Contextualisation is a process of seeking meaning and relevancy in a constantly changing world. It is a theological imperative if biblical values were to be relevant to everyone in the world. This research is a case study of InnerCHANGE South Africa (ICSA) efforts to be contextual. InnerCHANGE South Africa is part of an international missional order called InnerCHANGE, which was started in 1984 in the United States of America. International organisations face the danger of coming up with uniform principles and practices. Such uniformity is never innocent of cultural bias. It rendered their principles and practices relevant in some contexts and irrelevant in others. InnerCHANGE is an incarnational ministry that focuses on identification in communities of poverty. It described incarnational ministry as a model of Christ, a method, a message and a spiritual discipline. This study investigated how ICSA has been able to contextualise these four elements of incarnational ministry. It concluded that these contextualisation efforts are still work in progress. It pointed out the encouraging signs of seeing many local community members aligning themselves behind ICSA vision of seeing the gospel as the good news made visible. It finally pointed out the challenges of contextualisation it is still facing.
This article is based on the field of missiology. It engaged development studies, specifically grassroots community development, to point out one of the roles of the church in society, which is to participate in improving the quality of life of the vulnerable.
Contextualisation is a process of seeking meaning and relevancy in a constantly changing world. In mission work, it can be described as the ‘process where the gospel is assimilated into the total life of the people in their cultural context so that the message makes sense’ (Bangura
International organisations such as InnerCHANGE face the danger of coming up with uniform principles and practices. Such uniformity is never innocent of cultural bias. It renders their principles and practices relevant in some contexts and irrelevant in others. This research investigates how ICSA has attempted to contextualise the above-mentioned four elements describing incarnational ministry. InnerCHANGE South Africa believes that for it to remain relevant to the people it is called to, ‘it must address issues’ that are meaningful to them (Beyers
The supreme statement of the incarnation is found in the gospel of John (1:14). This passage declares that ‘the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us’. InnerCHANGE interprets this passage as a call to intentionally be part of the fabric and tissues of local communities it serves. The goal is to identify with the people it is called to serve so that its staff can become neighbours who trust each other and partner to improve the quality of life around them and catalyse the creation of a community that cares for one another, especially the vulnerable. In that community, ‘socio-economic justice’ should be a reality for all (Linthicum
This model helps InnerCHANGE staff see themselves as followers of Christ. In their followership, they prioritise discipleship and the raising of local leaders as seen in Mark 1:16–20. This model also challenges InnerCHANGE staff to strive to be agents of hope in the contexts they serve in. These agents help a community to imagine the society they would like to become and participate in its development. They help to catalyse the rediscovery of a sense of hope in places it has been lost. In many of the contexts they serve in, there seems to be systemic and collective trauma that leads people to uncritically accept that they are inferior to others and they cannot be part of the solution to issues that affect them.
Like Jesus came to dwell amongst us, InnerCHANGE seeks to dwell amongst the people of the context it serves in a meaningful way. It has developed a theology of place as a missional order in its ecclesiology. It believes that ‘a comprehensive missional approach to ecclesiology needs to embrace a place and [be] grounded in a neighbourhood’ (Niemandt
A way ICSA tries to emulate the model of Christ is by intentionally walking in the neighbourhoods it serves in to observe, learn and reflect on the best way to serve. In the bible, there are many instances where Jesus walks such as in Luke 24:13. The team does weekly prayer walks, which is not only a discipline to contend for its local community through prayer, it is also a discipline of going out to see and observe what is happening around us. We then bring to the lord what we have experienced through this spiritual exercise because for us, ‘prayer is foundational’ to any of our ministry activities (Fuder
We also walk regularly to street corners to talk to neighbours. We are also intentional about attending community events such as ward meetings, funerals and other functions. These events are opportunities for us to learn from our local community about what meaningful mission could look like. We also drive regularly around our local community as an exercise to continue observing and learning. For our weekly activities, we spend more time outdoors in the community than indoors around our office desks. It is from these interactions of our local community that we started different ministry initiatives. Because of the latter, we do monthly home visits to the families of our beneficiaries. This routine is a way to continue to learn about a meaningful mission that our neighbours can identify with. This routine also helps us to try and reflect the agenda of our local community into our ministry praxis. Stevens (
InnerCHANGE uses an action-reflection approach through which it reaches out to people in very practical ways and regularly reflects on actions taken in order to generate wisdom for future action. The preference for this approach is motivated by the fact that we live in an age in which many people do not always mean what they say. Most of what is said raises hope that seldom comes to pass. This is why Hayes (
InnerCHANGE South Africa has extended the InnerCHANGE action-reflection approach to include the generation of theory as a third element. Action or serving in practical ways is the first step of this approach. For example, ICSA has partnered with several businesses to provide ‘employment’ for many of its neighbours (Kabongo
After running a ministry initiative, a community of practice spends some time debriefing its experience. It takes note of things that stood out and could be a knowledge capital for future actions. InnerCHANGE South Africa is now learning to reflect deeper on what comes out of debriefing times in order to generate a ‘theory’ that would sharpen its actions and allow it to disseminate its learned concepts in different contexts or settings (Stevens
In order to smoothly run all its activities, ICSA registered with the government department of social development as a non-profit organisation. This has allowed it to legally be able to serve all the age groups it has capacity for. This method it uses seeks to communicate a message.
The main message of incarnational ministry is drawn from John 3:16 where the bible declares that the coming of Jesus to dwell amongst us shows God’s love for his creation. InnerCHANGE’s choice to serve only in communities of poverty, intends to communicate that love is costly, yet those who are the object of such love are worth it although the world put them at the bottom of social considerations. InnerCHANGE learns this from the bible, which shows a preferential leaning towards the poor (Pr 22:9; Lk 4:18; Mt 25:31–46).
Similar to the community of apostles Jesus gathered before the beginning of his active ministry, InnerCHANGE believes that the most effective way to serve is to do it as a team. Hayes (
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Good news agents believe in multiplication. Hence, InnerCHANGE believes in the prioritisation of nurturing local leaders whose actions are a tangible sign of the mercy of Christ, whose intimate relationship with Christ is positively transformative and whose voice and action seek to establish a just society.
InnerCHANGE South Africa also tries to convey the message that God so loved the world that he would like our living conditions to be improved. It stresses that such an improvement will only be possible and sustainable if it is a collective effort of people of a particular context. Such efforts are acts of ‘solidarity’ with one another (Hirsch
If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. (p. 251)
The endless immensity of the sea is for ordinary people to understand that as a community and society, we are better together in our efforts to improve the quality of our lives than alone or just a small group. The practising of spiritual disciplines helps to stay in tune with this message.
InnerCHANGE invests many time practising different spiritual disciplines because they help ‘wean us away from self-reliance to God-reliance’ (Hayes
Similar to all InnerCHANGE staff, ICSA staffs practice different spiritual disciplines as a way to remain connected to God. They see their mission in the context they live in as a response to God’s calling in their lives. A spiritual discipline they have learned to practice regularly is that of silence. They do their prayer walk in silence and spend intentional moments of silence during other prayer times and before the debrief times after ministry activities. Silence also helps them to listen and observe more as a learning exercise. Silence is an important discipline in the township context where they serve. Townships are known for loud noises from the tavern music, hooting public transporters, conversations amongst people, screaming children and car speedsters. It is normal for another person to add to the existing noise. The team is been learning not to add to this existing noise, which can create a cacophony, but prayerfully be present to those noises and learn to be good news agents as a result.
It also practices fasting regularly. It has learned to not limit this discipline to food, but to other things that sometimes negatively shift our priorities such as the internet, television, cellphone, computer and so on. The above-mentioned disciplines and many others we practice have become habits that teach us to rely on God in everything.
Something that requires many reliance on God is financial and material provision. InnerCHANGE staffs from all over the world raise financial support from individuals, foundations, churches and businesses for salaries and ministry expenses. Some of our organisation leaders from the west equate someone’s confirmation of calling to mission to their ability to raise 100% of their personal financial support. The reality of ICSA is that none of its staff is fully funded with this model of personal support raising. It is been exploring different avenues to financially and materially become a sustainable ministry. One of the avenues it has explored and still working on, is group support raising. It believes that ‘support-raising is about God’s children working together, each dependent on the other, to see God’s plan fulfilled in their lives …’ (Wilson
This article was a case study reflecting on how ICSA has been contextualising InnerCHANGE incarnational ministry framework of a model of Christ, method, message and spiritual discipline. Incarnational ministry is generally seen as intentionality to identify with the vulnerable in society. InnerCHANGE South Africa has been making efforts to identify with its neighbours so that the biblical message could be seen as relevant good news that leads to better well-being of individuals and communities. These efforts are also made in order to overcome the danger of implementing the missional order principles and practices that may not necessarily be relevant in the context ICSA serves in. These efforts are work in progress with encouraging signs and challenges along the way.
The author declares that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.
K.T.L.K. is the sole author of this article.
This article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects.
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors.
Townships are poor urban locations which were initially set up for non-white migrant workers. They are located outside of urban centres. The majority of its residents are still poor and at the receiving end of many systemic injustices and trauma.