The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church
by Roland Allen
Foreword by Lesslie Newbigin
Imprint: Wipf and Stock
In all his writings, Allen's overriding concern was to show that missionary method, far from being a secondary or indifferent matter, is a matter of supreme importance.
The late Lesslie Newbigin was one of the twentieth century's most influential Christian thinkers. A founding bishop of the Church in South India, he later served as an associate general secretary of the World Council of Churches, before being called back to southern India as Bishop in Madras in 1965.
“The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church by Roland Allen is a rather short but very thought provoking book. In it, he somewhat implicitly asks the question, Who builds the Church? Leading to that thought, he critiques our method of Evangelization, are we doing it right? Do we need to organize the expansion of the church? Do we need to establish mission stations, do we need missionaries who depend upon appeals for money for their support. Will the Gospel spread if we don't purposefully come up with a plan to spread it?”
“... Allen greatly laments Christian organizations reliance upon money. He notices that anytime missionaries see an opportunity for the further spread of the Gospel they make it seem as though it cannot take place without money. “
“There are other things Allen addresses that are quite interesting and intriguing thoughts. But, to sum up Allen's book: He warns us that we are trying to make people into New Creations ourselves, essentially taking the job of the Holy Spirit into our own hands. We don't need to make people moral before they can come to Christ, that will come afterward, we don't need to change people's surrounding circumstances before they can be a vibrant Christian. We don't need money to spread the Gospel. We don't need professional missionaries and Christian organizations to spread the Gospel. We don't need money to create a church. Christ will build His church. I highly recommend this book.”
---Sarah L. , Musings of Snickerdoodle Blog, The Book Elucidator Blog, LibraryThing & GoodReads.com