The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church: and the Causes That Hinder It

Written in 1927 as a follow up to his Missionary Methods, the following was penned in the forward by Kenneth Grubb in 1960: "It is only gradually that Roland Allen's Spontaneous Expansion of the Church has established its reputation among those who are concerned with the mission of the Church. This is odd since it is in many ways both a more mature work than Missionary Methods: St Paul's or Ours? and also more relevant to the particular tasks with which churches and missions have to wrestle today. Nevertheless, the fact that a new edition is called for at the present juncture is, perhaps, a recognition that the book contains much that needs to be said and read just now." What Allen was calling for 80 years ago and affirmed in the decades to follow has "a lasting validity, and can be studied and re-studied with profit."