Abstract:
It is twenty years since the publication of David Bosch’s Transforming mission (1991).
The question that inevitably comes to mind is: has the mission (identity and relevance)
of the South African mainline churches embraced the paradigm shift and transformed
to become a transforming agent within South African society or have cosmetic
changes dominated the need to change?
This article will focus on what the paradigm shift means in theology today and
how this relates to and translates into God’s transformational passion, of which the
church is called to be an agent. The article will investigate the possibilities of
embracing a paradigm shift and in doing so rediscovering the local church as an agent
of communal transformation within God’s mission.
