Transforming mission, twenty years later : paradigm shift or cosmetic facelift?

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.