Field Of Missiology Research Articles

The tone of Black Theology debates towards democratic dispensation in South Africa: 1985–1994

The tone of the Black Theology debates took different forms depending on the relevant political processes and dispensations in which they were debated. This situation played itself out in South Africa over the years, from the introduction of Black Theology in the late 1960s to the introduction of the democratic order in 1994. The changing socio-political context in South Africa over the years determined the shape or tone of these debates. This article examines the history of Black Theology debates in South Africa, covering the almost 10-year period between 1985 and 1994. The nature of the debate took a different turn during this period than before and after. The author will therefore highlight the political climate in South Africa that shaped the debates, examine the genesis of Black Theology and historically examine the debate about it over the period under review. Ultimately, a path forward should be developed. The study draws on existing literature through a qualitative review method for carrying out this project.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article examines the tone of Black Theology debates between 1985 and 1994 towards the transition to democracy in South Africa. Although it is located in the field of missiology, it also has interdisciplinary implications for disciplines such as history, sociology and practical theology.

Reverend Frank Chikane as a catalyst for shifts in Pentecostal beliefs and practices

Reverend Frank Chikane represented shifts in Pentecostal beliefs and practices. He found it difficult to accept Christians who spoke in tongues on Sundays but oppressed others on Mondays. He found this hypocrisy to be the worst contradiction he had to contend with. He recognised the separation of spiritual, physical and social. He divided the church’s service to the world into three categories. The first is the ‘status quo’, that is the church, which ensures stability as long as the political system gives it space to proclaim the gospel. He called the second category ‘passage theology’. This refers to those who see themselves as passers-by in this troubled world, and therefore do not care about the politics of this world. The third category is the ‘involvement’ category. Of these three categories, Chikane chose the third. Based on the category of involvement, the author argues that Chikane is the epitome of shifts in Pentecostal beliefs and practices. To this end, the author will uncover and examine the core beliefs and practices of Pentecostalism, setting out the factors that gave rise to Chikane and also highlighting those that mark shifts in his spiritual agency. In the end, the author concludes that Chikane is indeed a catalyst for shifts in the practice of the African Pentecostal tradition today. The pattern of methodological approach followed in this article is the study of synthesised literature from libraries, particularly the sources that assisted me to gain insight into Chikane.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article argues that Rev. Frank Chikane, through his ministry praxis, epitomises shifts in Pentecostal beliefs and practices. Although it is located in the field of missiology, it also has interdisciplinary implications for disciplines such as sociology, practical theology, and church history.

“What the hell do you want to build missiles for?!”

The following speech was delivered at the 50th anniversary banquet of the American Society of Missiology, held at St. Mary’s College, University of Notre Dame, on June 17, 2023. Its content addresses two guiding questions posed by Darrell Whiteman: “Why am I passionate about missiology,” and “What do I hope to see in the field of missiology and in ASM in the next 50 years?”

Missio Dei’s complexity prefaced in synergism

Augustine’s thoughts on human salvation not only influenced early Protestant theology but also dominated the conceptualisation of the missio Dei from the perspective of the 1952 Willingen Conference. His doctrine of synergism arguably only manifested much later in the conception of the missio Dei, which anticipated human obedience or active participation in the mission to attain the goal of human salvation. The idea of synergism in this regard, or in the context of the missio Dei, is that while salvation remains an unmerited gift of grace through faith in Jesus Christ, God prescribes human cooperative involvement in its attainment. In this way people do not become unresponsive recipients of God’s grace, but active and willing participants in a mission of salvation. With this in mind, this article examined the available literature on the topic of synergism in order to provide further insights into the conceptualisation of the missio Dei. The account of Noah in Genesis 5:32–10:1 and the Great Commission in Matthew 28:16–20 were used to redefine the doctrine of synergism or its relevance in the context of the missio Dei.Contribution: This article recalled the doctrine of synergism in order to enrich the complex understanding of the missio Dei, essentially adding new knowledge in the field of missiology.

Missio politica in missio Dei: Integrating politics into God’s eternal mission

The understanding of the missio Dei from the point of view of the International Missionary Conference in Willingen has rightly broadened the missiological horizon and promoted new approaches to God’s mission in the world. This conference abandoned the ecclesiological approach to mission and focused attention on God as the foundation or source of mission. Inherently, this new perspective opened the door for other human institutions, such as politics, to be seen as critical participants together with the churches in the missio Dei. Apart from the writings of Saayman and Reimer, not much scholarly work is carried out to further develop the framework of the missio politica as an important tool to enable an analysis of politics in accordance with total salvation as the ultimate goal of the missio Dei. Relying upon literary analysis, this contribution orients itself on such exclusive important works as a basis on which missio politica is strengthened as a missiological framework that examines politics in relation to the ultimate goal of the missio Dei.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article presents research on the development of the missio politica framework in the field of missiology and highlights it as an important framework encompassing the scope of politics in relation to the eternal mandate of the missio Dei.

A fatherless South Africa: The importance of missional parenting and the role of the church

This article employs descriptive and explorative methods concerning father absence and missional parenting. It identifies numerous ramifications caused by father absence and the failing role of men. Father absence has been a serious social issue in South Africa, which has become more tenacious in post-colonial South Africa because of economic reasons, untold fatherhood, refused fatherhood, fatherhood accountability, divorce and dissolution of households. This social issue influenced and affected both family and society dysfunction and created a vicious cycle of poverty in many South African homes. This article aimed to lessen the predicament of fatherlessness by considering the role of missional parenting where the father and mother form a partnership and collaborate for the family’s progress and actualise God’s pre-eminent plan for families in South Africa. The literature review and methodology provided rich insights and considerable knowledge to help support families who do not have a father figure and men in their fatherly role. Missional parenting is gospel-centred and can be a detriment to father absence. Parents follow the example of Jesus Christ as saviour in missional parenting.Contribution: This article employed a descriptive and explorative modus operandi and explored a respective method to effectuate family disharmony in the context of South Africa. It endorses the journal’s focus on church and family in the field of Missiology and Practical Theology. A fatherless South Africa because of the social ill of father absence is a concerning issue.

Missio hominum guided by an understanding of Ubuntu for missio Dei: Nico Smith’s discovery

Missio hominum as a theological framework within the discipline of missiology in understanding missio Dei still lacks proper exploration. Few attempts have been made by theologians in the past but in different disciplines other than missiology. The exception is the previous studies by Nico Smith who investigated and conceptualised the subject at great length. This article builds on Smith’s perspectives on missio hominum with the aim of providing an in-depth understanding of the subject in an African context. This shall be achieved by juxtaposing missio hominum with an African concept of Ubuntu through a literary analysis. Ubuntu is imperative in understanding the significance of human beings within the Christian mission in fulfilling the purpose of missio Dei.Contribution: This article makes two important contributions in the field of missiology – first, by illustrating through missio hominum that human beings are God’s partners in accomplishing his mission on earth, and second, by illustrating through Ubuntu that human beings should partner with one another for the same purpose.

The fight against gender-based violence: A missional nurturing of people of peace

The fight against gender-based violence (GBV) requires the participation of as many society stakeholders as possible, including the church. Gender-based violence has become a pandemic in South Africa. The township of Soshanguve where InnerCHANGE, a missional team, serves is just a microcosm of this alarming reality. This research uses the grounded theology methodology to design a curriculum to empower teenagers and the youth to become people of peace. These are people who commit to act non-violently in all circumstances and to call out violence as a society destroyer. This study stresses that perpetrators and enablers of GBV are the causes of the pandemic. The perpetrators are known to be mostly men. The enablers are the situation of the normalisation of violence in local communities, a negative understanding of power and a lack of participation from the church in fighting against GBV. This study focuses on enablers for the development of people of peace. The aim for InnerCHANGE was to participate in this fight against GBV in teaching teenagers and the youth to see violence as abnormal, to understand power as a resource to serve others and to actively participate in this fight against GBV through their everyday choices of acting non-violently and calling out violent acts. The research concludes that GBV seems to be intergenerational in our local community. And, it will take preventive measures such as the education of teenagers and the youth to break such a normalised abuse and build peaceful communities where violence will not be tolerated.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article is located in the field of missiology. It is inspired by practical theology, sociology, psychology and journalism to design a curriculum that intends to develop the youth and teenagers as people of peace.

A relevant ministry for the armed forces: An agenda for the South African National Defence Force chaplains praxis

Chaplaincy in South Africa (SA) recently became an attractive ministry and research fields for both ministers and theologians, respectively, more especially since the dawn of democracy in 1994. The military chaplaincy has been flooded with applications and enquiries from ministers and leaders from religions other than Christianity who want to secure their space in the ministry to the SA armed forces. Individual churches are also joining the queue for enquiries. As SA is a multireligious nation, religions other than Christianity are also knocking at the door of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), claiming their right to be accommodated. For this reason, it is important for churches, other religious organisations, leaders, ministers and theological institutions or faculties to have knowledge of this unique world and its context, as well as the ministry dynamics and challenges involved. This will assist them in order to prepare appropriately in terms of shaping the curricula and qualifications of their ministers for effective ministry to the armed forces with special reference to the SANDF. This article investigates the dynamics of the military chaplaincy in relation to historical developments along similar chaplaincies globally, the nature of its ministry to the SA armed forces and the challenges posed by the ministry context (SANDF environment), and finally, it crafts and proposes a suitable curriculum for a relevant and effective ministry in the SANDF and the world.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article is located in the field of Missiology. However, it has interdisciplinary implications that affect disciplines such as Military Science, Sociology, Practical Theology and Church History, which all assist as building blocks towards a relevant ministry for the armed forces.

Black-ish Missiology: A Critique of Mission Studies and Appeal for Inclusion in the United States Context

Abstract Using the idiomatic expression found in the United States, this essay contends that the current field of missiology is black-ish. The expression is used to describe something purports to be Black (African American), but upon close inspection may not be authentic to the culture. This essay seeks to examine the dearth of specifically African American contributions to missiology. Citing issues of internal structuring and epistemology, an argument is made that African American voices and culture are often lost in this maze constituted by a lack of uniformity within mission studies. Additionally, there is an existing catalogue of Black scholarship that deals, directly and indirectly, with mission but is often not given the same latitude of inclusion and review that White scholarship is afforded in the United States.

Concerning ecclesiology: Four barriers preventing insider movement contextualization from producing biblical churches

Contextualization is a topic of utmost importance in the field of missiology. Over the past several years, the missiological world has debated the merits of one particular approach to contextualization known as the Insider Movement (IM). While much of the discussion has focused on issues of soteriology, hermeneutics, theology of religions, and evangelism, this article intends to assess the potential for IM strategies to produce biblically faithful churches. By leaning on the writings of IM advocates and the recent publication of Jan Prenger’s dissertation, Muslim Insider Christ Followers, one can compare IM strategies along with the testimony of insiders themselves with biblical teaching regarding the church. In order to avoid the accusation of historical, doctrinal, or extra-biblical imposition on the biblical teaching of the church, the common historical marks of the church have not been selected as the criteria for assessment. Instead, four biblical passages containing teaching about the church have been selected drive this exploration exegetically: (1) the church built upon the common recognition of Jesus as the awaited Messiah and Son of God; (2) the church as local, identifiable, gatherable, and responsible body of believers; (3) the church as a pillar and buttress of the truth; and (4) the church as an indiscriminate gathering of gospel-professing and communally covenanted believers. Upon considering the texts that drive these four elements of biblical churches, one confronts several barriers that often attend IM strategies. If such barriers are not removed by IM proponents, this article concludes that it is unlikely that they can produce healthy and biblically faithful churches.

A missiological approach to the involvement of the church in handling school dropouts in South Africa

School dropout negatively affects many children living in poor communities of South Africa. Those who drop out of school are usually blamed by people around them for leaving school. However, this article stresses that school dropout can be caused by many factors that are beyond the control of an individual who dropped out. The article is written from the perspective of a person who longs to see the church as a tangible Good News agent in society. He dropped out of school twice in his life, and he is using that painful experience as an experiential learning to connect with school dropouts. He uses the transdisciplinary research method, which deals with the missional and tangible involvement of the church in real issues such as school dropouts to help minimise the scenario of school dropouts. The article stresses that the church can play a prophetic role by educating ordinary people about the causes of school dropouts and proactively help in minimising the same. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article is located in the field of missiology. It uses the transdisciplinary approach that brings together the disciplines of theology, social work, psychology, public health, education and practitioners, with the aim of finding concrete pathways to minimise school dropouts.

From victimhood to hubs of (trans)formation and local agency: Re-imagining poor urban communities

This article was written from the perspective of a black African who has been unfairly subjected to colonialism, apartheid and neo-colonialism. This African is learning to simultaneously blame others for mistakes committed against him and interrogate his own agency in being an answer to his own prayers. He has observed that communities of poverty are usually seen as undesirable. As a consequence of this, most of its residents prefer to move away, if they have the option of doing so. This article explored the concept of thin places as a vehicle to nurture agency amongst people living in communities of poverty such as Soshanguve. It uses the narrative approach of storytelling to recount particular past events and present ones as a tool to cultivate a ‘can-do attitude’ in ordinary people. The goal is to raise agents of hope who will bring good news to their neighbours and anybody else, using biblical principles as a critical tool in their toolkit. Communities of poverty are usually seen as undesirable. As a consequence, most of its residents prefer to move out, if they have the choice to do so. This article reflects on the efforts of a missional team, InnerCHANGE, to help residents of the township of Soshanguve migrate from a victim mentality to become agents of their own hope. It uses a theology of place that alludes to concepts of thin places which challenges ordinary people to become participants in the flourishing of lives around them. A reflection on agency influenced by the Black Consciousness Movement and other African scholars gave context, meaning and relevance to such a theology of place. Stories of agency from Africa are remembered and retold to inspire ordinary people. Some of the latter have taken to heart these inspirational stories and have been transformed into agents. This article calls such people transformation agents. A conclusion was made that the Church needs to continue playing its prophetic role in society. Such a role could entail reminding people of existing assets they may have such as stories told around them of people who defied the normal victim mentality seen in poor communities and actively built thin places around them.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article was based on the field of missiology. It engaged historical facts (history) in a way that could nurture and develop agency in ordinary people. It challenges a general apathy towards community involvement found within the body of Christ located in South African communities of poverty.

선교학 분야 한인디아스포 연구 동향과 과제 - 선교학 영역 한인디아스포라를 대상으로 연구한 학술지 논문(2001-2019년) 데이터 분석을 중심으로

선교학 분야 한인디아스포 연구 동향과 과제 - 선교학 영역 한인디아스포라를 대상으로 연구한 학술지 논문(2001-2019년) 데이터 분석을 중심으로

Ecclesia and Ethics: Moral Formation and the Church

The present volume is a collection of 13 papers presented at the inaugural Ecclesia and Ethics conference, a global webinar held in May 2013 organized by (then) Ph.D. students from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Those responsible for organizing the conference also serve as the editors of this publication. The chosen essays evince an array of approaches that attempt to address the problem how the ethical reasoning of Scripture informs ethical decisions of the present-day community of faith, and each makes a pointed effort to demonstrate both cogent exegesis and application to the church.The essays are organized into three parts along methodological lines. Part one collects essays that treat broad “Biblical-Theological Foundations” for ecclesial ethics. For example, Dennis P. Hollinger explores the implications of the creation narrative of Gen 1–2 for ecclesial ethics, concluding that an increased focus on this narrative adds an aspect to ethics in which the church seeks to dignify God’s creation. Part two focuses on implications of virtue ethics for ecclesial ethics, with papers from both Stanley Hauerwas and N. T. Wright. Hauerwas’s essay introduces the reader to the concept of virtue ethics through readings of Aristotle and Aquinas, drawing out how habit forms virtue and how true virtue forms Christian life. Part three contains exegetical essays focused on specific texts and contexts for application. For instance, S. Min Chun reads the story of Gideon-Abimelech for its implications for the context of the Korean church. Chun’s reading of this story against the backdrop of a “church-growth” model of ministry will find application in other, similar contexts as well.Several essays focus on Paul and his ethical teaching. The selective treatment that follows demonstrates the variety of approaches found in the book and how these approaches treat a single scriptural figure. In his chapter, Michael Gorman outlines the centrality of the cross to Paul’s ethic. Gorman reads Phil 2:6–11, rightly, as not only a theological recounting of the Christ event but also an exemplary ethical model in which Christ followers are called to “have the same mind as Christ.” Gorman carries his reading into other Pauline texts (2 Cor 5; Rom 5; 1 Cor 6), demonstrating how the cross, for Paul, models the Christian moral life, namely, in reconciliation. In his own essay, Mark D. Baker utilizes a current method from the field of missiology, the study of bounded, fuzzy, and centered groups, to study the Antioch incident recounted in Gal 2. Bounded groups focus on keeping out persons who pollute the group. Fuzzy groups, on the other hand, remove boundaries from consideration but in the process often remove group identity. Paul, in Gal 2, evinces an approach that maintains a centered identity in Christ, which falls neither into judgementalism nor into relativism.Nijay Gupta takes up the question how Paul thinks of discipleship. Paul does not use the terminology of disciple/discipleship. Instead, Gupta demonstrates, Paul consistently utilizes a doulos-ethic that uses the language of slavery when describing the relation of obedience between the believer and Christ. Gupta offers that a doulos-ethic reading of Paul can be used to nuance, with an increased emphasis on obedience, the discipleship paradigm that is current in many churches today. In perhaps the most thought-provoking essay of the volume, John Frederick couples Paul’s cruciform ethic with his ideology of powers and principalities in Colossians and applies it to the sphere of social media. Arguing effectively for the internet as a power/principality of our age, Frederick uses his reading of Colossians to form a litmus test for Christian attitude and activity in the online world.This volume introduces the reader to major conceptual frameworks from major scholars; it exemplifies direct application to the context of the reader; and it demonstrates careful exegesis of the biblical text. It thus should enjoy a broad readership in both church and academy. The volume is well-edited, and each essay is sure to provoke thought and conversation among its readers.

Contextualization of Sufi Spirituality in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth- Century China: The Role of Liu Zhi (c. 1662–c. 1730) by David Lee

Reviewed by: Contextualization of Sufi Spirituality in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth- Century China: The Role of Liu Zhi (c. 1662–c. 1730) by David Lee Eric Schluessel David Lee, Contextualization of Sufi Spirituality in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth- Century China: The Role of Liu Zhi (c. 1662–c. 1730). Cambridge: James Clarke & Co., 2016. xvi, 290 pp. £24/US$48 (PB). ISBN 978-0-227-17620-7 A significant body of scholarship has developed around Liu Zhi 劉智 (ca.1662–ca.1730), a prolific Chinese Muslim scholar, and his theological, cosmological, and mystical writings. Landmark books by Jonathan Lipman and Zvi Ben-Dor Benite argued that Liu was significant not only for his extensive translations of Islamic works into Chinese, but also for his contributions to a Sino-Muslim identity rooted in both Confucian and Islamic learning.1 Sachiko Murata’s close textual scholarship has revealed Liu’s thoroughgoing fusion of Sufi concepts of God and human nature—particularly from Jāmī, ibn ʿArabī, and al-Rāzī—with Neo-Confucian [End Page 84] cosmology.2 James Frankel has argued that Liu successfully presented the Sufi process of self-realization through the language of Neo-Confucian self-cultivation.3 In each case, Liu Zhi appears primarily as an intellectual concerned with uncovering universal truth through textual scholarship and as a cultural intermediary who sought answers on behalf of his own community to questions about belonging and identity. David Lee’s book makes a simple but potentially significant intervention in this field: it argues on the basis of Liu Zhi’s less-studied popular didactic writings that Liu was not mainly appealing to an emergent elite Sino-Muslim identity or the concerns of Sufi mysticism, but rather was engaged in a Muslim apologetics for a Chinese audience. Liu, Lee argues, did not “sinify” Islam, but rather engaged in its “contextualization,” the reframing of preexisting concepts and arguments within a new cultural context that itself serves to refine those ideas. This depiction subtly shifts Liu’s contributions to the Sino-Muslim written tradition out of the realm of intellectual history and into the field of missiology and religious studies. Such a reframing is interesting for its potential to place Liu Zhi into dialogue with Muslim and particularly Sufi Islamizers elsewhere. Lee suggests that Liu’s example contributes to a general model of contextualization, and thus to integrating Islamic proselytization into the established literature on Christian missions. Where other scholars have explored Liu’s more erudite scholarship on mysticism and cosmology, Lee foregrounds a set of Liu’s popular writings intended to introduce fundamental Islamic concepts. These works include his Poem of the Five Sessions of the Moon (Wu geng yue 五更月) and his primer, the Three Character Classic (San zi jing 三字經). Lee demonstrates through an analysis of the Five Sessions’ structure and imagery that it reflects a careful adaptation of Daoist poetry and Buddhist narratives to the Sufi journey of realization. Many of these same themes are expanded on in Liu’s better-known The Rules and Proprieties of Islam (Tianfang dianli 天方典禮) and The True Record of the Utmost Sage of Islam (Tianfang zhisheng shilu 天方至聖實錄). At the same time, Liu’s Three Character Classic borrows the structure of a ubiquitous Neo-Confucian didactic tool to introduce fundamental concepts in Islam. It would appear that Liu meant to address a variety of audiences, some of whom were not merely students, but potentially newcomers to Islam. Lee’s work leaves open the potential for further research into the reception of these texts. This shift in perspective and analytical framework leads Lee to interpret Liu Zhi differently from other scholars. For example, where others depict the Hui 回 (i.e., Sino-Muslim) origin myth in Liu’s works as a reflection of the diasporic dimensions of Sino-Muslim identity and of the community’s attempts to integrate Islamic learning into Neo-Confucian study, Lee contends that Liu uses historical narrative instead to emphasize the compatibility of distinct traditions. That is, Lee understands Liu Zhi’s writing not as an attempt to assimilate Islam to Confucianism or to Chinese culture writ large, but rather to spread the message of Islam to a skeptical audience. This is [End Page 85...

Emancipatory Intercultural Hermeneutics: Interpreting Theo Sundermeier’s Differenzhermeneutik

This article introduces and assesses Sundermeier’s “hermeneutic of difference” (Differenzhermeneutik). Though he is not well-known in English-speaking circles, the pioneering work of Theo Sundermeier has contributed to a hermeneutical and intercultural turn within the field of missiology, as well as a missiological and practical turn within hermeneutics. He criticizes the western hermeneutical tradition for being text-centric and egocentric, and he replaces the standard hermeneutical models with one that is focused on the practical problem of understanding the stranger. I summarize the four-step process he provides for learning how to understand and coexist with another person, reflect on its missiological implications, and offer a constructive critique in the direction of a distinctively emancipatory intercultural hermeneutic.

New paradigms for religion, multiple religious belonging, and insider movements

The concept of “religion” and the idea of “world religions” are being critically reconsidered in the field of religious studies. Related questioning in the field of missiology has produced the concepts of “multiple religious belonging” and “insider movements.” The crisis in religious studies is outlined and new paradigms are supported. Traditional notions of conversion as change of religion are no longer relevant when traditional conceptions of world religions are no longer in vogue. Multiple religious belonging and insider movements are two possible responses from the missiological world. Legal aspects of religious identity in many countries suggest that attempts at a multiple religious belonging will necessarily result in an insider-movements approach since one identity is often a legal necessity.

Pastoral ministry in a missional age: Towards a practical theological understanding of missional pastoral care

This article concerns itself with the development of a missional ecclesiology and the practices that may accept the challenge of conducting pastoral ministry in the context of South African, middleclass congregations adapting to a rapidly changing, post-apartheid environment. Some practical theological perspectives on pastoral counselling are investigated, whilst Narrative Therapy is explored as an emerging theory of deconstruction to enable the facilitating of congregational change towards a missional understanding of church life in local communities. Subsequently, the theological paradigm of missional ecclesiology is investigated before drawing the broad lines of a theory for pastoral ministry within missional ecclesiology.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: In this article, a missional base theory is proposed for pastoral counselling, consisting of interdisciplinary insights gained from the fields of Missiology, Practical Theology, Narrative Therapy and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. The implications of this proposal for the development of a missional pastoral theory focus on the following three aspects:� re-establishing pastoral identity: exploring Christ� pastoral development: intentional faith formation� pastoral ministry: enabling Christ-centred lives.In such a missional pastoral theory four practices should be operationalised: first of all, a cognitive approach to increasing knowledge of the biblical narrative is necessary. This provides the hermeneutical skills necessary to enable people to internalise the biblical ethics and character traits ascribed to the Christian life. Secondly, a pastoral theory needs to pay close attention to development of emotional intelligence. Thirdly, this should be done in the context of small groups, where the focus falls on the personality development of members. Finally, missional pastoral theory should also include the acquisition of life coaching skills, where leaders can be adequately mentored in their roles as coaches of nonequipped people. In taking the research to a further level of normative reflection, attention should be turned to developing specific areas of pastoral care:� formal clinical education and subsequent accreditation of pastors (in the South African context pastoral care is not legally recognised as a valid area of psychological therapy) � specifically pertaining to Narrative Therapy and cognitive behavioural therapy� basic counselling skills for non-theologically trained congregational leaders� qualitative and quantitative research methods� organisational theory for congregational ministry� crisis counselling skills for congregation members serving in a community context� marriage and family therapy� emotional intelligence as outcome of a spiritual growth cycle� leadership development and personality assessment� personal growth by confronting and crossing emotional and cultural boundaries.

Enabling Witness: Disability in Missiological Perspective

As the church acknowledges and seeks to integrate those members with disabilities and their concerns more fully into congregational life, Christians have been supported by many different conversation partners from across the theological disciplines. Notably absent in this discussion have been contributions from the field of missiology. Missiology is an integrative and multidisciplinary field of study that is particularly attentive to how interaction with cultures, social traditions, and religious convictions transform the church through boundary crossing. One of the major opportunities and challenges for missiology in the twenty-first century will be to support churches in recognizing and amplifying the contributions of persons with disabilities to the ministry and witness of the church. Missiologycould provide a perspective and practices for ensuring that the fullness of the gifts and challenges of the world's largest minority (15% world population or 1 billion people have disabilities) will be represented in and transformative of the church's participation in God's mission.