Commitment of church members as an expression of the understanding of the Missio Dei : a case study

Abstract

Commitment of church members as an expression of the understanding of the Missio Dei: A case study. The study is an attempt to investigate the impact the Maranatha Reformed Church of Christ (MRCC) and other mainline churches had before in the society and community versus where we are right now. The goal is to find solutions to restore the MRCC to its former glory. In the past, the church used to contribute not only to the spiritual needs of society but also to address needs holistically. Schools and hospitals serviced by the church made the church to be there for the people. The study will assist in evaluating what caused the church to no longer be addressing the needs of the people. Why is the mainline church declining? What happened to the mainline church's vision and mission? The study will also confirm whether my assumptions are true or not, that the mainline churches have lost direction in Mission. The mission is the activity of God. “Karl Barth was the first in the modern period to articulate mission as an activity of God himself” in his paper at the Brandenburg Missionary Conference in 1932 (Bosch 1991:389). The term Missio Dei simply means the mission of God. “The important term Missio Dei (Mission of God) needs a biblical foundation. The sending of God by God is a foundational motive in the New Testament. Even at the very beginning, of salvation history, shortly after creation, God became the first missionary. In Jesus, God is the missionary par excellence, and in the Holy Spirit, God is the most successful missionary. The mission is part of the nature of God, and therefore mission can only be described holistically and in a manner that transforms human mission into the image of God’s mission” (Schirrmacher 2017:1). This research will utilize questionnaire instruments to measure the specific behaviour and value changes in some of the congregations of the MRCC. This will be done through the administration of questionnaires. Commitment of church members of the MRCC will be evaluated on four factors: Church attendance, Church participation, Church volunteering, and Church contribution. The conclusion reached on the research validates the assumptions that the problem is the commitment of members in the church.