Taking Control?

An issue that I have been thinking about for quite a while now was crystalized for me recently in reading a book called The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church. It is a book that was written in the 1960's by a man named Roland Allen and he writes in regard to foreign missions. I've found that what he wrote is blatantly applicable to the church in the U.S. as well.

The focus of the book is on what things help or hinder the spontaneous expansion of the church (that's why the title is so sweet, it totally fits with the point of the book!). The primary thing he identifies as a hinderance to this expansion is control. He speaks specifically about the control Western missionaries felt they needed to have over teaching, doctrine, morality, and practice of those they were reaching with the gospel.

So in my next four posts I want to look at each of those areas one at a time in regard to the evangelical church in the United States. I hope it will provoke some good discussion as this is not an easy thing to accept for those of us (myself included!) who do the controlling.