Roland Allen (1868-1947) was a British missionary who has written some of the most straight-forward works on missions available. These are not books written by an executive in a home office, but by a man who spent the majority of his life in the mission field. As time progressed, Allen became somewhat disenfranchised with the established church, seeing a division between the formality of religion and the power of God. Throughout his travels, Allen spent time ministering in China, India, Canada, and East Africa. He died while serving in Nairobi, Kenya, which is where he is buried. He was 78 years old. His work wasn't well received until years after his death, but since then, his books have been considered some of the most revolutionary written on the subject of missions. Some of what he taught that seemed counterintuitive at the time include the ideas that missionaries should be self-sustaining (like Paul, who made tents), should adapt their methods to local customs, and train locals to take over the mission work. The Table of Contents are as follow: IntroductionThe Nature and Character of Spontaneous ExpansionModern Movements Towards LibertyFear for the DoctrineThe Christian Standard of MoralsCivilization and EnlightenmentMissionary OrganizationEcclesiastical OrganizationThe Way of Spontaneous Expansion For more of the most-enduring Christian classics ever written, including a small library of free eBooks just for signing up for the email list, be sure to visit the publisher's website at: http://JawboneDigital.com
Roland Allen wrote this book 100 years ago based on his experiences as a missionary in China. His conclusion: Missionaries should seek to raise up local leaders and then step out of the way.It was Allen's belief that only people with a local connection to a land and its people could raise up the sort of spontaneous expansion of the church that he saw as normative. Local leaders raised up as priests and bishops was the only way for the church to explode through society. Coming from the Anglican communion, his most challenging idea centered around bishops. Allen felt simply that it was bishops that were the catalyst for expansion. By raising large numbers of bishops from the local population, expansion would be self-sufficient and self-propogating.Allen's thoughts are timeless. Equally applicable to overseas mission fields today and inner-city outreach in America. By reaching to the local people, embracing everyone as equals, and turning people loose with their God-given talents, expansion of the church would be rapid, and inevitable.
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