Abstract:
The Christian churches are experiencing a major paradigm shift as they attemp to navigate
the 20th century. Around the mid-fourth century to the mid-twentieth century CE, often
referred to as the ‘age of Christendom’, Christianity and the institutional church had a
central place, which was culturally supported in the public life of most Western societies.
Today it is impossible to talk about culture without using the plural. Society has changed
into what is called a ‘pluriverse’ of cultures determined by aspects such as geography, race,
ethinicity, class, and worldview. For Christian denominations, this paradigm shift has become
exceedingly challenging. This article discerns and experiments with approaches to ministry
that are vitally challenged by the many current understandings of what it means to be church
today. By taking the concept missio Dei as point of departure the article describes the church
as being called to be a missional church and the Christian leaders as being called to exercise
missional leadership. The article addresses the notion of missio trinitatis as fundamental to
the understanding of the missio Dei. God is one who lives by sharing, and the Trinity is the
doctrine of a God whose very essence is sharing, thus the consequence is that those who
believe in such a God must live a similar life. Matthew 28:19−20 serves as basis for a discussion
on the ‘embodiment’ of the church’s missional theology as well as a basis for the development
of a missional praxis. The fundamental conviction argued in this article is that there can be no
place for a future church that is not missional in essence.
