Abstract:
The Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) made a missional turn and as a denomination decided to make mission its top priority. The Western Cape Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church’s (WCDRC) Task Team (TT) for disciple formation initiated the research asking which pedagogy can help to cultivate missional disciples to participate in the missio Dei. The research aimed at developing a prototype as a possible pedagogy. The research followed a research methodology for missional innovation. In the first movement of the research strategy, the TT articulated the pain, asking which pedagogy can help to cultivate missional disciples in the WCDRC. Researching this question brought together two streams which are the missional church and spirituality. In the second movement of the research, the question was clarified by investigating the pedagogy of the South African Partnership for Missional Churches (SAPMC) and the rhythms of spiritual formation in certain expressions in the WCDRC. These movements were investigated to build a theoretical frame containing missional pedagogical patterns and spiritual formation rhythms. The research showed that a pedagogy of cultural formation was used by the SAPMC, personal formation was not diffused throughout the partnership. A rule of life could bring balance to the pedagogy of the SAPMC by adding personal formation. The rhythms of the spiritual formation investigated revealed a repertoire of practices that were individual and personal. In the DRC missional spirituality brings together the two streams of mission and spirituality and a rhythm of life was proposed as a possible pedagogy for the cultivation of missional discipleship. In the research strategy, the handover from movement two to the development of a prototype is a theoretical framework. The research developed a heuristic of theology, identity, spirituality and activities to synthesise the theories of movement 2 by widening the research lens to the broader DRC and the ecumenical movement. The theoretical frame consisted of a theology of 8 Trinitarian movements and an identity of missional disciples which has contextual and pedagogical implications. Missional discipleship is an identity and missional spirituality is a process that influences practices. In the third phase of the research, a rhythm of life was described as a prototype consisting of a theory of life change, an ecology of formation that creates missional holdings spaces and 8 rhythms that create a social imagination for a pedagogy for missional discipleship and embodiment. The research concluded with the description of the prototype and suggestions for implementing the innovation as a possible pedagogy for the cultivation of missional disciples into the training phase.
