The influence of dwelling in the word within the Southern African partnership of missional churches

Date
2013-09
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
AOSIS OpenJournals
Abstract
‘All of creation dwells within the Word of God, the Word who created us, the Word who redeems us’ (Ellison 2009:91). The article evaluated the influence that the communal spiritual practice of dwelling in the Word had in the missional transformation of congregations that formed part of the Southern African Partnership of Missional Churches. It investigated the background, hermeneutic and methodology of dwelling in the Word on the participating congregations. The article concluded that the practice had a profound effect on the theology and missional practice of most of the participating congregations as it had a positive influence on the attitudes and beliefs, minimum knowledge base, and skills of a number of churches leading to spontaneous missional activity, the discernment of a specific missionary calling, and the integration of theory and practice. However, it had not always led to the formation of new faith communities.
Description
Publication of this article was funded by the Stellenbosch University Open Access Fund.
The original publication is available at http://www.ve.org.za/index.php/VE
Keywords
Mission of the church, Word of God (Christian theology)
Citation
Nel, M.J. 2013. The influence of dwelling in the word within the Southern African partnership of missional churches. Verbum et ecclesia. 34(1), doi:10.4102/ve.v34i1.778.