Abstract:
In this research, important policy decisions by the 2013 General Synod of the Dutch Reformed
Church on the missional nature of the church were investigated in dialogue with the new
mission affirmation of the World Council of Churches Together towards life: Mission and
evangelism in changing landscapes (2013). The research concluded that the new policy document
of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (DRC) shows convergence with TTL and that
the DRC finds itself within the current ecumenical discourse on church and mission. The DRC
does have a comprehensive missional ecclesiology, understanding the church as missional
by its very nature. Church polity is informed by a missional understanding of being church.
The DRC shows good governance in the sense that it has embarked on a process to revise
the church order in the light of the policy decisions and in the sense of the foundation laid
by revising a number of important articles of the church order. The research also found that
a missional approach affirms life in its fullness and allows and participates in the flourishing
of creation. The deduction was that good governance in society entails a society where justice
is practised, sustainable lifestyles propagated and respect for the earth practised. The DRC,
with its missional understanding of being church, can benefit in its discernment processes
and prophetic witness by using an appropriate hermeneutical key in its participation in good
governance – to discern where life in its fullness is affirmed. The research found that the DRC
finds itself, together with a broader ecumenical community, on a journey towards life. It does
have an appropriate basis for good governance in church and society.
INTRADISCIPLINARY AND/OR INTERDISCIPLINARY IMPLICATIONS : The research calls for a change in
the traditional discourse on the role of denominations and brings together insights from
ecumenical studies and missional ecclesiology that might assist the reformulation of church
polity.
