DRC : Grasvoelkop : moving from a missions-minded to a missional focus

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: DRC Grasvoëlkop is a small urban congregation that can, in the light of Galatians6:4, be proud of its involvement in local and global missions as a partner in theproclamation of God's Word. Demographic and cultural changes have, however,forced the congregation to look afresh at its identity and calling as decliningmembership, financial pressure, and self-questioning of its relevance within itsimmediate context arise. The researcher has been a minister of this congregation for24 years.The researcher undertakes an empirical study of the congregation, together with adescription of the changing context, that aims to expose the impotence of aninstitutional hermeneutic to move the congregation forward into growth and fruitfulministry. Part I will describe additionally the changes that have taken place inWestern culture and how these cultural shifts have unwittingly influenced the church.Rather than being merely missions-minded, a congregation needs to be missional.This requires the church to recognise false accommodations to Western culture, andto transition from an institutional to a missional hermeneutic. The research aims toshow how an understanding of missional theology can assist the congregation inmoving to a more biblical understanding of culture, calling and identity; and how afruitful future lies in rejecting self-preservation to embrace the missio Dei. This isundertaken in Part II, which distinguishes three key aspects of missional theology:1. The Trinity, with the possibilities that a fuller and more faithful view of Godmay bring to bear on a struggling congregation through a renewed faith;2. The Kingdom of God, and what it means in terms of salvation and hope,showing how a struggling congregation can interact fruitfully with the world;and3. The call to discipleship, and how love can help the congregation rediscoveridentity and calling.The study fleshes out these three aspects by describing how missional theologycorrects an unbiblical accommodation to Western culture (secularisation, spiritualescapism and individualism) and supplies a healthy corrective. The study shows howthe church can err through a reactionary response to these errors that then swings to an opposite, equally unbiblical pole. Together with an appreciation of missionalthought, the study endeavours to offer a fresh contribution to the missionalconversation by highlighting the important place of proclamation (and how missionmindednesscan be developed further) and the vital but underappreciated role thatvocation can play as a missional calling. The growing mystical emphasis within thedenomination is questioned and an alternative, found in Puritan spirituality, isadvocated.This study underlines the inadequacy of a missions-focus that does not spring from amissional ecclesiology and finds in missional theology the parameters to transformthe congregation as a participant in the missio Dei, able to minister and thrive withina changed context.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University