Paul's Missionary Methods Paperback

If you want to gain fuller understanding of Saint Paul's methods of outreach and church planting, especially with a view to learning which out of those methods may be definitive for the Church today, then you will find this stimulating collection helpful. Part One - Paul in the New Testament - contains interesting chapters on topics such as Paul's milieu and ecclesiology, and a useful discussion of suffering and spiritual warfare. But I found Part Two - Paul's Influence on Missions - particularly provocative in what it said about issues like indigenous missions and contextualisation. It's in this second part that the main reason for the publication of this book now comes to the fore. It's been written to mark the centenary of Roland Allen's "highly significant and still challenging book on missions, Missionary Methods: St. Paul's or Ours?" Since I had never encountered Allen's book, I found these chapters really enlightening, as I read about "Generational resubmission - the resubmission of each generation of men to the Word and Spirit of God", and learnt about Allen's philosophy of "indigenous mission", that is "self-supporting, self-governing and self-propagating". "Contextualisation" is relevant there, as is danger of excessively westernised patterns of missionary work. Maybe the truth of Allen's words was not fully appreciated at the time. But that has changed over the years. "Even though Allen sleeps, he still speaks - but this time people are listening" (the book's cclosing words). I do recommend reading this.