Cornelius Johannes Petrus Niemandt

Kontoere in die ontwikkeling van ’n missionêre ekklesiologie in die Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk – ’n omvangryker vierde golf

Contours in the development of a missional ecclesiology in the Dutch Reformed Church – a more comprehensive fourth wave. This article is a response to the description of Dutch Reformed mission since 1990 as mission “to the ends of the earth” in Willem Saayman’s book Being Missionary– Being Human. An overview of Dutch Reformed Mission. Saayman distinguish four eras or waves of extraordinary mission endeavour. It is argued that the 4th wave identified by Saayman as an unfolding wave with particular emphasis on mission work outside local communities and South African borders, must be understood in a more comprehensive way. There is clear indication of an emerging missional ecclesiology in the policy decisions of the Dutch Reformed Church. A study of these policy decisions leads to the conclusion that a renewed commitment to Africa and to the healing of South Africa as well as a new missional paradigm are paving the way for a focus on local communities. The mission spiral of mission “far away” has made a turn “at home”.

Transformative spirituality and missional leadership

The importance of transformative spirituality for missional leadership is explored. Missional leadership is defined as the transformation of people and institutions to participate, through meaningful relations and in the power of the Spirit, in God’s mission. Missional spirituality is discussed in the context of the missional church, focusing on what the church is, does , how the church organizes what it does, the appropriate leadership , and missional spirituality . This article brings together ideas from the missional church movement and the World Council of Churches ( Together Towards Life: Mission and Evangelism in Changing Landscapes ), with its emphasis on a ‘transformative spirituality’ an approach that states that ‘mission spirituality is always transformative’. These ideas are applied to missional leadership. The research applies the following dimensions of personal leadership virtues to transformative missional spirituality and missional leadership: transcendence (which includes appreciation of beauty, gratitude, hope, humor, and religiousness), humanity (which includes the social competencies of kindness, love, and social intelligence), wisdom and knowledge (which include the cognitive competencies of creativity, curiosity, open-mindedness, and love of learning), justice (associated with fairness, leadership, and teamwork), courage (including the personal and emotional competencies of bravery, persistence, and zest), and finally temperance (which includes the competencies of forgiveness, modesty, prudence, and self-regulation).

Missiology and deep incarnation

Much as the concept of missio Dei has shaped missiological thinking and the theology of mission, the growing interest in God’s incarnation and embodiment may play a very formative role in missiological reflection in the future, and is already evident in the World Council of Churches’ mission affirmation Together Towards Life: Mission and Evangelism in Changing Landscapes ( TTL ; 2013).In this research, “deep incarnation” has been introduced as an important concept in the theology of mission, in terms of the recent work by a number of leading theologians under the title Incarnation – On the Scope and Depth of Christology (Gregersen 2015). “Deep incarnation” has been summarized as the coming-into-flesh of God’s eternal Logos. In the process of incarnation, God the creator and the world of the flesh are conjoined in such depth that God links up with all vulnerable creatures. In Christ, God enters into the biological tissue of creation in order to share the fate of biological existence. In the incarnate One, God becomes Jesus, and in him God becomes human, sharing the life conditions of the least in creation. The most high and the very lowest are united in the process of incarnation.This research emphasizes the importance of the concept of “deep incarnation” for theology of mission, and how it may inform missiology, with brief reference to TTL and how the major themes of “deep incarnation” (such as an orientation towards life in the broadest sense, the importance of suffering and marginality, the nature of unity and community) are already present in TTL .Missio Dei 这样的概念已经塑造了宣教神学。日渐对上帝道成肉身的兴趣， 可能会令此概念扮演一个相等的角色，这在普世协会的宣教声明‘一起生活’ (2013) 中也明显可见。在这篇研究里，‘深度道成肉身’是指向基督论的范围和深度 (2015) 来说的。它被总结为上帝永恒的道成为人的样子，上帝创造主与血肉之躯深深地连接在一起，也与所有易损坏的被造连接在一起。在基督里，上帝进入被造的生物组织，并且分担生物存在的命运。在道成肉身中，上帝成为耶稣，并且在他里面上帝成为人，分担被造最卑微的生活状况。本文研讨这概念的创造可能性，如何影响宣教及其他应受到关注的课题。El concepto de missio Dei ha moldeado la teologia de la mision. El creciente interes en la encarnacion de Dios puede desempenar un papel igualmente formativo, y es evidente en la mision del Consejo Mundial de Iglesias que se titula “Juntos por la vida” (2013). En la presente investigacion, la terminologia “encarnacion profunda” se presenta de acuerdo al libro Incarnation: on the scope and depth of Christology (2015). Se explica como el Logos eterno de Dios hecho carne. Dios el creador y el mundo de la carne estan unidos con tal profundidad que Dios se conecta con todas las criaturas vulnerables. En Cristo, Dios entra en el tejido biologico de la creacion y comparte el destino de la existencia biologica. Como El encarnado, Dios es Jesus, y en El Dios se hace humano compartiendo las condiciones de vida de los mas pequenos de la creacion. Se presta atencion a las posibilidades creativas de este concepto, de como puede impactar a la misionologia y a sus temas principales.This article is in English.

Ghanaian Pentecostal Churches’ Mission Approaches

Mission is first and foremost about God and God’s historical redemptive initiative on behalf of creation. In this regard, the Third Lausanne Congress affirms that the Church is called to witness to Christ today by sharing in God’s mission of love through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. The World Council of Churches states that ‘all Christians, churches and congregations are called to be vibrant messengers of the gospel of Jesus Christ’. How the Church participates in the mission of God is a question on which one should reflect. This article therefore discusses the mission approaches of Ghanaian Pentecostal churches. The article begins with a description of the Ghanaian mission strategic plan, their spiritual approach to mission, and then proceeds with other approaches in the light of Walls’ ‘five marks of mission’ (i.e. evangelism, discipleship, responding to the social needs of people through love, transforming the unjust structures of society, and safe-guarding the integrity of creation) and Krintzinger’s (and others’) holistic mission approach (i.e. kerygmatic, diaconal, fellowship, and liturgical). This article argues that mission should be approached with a careful strategy.

A network society, social media, migration and mission

Human mobility and migration are closely associated with and reciprocally influenced by globalisation. Add the relentless connectivity facilitated by the proliferation of mobile communication and the emergence of social media to this mixture, and an emerging new ‘glocal’ culture is evident. People are not only migrating to new localities and territories, but simultaneously into a new culture. We are witnessing the greatest mass migration in the history of humanity – from the real to the virtual world. It is a shift from shared space to shared interest. The metaphor of a river in flood has been used to describe the fact that migrant communities are a point of convergence of some of the biggest challenges facing the church and society at large: globalisation, hyperdiversity, interconnectedness, a Google culture and postmodern tribalism. Culture flows like a river and the church functions as a bridge connecting humans striving to make sense of life and Scripture as well as the tradition transmitted over the centuries. Some of the missional challenges will be to incarnate the gospel in this emerging culture. This study was positioned at the convergence of two important processes – the rise of the network society (especially social media) and migration. It took up two of the challenges posed at Edinburgh 2010, namely to “fruitfully” integrate the role of media in modern society into overall missiological thinking, and to think about the “call for a structural reform of the church” to grapple with the challenges of migration. The network society represents a profound social transformation. New technologies deliver connectedness in the palms of our hands and social media serve as an expression of the passion for connection, community and knowing others and being known by others. This research is a theoretical and missiological reflection on the role and importance of social media such as Facebook in migrant communities. It investigated issues such as: • contextualisation and inculturation in a Google culture; • the foundational role of relationships in a network society and migrant culture; • the ability of social media to facilitate connection to the multiple cultural and

The prosperity gospel the decolonisation of theology, and the abduction of missionary imagination

This research focussed on one of the most important social movements and contextual challenges in the African context – the explosive growth of the ‘prosperity gospel’ in Africa. It investigated this phenomenon from a missiological and African perspective, but in close relation to the discourses on decoloniality and decolonialisation, and asked if the prosperity gospel is a new form of colonialization. The research attended to the historical roots and theology of the prosperity gospel. It identified the core issue as one of contextualisation and investigated the prosperity gospel from a ‘glocal’ perspective. This brought the relationship between the prosperity gospel and globalisation (global) as well as local economic realities into the equation. Conclusions were made regarding the complex question whether the prosperity gospel can be regarded as a form of colonialization. The research found that the underlying epistemology is more oriented towards buttressing the worldview of global capitalism than deconstructing the political, social, and cultural domination established by Europeans and their Euro-North American descendants. It also concluded that the prosperity gospel is a spiritualisation of materiality and celebration of classic symbols of surplus/excess and consumerism. However, when attention was paid to local narratives and theologies, it became apparent that some prosperity churches have a strong focus on local communities and marginalised people and that leaders assisted in liberating empowering of members. The research concluded that this phenomenon might just lead to a particular form of African Pentecostalism that will, by itself, deconstruct coloniality and add exciting dimensions to the debate.

Funding God's mission : towards a missiology of generosity

The issues of generosity, funding, raising funds and managing funds in God’s mission are investigated. First of all, we conduct a literature survey of the themes of poverty, wealth, generosity, giving and stewardship. This provides theological and missiological perspectives that contribute to the development of the themes. Secondly, outcomes from a case study of five missiological consultations, facilitated by the Wycliffe Global Alliance on the topic of funding God’s mission, resulted in information that contributed to the topic. The common experiences that emerged from the consultations provided the foundation for the Wycliffe Global Alliance’s Principles for Funding. These principles defined the groundwork for generosity such that the funding of God’s mission becomes a reality of the global church. Finally, the Principles for Funding are compared with the Lausanne Standards, observations from the World Council of Churches’ Together Towards Life and material from the Edinburgh 2010 Conference.

The role of the Holy Spirit in Ghanaian Pentecostal churches : a missiological study

This article discussed the role of the Holy Spirit in Ghanaian Pentecostal churches from a missiological perspective. In order to achieve the aim for the topic, the article focused on one of the major factors that led to the rise and popularity of Pentecostalism in Ghana; i.e. the concern of the indigenes about their worldview not being addressed by the Western missionaries which came to serve in Ghana. The article argued that, in the desire for Ghanaians to have their worldview addressed, they resorted to Pentecostalism – a movement first introduced into Ghana by the African Initiated Churches. It is also argued that, though one of the factors that have made Pentecostalism to be accepted by Ghanaians is how it has addressed their worldview; Ghanaian Pentecostal Churches are of the view that the role of the Holy Spirit is the major factor for this increase.