Abstract:
The term missional has come into use over the last years in the Dutch Reformed Church in
South Africa and the Department of Science of Religion and Missiology of the Faculty of
Theology at the University of Pretoria. This term refers to the role of the local congregation in
the local community or communities and is used with, or in the place of, the term missionary,
which traditionally referred to the sending out of a missionary to some or other place. The use
of the term missional includes specific views on the goal of mission, what mission is and how
it should be done. In this article it is argued that this approach can be seen as a new wave of
mission within the South African context, and that it is related to developments in many parts
of the global church.
