Was it worthwhile? The thesis asks this question of the life and work of female faith missionaries who served in Western Australia with the Australian Aborigines’ Mission and/or the United Aborigines’ Mission, during the twentieth century. In 1902, the New South Wales Aborigines’ Mission adopted faith mission principles based on those of the China Inland Mission founded in 1865. The mission expanded into Western Australia in 1908 and changed its name to the Australian Aborigines’ Mission. From 1929, it was known as the United Aborigines’ Mission. The research began with a historiography of the China Inland Mission and the United Aborigines’ Mission and its antecedents. The analysis of the principles of these two missions identified that some characteristics of a faith mission were present in the New South Wales Aborigines’ Mission from the beginning and others were never adopted. It established that from 1902, the New South Wales Aborigines’ Mission upheld the faith principles of trusting God to provide physical needs, not soliciting for funds and not entering into debt. Because most faith missionaries were female, the historiography proceeded to examine texts on women missionaries, including recent work by Australian writers. This recognised that issues of gender, race and class were present within both mission cultures. Five case studies were chosen to cover a period from 1912 when Bertha Telfer arrived in Western Australia until the retirement of Mary Jones in 1971. Using written and oral source material from Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspectives, the research studied the work of five female faith missionaries in south-west Australia: Bertha Telfer/Alcorn, Ethel Hamer/Fryer, Hope Malcolm/Wright, Mary Jones and Melvina Langley/Rowley, with a focus on issues of Evangelicalism, race, gender and class. Preliminary investigation of the women recognized that while only one had professional training and two received missionary training, membership of the interdenominational Christian Endeavour youth movement was a formative influence on all these female missionaries. An investigation into the principles of that organisation, founded in North America in 1881, established it was influenced by the 1858-59 Revival within Evangelicalism in England and North America and it placed a strong emphasis on personal conversion and a commitment to mission. Christian Endeavour spread to Australia by 1883 and was found to have provided limited leadership opportunities to women. The research tracked the experience of the female faith missionaries over six decades of living by faith among the Nyungar people and discovered a lack of identification with Indigenous culture that had its roots in a widely held belief in the superiority of western culture. Associated with this was the Evangelical belief in personal conversion that did not address cross-cultural issues. The UAM identification with the rise of fundamentalism from the 1920s coincided with diminished leadership opportunities for women at a time when women were gaining more choices in the wider Australian community. The thesis concludes that the role of faith missionary was costly to women in terms of their health and wellbeing. In the context of oppressive government policies towards Indigenous Australians, the poverty and marginalisation experienced by the women, when combined with compassion, created solidarity with Nyungar people. In some cases, this reduced the barriers of race and gender and resulted in the conversion of some Nyungar people, contributing to the formation of an Indigenous and Evangelical church. These findings are significant because they point to new understanding of mission, conversion and Aboriginal-missionary relations and cultures and of the role played by female faith missionaries in the shared mission history of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Western Australians.

The rise in divorce cases among Christians, and among pastors in particular, has become an unsettling factor in contemporary South Africa. The Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) of South Africa (SA) has been selected as a study sample to investigate this problem. From the above problem, the following question developed: “What are the motivations and justifications for AFM of SA (Pentecostal church) pastors indulging in the act of divorce, and what theologically educative measures can be advanced to resolve this problem…?” It has become incumbent upon researchers, especially theologians, to address this ongoing problem by employing a phenomenological study. Hence, the present researcher has employed the qualitative research methodology, in which the explorative, descriptive and contextual approaches have been applied. Consequently, phenomenological interviews were conducted among nine divorced AFM pastors. Fieldwork mainly consisted of data collection through in-person and telephonic interviews. This was followed by data analysis, through coding, categorisation and a thematic analysis to draw scientific categories from the collected data. Data analysis was conducted along two notable themes, namely, motivations and justifications/rationale with their subsequent categories and subcategories. The findings, after data analysis, show that the main motivations and justifications for pastors to divorce their spouses are as follows: ministerial incompatibility; communication breakdown; sexual incompatibility; socio-economic incompatibility; adultery; attitude or abusiveness; conflicting interests; dishonesty; cultural differences; influence of the extended family; academic incompatibility; insufficient time spent together; expired love; and jealousy. It has been noted that divorce is not a new phenomenon. Deuteronomy 24:1-4 shows that the problem of divorce existed from the days of Moses in the Old Testament. Because the men of Israel were arbitrarily divorcing their wives during Moses’ jurisdiction over Israel, he instructed that this be done in an orderly way – by issuing a certificate of divorce to the wives during the process of divorce. However, in the New Testament (Matthew 5:31-32, 19:1-9), Jesus spoke out against divorce. He stated that Moses allowed divorce because of the hard-heartedness of the men of Israel. Hence, ‘divorce’ is a theological concern that calls for a practical theological intervention strategy. Therefore, this thesis is concluded by recommending a ‘practical theological theory’ as an intervention strategy based on three aspects: firstly, the history of the AFM church on divorce; secondly, the reasons for divorce among AFM pastors as investigated in this research; lastly, the book of The Song of Songs and the incarnation of Christ were introduced as the basis of a new practical theological theory to ensure stable marriages among AFM pastors. / Dr. L.J. Erasmus

An Investigation into the Experience of Congregational Preaching at the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) in Soweto, Diepkloof Assembly Preaching is one of the main pastoral or congregational activities that takes place in all Christian congregations. The Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM), Diepkloof Assembly in Soweto has been selected as a study sample to investigate how church members experience their pastor’s preaching at church during worship services. In this study an empirical research was conducted by employing a qualitative research methodology, in which explorative, descriptive and contextual approaches have been applied. Phenomenological interviews were conducted among ten members of the AFM Diepkloof Assembly. The theory of data saturation was applied while conducting the interviews. This theory means that the researcher keeps on collecting data (e.g. by means of interviews) to obtain new data until no new information comes up. In this research, a literature study of the theoretical framework of preaching was undertaken to find out what the contemporary scholars think of congregational/pastoral preaching. There is a lack of African or black scholarship in this regard; most of the literature is from white scholars. Nevertheless, the researcher did establish a sound theoretical framework on congregational/pastoral preaching. Fieldwork mainly consisted of data collection through in-person, tape recorded interviews. This was followed by data analysis, through categorisation and a thematic analysis to draw scientific categories from the collected data. The findings, after data analysis, indicated that congregants generally regard:  the Bible as central in preaching  preaching as something that gives answers or solutions to real life problems  the preacher to be important and he/she must be in agreement with his/her message  preaching as having some influence on them to change their lifestyles for the better  preaching as a necessary activity that covers as wide range of subjects about (Christian) life. It was noted during this study that there are no empirical studies that have been undertaken on how church members in black township churches experience their pastors’ preaching. The literature control among white church members in suburban churches indicates that:  preaching must help to lead people to change (Swift,2005:18)  the person of the preacher plays a very crucial role in his/her preaching (Venter & Kim, 2004:147)  the teaching sermon should get more attention in our day (Pieterse, 2005:230)  the audience must be involved (be part of) in the preaching (Swift, 2005:230)  the preaching must be relevant to the lives of the audience (Swift, 2005:232). The above results of the literature control confirm what was gathered from the research findings. In conclusion, preaching still plays a very crucial role in the congregations, and that pastors and lay preachers need to continuously work on their preaching skills and methods to make it more effective and relevant to the contemporary church community and in society in general. / Dr. L.J. (Dennis) Erasmus Dr. S.J. (Lilly) Nortjé-Meyer

M.A. / The objective with this study was to develop a management model for assemblies in the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa (AFM). This model is focussed on the development of positive potential and the equipping of assembly members. A number of assemblies instituted a cell-based structure whilst others are in a process of transformation towards a cell-based assembly structure. The management possibilities of such a structure was therefore considered. An analytical and critical approach, based on the social sciences, was taken to develop a better understanding of people's latent potential. The equipping task of the church was also analysed. With the aforementioned as departing point, consideration was given as to what type of management structure would be the most suitable to develop potential and to equip assembly members. The study indicates the following: Every person has latent positive potential that should be developed. The church leadership is responsible to God for the development and equipping of assembly members. A high standard of management effectiveness could be reached through a Body-of-Christ assembly approach with cell groups as a supporting structure. A purpose-driven management approach should be adopted. The best management model is therefore achieved through a combination of a Body-of-Christ assembly model based on a purposedriven management approach. This thesis is a contribution aimed to assist the leadership in assembly management and structuring. It is hoped that this will result in the development of latent potential, and the equipping of assembly members to support them in their Godly purpose and service.

M.A. / The church does not only exist for its own sake but it functions as an extension of God, in Christ, towards a world, which is getting lost. The understanding of the church as a missionary entity remains a core question (Net 1994:25). In response to this question different church models have tried to interpret their calling in a given situation in terms of metaphors. This has resulted in various patterns of ministry, describing to us the historical stature of the church. The Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa was established as a missionary endeavour coming from America. It had not been the intention to establish a church (Burger 1995:166). The passion for people who are getting lost was a feature of the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa in its early years. A unique pattern of ministry developed over the years, linked to a specific socio- historical history of origin. The pattern of ministry resulted in a Pentecostal tradition where the gifts of the Holy Spirit were regarded as the answer to the missionary calling of the church. Healing, glossolalia, prophecy and to a lesser degree also other gifts of the Spirit became an integral part of the liturgy. Conversion has been regarded as momentary and each service was characterised by a strong appeal to nonbelievers. Over the years the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Mission has experienced a definite tension between freedom and formalism in the liturgy.

M.A. / Money plays an important role in the everyday lives of church members. How church members view and engage with money has various implications. It concerns their theology, their well being and a number of other areas. In many cases the church has abdicated its responsibility to instruct and give guidance to church members and not provided adequate leading in the sphere of personal financial management. Diverse views on money are propagated through various media by both the secular world and the church alike. This Practical Theological study concerns the ethos of church members with regards to their personal financial management. It is a qualitative, phenomenological case study of the members of the AFM Taberna Dei assembly located in Polokwane, South Africa. This study is explorative and contextual. Qualified research subjects were selected by random sampling. Participants had to meet defined criteria, and data collection took place primarily through interviews with the chosen subjects. The probing question asked to participants is: “How do you approach your personal financial management?” Two main themes emerged during the coding and analytical phases of the research: theme A concerns religious beliefs influencing personal financial management and theme B non-religious beliefs and practices influencing the personal financial management of the participants. It is apparent that a general ethos of the personal financial management of members of Taberna Dei exists. This ethos is both defined and critiqued.

In the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa (AFM) there is a school of thought, which has a very simplistic viewpoint of the role of the Evil One in the suffering in this world. Satan is seen as a very definite adversary who has to be resisted by rebuke and positive confession of the promises in the Bible in order for man to have a life free of any suffering. The consequence of the extreme dualistic perspective is that Satan is regarded as an independent entity. Man, as God’s representative, is the one with the authority and responsibility to thwart the efforts of Satan to cause suffering in the world. All suffering is the result of the direct onslaught of Satan. The Bible paints a different picture in both Testaments. Satan is a rebel, but still a creature subjected to the supremacy of God. There is also no preoccupation with Satan. He is an elusive foe, focusing his subtle attacks on the relationship between God and man. The Old Testament shows his subtle and illusive nature by using images of human enemies, mythical monsters and the threat of death. The believer of both Testaments resists him by living a Godfocused life. The life and works of C.S. Lewis have been pivotal in changing the perspective of the writer of this dissertation. Lewis shows that God is using suffering as a scalpel as it were, to cut out the infection caused by evil contamination in the heart of man. Until the Kingdom of God finally arrives in fullness, this will be the situation. Suffering has not only one role-player. The situation is more often than not of a very complex and mysterious nature. It is suggested that the simplistic school of thought take notice of the insights of Lewis. This study has shown that the simplistic school of thought in the AFM lacks the depth and balance found in the Bible and ingeniously expounded by C.S. Lewis. / Dr. LP Mare

Magister Theologiae - MTh / This study focuses on the field of youth ministry as a sub-discipline of Practical Theology. It will offer a survey of current literature in the field of youth ministry in order to identify some of the current issues in this discourse as well as some of the approaches which may be followed in Christian ministry to the youth. This study focuses, more specifically, on an approach to youth ministry which seeks to integrate the role of families and family life in Christian ministry to young people

Thesis (MTh)--Stellenbosch University, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study is about the practical theological challenges faced by the AFM of SA Fountain of life congregation in the Winterveldt community. The Fountain of life congregation has minimal involvement in the community of Winterveldt, a community plagued by numerous life threatening plights. The congregation is in a survival mode after stagnating for a number of years and with serious challenges of declining or even facing possible extinction. This study's goal is to develop a practical theological theory, strategy and process which the AFM of SA Fountain of life congregation would be inspired to implement in order to contribute towards arresting theological, social, economical and moral degradation in the community of Winterveldt. The researcher employed a practical theological methodology and explored areas that are vital for the answering of the research problem, "What can be done in the Fountain of life congregation to maximize the participation of all members to serve the community of Winterveldt as well as the larger society?" It is hypothesized that Practical Theology will give the AFM of SA Fountain of life guidance and equip this faith community and its leaders theologically to consider their vocation, to develop a practical theological ecclesiology, a way to be the true, faithful and effective local church which is the salt and light of the world, including Winterveldt. The study explored the "world" in which Fountain of life finds itself, in terms of its contextual as well as the congregation's identity analysis. The normative aspects of being a missional church which covered the missional identity, empowerment and involvement of laity, and missional leadership were elaborated, while spiritual discernment with areas particular to Fountain of life received attention in the normative aspects of spiritual discernment. It is recommended that the identity of Fountain of life be grounded in the mission of the Trinitarian God (missio Dei of the Trinitarian God). The missionary identity and character of Fountain of life should be built and developed upon the eight dominant patterns found in a missional church. The researcher strongly encourages the Fountain of life congregation to employ the missional leadership strategies while engaging in a total involvement leadership style, which integrates high concern for getting the task completed and a high concern for good people relationship. The leadership of Fountain of life is further encouraged to use the suggested laity empowerment strategies in order to empower, develop, and involve the laity. Missional transformation can only succeed if the laity is empowered and committed to deal with new realities. Leadership is key in engaging the laity. The pastor and the leadership of Fountain of life must teach, educate, lead, and engage the congregation, and also partner with other communities of faith and organizations especially the South African Partnership for Missional Churches (SAPMC) to succeed. Fountain of life should practice missional praxis theology, a holistic theological model that describes the methodology for congregations to develop their own contextual ecclesiology within the parameters of God‘s overall design for the Church. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die navorsing handel oor die prakties-teologiese uitdagings van die Apostoliese Geloofsending (AGS) in Suid-Afrika se Fountain of life gemeente in Winterveldt (Tswane metropolitaanse area). Fountain of life het minimale invloed in die Winterveldt gemeenskap, 'n gemeenskap wat gebuk gaan onder baie ernstige sosiale probleme. Die gemeente is net besig om te oorleef, dit is stagnant en staar agteruitgang of algehele ondergang in die gesig. Die studie poog om teorie, strategie en ʼn proses te ontwikkel wat die Fountain of life gemeente in staat sal stel om ʼn bydrae te lewer om die algehele agteruitgang op teologiese, sosiale, ekonomiese en morele gebied, aan bande te lê en selfs om te keer. Die navorser gebruik ʼn prakties-teologiese benadering ter beantwoording van die navorsingsvraag: "Hoe kan die Fountain of life gemeente deelname van lidmate maksimaal benut sodat hulle Winterveldt en die groter gemeenskap kan bedien?" As die Fountain of life AGS gemeente die prakties-teologiese uitdagings wat die gemeenskap in die gesig staar, kan ondersoek en verstaan asook maniere vind om dit aan te spreek kan hulle die lot en swaarkry van die gemeenskap se mense help verlig. Die navorsing ondersoek die gemeente se bestaanswêreld, haar meer onmiddellike konteks asook haar identiteit. Wat is die normatiewe basis van ʼn missionale gemeente? Wat is die implikasies daarvan vir missionale identiteit? Hoe word lidmate bemagtig en hoe raak hulle betrokke? Wat behels missionale leierskap? Verder word baie klem geplaas op die normatiewe beginsels van geestelike onderskeidingsvermoë en wat dit in die praktyk vir die gemeente beteken. Die studie stel voor dat Fountain of life haar identiteit in die sending van die drie-enige God (missio Dei) leer vind. Die agt kenmerke van ʼn missionale gemeente behoort die identiteit van die gemeente te bepaal. Die navorser voel sterk dat die gemeente missionale leierskap strategieë moet implementeer. Dit behels volle oorgawe aan die taak sowel as ʼn volledige betrokkenheid by mense. Die gemeente se leierskap word aangemoedig om lidmate te bemagtig, te help om geestelik te ontwikkel en om in die kerk en gemeenskap betrokke te raak. Missionale transformasie kan alleen slaag as lidmate betrokke is, bemagtig is en bereid is om nuwe werklikhede te hanteer. Leierskap moet hiertoe verbind wees. Die plaaslike pastoor en die gemeente se leierskap moet lidmate toerus, voorgaan en betrokke kry. Hulle moet ook met ander geloofsgebaseerde organisasies netwerk, in die besonder die Suid-Afrikaanse Genootskap van Gestuurde Gemeentes. Fountain of life gemeente word opgeroep om missionaal en holisties teologie op ʼn praxis styl te beoefen sodat die gemeente ʼn eie kontekstuele ekklesiologie binne die koninkryk se parameters van die missio Dei kan ontdek.

This thesis analyses the acquisition of donations by the German faith missions from their beginnings up to the outbreak of World War II. The focus is directed to the three oldest German faith missions: the Neukirchener Mission, the Allianz-China-Mission, and the Liebenzeller Mission. As a specific characteristic of faith missions, the contemporary literature mentions the so-called faith principle. This faith principle, propagated by such personalities as Hudson Taylor and Georg Müller, stands for the deliberate renunciation of public fundraising. It is the leading question of this thesis whether the German faith missions have adopted and realized this principle. Analysing the theory and the methodology, it becomes clear, that the three oldest German faith missions have not renounced the principle of obtaining donations. This thesis offers also a model of interpretation to determine the factors that are of relevance for the acquisition of donations by the mentioned missions. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / (M.Th.(Missiology))