The Missional congregation in the South African context

Attie Van Niekerk

doi:10.4102/hts.v70i1.2648

Abstract

The term missional has come into use over the last years in the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa and the Department of Science of Religion and Missiology of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Pretoria. This term refers to the role of the local congregation in the local community or communities and is used with, or in the place of, the term missionary, which traditionally referred to the sending out of a missionary to some or other place. The use of the term missional includes specific views on the goal of mission, what mission is and how it should be done. In this article it is argued that this approach can be seen as a new wave of mission within the South African context, and that it is related to developments in many parts of the global church.

Highlights

In the Department of Science of Religion and Missiology of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Pretoria the term missional has come into use over the last years
This article reflects on two questions: What does this change in terminology mean, and what are the implications of this change in terminology for the way that a local congregation in South Africa would engage with its own context?
The problem, says Saayman, is that this theology hardly gives any attention to the demands and conditions in the rest of the world, which is the context in which the term missionary has always been used (Saayman 2010:14, 15)

Summary

Introduction

The term postmodern has almost always been used in the same way that Saayman and McLaren explain above, with reference to recent developments in modern Western culture rather than to the postcolonial/post-apartheid context. Where Saayman found, as explained above, that the meaning of the term missional is related very clearly to postmodern North Atlantic culture, in the Department it seems to have developed a clearly theological meaning, in the sense that it refers to the calling of the congregation in its local context, irrespective of the culture or conditions found in that context.

Results

Conclusion