Department of Practical Theology and Missiology

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Browsing Department of Practical Theology and Missiology by Author "Appollis, Edward Adrian"

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    Transforming in-group and out-group identities in the local Seventh-day Adventist congregation, Cape Town : a realist evaluation research of mission practice
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2020-12) Appollis, Edward Adrian; Simon, David Xolile; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Practical Theology and Missiology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The landscape of the SDA Church has changed due to globalisation, migration and urbanisation and resulted into an influx of foreign nationals into local congregations. This created a binary tension between the insiders and the outsiders and caused unprecedented challenges for the SDA Church. The consequences reverberate throughout the entire structure of the church, impacting not only members (local and foreign national), but also the leadership of the church (local, national, and global). Focusing on one particular congregation, this empirical study found that the foreign national SDA members are finding it impossible to integrate into the local church, due to the on-going and increased tensions between local and foreign national SDA Church members. With each group having different expectations and coming from diverse cultural backgrounds, workable solutions need to be found so that unity can be restored and that the Church can once again fulfil its purpose and participate in the missio Dei. To achieve this goal, the Context-Mechanism-Outcomes configuration (CMOc) methodology was employed to determine the causal factors of tension in the mission programme of the local SDA Church. This realist evaluation approach used theory-driven interviews which exist to inspire, validate, or confirm, and falsify or modify hypotheses about how programmes and interventions work. These iterative interviews were used to discover ‘what works for whom under which circumstances and why’ (developed by Pawson & Tilley (1996) called the “Pawson Principle”). This critical realist approach fits between the positivist and the anti-positivist approaches and utilised a different path of realist synthesis for data analysis. A set of findings also called the middle-range theories (MRT’s) were articulated as follows: 1)There is no mission programme and practice at this local SDA Church. 2)The mission programme and practice at this local SDA Church has been impacted bythe tensions between the local SDA Church members and foreign national SDAChurch members. The causal factors of tension are about seating space in the church,church membership, the language of worship services, cultural differences, and churchunity. 3)The local church pastor needs training for cultural competency in order to synergisehis congregation towards integration and mission. 4)The interventions done by the local church board to reduce the tensions and increasethe mission programme of the local church have proven to be ineffective. Based on the findings of this study, a number of workable solutions were devised in the form of recommendations addressed to various strata – members, leaders, pastors, academics – with the aim of facilitating transformation of identities in the local SDA Church, building on Christ’s method of mission as a foundation. The hoped-for outcome of facilitating transformation would be greater tolerance among members, a better understanding of one another’s respective cultures, bridging a knowledge gap in the academia; and increased participation in the missio Dei. A further invaluable contribution of this study was the development of the T2T4M booklet, which will be presented as a seminar to the church, and as a module to students at the local SDA seminary, which can also be extended to other congregations and denominations, experiencing similar challenges.