Leadership and transformation in the African church: a practical theological study of one denomination

𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉 The Dutch Reformed Church in Africa in the Orange Free State (DRCA OFS) is one of the Dutch Reformed family churches in South Africa. The DRCA OFS was established over a century ago for Black Africans. Its membership in the post-apartheid era is still predominantly Black Africans with a few White missionaries serving and subsidised by the DRC in South Africa. At the moment, the DRCA OFS is experiencing a waning ministry. Internally, there is poor commitment to missional activities such as leitourgia, koinonia, and kerugma with mounting tension and conflicts among those in leadership. The external ministry mission including diaconal ministry is very poor. In light of the above, the following research questions arise: What kind of leadership is predominant in the congregations of the DRCA OFS? What kind of transformation of congregational leadership is required in view of the external and internal challenges of the DRCA OFS? The findings revealed that the dominant pastoral leadership in the congregations of the DRCA OFS failed to produce better leadership and to facilitate required changes. By contrast, transformational leadership produced better leaders, targets inner change of a person and facilitate required changes in the congregational ministry. Briefly, the study also discovered that leadership in the congregations of the DRCA OFS needs deep change with regard to vision, character, leadership framework, and strategies of leadership practice. This empirical study aims to describe the role of transformational leadership in the renewal of the congregations in order to facilitate transformation of the church towards a missional and visionary church of the future. ___________________________________________________________________