Roland Allen On Missions to the Cities

Urban and City Ministry is a big gig these days. Especially with people like Tim Keller arguing for the strategic importance of urban centers as conduits for evangelism. However, I was startled when I discovered that Roland Allen noted that a similar push was underway in his own day in the early 20th century, and he offers a word of caution about the types of ministries we erect in large urban centers:

It is not enough for the church to be established in a place where many are coming and going unless the people who come and go not only learn the Gospel, but learn it in such a way that they can propagate it. It has often happened that a mission has been established in an important city, and the surrounding country has been left untouched so far as the efforts of the native Christians have been concerned, because the Gospel was preached in such a form that the native convert who himself received it did not understand how to spread it, nor realize that it was entrusted to him for that purpose.  (Roland Allen, Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours, 13).

Food for urban thought!