宣教原则
——读罗兰·艾伦著作的心得体会
Roland Allen. Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s Or Ours. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1989.
罗兰·艾伦 (Roland Allen) 于 1895 年至 1903 年间担任英国圣公会在中国的宣教士。此后几年，他负责英国教区。在接下来的 40 年里，他一直致力于宣教原则的写作。罗兰·艾伦凭借自己作为宣教士的丰富经验，于1912年写下了《宣教方法：圣保罗或我们的宣教方法》一书。该书在20世纪60年代被重新发现。艾伦根据《新约》以及威廉·拉姆齐教授和阿道夫·冯·哈纳克教授的著作进行历史重建，以保罗的宣教策略为例，对当时英国圣公会宣教策略中存在的问题提出了一些反思。他提出的所有问题对于反思今天的宣教工作、教会植堂、教会建立，以及如何传福音等都很有价值。
本书的主要论点是倡导宣教工作和植堂界的本土策略（即根据福音传扬的当地文化，因地制宜；在不改变福音本质的前提下，注重按着当地的文化习俗将福音表达出来）。艾伦挑战说我们应该像保罗那样相信圣灵。 保罗对圣灵有着深刻的信仰和信任，圣灵住在他的归信者和教会中。我们的问题是“我们更容易相信圣灵在我们身上并通过我们所做的工作，比我们相信圣灵在我们的归信者身上和通过我们的归信者所做的工作更容易：我们不能将我们的归信者信托于圣灵”（vii）。换句话说，我们并没有像保罗在提摩太后书2:2 所说的那样，把福音更好地传递下去，做有效的门徒培训。因此，宣教士必须学会如何从工作中退休。有几个优点体现在他的书中。
- 保罗完全依靠圣灵
艾伦提到，保罗不太可能起草宣教策略计划，他是在圣灵的引导下自发地做出决定。 尽管保罗建立教会的每个城市都是罗马行政、希腊文明和教育、犹太影响和全球商业的省级中心 (13)，但保罗并没有仅仅根据这些理由选择他要传道的地方，他是受圣灵的引导……它们是战略中心，因为保罗的传道而使它们如此（16）。 在第三章中，当艾伦讨论保罗讲道的对象时，他认为“圣保罗的大多数归信者是下层商业和工人阶级、劳工、自由民和奴隶；但他本人并没有刻意针对任何阶级”（24）。保罗所传福音的人大多是普通人，但也有一些人在社会上有显赫地位，例如：帕弗的总督、一位通达人（徒13: 7）， “虔诚的希腊人，以及帖撒罗尼迦的一些尊贵的妇女”（徒 17: 4）。保罗完全依靠圣灵带领他到达某些地方和他能接触到的人。 这教导宣教士和植堂者应该寻求圣灵的具体指导，以选择他们可以接触到的地点、时间和目标群体。在我们传福音的时候，我们不能按着自己的意思锁定要给某个人或某个群体传福音，而是要完全依靠圣灵的引导和带领，圣灵会将他所预备的人带到我们面前。
- 保罗传讲纯正的福音，并教导道德责任
保罗宣讲的福音包含耶稣的救恩和人的悔改。关于福音应该传到什么程度的问题，艾伦认为保罗知道如何继续前进。保罗不会坚持教导那些拒绝相信的人。艾伦对保罗的评论：“福音的教导不仅仅是理智的教导：它是一个道德过程，涉及道德回应”（75）。因此，我们必须询问听众对福音的道德回应。这有助于我们保持福音的平衡：免费的礼物和基督徒的属灵责任。同时，基督徒在归信后也应该过敬虔的基督徒生活。
- 财务独立
对于宣教或植堂教会的财政支持问题，艾伦主张教会应该自给自足。 他深刻地指出，本质上金钱的使用或运作方式传达和教导了一个观念，即完全依靠神还是依靠人。 我们不该把信徒当作儿女、孙子，而是当作主里的弟兄姊妹。 我们不应该剥夺他们的经济责任和相应的祝福。我认为艾伦并不是反对财政支持，而是反对对外部或西方财政支持产生的依赖感。教会的财务自给自足非常重要。中国布道家宋尚节（1901-1943）在他的事工中不断挑战中国教会应该独立于西方的财政支持。只有这样，圣灵才能在教会中有更大的作工空间，带来更大的复兴。
- 成熟教会的标志
在第三部分中，艾伦谈到了培训归信者。 他提到了四件事作为一个相对成熟教会的标志：传统或基本信条、洗礼和圣餐圣事、教会规则和圣经（107）。他的用词是典型的圣公会习惯，但他表达的原则是对的，即成熟教会应该具有：(1) 纯正的信仰教导和纯正的教义。 (2) 有几位忠实的带领者作为领袖。 (3) 管理教会的简单组织。 (4) 一些可以满足基本需求的财物。
- 教会的合一
此外，艾伦强调教会的合一至关重要。 在第 11 章中，艾伦阐述了保罗如何成功地维持合一，他在此澄清说“合一并不在于外表上遵守最早会友的做法，而是在于融入身体”（131）。 保罗没有建立一个管理所有教会的中央行政机构，也没有建立正统教义的试金石。 他认为合一是理所当然的；它是犹太人和希腊人之间的桥梁，发起教会之间的慈善行为，并鼓励教会之间不断进行沟通（134-135）。
艾伦的书并不是完美无缺的，比如艾伦批评宣教士的服侍不应从外在（比如建教堂、建医院等）、而应从内在（比如保罗到一个地方直接去讲道）着手。这一点很宝贵，但是他并没有指出当代宣教士到底应从哪个角度着手福音事工。由于篇幅所限，关于本书的缺点不一一赘述。总之，我们的教会至少可以从这本书中学习两点：
第一， 在宣教或传福音工作的整个过程中，从开始到结束，包括寻找失丧者、传道、教导、训练、财物和合一，都要更加信靠主。在寻找教堂过程中，我们要在每一个细节上完全相信上帝，而不是我们自己的计划或财务。
第二，找到主使用我们的独特方式，就像圣灵的力量使用保罗来完成他工作的独特方式一样。 关于圣灵的“能力”（徒1: 9），艾伦在1921年就曾高度评价过。下面的话对我们仍然很有启发：
“即使我们不再拥有保罗的力量，我们仍然拥有启迪保罗的圣灵。我们有足够的能力拥有启迪保罗的圣灵。 我们有足够的力量让圣灵发光。我们有足够的力量聚集听众；我们有足够的力量来证明神的灵与我们同在；我们有足够的力量向慕道友保证基督信仰比所有异教都优越；只要我们运用我们的力量来彰显圣灵，我们就有足够的力量以行动来说明我们信仰的特征、它的救恩和它的愛。有一天我们也许会恢复充满神迹的早期信仰”（48）。
2/25/24 Pastor’ s Word
Missionary Principles:
Digest on Roland Allen’s Book
Roland Allen was an Anglican missionary in China from 1895 to 1903. For a few years afterward he was in charge of English parish. For the next 40 years he was writing on missionary principles. With his own rich experience as a missionary, Roland Allen wrote his book Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s Or Ours in 1912. It was rediscovered in the 1960s. By historical reconstruction based on the New Testament and the works of Professor William M. Ramsay and Professor Adolf von Harnack, Allen takes Paul’s missionary strategy as an example, and put forward some reflections on the problems existing in the Anglican missionary strategy at that time. All the questions he raises are valuable for reflection on today’s mission work, church planting, building up church, and how to share the gospel.
The main thesis of the book is to advocate the self-indigenous strategy in missional work and church planting circles. Allen challenges that we should trust the Holy Spirit in the way Paul trusted. Paul had a profound belief and trusted in the Holy Spirit, indwelling his converts and the churches. Our problem is that “We can more easily believe in His work in us and through us, than we can believe in His work in and through our converts: we cannot trust our converts to Him” (vii). In another word, we do not do a great job of passing on the gospel, doing an effective discipleship training like Paul did in 2 Timothy 2: 2. Therefore, missionary must learn how to retire from his work. Several strong points are illustrated in his books.
- Paul depended on the Holy Spirit completely
Allen mentions that it is unlikely that Paul drafted the missionary strategic plan, but rather his decisions were made spontaneously under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Although each of the cities in which Paul established churches was a provincial center of Roman administration, Greek civilization and education, Jewish influence, and global commerce (13), Paul did not select where he would preach simply on the grounds like these, he was led of the Spirit…they were strategic centers because he made them such (16). In Chapter 3, when Allen discusses the group to which Paul preached, he argues that “The majority of St. Paul’s converts were the lower business and working classes, laborers, freemen and slaves; but he himself did not deliberately target any class” (24). Most of the people who heard the Gospel Paul preached were ordinary people, but there were also some who held distinguished position in society, such as: the proconsul, an intelligent man in Paphos (Acts 13: 7), and “a large number of God-fearing Greeks, and a few prominent women” in Thessalonica (Acts 17: 4). Paul depended solely on the Holy Spirit’s leading to certain places and the people he could reach. This teaches that missionaries and Church planters should seek the Holy Spirit’s specific guidance of choosing location, timing, and target group they could reach. When we preach the gospel, we cannot focus on preaching the gospel to a certain person or group according to our own desire, but we must completely rely on the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will bring the right people he prepared to us.
- Paul preached the pure gospel along with teaching ethical responsibilities
Paul preached a clear gospel of Jesus’s salvation and human’s repentance. Regarding the question of how far the Gospel should be preached, Allen considers Paul knew how to move on. Paul refused to persist in teaching those who refused to believe. Allen’s comment on Paul: “The teaching of the Gospel is not a mere intellectual instruction: it is a moral process and involves a moral response” (75). Therefore, we must ask for the moral response of our audience to the gospel. This helps us to keep the balance of the gospel: the free gift and Christian’s spiritual responsibility. Meanwhile, Christians are also supposed to live a godly life after they were converted.
- Finance Independence
Regarding the issue of financial support for those missional or planted churches, Allen advocates the church should be self-supporting. He profoundly points out that in essence, the way money is used or operated conveys and teaches a concept, that is, whether to rely entirely on God or people. We should not treat believers as children or grandchildren, but as brothers and sisters in the Lord. We should not deprive them of their financial responsibilities and corresponding blessings. I believe Allen is not against financial support, but against creating a certain sense of dependency on outside or western finance support. The financial self-sustaining of the church is very important. Chinese evangelist John Sung (1901-1943) constantly challenged that Chinese churches should be independent from western finance support in his ministry. Only in this way can the Holy Spirit have more room to work in the churches and bring about a greater revival.
- The Signs of a Mature Church
In Part III, Allen addresses the training of converts. He mentions four things as the signs of an established church: A tradition or elementary creed, the Sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Communion, Orders, and the Holy Scripture (107). His choice of words is typically Anglican, but the principle he expresses is correct, namely that a mature church should have: 1. Pure faith teaching and sound doctrine. 2. A few faithful leaders as leadership. 3. A simple organization to run the church. 4. Some money that can cover the basic needs.
- The Unity of the Church
Also, Allen emphasizes the unity of the church is crucial. In Part VI, Allen addresses how Paul succeeded in maintaining unity by clarifying that here “unity did not consist in outward conformity to the practices of the earliest member, but in incorporation into the body” (131). Paul did not establish a central administrative authority over all churches, or a litmus test for orthodoxy. He taught unity by taking it for granted, serving as a bridge between Jew and Greek, initiating acts of charity between churches, and encouraging constant movement of communication between the churches (134-135).
Allen’s book is not perfect. For example, Allen critiques that the service of missionaries should not start from the outside (such as building churches, hospitals, etc.), but should start from the inside (such as Paul going to a place to preach directly). This is valuable, but he does not point out how the modern missionaries should start their work in a new place. Due to space limitations, I will not go into details about the shortcomings of this book. In summary, our church can learn at least two things from the book:
Firstly, trust the Lord more in the whole process of missional or evangelical work, from the beginning to the end, including seeking the lost, preaching, teaching, training, financing, and unity. In searching the church building, we need to trust God completely in every details instead of our own plan or finance.
Secondly. find the unique way the Lord will use us as Paul used the unique way of doing His work by the power of the Holy Spirit. The “power” from the Holy Spirt (Acts 1:9) is highly noted by Allen in 1921. The words in the following are still very inspiring to us:
“If we no longer possess his power we still possess the Spirit which inspired him. We have powers enough possess the Spirit which inspired him. We have powers enough whereby to let the Spirit shine forth. We have powers sufficient to gather hearers; we have powers sufficient to demonstrate the Divine Presence of the Spirit of God with us; we have powers sufficient to assure inquirers of the superiority of Christianity to all heathen religions; we have powers sufficient to illustrate in act the character of our religion, its salvation and its love, if only we will use our powers to reveal the Spirit. One day we shall perhaps recover the early faith in miracles”(48).