Mission in the new South Africa. Need for a renewed enquiry

Mission in the new South Africa. Need for a renewed enquiry Mission includes all that the church is called by its Lord to do in continuation o f His mission in the world. The church in her mission is interested in the whole o f p eo p le ’s lives and needs. The church is also called to mission in the South African context. Do we know this con­ text? Do we understand the challenges o f this context? A project o f two decades ago on the unfinished task o f mission in South Africa brought many relevant insights to the force, but since then the context has changed dramatically. This article touches on some aspects o f the new situation, and provides outlines fo r the launch o f a new enquiry.


M ISSION
The answer to the question about the missionary task o f the church in South A frica today and tom orrow will depend on how one would understand the w ord "m ission" in our title.Some people define mission sim ply as the spreading o f the good news about the salvific work o f Jesus Christ.This is the church's main and central task: to seek the lost, and to gather them into churches1.The accom plishm ent o f this task is measureable: have all people heard this good news or not?M issiological discussions in this case centre on the question w hether all people (every single individual) should hear the gospel preached in an intelligible way, or w hether the task could be seen as com pleted when every people (panta ta ethne -Math 28:19; 24:14) have heard it in their own language and idiom 2. These people prefer to use the term "m issions" (in the plural), indicating the many cross-cultural outreaches to the "unreached peoples".M ission is the task o f evangelising the unreached, "discipling the nations" .The church in its mission should not be tem pted to give too much attention to other wort hy issues, such as denouncing discrim ination, working for justice, battling poverty, or seeking a better life for all, but focus on the main issue o f people's eternal bliss3.The task o f missions resear-chers is first and forem ost to identify and study these unreached peoples, and secondly to concentrate on devising strategies to reach them 4.
On the other hand, others understand mission so broadly as to encom pass "any activity o f the church which God desires" (M cGavran 1972:189)5.The church's mission is to be the church: G od's people, C hrist's body on earth, living his (Jesus') life.G od's m ission (the missio D ei) is the starting point.The missio(nes) ecclesiae is the con tinuation, in a different way, but in G od's name, o f G od's mission.The church is a m issionary people.The church finds its identity and pur pose in nothing else than her obedience to this calling.Ecclesiology is only a footnote to m issiology.The church has only one task: m ission6.To know w hat m ission is, is to observe God at work in the worldthroughout history, but also today, especially through the good things his Church is doing, but mission is definitely not restricted to what the church is accom plishing7.
I tend towards the second view, but would, on the other hand, like to heed the warning o f M cGavran and others.Maybe one should be a little more specific about mission.The church is the body of Christ, yes.The church is continuing the mission o f God in the world, yes.The church finds her identity in her obedience to G od's will and calling, yes.But mission is not everything the church is doing8.Mission is indeed som ething special.It belongs to the essence o f being church, but it is not all there is to church.M ission is the church at work in the w orld9.M ission takes place where the church meets the world.Sometimes this m eeting (or confrontation) takes place when the Word o f God is preached in a worship service and the darkness o f unfaith fulness is revealed.At other times the "powers in the air" are confron ted when unjust systems are denounced and fought.Mission also means reaching out to people still ignorant o f the salvific life and death o f Jesus Christ.But when the pastor tends his flock, when the liturgy is followed, when the catechist forms the young church members, they are not doing m ission, they are preparing people for their mission.The church also worships, the church members serve each other, and they are in fellowship.This is not mission.W hat we do say (with Newbigin and G ensichen) is that everything the church does has a missionary dimension, even if not everything has a m issionary intention10.Mission is the church as w itness intentionally in contact w ith the world.

Reached?
Those who hold the narrow er view o f m ission, who understand mission as essentially the reaching o f the unreached, may, with some justifica tion, see South A frica as removed from the list o f "mission fields".The in the endeavours o f those (secular) movements who seem to work in the same direction.
8 The late Stephen Neill is often quoted where he warns: "If everything is mission, nothing is mission" (1959:81).Coming from someone advocating a broad view of mission it should be taken seriously.9 Bosch liked to speak o f mission as "the church-crossing-frontiers", or: "Mission is the symbol o f the Church moving towards the world" (1980:17).The "world" is here seen as the realm outside the Christian faith community in the first place, but in another way also as the place where faith meets disobedience in every believer's life.*0 I am not quite sure who of these two said it first, but the argument can be read in Gensichen 1971:80-95).
latest census figures o f 1996, as tabled by P rof Jurgens Hendriks (Froise 1999:48) indicate that 74,1% o f the South African population stated their affiliation to a Christian Church.A further 9,4% , however, refused or ju st declined to state their affiliation (unpublished table o f Stats SA).This would mean that the Christian sector o f the population stabilised at slightly more than V* o f the total, as it was already 77% in 1980 (K ritzinger 1985).By no stretch o f the imagination can sectors o f the population really be regarded as unreached, in the sense o f not having had any contact with the gospel1

Holistic mission
Extensive research during the nineteen eighties12 culm inated in a book The South African Context f o r Mission (K ritzinger 1988).This book came to the conclusion that there was still a tremendous unfinished m issionary task for the church.This task was indicated under the rubrics o f the three dimensions (as defined earlier in that study) o f kerygma (evangelising), diakonia (socio-economic service) and koinonia (the building up o f the church in fellowship and liturgy).N ot only was an unfinished task o f evangelisation indicated (there were people, groups and geographical areas discovered with quite a low percentage o f Christian affiliation), but also "re-evangelisa tion" o f groups where the affiliation was high.The degree o f nominality was worrying.The seventy five percent affiliation o f the govern ment census could easily be cut with a third to reach the nominal figure on the church rolls (some fifty percent).O f these not far from two thirds are not really active members.This may bring the num ber o f "Christians" down to the order o f tw enty percent o f the population!And are all o f these really com m itted13?
The unfinished socio-economic calling was almost too painful to describe.M aybe this was the area o f the research, which had the stron gest impact on the missionary church in South Africa.As the then lead ership o f the church came to a large extent from the relatively well-todo and educated classes, the facts about the poverty and misery o f the people living in especially the deep rural areas came as a shock to them.Some o f them even questioned the research results!The Matthew 25 story o f the judge, the sheep and the goats became very relevant14.The report also touched on the political situation -an area that is always o f great importance to the church's mission.In the eighties the apartheid structures were strongly in place, but under increasing ten sion.W hat was the calling o f the church under such circumstances?There were contrasting views.
The fact is that we could also talk o f the unfinished church.Four aspects o f church life were analysed.Was the South African church really m issionary?Was the church responding to the total needs o f the situation -as she should, or was she only interested in preserving her own position?A second aspect was that o f the qualitative growth o f the church.To what extent did the Bible really function in the church?How thorough was the teaching and pastorate o f the church?Were the members being enabled to be the salt and leaven in society, the light shining in the dark?Thirdly: the tragic dependency (financial and otherwise) o f the m ission established churches was maim ing their witness in society.They were struggling to survive, with no vision fipr anything beyond that.W hat was to be done in this regard?And finally: the tragedy was the lack o f real koinonia, unity, in the body o f Christ.The South African society o f the nineteen eighties was characterised by conflict and divisions.How could the church act decisively in that context if the same divisions and conflicts wracked the different parts o f the body apart?The church had to get her act together!

Reactions
The research results had some effect on the church.Some church leaders and churches actively studied the reports and acted on it.Others were also moved by the picture, which emerged from the process, and were challenged to a greater awareness and involvement.
quite correct, the fact o f a great degree o f nominality in the Christian church of South Africa should be faced as a reality.
14 No one could escape the clear warning to all Christians: you will be judged according to the compassion that you give or not give towards the poor on your doorstep.
Still others, unfortunately, either didn't take notice or were so busy with their own agendas that nothing changed.
To one sector o f the church -those involved with the South African Council o f Churches -the description o f the socio-political issues was nothing new.They were brought up on the SPRO -CA S15 and the S P P 16 reports, and were already pursuing a political agenda.After years o f energetic work they felt vindicated when at the begin ning o f the nineteen nineties a dramatic change o f governm ent came about.The long awaited freedom from m inority rule dawned, and those churches (and their leaders) could rightly feel that their "m ission" was accom plished17.
Other churches stepped up their mission involvem ent on the ground.Some organisations targeted the less reached areas o f the country with evangelistic m issions18.Others started specialised diaconal m inistries (exam ples are the Apostolic Faith M ission and the Dutch Reform ed Church family), seeking solutions to the harsh pov erty.Intense m obilisation o f the church took place.We are in no way claim ing that it all happened because o f the previous research project, but in some small way we think that it contributed to the new wave o f socio-econom ic involvement.
This project produced a number o f important reports critical o f the apartheid state.The acronym SPRO-CAS stands for "Study Project on Christianity in Apartheid Society" .The project was mooted as a follow-up o f the successful The Message to the People o f South Africa (1968).A total o f 11 reports were pub lished between 1970and 1973(see Randall 1973)).*6 The Surplus People Project (SPP) published 5 volumes o f Forced Removals in South Africa in 1983.It studied the many instances o f the relocation o f people during the apartheid years.17 As a matter o f fact, it soon became clear to these churches that they had to rediscover their "mission" in the new situation.A first tentative proposal was to work in the context o f a "Theology o f Reconstruction", in contrast to the earlier common "Theology o f Liberation".Other emphases -like a focus on povertyalso evolved.Maybe the projects proposed here, could serve as a new integrating theme.
There is a revival o f missionary interest in the churches o f the country, spurred on by a number o f very active missionary organisations like the South African Action for World Evangelisation (SAAWE), World Thrust, Operation Mobilisa tion (OM) and the W orld Mission Centre.Their initiatives, including the series of Love Southern Africa (LSA) and the international GCOWE conferences, made quite a difference.However, these usually focus not so much on South Africa, but on the unreached world in general and especially the so-called " 10-40 window" countries.
Today more local churches are involved in one or other way in missionary projects than ever before.Not all o f these churches are as effectively involved at home as they are reaching out to other coun tries, but they are nevertheless getting out o f their shells.

THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA
During recent discussions in missionary circles the question came up whether it was not necessary to revisit the topic o f the Unfinished Task o f Mission in South Africa.Is the understanding o f the missionary task and context o f two decades ago still relevant?Does the older study still faithfully portray the present context?There are insights o f abiding value in that research and its pub lications.Some things have (fortunately or unfortunately?) not changed so much on the ground.But other aspects o f the context have changed so dram atically that we can honestly speak o f a "new" South Africa.

Aspects o f the New
For one, the political changes were radical.The religious scene also changed.The country and its govern ment are not "C hristian" any m ore22.The public broadcaster is expected to reflect the religious plurality o f the population.Even the educational system moved away from the vestiges o f the "Christian-N ational" ideology23.It isn't necessary for an individual to be a Christian in order to get a job.To the contrary, it may be helpful to belong to one o f the earlier underprivileged groups.
In the eighties the term HIV-AIDS was unknown.Only special ists knew anything about it.Twenty years ago there was not even a rum bling o f the distant storm.How the situation changed!KwaZulu-Natal, traditionally one o f the areas in South Africa with the highest growth rates, reported a negative growth rate in 1999 ... largely because o f deaths due to AIDS (S/i Survey 2000:218).
The nineteen nineties was the decade o f talk about "post-modernism " .In m issiological circles this was brought about by the publica tion o f the book by the late David Bosch: Transforming Mission.Para digm Shifts in Theology o f Mission (1991).The previous study o f the m issionary context didn't even once mention this term, even if the cities already m anifested a kind o f post-m odern m entality.To what extent can the broader South African context already be described as being post-m odern?W hat changes in the worldview o f South Africans can already be observed?
Yes, this country and its people changed drastically.There is indeed an urgent necessity to give renewed attention to the context o f the Church, and an urgent need to spell out the challenges o f the new context to the Church in South Africa.This article endeavours to indi cate some o f the contours o f such a study.But first a selective over view is given.

Dem ographic Overview
The following tables may give a rough picture o f some demographical aspects o f the country.A ttention will only be given to (a) the growth o f the population, where we will focus on the influx o f foreigners and the emigration o f others; and (b) the geographical distribution o f the pop ulation, w ith particular attention to urbanisation and race.We want to 22 Both the preface to the (old) Constitution and the rhetoric o f the (old) govern ment created the perception that South Africa was a "civilised Christian nation".The other religions were there, and they enjoyed a measure o f freedom o f expres sion and worship, but nevertheless... 23 it seems as if religion is guaranteed a place in the schools o f the future, but only in a more general sense o f moral formation.
know how many people there are, who they are, and where you could find them.
It may be worthwhile to compare the total population o f 198024 with that o f the year 199925.For the sake o f clarity the main population groupings are retained.According to these figures, there has been a marked growth in the total population o f some 47% during these two decades.It was, in any case, a higher growth rate than was expected.Inform ation is available that could shed further light on the relative growth rates o f the different population groups and geographical areas.But it is already clear that the growth rate among Blacks is higher.That is the reason why they com prise a growing percentage o f the total population.One o f the explanations for the higher than expected population is the presence o f an unknown number o f (illegal) immigrants from (especially) other African countries.The estimations vary between 500 000 and 4,1 m illion (&4 Survey 2000:23).Sometimes even higher figures are quoted, but without substantiation.W hatever the number may be -and it seems to be substantial -this reflects not only the sad state o f affairs in these other countries, but also the liberal policies (at first) o f the new South African government.However, this is not regarded in the same light on the ground, where people are resenting the competition for jobs that these foreigners represent27.On the other hand, the church cannot but think o f all the biblical injunctions regar ding the " foreigner in your m idst"28.
A nother fact is that a tragic "brain drain" from the country is currently under way.Especially (but not exclusively) white profession als are leaving the country in their droves.Since 1994 there was a yearly net loss o f people to em igration (SA Survey 2000:21), even w hile it is known that those who openly declare them selves to be em igrants is but a small percentage o f those who are, for all practical purposes, leaving for good.In 1996 the Australian census counted 56 000 official South African immigrants, Canada had 14 000, New Zealand more than 20 000, and the UK close to 100 000 (SA Survey 2000:24).M ore than one third o f the population live in the tw o coastal provinces o f KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.Together with Gauteng they represent more than 50% o f the population.Blacks comprise 97% o f the population in the N orthern Prov ince, 91% in N orthw est and 89% in M pumalanga, m aking out a low o f 21% in the W estern and 33% in the N orthern Cape.The 2,1 million Coloured population o f the W estern Cape has a majority o f 54%, and in the N orthern Cape they comprise 52%, but are a small minority else where.The m ajority o f W hites live in G auteng (38% ), and in the W est ern Cape (19%).In KwaZulu-Natal the num ber o f Indians are only substantial (some 800 000, or 9%, m ore than three-quarters o f the total Indian population) -from the tables in Froise 1999:2-6.Some 53% o f the population live in urban areas, which includes towns and built-up areas o f all descriptions.A lthough that means that South A frica has becom e m oderately urbanised, it should not be for gotten that more people than ever before live outside these cities and towns, the m ajority o f them in traditional and underdeveloped deep rural areas.In the N orthern Province 89% are rural, in N orthwest and the Eastern Cape also close to two out o f three people are rural.The other side o f the picture is the 97% urban population o f Gauteng, and the 89% o f the W estern Cape (Froise 1999:7).
Two other interesting and relevant statistics in this context are the age profiles, and the languages spoken.□ 45% of the South African population are under the age of 20... a good 47% of the Blacks and only 29% of the Whites.On the other hand only 4% of Blacks are older than 65, whereas 10% of Whites are that already old... and 19% of all White women (&4 Survey 2000:11).The two important conclusions from this are (a) the importance of the youth in terms of sheer numbers, and (b) the growing percentage of the aged that will have to be looked after... especially if the expected future effect of AIDS kicks in (more about this later.)□ O f the nine official languages spoken in the country, IsiZulu is the home language of more than 9 million people (23%).IsiXhosa comes next, with 7 million (18%), and Afrikaans third with 5,8 million spea kers.English comes fifth (3,5 million), after Northern Sotho (Froise 1999:12).Although English seems to becoming the lingua franca in the country, it is by no means spoken generally.There are other languages that are o f great importance in the communication of the gospel.
In summary, one can say that South Africa is a middle order country, with a relatively fast growing population, overwhelmingly Black, having a number o f ethnic groups, but with sizeable minority cultures more akin to those o f Europe.The population is spread across the country's nine provinces, with a few city cores, but almost half the population is still living in rural areas.

W here does South Africa fit in in econom ic terms?
One way of giving a general description is to use the centre-periphery image.The economy is to a (too) large degree centred on the Gauteng province (with Johannesburg as the main centre), as well as on the urban centres of Cape Town, Durban-Pietermaritzburg, and to a lesser extent Port Elizabeth-Uitenhage, East Londen and Bloemfontein.This could be called the centre.The rest of the country is the periphery.A small percentage of the economic product originates on the farms and in smaller urban centres, especially if given in per capita (per person) format.But the fact is that this periphery has also an outer periphery: the traditional areas comprising the millions of people from the trad itional homelands and those areas populated with the "redundant people" o f the apartheid era.In the nineteen eighties the per capita economic strength of these three circles were in the order o f 28:3:1 (Kritzinger 1987:6).
During the past decade the contribution of the primary economic sector declined to about 10% o f the GDP (gross domestic product), i.e. mining, down to less than 7%, and agriculture to scarcely 3%.Even manufacturing (the secondary sector) is down to 20%.The relative growth was found in the tertiary service (government 17%, transport, catering and communications 30%) and financial sectors (18%).The country therefore has a modern economy, but a relatively small one.It is a combination of a first world and third world economy.In terms of infrastructure and economic product it leads the African countries, but compared to the "developed" countries it falls far short in terms of per capita product.
There has been scarcely any growth in the economy over the past years.The 0,5% growth in GDP (gross domestic product) during 1998 was more than offset by the growth in population.The resulting real GDP (1998) per head was -1,6% , which represents a significant slide.The country is, at this stage, getting poorer (Fast Facts, Feb. 2000:14).In 1998 the real GDP per head was at a similar level to what it had been in 1970.The same happened with real disposable income per head.In 1998 it was 7% below the peak of 1980 (SA Survey 2000:405).No wonder the confidence indicators stood around 25 on a scale of 0 to 100 (Fast Facts, Feb. 2000:13).

Poverty is endemic to the country
It is generally agreed that the eradication of poverty should be the prio rity task for the government and all economic role players in the coun try.More specifically, the question of employment is central.In a rec ent (February 2000) poll the HSRC found that a majority of the popula tion now rate this as a higher priority than the fight against crime (to which we will return).
Poverty has many faces (to refer to the book of Wilson and Ramphele which described poverty in South Africa, 19 8 929).There are so many indicators of poverty.One can use the parable of the judge ment (Mt 25) as structure: hungry, thirsty, homeless, naked, unwell, imprisoned...One measure of this is the so-called HDI (human dev elopment index), which measures on a scale of 0 to 1 , life expectancy, living standards and educational attainments.Here South Africa's mark is something like 0,677, comparable to Paraguay and Sri Lanka.Gau teng and Western Cape, however, had a high level of HDI, in the order of Singapore and Venezuela; the Northern Province was low, comp arable to Zimbabwe; and the others were in the middle regions, com parable to China and Swaziland (&4 Survey 2000:411-412).Survey 2000:270), but can't make up for all the other job losses.

Poverty and wealth
South Africa is not only in a less than ideal situation in terms o f pov erty, absolute poverty, but also in terms of relative poverty.The unem ployed, and certain categories of workers are indeed poor (in 1996 at least 60% o f all workers received monthly incomes o f less than R1 500).But others receive exhorbitant salaries (some 2% received more than R ll 000) -SA Survey 2000:293.However, the real rich were not in the category o f "employed".They were the "capitalists", who emp loyed others, or simply "made money" through their share in capital.
In the past, the income gap was highly correlated with the racial divide.That has changed to a large extent over the past years.Not only have the wages increased sharply for the lower income groups, but a programme o f affirmative action put relatively more Blacks into jobs as such, but higher paying jobs in particular.Something of this trend can be seen in the following table .30 There are different definitions o f unemployment.I here use the "expanded definition", which counts those in the economic active years, who (a) were not employed on the previous 7 days, and (b) want to work, and are ready to start working within the following 7 days.The "strict" definition adds the following: "have taken active steps to find work during the previous 4 weeks" (SA Survey 2000:300).What is notable is that, whereas increasing numbers of Blacks, Colour eds and especially Indians moved into the top quintile, the Whites among the top earners decreased dramatically.This trend is definitely continued -and at a pace -after 1995.It should nevertheless be noted that the income gap, to a large extent, still corresponds with race.If one compares the Black and White incomes it is still glaring that only 6% o f the Blacks were in the top group in 1995, compared to the 33% o f the Whites.And, while only 6% o f the Whites languished in the bottom quintile, not less than 38% o f the Blacks were there.
From facts like these follows the important political focus on the eradication o f any remaining privileges for the previously privileged group.The liberation is not yet fully attained, it is said.The overturn ing o f the most important tables -the economic liberation -still lies in the future.The arena o f the present and future struggle is not politics any more, but economics.

Education
South Africa, traditionally, had a separated educational system.The different racial groups had separate (but not equal!)educational struc tures.That o f the White population was far better funded and run, and produced high quality results.Black education, on the other hand, also had to deal with the heritage of the 1976 Soweto uprising o f the youth that disturbed the normal functioning o f schools for a generation.Int egrating these various traditions into a single system is a daunting task.
Several problems need to be solved at this stage.While the erstwhile white schools suffer a definite fall in standards, because of the larger classes and the influx of large numbers of learners without a solid background, it is not as if the former black schools are progressing.It sometimes seems as if the whole system is pulled down to the lowest common denominator.
Illiteracy is far from being stamped out in South Africa.If an illiterate is defined as someone with none or less than 7 years of schooling, there are 7,6 million, or 36% of those older than 20 who are illiterate (SA Survey 2000:112).This differs much between the prov incial areas, from the 49% in the Northern Province to the 21% in Gauteng.Almost a quarter of adult Africans had no schooling, com pared with 10% for Coloureds, 7% for Indians, and 1% for Whites.

Health and welfare
The distribution of medical and welfare services is very skewed.The church should take up the plight of the poorest o f the poor, who are often left out.The government is trying -against odds -to provide free primary health care and affordable medical services for the whole population, without any discrimination.However, the available res ources are making this impossible.Equal access for all people to medical services is taken a step further in the recent law governing medical aid funds.Administrative and ideological blunders, however, are sabotaging the whole process o f providing adequate medical care for all.Medical costs were expected to rise by 20% in 1999 (SA Survey 2000:226).
The most frightening current phenomenon is the growing pres ence of HIV-AIDS.
Some of the figures quoted in the press over the past year are disturbing: * Some 5,6 million people in South Africa will be HIV positive by 2005... more than 18% of the workforce.* Almost 250 000 people will die annually because of AIDS in the next three years, increasing to 500 000 by 2007.By 2008 the cumul ative total will be 4 million.* By 2010 the life expectancy of South Africans will fall to 48 years from the current 68, i.e. by some 30%.The population growth rate will drop from 1,4% to 0,4% (SA Survey 2000:218).An issue o f great moral impact was the recent legalisation of abortion.It was reported that during 1998 some 46 000 "safe abortions" were performed in the country.Despite opposition by religious groups the Transvaal High Court ruled that the abortion laws did not violate the constitutional guarantee of the right to life (SA Survey 2000:508).This was especially ironic in the light of the parallel strong opposition from government to the re-institution of the death penalty, because of a per son's right to life!

Social life
The high levels of crime are reducing the quality of life for millions of South Africans.While the discussions usually centre on the stronger measures that should be taken by government to curb the crime and violence, it is clear that these are symptoms of a deeper malady in the social fabric of society.The church -and all religious and social struc tures -should be deeply challenged by figures like the following: * One in every six men and one in every eight women were the victims of at least one individual crime in 1997... 3,8 million people.* 2 1 % of all households experienced at least one crime during 1997.It is indeed thought provoking that affluent households experienced fewer crimes than poor households!All this boils down to serious problems in the backbone o f soc iety: the household.The previous political system o f migrant labour, influx control, single sex hostels, rented "match box" houses, popu lation removals, etc. played a large role in breaking down the Black family.Other factors o f modernity and secularisation probably also did a lot of harm in other communities.But things changed.What are the factors which should be addressed today?That should be determined.Two important factors related to the health o f the house-hold are housing and income.
In 1996 the official figure of the housing shortage for the 9,1 million households was 2,6 million urban homes (excluding the trad itional -mostly rural -structures).O f the 6,5 million African dwel lings 41% were formal (brick) structures, 25% traditional, and 21% informal shacks (SA Survey 2000:164).Most o f these do not really make a healthy family life possible.They do not even always afford shelter against the elements: cold in winter, hot in summer, wet when it rains, and dangerously fire prone.
We already quoted figures showing the extent o f unemployment.It is worst among the Black population (47% in 1997) -SA Survey 2000:304, but affects many households in all population groups.But even those who do work, often bring back so little wages that perman ent poverty is the only future for the family, for example: 50% o f the African households had an income of less than R1 000 per month in 1998 (SA Survey 2000:296).

The environm ent
This most important aspect is often left out when the challenges for mission are enumerated.However, such an oversight reveals not only an unsatisfactory understanding of mission, but also a superficial grappling with the context.
God is not only interested in the wellbeing o f humankind.One may even say that He is primarily interested in (the whole of) his creation.Humanity, created "in his image", has a central role to play: to represent God in the affairs o f creation, to enable all o f creation to honour the Creator.That is why the condition o f the environment concerns the church.The church can only address human beings.So, especially when the health of the environment is threatened by human folly, the task is the proclamation of the reign of God."Repent, for the kingdom of God is near!"The task is prophetic, but also pastoral.
The environment is indeed under threat, not only worldwide, but also in South Africa.However, much of the ecological crisis is inter twined with the wellbeing also o f people... and especially the poor.
The church is confronted with a combination of "green" and "brown" issues31.

Aspects of the religious scene
On the religious statistics Professor Jurgens Hendriks has published an intensive analysis of the 1996 census as a chapter in the book of Mar jorie Froise (1999:48).My own calculations, based on unpublished information obtained from Stats SA, and extrapolated to mid-year 1999, are contained in the following table.The Pentecostal-Charismatic-Evangelical group of churches are growing to such an extent that they may already be larger than the Dutch Reformed Church family.
Despite the relative small number of Muslims, Hindus and Jewish bel ievers (not to speak of others) the present emphasis on human (and religious) rights causes them to have an equal say with the Christians in religious matters.The government is officially secular (neutral) and is seeing to it that no religion is accorded more rights than others.These smaller religions, therefore, have more opportunities than before to propagate their beliefs.The greater visibility given to these other religions also leads to a greater awareness of each other, and conscious efforts to greater understanding and cooperation in society.There is a strong movement of interreligious relations and dialogue.All this seems to lead to a religious relativism at times.The situation represents a great challenge to the churches33.
As already mentioned, the basic philosophy (or ideology) of the present time is the upholding of the rights of the individual person.The church certainly has the obligation to critically accompany these devel opments.Elements of the general mentality of the present time lead to liberal views in moral issues and the dangerous erosion of values in all sections of the community.This certainly presents the Christian church -as it does other institutions -with a critical challenge.

A NEW ENQUIRY
What is written above serves to introduce an enquiry, recently laun ched by a group of mission academics and practitioners, calling them selves the Missions Research Network (Missnet).With the blessing of the two major Christian networks -the South African Council of Chur ches (SACC) and The Evangelical Alliance of South Africa (TEASA) -and the cooperation of a growing number of churches and mission organisations the research project Mission in the New South Africa (MINSA) was commenced in 1999.The process is planned to be as inclusive as possible: in terms of the vision of the church and its mis sion, the scope of the research, but also in terms of its partners.The dream is of a process taking a broad spectrum of the church into the future and challenging the whole church to be obedient to all that the church is called by her Lord to do in the world.The plan involves geographical case studies on the one hand.Representative samples from the different kind of communities in the country (ranging from villages and tribes in the deep rural areas to the subcultures of the urban centres) have to be studied with the goal of understanding the needs and hopes of such people.Local people from these contexts have to be heard.The research should compose a picture that communicates the truth about the country in its different contexts.
But another dimension of the research will be the informed study of serious issues on a national level.Above we have mentioned such issues: poverty, unemployment, economic policies, AIDS, crime, and so forth.These type of issues are foremost in the experience of South Africans.What are the churches' views on these issues?What do the churches propose?What steps can be taken?The study should awaken 33 Theologically and missiologically speaking this is a difficult area to understand and formulate.The traditional ways o f dealing with these questions are not always adequate.
A totally different dispen sation came into being.A new ruling class, with a totally different ideology and a new style, governs according to a new set o f rules (constitution)19.The political environm ent changed from an embattled and insular one into one riding the international wave o f globalisation and human rights20.There are new players in national, provincial and local governm ents.The flow is consciously in a new direction.The "hom elands" d on't exist any more.New provinces took the place o f the previous structures21.'9It is not necessary to say anything more about "the South African miracle" .It made headlines all over the world.A political organisation, banned for almost three decades, with its most famous leader in custody for 27 years, was unbanned, and four years later, after an intensive process o f negotiations and elections, formed a government winning almost two-thirds o f the votes.The two main players -former foes -received the Nobel Peace Prize together.20 They say that the South African passport, previously shunned by most countries, now offers entrance into more countries than that o f the USA.21 A great deal o f the energy during the earlier research was spent on focusing on the poorest o f the poor areas -the periphery o f the periphery -namely the nine homelands.The problems o f these areas still exist, but they are now part o f larger provinces.
Unemployment30 is rife.The following table (from SA Survey 2000:305/7) is based on the figures o f Stats SA.

Table 2 : The population o f the different provinces o f South Africa, 1999
fled from situations where staying on is almost akin to suicide.Nevertheless, during 1998 a total o f 181 286 people were repatriated as illegal immigrants, 78% o f them to Mozambique (SASurvey 2000:24).

Table 4 :
Proportion of households in each income quintile by race in the 12 main urban centres, in 1990 and 1995 (from richer to poorer) (SASurvey 2000:297)

Table 6 : The religious affiliation o f the South African population, mid-year 1999, based on the 1996 census
are not sure about the question, or have reasons not to identify themselves as adherents of any religion.Most o f these are probably traditionalists... as are many of those Blacks who have given their affiliation as Christian32.* Not only is the group of Independent Churches by far the largest religious group (about 28%), but the ZCC is the single largest church/ denomination.
to their interrelation in the context o f a wider concern for G od's wonderful crea tion.Humanity is but a part, be it an important part, o f creation.We are made from the dust o f the earth.*