Roland Allen died sixty-seven years ago today. Best known for his books Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours (1912) and The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church and the Causes which Hinder It (1927), Allen has been tremendously influential in shaping modern missionary practices of the second half of the 20th century to the present.
This Anglican priest was a leading influence on both Leslie Newbign and Donald A. McGavran, with the latter being the most influential missiologist of the 20th century. 
Unfortunately, many people today believe Allen is only a shadowy figure of yesteryear, bearing little influence on contemporary missions. Many have never heard of Allen. I recently met an Anglican priest who was very engaged in missions, but had never heard of Roland Allen. To put this into perspective for those of my denominational tribe, it would be like an IMB missionary who has never heard of Lottie Moon!
The influence of Roland Allen is upon 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 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
If you want to read about the life of Allen and his understanding of missions, get a copy of my book Roland Allen: Pioneer of Spontaneous Expansion.
Here are some other resources that will be of assistance to you as well.
Here is a video of a lecture on Allen’s legacy given to students at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Take some time this week to read about Allen’s life and work.
Thank you for this mission.