Inclusive or exclusive? : a missiological analysis of congregations in the Reformed Church in Africa

[摘要] English: With the dismantling of apartheid and all its repressive laws, especially the 'Group Areas Act, people could now choose where they wanted to live. The result was a migration of people from the rural areas to the urban areas where they could be closer to their places of employment, better schools for their children, better infrastructure and amenities. Most of these people did not have the finances to buy land and build houses so they began to settle on available lands surrounding a suburb. On these lands they began building 'houses made of wood and zinc which they called home. These settlements became known as informal settlements or more commonly known as 'squatter camps. This empirical study is focussed on the congregations of the Reformed Church in Africa of one of its regions which together constitutes the RCA Presbytery of Gauteng. These congregations have a predominantly 'Indian membership due to the location of the church buildings which were built during the apartheid era and subjected to the Group Areas Act. The result of this was that these congregations engaged in mission work amongst its own population group. The main intention of the study is to establish how these congregations view these informal settlements that have now come to settle within their congregation boundaries. An attempt is made to answer the question as whether these congregations view the informal settlement as 'inclusive or 'exclusive of their mission work. The terms 'inclusivism and 'exclusivism is not defined as it is understood in the 'Theology of Missions. In the context of this dissertation these terms refers to mission work engaged in by the congregations of the Gauteng Presbytery as to whether it includes or excludes the informal settlements that are to be found in their areas. These terms are also defined vis-à-vis universalism as distinct from universal salvation. A comprehensive study, yet not an exhaustive one, is attempted in order to understand the terms 'inclusiveness and 'exclusiveness in the Old and New Testaments. These terms were also subjected to an understanding of missions as centripetal and centrifugal. The relationship between church and mission is investigated so as to determine whether these are two separate identities or whether there is an inseparable link between the two. The research is structured so that the sample of the universe being researched would provide data that is representative of the RCA Presbytery of Gauteng. The questionnaire instrument of measurement was adopted to gather information for this research. The sampling method employed was the probability, stratified simple random sampling method. Attention is given to the era in which the Reformed Church in Africa was born as well as its ethos, which is encapsulated predominantly in the Laudium Declaration. Due to the emphasis of the Laudium Declaration on evangelism, a short critical comparison is made between the Laudium Declaration and its relationship to the praxis of missions as understood by the congregations within the RCA Presbytery of Gauteng. Chapter seven is the analysis of the information generated from the questionnaires. The concluding chapter offers information, suggestions and makes recommendations to the RCA Presbytery of Gauteng on how it is presently engaged in missions in relation to the informal settlements, which changes are advisable and how it should understand the relationship between church and missions. The ultimate purpose of this research is to understand whether the RCA congregations in the Presbytery of Gauteng has experienced a shift in its mission obligation from missions only to the Indian culture during the apartheid era to include other cultural groups.

[发布机构] University of the Free State