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


Eugene Baron
Khamadi J. Pali

Abstract

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. 


Journal Identifiers


eISSN: 2072-8050
print ISSN: 0259-9422