One of the great Christian missions books in the last couple of hundred years is Roland Allen's work, "Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours? A Study of the Church in the Four Provinces." It is a wonderful commentary on colonial-style missions, and contrasting it with missions carried out by St. Paul in the book of …
Continue reading 52AD 1st Millennium Missions History. Paul’s Mission Trips to Asia Minor
One of my students is writing on the mission work of Paul as it may provide insight to his ministerial context. Describing the targets of Paul's work, my student described three groups. First, he noted that Paul reached out to Jews. He would go to the synagogue and share Jesus as Messiah, Lord, and Savior. …
"The secret of success in this work lies in beginning at the very beginning. It is the training of the first converts which sets the type for the future. If the first converts are taught to depend upon the missionary, if all work, evangelistic, educational, social is concentrated in his hands, the infant community learns …
Continue reading Another Roland Allen Quote. Missionaries and Leadership
A Quote from Roland Allen in "Missionary Methods: St. Paul's or Ours. A Study of the Church in the Four Provinces" chapter 5 (ca 1912). "St. Paul did not convert or attempt to convert people by working miracles upon them. He did not attract people to Christianity by offering them healing. He did not heal …
Roland Allen's classic book, "Missionary Methods: St. Paul's or Ours?" is an important book that examines how we do missions. It certainly has good points. If I wanted to be honest about it... the obvious answer to the question of Roland Allen is "Ours". That is because we always need to tailor our methods to …
Continue reading Missionary Methods: St. Barnabbas’ or Ours?