The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church: And the Causes That Kinder It

Reviews (See all 6) Write a reviewfor this

• 

  This book was a seminal influence on my thinking about ecclesiology. It's no wonder that Howard Snyder's The Problem of Wineskins was so important to me by the time I got to it.

   

   

  by Ronald Goetz on Mar 14, 2009 at 11:43AM

  Already read

  Is this review helpful? yes no
   
• 
  

  Though never serving for an extended period of time overseas, Allen saw enough of the troubles with associated with the colonial paradigm to provide an apostolic correction. While his ideological correctives were not well appreciated in his own day, Allen’s insights still speak loudly to the missions enterprise. At the heart of this work is Allen’s disgust with weakness and dependency in the native churches, and he offers the solution of spontaneous expansion—“Spontaneous expansion must be fr... (show more)

  Though never serving for an extended period of time overseas, Allen saw enough of the troubles with associated with the colonial paradigm to provide an apostolic correction. While his ideological correctives were not well appreciated in his own day, Allen’s insights still speak loudly to the missions enterprise. At the heart of this work is Allen’s disgust with weakness and dependency in the native churches, and he offers the solution of spontaneous expansion—“Spontaneous expansion must be free: it cannot be under our control; and consequently it is utterly vain to say, as I constantly hear men say, that we desire to see spontaneous expansion, and yet must maintain our control. If we want to see spontaneous expansion we must establish native churches free from our control” (5).
  In the second chapter, Allen defines what he means by spontaneous expansion—“I mean the individual members of the Church explaining to others the Gospel which they have found for themselves; I mean the expansion which follows the irresistible attraction of the Christian Church for men who see its ordered life, and are drawn to it by desire to discover the secret of a life which they instinctively desire to share; I mean also the expansion of the Church by the addition of new churches” (7). He contrasts spontaneous expansion with a paid, organized effort that inevitably attempts to control and thus restrict the growth of the church. Thus, the spontaneous action is free, voluntary and full of zeal while the employed action imposes an “external authority” in order to control the uncontrollable—“We are in far greater danger of serious disorder when, in fear of the expression of self-will, we restrain a God-given instinct, than when we accept the risks involved in giving it free play” (16). Ultimately, his argument is that the problems being increasingly experience by missions in relation to native churches are caused by the missionary enterprise itself through its strict controls while giving freedom to young churches from the beginning to order and govern itself would lead to uncontrollable growth. In spontaneous expansion, the current emphasis on Church Planting Movements echoes many of Allen’s sentiments, though CPMs place more expectations on new churches—such as numerical growth.
  Chapters three through eight record Allen’s discussion of the errors made by mission organizations contributing to imperialism, paternalism, and dependency. In chapter three, Allen argues that introducing a paid agent, often ill-prepared, in the place of a grass-roots and vibrant, though perhaps uneducated, church stifles growth—“If the moment that we find anyone doing anything spontaneously we send a paid man to do it for him, we stop his work and we check others from following his example. All men see and learn the lesson that to join the white man’s Church it is necessary to induce the white men to send one of his trained teachers. They see and learn the lesson that the spontaneous zeal of native Christians is deficient in some way” (38). Contrarily, “Spontaneous zeal leads Christian men to teach others, often in secret, often at risk of their lives and property” (40). Therefore, Allen answers the objection that self-government is learned over time and that natives are not capable of self-support immediately. He calls the reader to trust the Spirit active in the young church. Still, many American churches are involved in providing salaries and buildings for the life of other churches. There is need for teaching in this area among the American denominations.
  In chapter four, Allen challenges the missionary system of education whereby intellectual apprehension of theology is the standard of Christian maturity, “so instead of bearing witness to Christ we present an argument” (55). His solution is to point people to the person of Jesus so that the relationship is primary and theology secondary. In summary, he states, “et we commonly insist that to propagate the doctrine we must have men who can answer the arguments of opponents. No doubt it is well to have men who can do this, but it is far more important to have men who can witness to Christ simply and truly, for true and simple witness is by far the more powerful weapon. A clever argument may silence opponents, but witness converts them: they see in a deliverance something which all their wit does not supply” (55–6). This is a powerful corrective to a “knowledge” based system of discipleship. That Allen’s work would be applied to Western churches! In efforts at providing theological education to new churches, this pitfall must be recognized and avoided. Certainly, a mature mind requires depth of knowledge, but this knowledge must remain subject to personal zeal in the Spirit.
  The next two chapters (5–6) indentify the errors of equating western morality and civilization with Christianity. On moral law, he boldly states, “That standard which we so often call the Christian standard of morals, simply does not exist in the New Testament” (68). Regarding western civilization, Allen asks, “But the real problem is not whether we should encourage or discourage any particular custom, but whether we should be the judges of what is fitting; not whether we should retain or revive this or that native custom, but whether we should touch these things directly at all” (79). In both cases, Allen aptly concludes that the efforts at moralizing and civilizing have only inoculated the masses from Christianity. It has made the gospel inherently foreign and made Christianity the stumbling block on the way to Christ—“’The Christian civilization which we hoped would prepare the way for Christ has proved itself a stumbling-block, and we must confess that we have gone astray, and have obscured the true foundation, the Cross of Christ which is itself the condemnation of our civilization. Our Western enlightenment, our Christian social doctrines, our Christian science, are no foundation upon which to build faith in Christ” (90).
  In the final two chapters before the conclusion (7–8), Allen brings his final critique of the mission society paradigm. He argues that missionary organizations have supplanted the church as the organism “with a world-wide mission for a world-wide work” (96). In so doing, societies and organizations have created a special professional class of missionaries that has rendered the gospel ineffective and foreign the most of the world—“Our organization immobilizes our missionaries. It creates and maintains large stations and great institutions, and these absorb a very great proportion of our energy. We cannot move freely. A mission station is indeed a contradiction in terms: mission implies movement, station implies stopping” (105). Thus, “Within such a professional system as ours there can be little room for spontaneous activity. All men naturally tend to leave direct missionary work to a professional class when there exists a professional class whose special duty it is to do it” (112). Overall, this system empowers the missionary while is subjugates the native. Is this still not the case? Is not missions carried out largely by a professional missionary class? Hesselgrave, in Paradigms in Conflict, discusses the amateurization and professionalization of missions. He certainly spins the amateur as near-sighted and unprepared. However, one can conclude that the missionary enterprise can be carried out by a “prepared” amateur. In other words, why should not the local church be aware of cultural difference and how to overcome barriers. Certainly few churches in the world live isolated from other cultures.
  In conclusion, Allen offers a simple five-part solution: (1) deliver to the church the Creed; (2) deliver them the gospel—“For they must learn from the very beginning to rely upon God, not upon men, for spiritual progress; upon the Bible, not upon human teachers, for spiritual instruction” (147); (3) deliver them the authority to and knowledge how to administer the sacraments; (4) select ordained ministers from within the congregation for the church; and (5) teach the church how to teach other churches the same. Certainly, some of these points gain such importance for Allen since he is an Anglican, but his desire is simplicity. (show less)

   

  by Facebook User on Oct 20, 2008 at 03:01PM

  Already read

  Is this review helpful? yes no
   
• See all reviews
  Write a review