The Apostle Paul is unfortunately detained, but wants to hear how the churches he planted are doing. He asks his co-laborers Luke, Titus, and Silas to visit the churches in the regions of Macedonia & Achia (in present day Greece), Asia Minor, Galatia (both in present day Turkey), and the Islands of the Mediterranean.

Note that most, but not all of the cities on the map are referenced in the New Testament in relation to Paul's church planting journeys. The cities not mentioned in the New Testament were real cities in Paul's time and might or might not have had churches planted during Paul's life. For the purpose of the game, we will assume they did, but we don't really know.

Your Job

Your objective is to visit as many churches as possible.

To do so, you direct the movements of these three evangelists:
Luke starts in Philippi,
Titus starts on Crete,
Silas starts in Antioch.

They can travel by one of three methods:
Roman Road,
Footpath, or
Boat.

Components/Setup

Each player takes a Map/Scoring sheet and three highlighters (Green, Orange, and Blue).

Cities on the map are divided into four regions for scoring, indicated by the color of each city dot:
The combined Macedonia & Achaia
Asia Minor
Galatia
The Mediterranean Islands

The highlighters are used to record the actions of the three evangelists:
Green for Luke (who begins in Philippi)
Orange for Silas (who begins in Antioch)
Blue for Titus (who begins on Crete)

The game die has 8 sides, representing 3 modes of travel and a "Player's Choice":
Roman Road
Footpath
Boat
Player's Choice

Game Play

Players take turns rolling the 8-sided die to determine the mode of travel for the turn. If the die shows the Player's Choice question mark, then the player who rolled announces which of the modes of travel to use this turn.

The player who rolled takes one of two actions with ONE to THREE of the evangelists (Luke, Silas, and/or Titus). All other players MAY choose ONE of the evangelists with which to take one of the two actions:

1. If the evangelist can move using the mode of travel, then draw a line along that route to the next city. An evangelist cannot re-use a route between two cities (in either direction), but other evangelists can.
2. If an evangelist cannot move, announce that he is PREACHING in that city. If this is the first time he has preached in that city then circle the city dot with his color. If this is the second (or more) time, and the evangelist has visited at least two regions, circle the dot again and announce that the evangelist has been CALLED as a PASTOR. (That evangelist can no longer travel.)

If neither of those actions can be taken for any of the evangelists, then that player passes for this turn.

For example, if the first player rolls a Road, then he could move Luke from Philippi to Neapolis, move Silas from Antioch to Iconium, and have Titus preach on Crete, as shown below.

Ending the Game

The game ends when one player has had all three evangelists called as pastors or none of the players can move any of their evangelists.

At that point, everyone calculates their score using the Scoring section of their Map/Scoring sheet:

• Four points are scored for each region visited by each of the evangelists.
• Three points are scored for each time any evangelist preached (only counting one time for the city where the evangelist is called as pastor).
• Five points are scored for each evangelist called as a pastor.
• Two points are deducted for any city not visited by any evangelist.

The highest score wins the game.

See the example below:

Game Variant Ideas:

• For a potentially longer game, only allow players to PREACH or be CALLED on their turn (when they are the ones rolling the die).
• For a potentially shorter game, allow evangelists to be CALLED without having visited multiple regions.

Journeys for Paul is exclusively available from the SDG Biblical Wisdom shop.