Christianity was there before Paul converted. He did become a missionary to Gentiles, but the church council that decided Gentile Christians didn't need to be circumcised was headed by James, the half-brother of Jesus:
At the Council, following advice said to have been offered by Simon Peter ( Acts 15:7–11), James, the leader of the Jerusalem Church, gave his decision (later known as the "Apostolic Decree"):
"Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood. [2] For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day" ( Acts 15:19–21).
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