The theological enterprise in general, and theological education as well as mission studies in the South African context in particular, finds itself at the confluence of a number of significant events that challenge conventions and approaches. Researchers use the concept of a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world (see Kok & Jordaan 2019:5) to describe the state of affairs. Volatility refers to the speed, magnitude and dynamics of change, while uncertainty describes the lack of predictability, the prospect for surprise and the need for a sense of awareness and understanding. Complexity alludes to the confounding of issues, the lack of clear cause-and-effect chains and general confusion surrounding organisations. Ambiguity brings ideas of haziness of reality to mind (Kornelson 2019:32). It is a world of superdiversity, a diversity within diversity or form of ‘diastratification’. This is diversity and complexity within diversity (Kok & Jordaan 2019:5). To this, we must add human mobility and migration. This constant movement of people is closely associated with, and reciprocally influenced by globalisation (Niemandt 2013:22–39).

This is the age of acceleration (Friedman 2016:26–27) where the network society became hyper-connected, and where the acceleration in computing power and smart technology leads to seamless complexity.

Friedman initially called it a ‘flat world’. Thinking about the prevalent complexity and superdiversity, I would like to call it a ‘superfast flat mosaic’. These influences do not leave South Africa and Africa untouched. South Africa is similarly a complex mosaic: it has 11 official languages; a multitude of ethnic groups; widely diverging histories; all major religions are present; it experienced various phases of colonialisation and decolonialisation; it hosts many formal and informal economic approaches; and many stories compete for attention (Niemandt 2019:152). It also does not leave the theological enterprise untouched.

Guder (2015:20) reminds us that there is wide-ranging consensus in the missiological discussion that authentic theology must be ‘contextual’, ‘local’, at home in and relevant to the particular setting within which a Christian community confesses and witnesses to its faith.

It is no surprise then that mission studies, with its inherent sensitivity towards and alignment with contextualisation, are influenced by these contextual changes. New theologies of mission are emerging. The mission affirmation of the World Council of Churches, Together towards Life (Keum 2013), The Cape Town Commitment (Lausanne Movement 2011), more recently The Arusha Call to Discipleship (World Council of Churches 2018) and a variety of emerging theologies impact on mission studies. To mention but some of the exciting themes that entertain missiologists: a new appreciation of mission from the margins, liberation theology and the associated discourses on decoloniality, the maturity of a theological consensus on the missio Dei, contextual awareness and practice and deep engagement in contextuality and the explosion of missional ecclesiology (and especially the concept of missional church). Skreslet (2012:loc. 4426) concludes his comprehensive overview on missiology with the remark that bright prospects lie ahead for those who might want to study Christian mission in all its aspects. Missiologists in Africa and South Africa can likewise expect interesting times.

This research recognises the multitude of influences in a superfast flat mosaic, and the broad range of challenges it represents, but focuses more specifically on a theological and missiological engagement with the missio Dei, the resultant missional ecclesiology, and how contextual challenges such as decoloniality and missiological futures such as mission from the margins, might come together to open up new possibilities for the discipline.

This focus inevitably implies a critique of the current structure of theological education that received its main features in a Christendom and colonial paradigm where Christianity practically ceased to be a missional religion (Guder 2016:293).

One of the most important developments in mission studies and the theology of mission is the wide acceptance of the theology of missio Dei. This can certainly be called the most important development in the theology of mission in recent times. It introduced a radically new understanding of mission and theology, and mission studies are still grappling with the implications, which stretch far beyond the traditional cross-cultural missionary task of the church (Goheen 2016:303). There is indeed a growing consensus on the Trinitarian theology of the missio Dei, and flowing from that a re-appropriation of and understanding of ecclesiology (see also Skreslet 2012:loc. 784). African theologian Mashau (2012:7) observes: ‘The supremacy of God needs to be rediscovered in the practice of theology. The doctrine of God should therefore be taught with explicit reference to God’s missional character’.

The missio Dei defines the essence and substance of the church. Missio Dei is God’s plan to save the world.

Mission is an eternal reality rooted in God’s sending of the son and the procession of the Spirit from the Godhead. It is not only a case of God doing the sending, but also God in his very essence being a sending or missional God. Life in the Trinity is a dynamic life of sending and being sent, of interdependence and the outpouring of love. Mission begins in the heart of the triune God and the unifying love which binds together the Holy Trinity which overflows to all humanity and creation. This divine love is found in the reciprocal interdependence and self-dedication of the Trinitarian members to each other, and the active relations of love throughout eternity (Franke 2016:92). ‘God’s love,’ says Conradie (2015:104), ‘is epitomised in the well-being of the whole household of God’. It is the activity through which the triune God causes his kingdom to come into this world.

The missio Dei is at the core of being church. Skreslet (2012: loc. 799–800) explains that missio Dei language interprets the church as a sent community, dispatched by the triune God for witness in the world.

He (2012:loc. 791) explains that the language of missio Dei gave theologians a way to connect churches and their missionary programmes to the entire history of divine revelation attested in the Bible. There is no church without mission, and no mission without the church (Kärkkäinen 2002:loc. 1786).

The term missional church gained prominence in the work of the Gospel in our Culture Network (GOCN) and with books such as Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America edited by Guder (1998) and Church Next by Gibbs (2000). The works of Lesslie Newbigin, and the influential Transforming Mission by David Bosch (1991), played an important role in laying the groundwork for this new interest in mission, and the focus on the place of God’s church and the vocation of disciples to participate in God’s mission.

The church is a communion in the triune God and participates in the mission of God. Bosch (1991) explains:

In the words of Lausanne III (Lausanne Movement 2011): ‘Our mission is wholly derived from God’s mission, addresses the whole of God’s creation, and is grounded at its centre in the redeeming victory of the cross’.

This apostolic orientation of the church is of the utmost importance in the reflection on the future of the church as well as theology. The church as a witnessing community must always be kept to its apostolic mission, which is to form gathered and sent communities who would continue the witness to God’s salvation in Christ – this is nothing less than the original reason for the existence of those very communities (Guder 2016:288). As Bosch (1982:22) proposed an approach that weaves together the church’s being, its up-building and its mission, the discourse (and renewed reflection on the work of Barth) matured with the wide acceptance of the missionary nature of the church and the identity of the church within the triune God’s mission. Mashau (2012) argues:

In conclusion, Goheen summarised the vast implication of this tectonic theological shift and mentions the implications for a missional hermeneutic, missional theology and missional theological education (Goheen 2016:303–304). Mission studies and the nature of theological reflection on and training for mission will be shaped by the near universal consensus on the missio Dei, and the wide-ranging implications of this approach for ecclesiology. This is especially relevant in terms of Mashau’s (2012:1) conclusion that theological training in both the minority and majority worlds has failed to live up to the expectations created by the conviction that mission is the heart of theology. On the contrary, Missiology as a theological discipline has struggled to find a home in many theological institutions in the world (Mashau 2012:1).

Reflecting on the church and its theological enterprise in the last two centuries, one must acknowledge that one of the most visible characteristics is the fact that the church and much of the discourse on mission were dominated by a colonial framework (Goheen 2016:7).

Bosch (1982:16) warned about the colonial approach to mission studies and mission. There is a legacy of close liaison between Christian missions and Western colonialism, and, says Bosch, ‘the modifications in our missionary policies and practises are little more than superficial modernizations and adjustments’.

Goheen (2016:7) summarises some of the characteristics of this colonial framework:

Guder (2015:23–24) is also highly critical of the reductionist nature of such a ‘Euro-centred theology and practice of mission’. He mentions the following problems:

Recent discourses on coloniality added a deeper understanding of the colonial framework:

Decoloniality is the discovery of agency by theologians from Africa, South America and other emerging Christians. As Maluleke (2000:28) explains, there is ‘a new wave of awareness of the agency of ordinary marginalised Africans’. He explains that the agency of African Christians and the African poor is being rediscovered, explored and respectfully interpreted (2000:31). Decoloniality is a response to the relation of direct, political, social and cultural domination established by Europeans and their Euro-North American descendants (Quijano 2007:168). More importantly, theology and missiology is redefining itself, because the dismantling has collapsed colonial system, which began following World War II (Van Gelder 2007:20), has now finally collapsed (Goheen 2016:8).

The postcolonial discourse and decolonial turn represent an important critique of and correction to the colonial framework and approach. The emancipation of Africanised or decolonised theological education and ecumenical mission in Southern Africa is an inevitable and positive development.

Niemandt (2017:210) argues that the decolonial discourse is also a ‘glocal’ issue, that is, both recognising the broader discourses in theology, but also the construction of a localised theology. It is the construction of a variety of ‘local theologies’ (Bosch 1991:427). ‘The Africanisation of Theology’, says Niemandt (2017:210), ‘must attend to ways in which the gospel narrative relates to, and plays into, local narratives and theologies’. Maluleke (2000:26) warns that there is no united, homogeneous Africa or African identity – ‘there are and should be many and various ways of being an African’.

The decolonial discourse is more about the future than the past, and more about a contextual awareness and practice that engages appreciatively, but also critically, with cultural and contextual realities. Yes, it is certainly important to engage with all the legacies of colonialism, but we have the opportunity to participate in the postcolonial debate with all of its creative potential to open new futures.

One of the important issues flowing from the contextualisation of the gospel is the demand to engage with local context and a sensitivity towards marginalised people. The decolonial discourse is part and parcel of the broader appreciation of mission from the margins. Marginalised people are experts in contextualisation because they have a ‘double-consciousness’ that exposes local realities that the centre is bound to miss.

The decolonial discourse is also developing into a more intercultural approach to education and theology.

Coloniality represented a kind of mono-cultural Western mould that spilled over into the shaping of theological education and congregational imagination. The contextual sensitivity, attention to diverse power structures and predisposition to appreciate diversity open new imaginative possibilities for theological education and challenge the reflection on this theme.

This exploration of missional ecclesiology, and the attempt to imagine new futures for Transformative Theological education in Africa, must incorporate these recent developments in mission studies and the theology of mission, and engage with local realities and the decolonial turn in the African and more particularly the South African context. Maluleke (2000:31) argued that a decolonial post-apartheid African theology must confront issues of biblical hermeneutics. This research proposes that a missional hermeneutic is an important component of the reflection and an excellent starting point. A missional ecclesiology has a correlational-hermeneutical approach to theology, meaning that it correlates or compares various perspectives and initiates a dialogue between them. This is a fertile vantage point from which to develop a transformative theological education. The implications of the missional nature of the church, and the eventual impact on congregational life, must be worked out in terms of theological education and curriculum.

The starting point for the transformation of theological education in Africa is the development of an appropriate missional hermeneutic. ‘African theological approaches have bidden farewell to hermeneutical innocence’, says Maluleke (2000:32), and there is a need to take conscious responsibility for the complex task of hermeneutics, both in terms of the Bible and contextual realities.

This research explains the contours of a missional hermeneutic, following the description of Bauckham and Goheen (Goheen 2016:15). This is followed by an exploration of the implications of a missional hermeneutic for theological education. This includes an appreciation of congregations, witnessing communities and the church as a hermeneutic of the gospel (Newbigin), and the importance of a missional hermeneutic that shapes doctrine (Guder).

The contours of a missional hermeneutic:

This brief discussion of the contours of a missional hermeneutic has important implications in the conceptualisation of mission studies, the decolonial discourse as well as theology as such. Goheen (2016:27) warns that a non-missional reading of the Bible is crippling the church in the West, ‘fostering self-centredness and thwarting a missional encounter with culture’. It is clear that the growing consensus of the ideas concerning missional church, and the growth in missional hermeneutics, are deeply related to the decolonial discourse. Maluleke’s (2000:32) remark that we have bidden farewell to hermeneutical innocence comes to mind. The decolonial discourse can contribute much to the future of mission studies and theology, and even more so if it embraces a missional hermeneutic, which should be the default approach given the sensitivity towards contextualisation and a ‘glocal’ approach.

Bauckham (2016:37) raises the issue of ‘dubious totalisation’, and whether the appreciation of a metanarrative might not be oppressive. Can one reconcile a missional hermeneutic with a predisposition for a metanarrative with a decolonial approach with its focus on contextualisation, the local and the marginalised? He warns against the danger of focusing only on local narratives and ignoring wider relevance and the desire for meaning. The impetus of the biblical witness is that God’s people are the witnesses to his truth and sole deity. Mission is ‘the making known of God’s name’ and ‘God’s name names the narrative identity he gives himself in the biblical story’ (Bauckham 2016:38). Missional hermeneutics appreciates the complexity and diversity of scripture and the relative openness of the biblical narrative, inviting God’s people to participate in God’s mission. It also values the issue of contextualisation. The biblical narrative, in its openness to the future, is open to the inclusion of other narratives in their own ‘particularity and diversity, narratives of other times and places, other groups and individuals …’ (Bauckham 2016:41). This is perhaps what Sanneh (1989) intended with his description of the translatability of the gospel in Translating the message. The missionary impact on culture.

Contextualisation (and inculturation) is always a critical engagement with context. ‘This means that the Gospel’, argue Van Gelder and Zschweile (2018:42), ‘can become good news to everyone, everywhere, in language and within cultural expressions that are understandable, knowable, and accessible’. Inasmuch as the gospel is inherently translatable, the church – which we profess to be universal (catholic) – is also inherently translatable with the inherent ability to live in every place and become contextual within every cultural setting (Van Gelder & Zschweile 2018:43).

Maluleke (2000:31) asks: ‘Which biblical hermeneutics are the most appropriate and liberating for African Christians?’ The core of the argument in this research is that the transformation of theological education in Africa through a missional ecclesiology starts with reflection on and the theological practice of a missional hermeneutic. ‘Reading the bible missionally can aid the church in various ways’, says Goheen (2016:27), ‘… and foster theological education that forms future leaders’.

Lesslie Newbigin understood the church as a missional community and as a hermeneutic of the gospel (Newbigin 1989:222–233). The focus is on the formation of communities of faith – on the congregation – and a congregational approach to theology. The church as a hermeneutic of the gospel implies that it proclaims the gospel story but that it is also, in its life and witness, the gospel. Guder (2015:104, 109) summarises the influence of Newbigin and explains that God is carrying out his saving and healing purposes for the world through gathered communities, referring to congregations. Guder argues that this influences the way the community of disciples approaches the Bible. The implication is that it will also shape theology.

Reading the Bible as a ‘called and sent community’ means constantly asking some version of the question, ‘How did this text equip the missional church then for its vocation, and how does it do that today?’ (Guder 2015:129). Theology is not merely an academic enterprise, or a contestation of ideas, isolated from the life or vocation of the church. Although it is technically possible to conduct theology in isolation from congregational life, Guder (2015:14) reminds us that ‘the formation of the church for mission should be the motivating force that shapes and energizes our theological labors in all their diversity and distinctiveness’.

The core of the issue is to propose a missional hermeneutic as centring vision and purpose for theological education (a unifying and directing core) and to engage in a case study to illustrate possibilities in this regard.

The 1952 meeting of the International Missionary Council in Willingen, Germany, can be described as the birthing moment of a new missional theology. This meeting already understood the important implications of the tectonic theological shift brought about by the missio Dei and stated:

Hunsberger (2011:309–32; 2016:49–62; see also Flemming 2015:loc. 190–200) formulated four different ‘streams’ or understandings of a missional hermeneutic, which reflect much of the current ideas in terms of a missional hermeneutic:

Looking at South Africa, the influence of a missional theology and the impetus to develop a missional hermeneutic are already evident in the grassroots development of a missional ecclesiology in many of the denominational partners in theological education in South Africa. Most of the universities that host faculties, departments or centres of theology do so in partnership with local denominations. At least the following come to mind: Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA), Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM), Dutch Reformed Church (NGK), the Dutch Reformed Church in Africa (NGKA), Gereformeerde Kerke in Suid-Afrika (GKSA), Methodist Church of Southern Africa, Netherdutch Reformed Church in Africa (NHKA), Reformed Church in Africa (RCA), Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa (UPCSA) and Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA).

Niemandt (2019:154) has shown that at least the following denominations made important policy decisions to facilitate the transformation towards missional church: ACSA, AFM, GKSA, NGK, NHKA, RCA and UPCSA. These, and many other congregations, are already part of the missional movement. To mention a few examples: Fresh Expressions South Africa (a joint venture in close co-operation with Fresh Expressions in the United Kingdom, and an expression of missional church¹) is constituted by the following denominations: ACSA, Baptist Union, Methodist Church of Southern Africa, NGK, NHKA, United Congregational Church, UPCSA, URCSA and Vineyard Church. The South African Partnership for Missional Churches (SAPMC) is closely associated with Church Innovations,² another organisation dedicated to the development and support of missional churches, and involved more than 250 congregations from the following denominations: Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa (ELCSA), NGK, NHKA and URCSA.

This certainly represents a groundswell of change in the approach to church and congregations among a significant number of mainstream denominations – but this development is not as yet reflected in theological education in South Africa. This leads to growing pressure ‘from below’ to attend to a more missional approach to theological education.

A recent development in the NGK serves to illustrate the point. The leadership of the NGK accepted a policy document regarding theological education, and inter alia mention the following issues:

This is enhanced by the broader convergence of a new understanding of mission. It must, however, be underscored that the ‘new understanding’ of mission entails a comprehensive and holistic approach to mission. It refers to the whole church being called to discern God’s mission and to embody it in all aspects of church life and witness, public and private, and to be faithfully present in the communities where the Holy Spirit called and sent the community of disciples. Goheen (2016:309) argues that the core of a missional identity is that of a people formed by the gospel for the sake of the world.

In summary – a missional hermeneutic changes everything and serves as a centring vision and purpose for theological education. We cannot continue theological education where the implicit task is to continue and maintain the corpus Christianum or powerful institutional churches. Goheen (2016:310) argues for a missional curriculum that defines a centre that unifies the various disciplines. Theological education centred round a missional hermeneutic will strive to form and equip the gathered community for its vocation to be witnesses to Christ in all places and circumstances (Guder 2016:285). Mashau (2012:8) argues that the reaffirmation of missional ecclesiology will lead to the affirmation of the missional theology, one ‘that places mission and missiology at the heart of theological education’.

Goheen (2016:311–313) proposes three important components of the core:

The establishment of the centrality of the proclamation of Jesus Christ is an important point of departure as this ensures the primacy of Jesus Christ rather than the survival or expansion of the church. From these, Goheen develops his proposal for a theological framework that can serve as a case study to inform local initiatives.

Goheen (2016:311–13) proposes a model for theological education that ‘reveals the missional essence of congregational life’, ‘enables students to see the cultural situatedness of various theological disciplines, including the way that cultural spirits have shaped them’. This is, of course, a proposal that challenges a long tradition of the marginalisation of mission studies in especially Western theological institutions (Bosch 1982:17),³ an approach that seems to be in vogue … again. Mashau (2012:5–8) follows more or less the same line of argument. The model is summarised in Figure 1.