The Planting and Development of Missionary Churches

Nevius, John

Philadelphia: Presbyterian & Reformed, 1958

Presbyterian missionary in China for thirty years, Nevius primarily addressed the question of employing national converts as full-time workers on the foreign mission field. He criticized this practice, which had become quite popular by the end of the 19th century, and proposed the “three-self” model as an alternative. Though this work arises out of a foreign mission context, church leaders should at least be familiar with the “Nevius Method” of planting self-propagating, self-supporting and self-governing churches. (Take care not to purchase the illegible re-printing of this book.)