Roland Allen was an English clergyman born on December 29, 1868. He was known for his work in the field of missiology, the study of Christian missionary activity. Allen's writings on missionary methods emphasized the importance of allowing indigenous churches to develop their own leadership and practices. His ideas challenged traditional approaches to missionary work and promoted the concept of self-governing, self-supporting, and self-propagating churches. Allen's contributions to missiology have influenced the way Christian missions are conducted worldwide.
"If we allow the consideration of heathen morality and heathen religion to absolve us from the duty of preaching the gospel we are really deposing Christ from His throne in our own souls."
"Men who hold a theory of the Church which excludes from communion those whom they admit to have the Spirit of Christ simply proclaim that their theory is in flat contradiction to the spiritual fact."
"In arriving at a decision in a question of doubt, the apostles in the Acts were guided solely by their sense of the Spirit behind the action, not by any speculations as to consequences which might ensue. And so they found the truth."
"To preach the Gospel requires that the preacher should believe that he is sent to those whom he is addressing at the moment, because God has among them those whom He is at the moment calling; it requires that the speaker should expect a response."
"Among our own people also the church sorely needs clergy in close touch with the ordinary life of the laity, living the life of ordinary men, sharing their difficulties and understanding their trials by close personal experience."
"Missionary zeal does not grow out of intellectual beliefs, nor out of theological arguments, but out of love. If I do not love a person I am not moved to help him by proofs that he is in need; if I do love him, I wait for no proof of a special need to urge me to help him."