Spirit preceding Order; Spirit with Order, Reflections on “Roland Allen’s The Ministry of Expansion”
Roland Allen is today considered a great missiologist from the early 20th century, even if not recognized as such in his lifetime. His most famous, and influential, works are “Missionary Methods” and “The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church”. So the little book (almost a brochure) “The Ministry of Expansion: The Priesthood of the Laity,” a late work of his was little noticed when it came out and little remembered… until recently.
I am not really sure why I chose to read this book. The major concern of the book is not something that I can really relate to. The primary concern of Allen here is the issue of who can hold or officiate the Eucharist (or Lord’s Supper). It is a problem for him since he is a “High Church” Anglican. As such, he accepts a very traditionalist understanding of apostolic succession. “Traditionalist” is a loaded term. Perhaps it is better to say that it is traditionalist within his own faith tradition. In his tradition, clergy are vital to the church and clergy must identify and authorize/ordain the next generation. Relatedly, there are many things that laiety cannot do. The main concern here is the issue of sacraments. Sacraments appear to be considered very vital to Allen such that for Christians not to practice them would be a great deprivation. It seems as if Allen saw the sacraments as being in some sense a matter of life and death. I am not quite sure HOW important sacraments are to Allen salvifically, but this little book suggests that it was important enough for him to struggle with the issue of sacraments (and particularly the Eucharist) for approximately three decades. Since in the high church tradition, one of the things that only clergy (who are formally recognized as part of apostolic succession) can do is administer sacraments, these concerns become highly relevant to him in places of missional expansion, where formal and local clergy may not be available.
As a Baptist, these issues simply don’t hit me the way they hit Allen. First of all, although Baptists have dabbled with apostolic succession at times, generally Baptists would consider apostolic success as being more organic and perhaps spiritual… but not so much formal and ecclesiastical. Second, sacraments (Baptists like to use the term “ordinances” although I am personally ambivalent) for Baptists are more symboic rather than being a necessary or vital source of grace. Finally, the sub-title “The Priesthood of the Laity” was certainly controversial to Allen’s intended target, but the priesthood all ALL believers (including laity) is a key distinctive of Baptists.
I had every reason not to take this book seriously then. But one thing caught my attention. The editor of this book was J.D. Payne, a Southern Baptist missiologist. He thought it worthwhile, so perhaps I would as well.
Allen’s main argument seems to be this (I am not quoting… I am summarizing in my own words.).
I accept that (1) sacraments are vital to the life of a Christian, and (2) it is also vital for administers of sacraments to be properly ordained according to the principle of apostolic succession. However, these two principles break down when they are forced to coexist in the missions setting. As churches expand and new converts to Christianity increase, large groups of new believers may be forced to be deprived of the blessing of sacraments due ecclesiastical policies of the church. Priority to the first must be given to the first when the second is nonfeasible in a particlar setting. Where there are no priests, the laity must fill the role (temporarily).
I should note here that the book I read with Payne as the editor includes not only Allen’s short book, but articles by scholars regarding Allen and the topic at hand. A phrase used by one of the writers, Steven Rutt, I appreciated greatly. It was “Spirit Preceeds Order, and then Spirit With Order.”
This can be understood as addressing how things change as the church expands. The church at the beginning is going to be chaotic:
-The founder of the church may be a lay person. It may be a a traveling clergy who cannot stay with the new converts and church. It may be a self-identified (or perhaps spirit-identified) “charismatic leader.”
-The young church may be led by lay persons, or local “clergy’ established with no formal training by the church planter.
-Sacraments will be handled by ordained ministers when possible… but by local clergy/laity or elder family members.
-There is little structure in the church, often meeting in homes or in small groups with few if any formal policies and roles.
At this time, the work of the Spirit in the community comes before church structure/order, and must take priority to it.
However, over time as the church develops and the number of Christians grow in the community, it is reasonable and healthy that things change.
-The founder of the church has less impact, or no active participation.
-The church is led by ordained (fully trained and recognized) local clergy.
-Sacraments would be handled as part of the activity of the local clergy.
-The church has a recognized structure, formalized roles, and perhaps formal relationship within a church denomination.
In this stage, the goal is not Order over Spirit, but Spirit with Order. I think this is also an important point. Often there seems to be a bit of animosity between those churches that are rather chaotic and those that are quite formal. Often the argument is that the chaotic are more “Spirit-led” while the formal, ordered, churches are less so. I believe that Allen is not suggesting this at all. Both Spirit and Order are important in the church. In a missions setting, it is normal that Spirit drives the growth, preceding the gradual development of order. However, as order takes on a stronger role, that does not mean (or certainly should not mean) that there is a decrease of Spirit.
Lacking Spirit (guidance from, dependence on, and empowerment by the Holy Spirit) is critically bad in the church, but so is Chaos. It is simply that in the life of the church, the work of the Spirit precedes the development of structures in the church… and that is fine. However, to stay in that situation— maintaining chaos— is to fail to develop as the Spirit desires. Churches start out with the Spirit preceding Order… and then over time, Order is important to develop, but without losing the guidance/dependence/empowermant associated with the working of the Holy Spirit.
I would argue that this is part of a broader principle of how God works. Consider divine revelation. I have written on this before. In the Old Testament times, divine special revelation was primarily oral— through prophets and sages normally. However, over time the written word began to take on a prominent role such that Intertestamental Jews believed that divine oral revelation ceased with Malachi. Or course, when one reads the rabbinical writings we find that they did not believe all oral revelation ceased, but rather that it lacked the same authority it had before. The Spirit (spirit-driven oral revelation) precedes Order (written revelation). Then over time, Spirit (spirit driven word and interpretation) coexists with the Order of canonized Scripture.
The New Testament has a similar process. The early revelation was oral— the words of John the Baptist and Jesus. Then it was a mixture of oral pronouncements by apostles and prophets and exposition by pastors of the authoritative writings. In time, the prophetic role faded away, not because the work of the spirit was rejected or lost, but the role was less necessary. Order in canonized scripture takes the lead, with the Spirit interacting mostly in interpretation and application.
One could also argue the same thing when it comes to miracles. Miracles are often seen as very overt signs of God’s power. They are often identified in places where the church is expanding into new areas. However, as the groups localizes and grows in the new place, such miracles often lesson or even completely fade out. Some groups are uncomfortable with miracles, while other groups try to keep identifying miracles as regular and normative well after the church has developed. I would argue that a middle ground in line with Allen is appropriate. The Spirit precedes Order with God working in unusual ways to intiate the church. Then the Spirit works with Order where God works with the church usually through less unusual ways through the believers.
I do believe that the issue of sacraments in the mission field is not particularly relevant to someone such as myself. However, the principles he struggled with in the missions setting really is helpful for many many issues in the expansion of the church.
If you want to read Allen’s short book, with the commentary articles before, the info for the book is
“Roland Allen’s The Ministry of Expansion; The Priesthood of the Laity,” edited by J.D. Payne Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2017.
