Missionary Methods “St Paul’s or Ours; A Study Of The Church In The Four Provinces.”    by Roland Allen

Book review by Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF   11-27-11

This book was written around 1927 at a time when there was much missionary activity in the orient, including China. I guess it was at a time when Ruth Graham’s parents were ministering there. It is an honest assessment of the missionary methods used by Apostle Paul and comparing his methods to the methods of the western missionaries. It is actually a major rebuke of the western missionary’s methods. Allen basically is trying to get them to see how far they are from Paul’s technique. He was also trying to get people in this century to realize that Paul’s techniques were not just working because of his times, but they are applicable universally.

I will try to touch on a few points that I understood.  First, strategic points. What I get from this chapter is that the Bible does not implicitly declare that he had a strategy, but when God opened the door to a certain region he then focused on a mission center. But he was never bound to that center. He planted a church and worked through that center.  Modern missions get so caught up on finding a mission center and then fortifying that they are not free to follow the spirit’s leading and are rendered impotent to be used by God to pioneer other churches through other open doors.

Second, class. It seems that Paul did not start his work by preaching to loafers and dead beats. He also did not focus on the intellectual elites. He focuses, first on the Jews and then, when they rejected his message, he seemed to focus on the religiously inquisitive, and those in the market places. These were the first people he ministered to. As the reach of the ministry grew he included all classes, depending on the Holy Spirit.  Allen urges the modern missionary to not just focus in on a class, but expand their preaching to include all classes depending on the Holy Spirit.

Third, moral and social condition.  In the four provinces there were many pagan religions. They believed in devils and were terrorized by their superstitions. By preaching the supremacy of Christ, the people were offered a very real and effective antidote to their “devil worship.”  In Paul’s time, there was slavery, but the people were not thinking about slaves rights. Allen was saying that the moral and social conditions in Paul’s time put him to now better advantage than our modern conditions.

Fourth, miracles. People in Paul’s time were attracted to miracles. Paul’s use of miracle revealed the nature of Christian religion (i.e. the mercy and compassion of Jesus.) Even though we don’t emphasize miracles for the most part, we still know that Jesus is more powerful than any pagan religion and they can still be used to reveal the character of the Gospel. But we should not be covetous of getting the power to perform miracles.

Fifth, finances. This chapter interested me. Paul tried to get each church to be self supporting. He also wanted them to give to the needy. But he wanted them to have unified giving. He got the churches to co-operate, like in the offering to the poor inJerusalem. Allen spent a lot of time in encouraging the churches to be self supporting and not depend on the foreign mission board. This makes people dependent on the foreign missionary and elevates the foreign missionary above everyone because he is able to elicit the funds.

Sixth, Paul’s preaching. When analyzing Paul’s preaching we can see that Paul set his listeners up with the complete background and then he pressed them to make a decision to accept or reject the Gospel. Allen called the modern missionary to stop preaching to a population that is not responding, nor making a decision to change their lives in accordance with the gospel message.

Seventh, the teaching. Paul gave his converts a clear and simple gospel message. He did not introduce the lengthy text book. He did not introduce a lengthy church catechism. He introduced the Old Testament and the gospel message and then left. We tend to “shut the mouths” of our converts when we get them to digest huge catechisms of church doctrine with little of no understanding of the meaning of what they are supposed to believe.  Allen also speaks about the teachings coming from above, from foreign leaders who are disconnected from their congregation. He says that the converts aren’t allowed to make their own decisions.

Eighth, training candidates for baptism. In this section, Allen was saying that Paul did not try to control who got admitted. It was left up to the congregation. He was empowering the converts to make choices. He also stated that because the churches were waiting for the foreign missionaries to do the baptizing then the people were being deprived of a sacrament, because there were so many converts and not enough people to do the baptizing. He advocates Paul’s method to empower the converts to make the choices and the baptizing.

Ninth, Authority and discipline. Allen thinks about the context in which Paul was talking about discipline. Paul took the cultural context into consideration. He was not quick to lay out rules and laws. He taught principles and he left room for the Holy Spirit. He rebuked the modern missionary for applying their own laws without understanding the cultural milieu. He stated that we need to trust the Holy Spirit. We also need to help converts, not by isolating them from sin, but by conveying principles so that they can stand up in the face of temptation with their own faith.

Tenth, unity. Paul did not apply the governing principles of the church in Judea to the churches in the four provinces. He did not have a long list of items that must be adhered to be considered unified. He knew that there must be a spiritual unity. Allen rebuked the missionaries for generating a unity by a applying a unity though administration. “And at what cost?” Allen says. Allen says that if there is a burst of life there will be schisms. We should not be so afraid of schisms but we fight disunity through striving for spiritual unity.

Eleventh, Principles and Spirit. This chapter was the most captivating to me. Allen says that according to Pauline methods, a missionary should trust native leadership. He should be working towards his own retirement by taking extended mission trips etc. He should train the converts to take over and don’t wait forever to do it.

Allen’s discussion about Paul’s methods is very clear. The principles are all there in the Bible. It is true that we ignore the Bible’s principles to fulfill our own principles and carry on with things as if we know best. But in the end we pay a high price and fail to establish church as God intended. We must get rid of our own methods and apply God’s methods as revealed in the Holy text. We also need to trust the Holy Spirit as well as trust God’s work in the hearts of the new converts.

Even though the early missionaries made mistakes, God still blessed the fruit of their labors. We see today, Korea with a strong Christian faith and the underground church in China. The seeds of this work were sown by early missionaries. I saw some of their tombstones in Seoul Korea. One read, “we buried more children than we made converts” and, “He died rescuing a Korean girl from a flood.”