What’s a book about early 20th Century missionary practices got to do with 21st Century youth workers? Everything, it turns out.
Roland Allen was a missionary in North China from 1895 - 1903. He returned to England after eight years of missionary work, somewhat disappointed with the practices of most mission agencies. Why was it, he thought, that St Paul could arrive in an area and leave six months later, having planted a mature self-sustaining Christian congregation, when most modern mission agencies would spend many decades and thousands of pounds and never see the same sort of fruit? What did Paul do so differently that was so effective? Missionary Methods: St Paul’s Or Ours, published in 1912, is Allen’s attempt at answering that question.
And this is Allen’s answer. Paul was successful not because of some special conditions in the Roman Empire that made church-planting super easy back then, but because Paul trusted that the Holy Spirit would work just as powerfully in these new converts as he would in every other Christian. Paul’s method is to simply preach the basics of the gospel and Christianity, see people become Christians, and then let the newly formed church get on with things, trusting that the Holy Spirit would do the work needed to build them up.
Allen’s criticism of 1900’s missionary work boils down to this: the foreign missionary treats the new converts as children, and doesn’t allow them to decide who can get baptised, who can be leaders, or what to do with their money. They breed dependence on the missionary. They never allow the newly converted Christians to take responsibility for their own faith. The church is always immature because it never needs to take any responsibility for itself.
And this is why it’s a book about youth work. Do we do the same thing? When a young person becomes a Christian do we require them to place their faith in us or in Christ Jesus? Do we encourage them to run their own Bible studies and reach out to their friends, or do we always take the lead? When they ask a question about what they should do in their lives, do we tell them how they should behave, or do we prayerfully point them to scripture and trust the Holy Spirit will work in their hearts? Do we want our young people to grow in obedience to God because they have faith in Him or do we want them just to do something because they’ve been told to?
Allen’s challenge to 1910 missionaries, is the very same challenge for us youth workers, a Century later.
