A critical analysis of the mission work of the London Missionary Society and the resulting ECCSA in Zimbabwe, with a possibility future mission paradigm

Abstract

It is not the aim of this research to reform the mission of the UCCSA, but rather to come to a proper understanding of missionary work as inherited from the LMS. The focus, though taking the whole of UCCSA on board, centres on the Robert Moffat column with special mention of Zimbabwe. The research also looks at funding principles as the motivation and commitment of the missionaries. It also takes a deliberate interest in the current paradigm dominated by the current themes with the intentions for suggesting a paradigm shift and or embracing it. It cannot be denied that the encounter with colonialism created a new theological thinking that also informed the mission outlook of the church. A new paradigm is/was in the making. The idea of the paradigm shift was borrowed from the social science import into Missiology field by Bosch (1991). It is used to keep pace with the changes in the theology of mission. Maluleke (2005:469-493) argues that since the early 1980's there has been a call for African theologies and African churches to recognise paradigm shifts within their context and to effect the paradigm shifts. Interestingly, although, the churches have the capacity to affect a paradigm shift, these seem not to realize this and hence do not respond relevantly.