, this plan assumes that the Christians in each town would be ready to receive Titus upon arrival, which can be challenging even with modern tools like email and GPS.

So if I were Titus, knowing only what I know now, here’s how I would handle it:

1. Allocate 3 days at each stop for substantial discipleship time.
2. Plan a day of travel between each stop.
3. Plan on 3 days for sailing back to the starting point.
4. Include 10 extra days for margin.

With this plan, you could spend quality time discipling every 60 days in each town and have the opportunity to worship there on the Lord’s Day at least once per year, maybe even twice. Although I’ve never been to Crete, ancient or modern, this seems feasible to me and likely to produce good results.

I also think such a plan could be adapted to fit other places around the world as long as there was commitment from local Christians in making time in their schedules to meet with the missionary and preparing hospitality for him in advance.

What would you do if you had Titus' job? And what if you were one of the local Christians on Crete, how could you help him during his time on the island?