I am very excited to share that my new work on the late Anglican, missionary-priest, Roland Allen, is now available.
On Monday, Roland Allen: Pioneer of Spontaneous Expansion was published in light of this year being the 100th anniversary of the publication of Allen’s 1912 writing Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours?. His work has influenced many people across the years. If you have not read this classic in missions literature, then you should do it this year.
A couple of years ago I had considered writing a biography on Allen to be published this year. However, my plans for this project did not come to fruition. Knowing that I still wanted to publish something related to the man and his views on missions, I decided to publish the book that was released this week.
Roland Allen: Pioneer of Spontaneous Expansion addresses Allen’s views related to the multiplication of churches. A warning is necessary: this is not light reading. While the book is only 138 pages, I cite extensively from Allen’s writings (both well-known and obscure). I want the reader to be exposed to the primary source material as much as possible. And for those readers not familiar with Allen’s life, the first chapter provides a biographical sketch, beginning with his birth and concluding with his death in 1947. There is also an extensive bibliography listing most of Allen’s publications, publications about Allen, and dissertations that have been written about him.
Here is the Table of Contents:
Preface
Introduction to Spontaneous Expansion
Chapter 1: The Story of the Man
Chapter 2: The Way of Jesus
Chapter 3: The Apostolic Approach
Chapter 4: Ecclesiology
Chapter 5: Pneumatology
Chapter 6: Place of the Missionary
Chapter 7: Devolution
Chapter 8: Missionary Faith
Chapter 9: Leadership Development
Chapter 10: Voluntary Clergy
Chapter 11: Nonprofessional Missionaries
Conclusion
Bibliography
As I wrote in a previous post, aside from the obvious, this book is for you if:
- you are interested in church planting movements
- you think about church multiplication
- you have strong convictions about the role of the Holy Spirit in missions
- you you prefer contextualized church planting over paternalism
- you believe in raising up leaders from the harvest
- you are crazy enough to believe that the New Testament has something to say regarding how we should be doing missionary work today
I do hope you will not only add this book to your library, but will help me in spreading the word about it! If you order it HERE, be sure to use the 30% off discount code: 8UZT7VJQ that is still available. Let me also encourage you to consider posting a review of the book on Amazon HERE.
The book is being converted into the Kindle format. The folks overseeing such work have informed me that the book should be in this version in 3-4 weeks. If interested, check later with Amazon.
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Since reading “Methods” in college, Allen’s thinking has continued to rock my world. I now find myself as a worker in a restricted nation among a people who desperately need spontaneous expansion. I have just finished “Roland Allen: Pioneer of Spontaneous Expansion.” I found myself thirsting to read more of the primary source material. I have read most of his stuff available on Kindle–as I really can’t have this type of thing physically mailed to me here. However, I am having difficulty finding access to electronic formats of some of his other works (such as his journal articles and books). Do you know any place online that offers access to more of the primary source material? If not, it would be great if someone set up such a site! 😉
Thanks for the comment, Derrick–and for reading my book! Unfortunately, such documents are not in electronic versions yet.
May the Lord continue to use you among the people to whom He has called you!