Roland Allen Day 1

June 8 is Roland Allen Day. You probably did not know that.

Allen was one of the leading missional thinkers of the 20th century. And his influence continues well into the 21st. In fact, if any of the following applies to you, then you have felt that influence:

• 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 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

Allen was born December 29, 1868 and died June 8, 1947.  He is honored with a feast day, on June 8, on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) (The Diocese of Oxford has listed Allen on their Calendar of Commemoration on January 27).

For the next week, you may get a copy of Roland Allen: Pioneer of Spontaneous Expansion for only $1.00 on Kindle (or $4.20 in paper). This book will provide you with an excellent summary of his life and missiology.

If you have never read Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours? or The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church and the Causes which Hinder It, then do so this summer. At the time of this post, these books are only $0.99 on Kindle.

Here are a few additional Allen-related resources for you too:

Roland Allen, The Man

Roland Allen, The Missiology

Here is a video of a lecture on Allen’s legacy given to students at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

One last thought: William Carey Library Publishers is publishing my next book, The Ministry of Expansion by Roland Allen, this November. In the late 1930s, Allen wrote a manuscript titled The Ministry of Expansion, The Priesthood of the Laity. This work has never been published. I have edited his writing into a book with complimentary chapters by world-renowned Allen scholars: Hubert Allen (Roland Allen’s biographer and grandson), Steven Rutt, Robert Schmidt, and Robert Banks. Stay tuned!