The neglect of cities in the missionary work of the Reformed Churches in Southern Africa with special reference to churches of Synod Soutpansberg

Abstract

This research reviewed the neglect of cities in the mission work of the Reformed Churches in Southern Africa with a special reference to churches of Synod Soutpansberg. The biblical passage, Jeremiah 29:1-14 was used, as a representative of other biblical passages, to shed light on the role of cities in mission work of the church while addressing misconceptions and false theology about the cities and the role they played and still play in the mission work of the church. The same biblical message is confirmed by many missiology literature, including, "Cities, Missions' New Frontier" by R.S. Greenway and T.M. Monsma (1989); "City of God - City of Satan" by R.C. Linthicum(1991) and "Discipling the City" by R.S. Greenway (1992). The biblical message and the missiology literature mentioned above were the basis from which the neglect of the role of the cities in the history of the mission work of the Reformed Churches in Southern Africa was studied. From these basis, the causes, implementations and effects of such neglect in the mission work of the Soutpansberg churches was studied in Chapter 3. The empirical research was conducted using the interview questionnaire in Chapter 4. The empirical results and findings, which were presented in this research, can direct churches towards a remedy of the neglect of the cities in their mission work as far as the strategies is concerned. The neglect of the cities in the history of the mission work of the Reformed Churches in Southern Africa was studied with an aim that churches learn from it and hence avoid the past neglect in their present and future mission plans, strategies and programs. In other words, the lesson is important for churches to view the role of the secular cities as important instruments used by God to speed up not only the planting and growing big holy churches from those secular cities outwards, but also the biblical reformation of the rural - orientated theories, strategies and practice!