Roland Allen on why missionaries don't follow Paul's method

Roland Allen is by far one of the most repsected and name-dropped names in missions circles, but strangely his words are also constantly ignored. Many love to say they’ve read his books, but few actually want to follow his advice. After all, what he suggests–following Paul’s example–goes so strongly against fleshly desires for accomplishment and control. In Allen’s words:

“St. Paul’s method is not in harmony with the modern Western spirit. We modern teachers from the West are by nature and by training persons of restless activity and boundless self-confidence. We are accustomed to assume an attitude of superiority towards all Eastern peoples, and to point to our material progress as the justification of our attitude. We are accustomed to do things ourselves for ourselves, to find our own way, to rely upon our own exertions, and we naturally tend to be impatient with others who are less restless and less self-assertive than we are. We are accustomed by long usage to an elaborate system of Church organization, and a peculiar code of morality. We cannot imagine any Christianity worthy of the name existing without the elaborate machinery which we have invented. We naturally expect our converts to adopt from us not only essentials but accidentals. We desire to impart not only the Gospel, but the Law and the Customs; With that spirit, St. Paul’s methods do not agree, because they were the natural outcome of quite another spirit, the spirit which preferred persuasion to authority.” (Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours)