Allen Roland Missionary Methods
MISSIONARY METHODS:
ST. PAUL’S OR OURS
BY
ROLAND ALLEN, M.A.
Slightly modernized (Latin numerals, archaic words, rare spelling, punctuation, syntax.)
Some citations are corrected. Notes and additional citations are in blue
by William H. Gross www.onthewing.org Nov 2012
An observation – What is interesting about this book, written 100 years ago, is how much of it
applies to church-building today, in the 21st century. Although it is titled Missionary Methods, it
is about far more than missions overseas during the Age of Missions. It is about church planting
today. It addresses how pastors should look at their congregations; and how they can release the
people of God to do the work of Christ in the world, by the power of the Spirit. Not to trust our
people with that work, not to equip them for that work, is not to trust God. We pastors tend to be
as paternalistic today, inside our own borders, with our own people, as these missionary societies
were 100 years ago with the natives of foreign lands. We tend to be as prone to hold onto control
in our own practices, and to make ourselves as indispensable, as the missionary societies whose
practices Roland Allen describes here. And we tend to use the same justifications for our
misbehavior as they did. This is a wonderfully informative and useful exposé of unbiblical
practices in the founding and establishing of churches overseas, and at home. – W.H. Gross
