Biblical Narrative and Worldviews

• Bible narrative is a powerful story unfolding across the entire Bible.
• The gospel represents God's movement to redeem and restore all creation.
• The narrative starts with God creating everything and culminates in humanity and reveals God's commitment to restore creation when humans disobey God.
• Jesus Christ fulfills covenant promises, leading His followers to form the church.
• It concludes with Christ's return, providing hope and a framework for understanding existence, suffering, and destiny.
• "Missio Dei" is Latin for "the mission of God."
• God is both a sending and missional God.

Competing Stories in Africa

• Western worldview focuses on agendas, time, schedules, and policies.
• Cultural identity emphasizes historic, linguistic, and psychological factors.
• Indigenous worldview prioritizes relationships, process, and seasons.
• Biblical narrative is a cohesive narrative of God's mission in the world, beginning and establishes a pattern for future missions.
• The fall, covenants, and incarnation show God's ongoing restoration and reconciliation mission.
• The church, as a community of God's people, participates in God's ongoing mission.

Understanding of God in the African Context

• African Prophet Churches blend Christian elements with indigenous spiritual practices, emphasizing healing, prophecy, and direct communication.
• The idea of a "White God" in Christianity is debated among African theologians.
• Modimo, a traditional African Supreme Being god, acts as an intermediary between the church and the universe, reflecting African religious systems.

Definitions

• Monotheism: Belief in only one God.
• Polytheism: Belief in or worship of multiple gods.
• Communotheism: Divine community united in relationality, yet diversified into distinct personalities.
• Pantheism: God is identified with the universe.
• Panentheism: Belief that the divine pervades and interpenetrates every part of the universe and extends beyond space and time.

Trinitarian God

• The Father's unconditional love involves giving and receiving love.
• Jesus Christ's grace involves forgiveness.
• The Holy Spirit's empowerment is for service.
• The Church is community and communion
• The Church exists for people to know and be known by each other

Missional Ecclesiology

• Missional ecclesiology studies the doctrine of the church from a missiological viewpoint.
• There is no mission without the church, and no church without mission.
• The concept provides a basis for studying leadership and helps the church stay true to its missionary nature.
• Leadership must facilitate the church's participation in God's mission.
• Missio Dei is missio Trinitatis.
• John Damaskin described the Trinity as an eternal cycle, where each person exists in the other two without losing their identity.

Influences on Mission in Africa

• Traditional vs. Modern Values: Traditional cultures prioritize community over self-interest, training children to be humble.
• Family Structure functions as Social Security: Science and healthcare reduced death rates without reducing birth rates, leading to large families as a safety net.
• Resource and Population Dynamics: Rich societies see income growth while population remains stagnant, while poor societies experience population growth with stagnant income.

Globalisation

• Responsibility and Faith: Christians should help develop and uphold structures for societal well-being.
• Tradition and Modernity: Considers "the paralysis of traditionalism" and the challenge of ignoring modernity as religious individuals.

Globalisation in Mission

• Global Economic Disparity: In the 2010s, the USA accounted for 45% of global growth in consumer spending.
• Religious Response to Global Changes: Suggests that a dynamic theological approach and adapting the church's mission are necessary in a globalized context.
• Consumerism's Impact: Globalization affects vulnerable populations by creating unfulfilled needs and desires.
• Resource Distribution: Developed and developing nations strain ecological systems differently.
• Weapons Proliferation: Modern weapons are easily accessible, exacerbating local and regional conflicts.

Worldview Differences

• Traditional societies authority is based on social conventions and traditions
• Modern societies authority is based on achievements, credentials, and positions
• Missional societies authority is derived from the Trinitarian God
• The emphasis of traditional societies is communal
• The emphasis of modern socities is individual
• The emphasis of missional societies Gift from the Holy Spirit
• Traditional societies Leadership emphasizes humility and submission to community norms
• Modern societies leadership emphasizes efficiency
• Missional societies functions are Prophetic plus Priestly

Church Values

• Authority is delegated moral influence by God, fostering group relationships and freedom.
• Power is a gift from the Holy Spirit safeguarding freedom and protected values
• struggles, manifesting God's liberating power in weakness and vulnerability.
• Leadership involves action, guiding groups or organizations with prophetic functions (critiquing, translating, reconciling), and priestly functions (intercession, teaching, serving).
• These functions promote counter-cultural consciousness, fresh vision, boundary crossing, bridge building, prayer, kingdom principles, service to marginalized, and testimony.

Media

• Contemporary media in Africa results in increased connection alongside increased disconnection, due to polarisation, populism, protectionism, post-truth, and patriarchy (the five P's).

Hendriks Theology

• Theology is contextual, and should address societal issues.
• Theology is both a discipline and missionary in nature.
• Theology's core is faith-based and focused on the Triune God.
• Theology relates to God participating in the missio Dei.
• It determines the missional nature of the church.
• Theology involves the faith community, specific times and places, and interpretation.
• Theology embodies scripture, tradition, and discernment
• Theology embodies the concept of the Triune God taking the initiative
• Theology is about the Kingdom
• Theology embodies transformative action

Ministries of the Missional Church

• "Service (diakonia)", "Communion (koinonia)", "Witness (marturia)", "Preaching (kerugma)", "Teaching (didaskalia)", "Pastoral care (paraklesis)"

African Context

• Theology needs to be contextual, and should address problems of the society
• Considering that denominational diversity is a blessing

Missional Ecclesiology

• Center on "participating in the missio Dei"
• The church's identity is fundamentally missional
• Embrace a contextual approach that addresses "issues and problems of the society
• Employ discernment where the triune God is the One who takes the initiative
• Focus on transformative action
• Integrate (worship, service, communion, etc.) within a missional framework
• Theology embodies focus on the Triune God
• Recognise that theology has "a faith based focus on the Triune God" shapes the church's missional nature