No one was more radically critical of the ministry and the inherited Church policy that surrounds it than Roland Allen (1868-1949), whose prophetic writings constantly challenge the whole mission of the Christian Church, and many of his most important essays are collected here along with contributions about him. After studying at Oxford, his clerical training was in Leeds. He went as a missionary to China for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG), where he stayed for twenty years. His experience convinced him that missionary methods needed changing, and that St Paul had more to...

Short description: No one was more radically critical of the ministry and the inherited Church policy that surrounds it than Allen, whose prophetic writings constantly challenge the whole mission of the Christian Church, and his writings on the subject are collected here.

Roland Allen is internationally renowned for his controversial solutions to dilemmas within churches and missions. His works were first written in the first decade of the twentieth century, yet their ideas are so radical that they are still relevant today. Indeed, Allen predicted that his principles would not be broadly accepted until around fifty years after their creation. This selection of works by this mission pioneer and creative thinker takes extracts from Allen's other writings, which although having potential to be just as influential as those better known, have long been out of...