Abstract

A next generation? Young Dutch Reformed Church ministers and their vision for the church in South Africa

Highlights

  • During the 1970s and early 1980s, a surge in ministerial candidates and ensuing licensing and ordinations resulted in a distorted age Van WyngaardA generation?distribution among ministers in the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) (Dutch Reformed Church Task Team Research 2019)

  • A number of important points can be raised from the responses, of which 97% mentioned that the DRC will still exist in twenty years’ time, with the majority of them (72%) indicating that it will take on a different form

  • By noting differences between their descriptions of past identity, present action and future vision, we can see a generation of leaders envisioning a change of direction for the DRC, while being caught up in fundamental contradictions inherited from the past

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Summary

INTRODUCTION

During the 1970s and early 1980s, a surge in ministerial candidates and ensuing licensing and ordinations resulted in a distorted age. The DRC is, poised for a sudden change in the composition of its congregational ministers in terms of age and gender (Dutch Reformed Church Task Team Research 2019).. In preparation for the 2019 General Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church, an extensive survey was conducted among all licensed propo­ nents and ministers of the DRC under the age of forty years.. While there have been surveys of DRC ministers over the years, these have been randomised samples that reproduce the age and gender distribution of ministers in general. This survey of younger ministers provides an important lens on the views of ministers who represent the clergy of the future, while increasingly stepping into leadership positions in local congregations, the broader denomination, and representing the DRC within broader ecumenical and societal networks. The analysis highlights a shift in the understanding of what the calling of the church in society should be and relates this to broader questions in terms of its ongoing work of facing the apartheid past of the DRC and the inter-generational inequalities brought about by racial injustice

Research questions
Sample and data collection
Interview instrument
Interpretive framework
Agency
Contextual understanding
Ecclesial scrutiny
Interpreting the tradition
Discernment for action
Reflexivity
Spirituality
SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION
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