Research Articles (Missiology)

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Browsing Research Articles (Missiology) by Subject "Poor"

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    A church with the poor – lessons from scripture and from congregations in informal settlements
    (Faculty of Theology, University of the Free State, 2012) Verster, P.
    The church has an essential role to play in communities riddled with poverty, disease, and despair. Communities in informal-settlement areas suffer a great deal. Churches in these communities are often small and have few means for alleviating poverty. In the Bible, the community of God is a community of love. Although there are instances of retribution in the Old Testament, there are clear instances where the community of God experiences the implications of love for one’s neighbour. In the New Testament, the essence of the church is to be the community of love. Congregations in Mangaung’s informal settlements bring a message of hope by being the community of love in their area. The church can become the true messenger of God’s hope in informal areas.
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    The unified body of Christ as biblical metaphor for being church
    (Faculty of Theology, University of the Free State, 2012) Schoeman, Lourens
    The church, as faith community, is described with the metaphor of one body, with all members interlinked to each other, helping each other, praying for each other, serving each other. The reality is that this church, like the secular community (locally, provincially, nationally, throughout Africa and globally) is divided into class, wealth and health categories. Is this “world-like” fragmented existence of the church depriving her of her unique role as source of hope in a given community? Is she loosing face in the world due to this “world-like” fragmented way of living? Can she better meet the social challenges, related to poverty and HIV, if, as alternative community, rich and poor were indeed living as one body? How would she then define and respond to poverty and HIV infection?