Mission in vulnerability

Abstract

This article is a revised version of the keynote address presented to the inaugural conference of the African region of the International Association for Mission Studies (IAMS) Africa in August 2024 in Stellenbosch. It argues that the formulation ‘Mission in vulnerability’ creates a more fruitful platform to engage missiologically with vulnerability than the announced conference theme ‘Mission as vulnerability’. The article uses a praxis-based missiological framework to show how vulnerability can be understood as: (1) a distinct ethos of mission: a voluntary vulnerability in which believers ‘make themselves vulnerable’ in relation to others to make an encounter more authentic and transformative; (2) an oppressive context of mission: a structurally imposed vulnerability which believers manage to transform into a resisting and surviving vulnerability, against the odds; (3) a dominant vulnerability in a society where Christianity constitutes a majority but believers experience a lack of credibility due to the ongoing negative impact of coloniality.

Contribution: The article concludes by reflecting on mutually re-evangelising praxis in a situation of dominant vulnerability.