Missionary Principles

Lecturer's Personal Note:

For many years I studied the works of Roland Allen. For ten years my wife and I (with children) were missionaries in Pakistan. I also had ministry in those and following years in other countries. My views of what we call 'missionary ministry', then and now, issued greatly from my reading of the Book of Acts, the Apostolic Epistles and the Book of Revelation-to say nothing of the background of the Old testament and the four Gospels-along with Roland Allen's writings, namely Missionary Methods: St. Paul's or Ours (1912), The Spontaneous Expansion of the Christian Church, and The Ministry of the Spirit-Selected Writings of Roland Allen. Donald MacGavran, a disciple of Allen wrote his famous book The Bridges of God which in some ways followed the principles taught by Allen. I was so gripped by these and, later, a book by H.R. Boer Pentecost and Missions that my thinking was developed and has remained gripped by such writings. In Pakistan I was Founder Principal of that country's first Bible Training Institute where we taught these principles and saw many of the fruits of them, and I believe some of those fruits remain even today. Whilst I have learned to come to terms with the institutional churches in this land and elsewhere I believe we always pay the price for churches being formed along lines other than what I see to be 'apostolic'. I am appalled by many of our modem methods of church planting, substantiation and enlargement, eg. what are called 'mega-churches'.

The studies we will be sharing may be considered by some to be outdated, outmoded when made in the face of modern Missiology. 'Missiology'-The Study of Mission and Missions-is a word devised to cover all the aspects of missionary planning, strategy, and action. I have certainly gained many insights from the writings of missiologists, and if we are talking about the fire of God spreading the Gospel throughout the world, then I have no problems since Christ gave us this privilege and responsibility, with but I feel the very idea of missiology as a learned discipline is inadequate. Where men and women have been gripped by the Gospel there will be the action of proclamation whatever name we may apply to it. The name does not matter, but the action does. For some missiology relates to our use of the Bible as a text-book from which to abstract principles and then apply them, especially with other modem skills to assist in their outworking. Whilst I believe the Holy Spirit can use all things that is, he works in spite of our planning and 'how to' techniques I am sure we need to know our primary direction from the Holy Spirit himself. We need to be fired by him.

Missionary Principles

Proclaiming Christ's Gospel in Today's World