A missiological reading of the records of the church of Christ in Congo with relevance to glocal mission

Abstract

The interrelationship between the church’s perception of mission and its organisational functions (organisational culture, structures and decisions) is a critical issue. Undoubtedly, there is a correlation between the perception that a church has on its mission and on how it organises itself and works to achieve its mission. Most often this reality is not usually obvious. Official records of the church could contain valuable indications to surface such relatedness. This qualitative study was concerned with the Church of Christ in Congo’s (CCC) understanding of mission in theory and practice and how such an understanding would have affected its organisational culture, structures and decisions about its involvement in missio Dei. The purpose was to determine and critically evaluate, based on the CCC’s records, how its perception of mission from 1970 to 1998 would have affected its organisational culture, structures and decisions regarding its commitment to God’s mission. Therefore, this applied and qualitative research collected data through the CCC’s records (mostly primary sources). Interviews and open-ended questionnaires served as complementary data collection techniques merely for triangulation. The research was undertaken in the sub-field of missiology from an evangelical perspective with focus on theology of mission and mission history. A substantial contribution of this inquiry is that it established the way the CCC perceived mission from its inception in 1970 to 1998 and the extent to which such a perception influenced its organisational culture, structures and decisions about its engagement to God’s mission. In respect to the CCC (the research context), this is a new knowledge that has not been generated in the past in the area under study. In addition, the findings of this study will benefit future inquirers in that they may inform any research project on the CCC’s understanding of mission beyond 1998. Both the benefit and new knowledge add a value to this study from the theoretical dimension. From the practical perspective, the recommendations framed from the study’s findings will inform missiological reflection within the CCC and boost its practice of mission.