John the Baptist wasn't in the "church business" either, he was in the baptism business and said so himself that it would be AFTER him for that to occur: "I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
Furthermore, since Rome WAS in the church business in the 1st century AD (every historian will tell you that Rome was an early center for Christianity and evangelization back then), John the Baptist would also need a time machine to be doing it "300 years" before Rome.