It is over a century now since Roland Allen, a British former missionary to China published Missionary Methods: St Paul’s or Ours? (Download a free pdf of the book here: http://ia700300.us.archive.org/35/items/missionarymethod00alle/missionarymethod00alle.pdf.) Not many books are still in print so long after their initial publication. So what makes it so significant? In this book, Allen compares Paul’s approach with those that were common at the turn of the 20th century. Contemporary methods were heavily influenced by colonial attitudes oftentimes manifesting a superior spirit towards native believers. There was a reluctance to give authority to local believers. Often it was felt that converts needed long periods of instruction before they were baptized and given membership of a church. Mission control over native churches was a given.
Although Allen was a High Churchman this does
not seriously affect the expression of his missionary principles (‘Methods’ is
actually a misleading title) except in perhaps one respect which we will note
later. He was hot on the work of the Spirit in mission and the centrality of
the Word and so his principles fit easily with a Reformed approach. He abhorred
the pragmatic approach that focussed on the overwhelming difficulties in the
way of establishing churches and believed that missions had failed because of
obstacles that they had introduced.
Allen’s Argument
The chapters of Missionary Methods are logically arranged and seek one by one to
answer the question, What was the reason for Paul’s success?
1.
Introduction.
2.
Strategic Points. Paul
deliberately made the most of the administrative, linguistic, and cultural
advantages available in the Roman system.
3.
Class. Paul did not have a
strategy of approaching the elite of the societies he was reaching out to.
4.
Moral and Social Condition. The
spiritual, moral and social condition of the first century Mediterranean world
was just as corrupt as any society you will find on earth in the contemporary
context. Paul had no advantage over the contemporary scene.
5.
Miracles. Paul’s miracles were
significant but their significance must not be exaggerated.
6.
Finance. Allen makes three
assertions concerning Paul’s use of money: (1) he did not seek financial help
for himself; (2) he took no financial help to those to whom he preached; (3) he
did not administer local church funds.
7.
The Substance of Paul’s
Preaching. Allen draws out a number of lessons from Paul’s preaching: he was
sensitive to his hearers; he didn’t blast them; he was no inclusivist; he
preached the wrath of God; he did demand of them a moral and spiritual change
and was not content to merely sow the seed; and finally he preached for
individual change but also for social communion.
8.
The Teaching. Allen asserts
that much contemporary mission work of his time teaches new believers to rely
not on the Spirit but on the missionary.
9.
The Training of Candidates for
Baptism and Ordination. Teaching followed
baptism. This does not mean that the rite was carelessly administered. Allen
concludes that Paul admitted only a few people of known reputation who showed
real faith then handed over the admission procedure to those men. Likewise in
the appointment of elders.
10. Authority and Discipline. The churches were not dependent on the
apostle but neither were they independent of him.
11. Unity. The churches that Paul founded were one in spirit. Paul
refused to make them one in form or structure. Allen also points out that
nowhere does Paul “establish a priori
tests of orthodoxy”.
In the last 3 chapters Allen seeks to
apply the principles he has expounded to the contemporary situation.
Analysis
It is impossible in a blog post to do
justice to Allen’s thought. However, it is important to see how Allen both
built on previous work and paved the way for later thinking on
contextualization. Clearly Allen was drawing on the work of a half-century
previous by Henry Venn and Rufus Anderson with their call for churches in
mission situations to become indigenous.
Allen’s emphasis on the work of the Spirit is refreshing and shows up the lack
of theological grounds for the overbearing nature of much missionary control,
at least in the past—but one wonders about situations today too.
Allen asserts that the modern missionary,
like Paul, should move on from planting a church much earlier than has
traditionally been the case. He must leave the new church to the care of the
Spirit. Here I think Allen takes a big risk. One can certainly sympathize with
this approach. The security of the new church certainly does not depend on the
presence of the missionary. Still today, so many years after Allen’s thinking
was published missionaries are often found to be in a situation for decades,
eventually leaving a stunted and impoverished church.
But should a missionary up and leave
after just a few weeks or months? Here Allen surely overstates his case. Paul,
after all, often had to leave a new church not by his own choice but because he
was drummed out of town, such as at
Thessalonica and Berea
(Acts 17). Furthermore, sometimes he did in fact choose to stay for a
considerable time, as at Ephesus
(Acts 19). Allen clearly has, here, misrepresented Paul. Allen’s theological
contentment with leaving the new church so quickly must be found in his High
Churchmanship. For Allen leaving a new church with the Sacraments for their
nurture was enough. No evangelical will surely be content with that. The Lord’
commission included the injunction to teach the disciples to obey all that he
had commanded them (Matt 28:20). That implies ongoing ministry, whether by the
church planter or by those he has trained and equipped.
Nevertheless, Allen’s insistence that new
believers have the Spirit and can therefore be confidently commended to the
Lord and left without missionary control is a principle that is still as needed
today as it was when he stated it.
The work of Roland Allen stands squarely
in the stream of precursors to the contemporary missiological debates about
contextualization. His work came out of reflection on his contemporary
situation and almost a century later still deserves a careful reading.
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