Tettey, Smith Francis KorblaNel, Malan2020-10-152020-10-152020-06-03Tettey, S.F.K. & Nel, M., 2020, ‘Transformational diaconia as educative praxis in care within the present povertystricken South African context’, HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 76(2), a5666. https://DOI.org10.4102/hts.v76i2.5666.0259-9422 (print)2072-8050 (online)10.4102/hts.v76i2.5666http://hdl.handle.net/2263/76491This article forms part of the research project, ‘Congregational Studies’ of Prof. Malan Nel, Department Practical Theology, Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Pretoria.This article was developed from a paper presented by Smith Francis Tettey to the Society for Practical Theology in South Africa (SPTSA) conference held at the North West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa from 16 to 19 January, 2019. In this article, authors introduce the spiritual leadership capital (SLC) theory, which was advanced in a PhD research completed under the leadership of Prof. Malan Nel in April 2018 in the Department of Practical Theology, University of Pretoria. The thesis was titled, ‘Spiritual Leadership Capital: A Theology of Poverty in Congregational Development’. (http://hdl.handle.net/2263/67916)This article explores how ministerial and leadership formation could be enabled to adopt transformational diaconia in addressing poverty in South Africa, engaging in ways in which pastoral care and leadership formation can respond to the addressing of poverty. The fact that transformation aims at changing the worldviews, paradigms and approaches to life and problem solving informs the author’s concept of transformational diaconia, which was proposed as an aspect of spiritual leadership capital (SLC), defined as, ‘The inner virtues afforded individuals by their spirituality in formulating their leadership paradigms which contributes to social capital formation for addressing social problems’. Spiritual leadership capital is hereby argued to be a transformative spirituality that can enable an understanding and sustainable responses to poverty and other social problems. This is needed for Africa and particularly for the present day South Africa, seemingly a country with the best infrastructure in Africa; yet its poverty seems pronounced because the dregs of apartheid still lurk in the social fibre, where poor people blame rich people for their plight and vice versa. Bowers Du Toit’s view that ‘[m]ost congregations respond to poverty by providing relief and not empowerment’, re-echoes here. From a mixed-methods research, SLC is a theory recently advanced as a congregational development paradigm and a theology of poverty, which views public theology as an educative praxis that can respond to transformational needs in poverty-related contexts. The authors suggest that for a Church that is responsive to the plight of society, fresh empowerment approaches to address poverty are needed.en© 2020. The Authors. Licensee: AOSIS. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.Transformational diaconiaReconstructive compassionPublic theologyPastoral carePovertyEducative praxisSouth African contextSpiritual leadership capital (SLC)Theology articles SDG-01SDG-01: No povertyTheology articles SDG-04SDG-04: Quality educationTheology articles SDG-08SDG-08: Decent work and economic growthTheology articles SDG-10SDG-10: Reduced inequalitiesTheology articles SDG-16SDG-16: Peace, justice and strong institutionsArticle