Perspectives on church and mission: The missional church and metaphors for the church

The most important issues for the missional church should be to establish the relation between mission and the church. The methodology used is to listen to voices concerning relevant issues in the missional church. Many important aspects of the missional church are discussed to give an overview of contemporary challenges. Metaphors for the church, such as people of God, body of Christ, temple of God, bride of Christ and witness of God give many essential guidelines for how the church should engage the world. By evaluating these metaphors, new suggestions can be made. It is concluded that the church should always be the church of the living Christ, living new lives in this world with the eye on the world to come.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The relation of the Church and mission is of great importance. In the discipline of Missiology current ideas about the missional church call for new interpretations. Only by thoroughly interacting with the metaphors of the church can the missional church be understood in a new way.

Missionaries of Indians according to the First Three Councils of Lima

In the era of the conquest and colonization of Hispanic America, the church had at least two different manifestations: the Spanish church and the missional church. There was a marked difference between the two, beginning with the ethnic groups that made them up, methods of pastoral work, style of liturgy, content of catechesis, ecclesiastical laws, and, even, identities of priests destined to be chaplains of one of the two groups. Practically, from the founding moment the Catholic Church in the New World had the ability to differentiate its apostolic action according to the ethnic group that comprised it. Relatively easy was the implantation of the Spanish church in colonial cities in America. However, the founding of the new church – missional church – required the creation of a new modus operandi of its apostolic action. Such work could not be conferred on any priest or brother who felt called to undertake activities among the Indians, but on men specially selected and prepared in a different way than the secular clergy. The first three Lima Councils and their parallel Councils of México addressed this issue in several of their sessions. The article will seek to present those Indian missionaries who, although sometimes erred, knew how to carry out the mission with solid logic and apostolic courage, obeying the synod instructions.

The shaping and formation of a missional ecclesiology of township congregations in the Mangaung Metro Municipality during COVID-19

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caught most organisations, institutions and leaders off-guard, including church leaders. This was not any different in the congregations in the townships of the Mangaung Metro Municipality. The article discusses the responses of the churches in the Mangaung district and poses the question pertinently, ‘How did (or not) the churches in the Mangaung district reimagine, restructure, and position themselves prophetically during the COVID-19 pandemic?’. This is done firstly by providing a background to the development of a missional ecclesiology in North America, United Kingdon, and South Africa. Secondly, a discussion will be focused on the characteristics of the congregations which are necessary for developing a missional ecclesiology, in terms of these phases, as argued by Baron and Maponya. However, in the final section it will bring the missional ecclesiological discourse in conversation with the shaping and developing (or not) of a missional ecclesiology in respect of congregations in the township of the Mangaung Metro Municipality. The authors provide some contours for the missional role of the church in the current South African context and the formation of a missional ecclesiology.Contribution: This article contributes to the missional church discourse in missiology, that has been a conversation within Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa. The authors have been conducting research within mostly Pentecostal church in the township of Mangaung. The article is an attempt to broaden the missional church discussion in terms of region and Pentecostal ecclesiology.

Middle Knowledge: Human Freedom in Divine Sovereignty

In the last two or three decades, we have witnessed a renewed interest in spirituality in Christian academic circles. More recently, we have also seen a growing number of publi­cations on the mission and missional church—both on popular and academic levels. While one can easily find many quality works on Christian spirituality and some decent books on mission/missional church, one would only find a few works that combine both themes in a single volume. In this work, Charles Fen­sham, professor of theology at Knox College, Toronto, attempts to do just that—as one may discern from the book’s subtitle: A Missional Spirituality. As such, this book ad­dress­es those who have interest in spirituality and/or in mission but particularly to those who would like to see how biblical missional impetus shapes a particular understanding of Christian spirituality.