Becoming a missional church: The struggle of the Lesotho Evangelical Church in Southern Africa or Paris Evangelical Missionary Society in Meadowlands, Soweto

Leonard Tsdiso Kganyapa,Thias Selaelo Kgatla

doi:10.4102/hts.v72i4.3777

Leonard Tsdiso Kganyapa, Thias Selaelo Kgatla

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v72i4.3777

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Abstract

The existence of the Lesotho Evangelical Church in Southern Africa (LECSA) and Paris Evangelical Missionary Society (PEMS) in the western areas of Johannesburg, South Western Township (Soweto) and, more poignantly, Meadowlands and their forced removal experience are succinctly captured. The struggle of the LECSA and PEMS Meadowlands Parish in becoming a missional ecclesia in a sea of missional challenges in her context is vividly spelt out. They, inter alia, include constitutional matters, language policy, finances, ministerial preparation, lay-ministry development, institutionalisation of ministry, unity issues, prophetic ministry, mission and evangelism. The researcher, then, proposes an intervention – of course not a perfect one – that perhaps will galvanise the LECSA and PEMS Meadowlands Parish members to improve on what they have been doing and become a missional ecclesia in her context, Meadowlands.

Highlights

This article was influenced by the researcher’s need to understand the Lesotho Evangelical Church in Southern Africa (LECSA) and Paris Evangelical Missionary Society (PEMS) as a denomination, as he was approached by their Meadowlands Parish to take up ordained ministry there
The LECSA and PEMS needs to acknowledge, and put it on record, that among other reasons for her ‘coming of age’ (Thuthuho) in 1964 is the external factors which had to do with the International Missionary Conference (IMC) becoming the WCC, recognising that all work done by the Occident mission organisation over centuries must be handed over to indigenous peoples in those very countries, and the ‘winds of change’ that captured Africa clamoured for total freedom and independence from the ‘West’ (Bosch 1991:459; Mohapeloa 1985:46; Saayman 2010:6)
Already the church community at the LECSA and PEMS Meadowlands Parish is multilingual

Summary

Introduction

This article was influenced by the researcher’s need to understand the Lesotho Evangelical Church in Southern Africa (LECSA) and Paris Evangelical Missionary Society (PEMS) as a denomination, as he was approached by their Meadowlands Parish to take up ordained ministry there. The article is an attempt, in a small way, to reflect on the LECSA and PEMS Meadowlands Parish struggle to become a missional ecclesia in her locality.

Results

Conclusion